How Much Do You Know About the Titanic?

An iceberg may be what sunk the Titanic, but it was a fire that plagued the ship from the moment it pushed away from the dock. The ship featured a three-story-high coal bunker that was ablaze before the Titanic even left Belfast. Since coal fires are notoriously hard to put out, the solution was to simply put the burning coal into the ship’s furnace.

Wallace Henry Hartley and his fellow musicians famously went down with the ship while playing music on the deck as it sank. The violin was found in its case on Hartley when his body was recovered, and it was the case that actually preserved the instrument. The violin was returned to Hartley’s fiancee, who gifted it to a music teacher who eventually gave the instrument up for auction.

The Titanic sold only about half the tickets for its maiden voyage, in part because the luxury liner’s prices were so steep. In fact, a first-class parlor suite on the ship would set you back £870 or $4,350 USD, translating into $100,000 in today’s dollars. For that sum, you would get to enjoy a private bath and possibly even a private promenade.

Investment banker J.P. Morgan (that’s right, the same one behind the bank) created the International Mercantile Marine company, which owned or controlled many U.S., Belgian, British, Dutch, and German ship lines, including the White Star Line. Morgan famously missed sailing on the Titanic, although he died in his sleep at the age of 75 within a year of the ship’s sinking.

The HMHS Britannic, a sister ship to the Titanic, found its launch at sea delayed for two reasons: World War I and the need to add more safety features after the Titanic's sinking. Nevertheless, the Britannic, which was requisitioned as a wartime hospital ship, sank in 1916 after striking a mine at sea, becoming the largest ship lost at sea during the war.

Of the dozen or so dogs on board the ship, three made it off the Titanic safely with their owners: two Pomeranians (one named Lady, the other unknown) and a Pekingese (Sun Yat-Sen). Sadly, none of the other animals on board survived. Some survivors who lost their pets went on to file compensation claims for their losses — including banker and politician Robert Williams Daniel, who claimed $750 for the loss of his champion French bulldog, Gamin de Pycombe.

The myth of the “unsinkable” Titanic was started by a White Star Line brochure which stated, “these... vessels are designed to be unsinkable.” When White Star Line’s Vice President P.A.S. Franklin was told that the Titanic was in trouble, he dismissed it by saying, “We believe the boat is unsinkable.” By the time he spoke those words, the Titanic had already sunk.

The Titanic had many famous wealthy passengers, earning it the moniker “Millionaire's Special” in the press. Not only that, but Captain Edward Smith was known as the “Millionaire's Captain” due to his popularity with the affluent passengers on board.

The Titanic was a luxury liner through and through, offering extravagant amenities never seen before on an ocean liner. A greenhouse, however, was not among them — although the lush greenery in the Palm Court area gave guests the impression of being in a conservatory while they sipped drinks on the veranda.

The Titanic set out from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, bound for New York City. The ship made a few brief stops along the way, in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland. Several passengers actually disembarked at both of these stops, while additional passengers and supplies were picked up. The plan had been for the ship to complete weekly circuits across the Atlantic, leaving Southampton on Wednesdays and New York on Sundays.

As one of the most luxurious vessels of its time, the Titanic carried many well known and wealthy individuals on its fateful maiden voyage. Some like “the unsinkable” Molly Brown survived their voyage, while John Jacob Astor went down with the ship. Guglielmo Marconi, Nobel Laureate and inventor of wireless communication, was offered a free ticket on the Titanic, but took an earlier ship.

Founded in 1845, Liverpool’s White Star Line was a prominent shipbuilder- but not without their competitors, including the Cunard line, which had built two of the world's fastest ships. While the Titanic may not have been as fast, she was designed to be the peak of grandeur and size. At the time, Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world, and the largest ever to be built, period.

As the Titanic sank, the crew set off flares. These were spotted by the nearby SS Californian, but were assumed to be fireworks. The Californian also missed Titanic’s distress signals because their radio was shut down for the night. The Carpathia changed course to help, but arrived an hour after the Titanic went under. The ship picked up the survivors and carried them to New York.

Titanic carried wireless radios capable of sending messages in Morse code. The technology was still in its infancy at the time and not all operators used the same signal codes. While SOS had been adopted by some before Titanic sailed, the first distress call sent by Titanic was the older code CQD. This stood for “Seek You” and D for “distress.” The Titanic did later also try the newer SOS signal.

Charles Joughin was the Titanic’s chief baker. On the night of the sinking, he fortified himself with large amounts of alcohol before helping others onto life boats. He plunged into the water as the ship sank, but was pulled from the freezing water hours later. Researchers investigating the sinking said the alcohol may have aided his survival. The baker's inebriated state bolstered his courage so he was able to stay calm and avoid panic during the disaster.

More than twice as many people died when the Titanic sank in 1912 than survived the disaster. Roughly 1,500 passengers perished after the ship hit an iceberg and began its submersion into the Atlantic Ocean, while 706 passengers and crew escaped. The last living Titanic survivor, Millvina Dean, died in 2009 at 97 years old. She was less than two months old during the ship’s tragic voyage.

Lookouts were posted to scan the horizon for dangers like icebergs and ships. While there were binoculars on the ship, a crewmember who had been assigned a different ship at the last minute had accidentally kept the keys to the locker. When asked how much sooner they would have spotted the iceberg if they had binoculars, lookout Fred Fleet allegedly replied “Enough to get out of the way.”

The original designs for the Titanic included 48 lifeboats available for an emergency, but this was later reduced to 20 to avoid making the decks look cluttered. This provided enough space for 1,178 people to escape — just one third of the over 3,300 passengers and crew on board when the ship set out on its maiden voyage.

After departing from England, the Titanic made its way toward New York City before colliding with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, causing the ship to sink. The accident occurred around 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, in a region of the ocean nicknamed “Iceberg Alley.” The iceberg is believed to have originated amid the glaciers of nearby Greenland.

RMS might sound like a fancy maritime designation, but it actually stands for Royal Mail Ship (or in some instances, Royal Mail Steamer). The term dates back to the 1800s and is used to distinguish vessels that carry mail under Britain’s Royal Mail postal service — otherwise the standard SS (steamship) designation is used. The Titanic was outfitted with both a post office and a mailroom.

The Titanic set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912, en route to New York City. As an allegedly unsinkable ship with unprecedented luxury, the Titanic drew some of the wealthiest people in the world for its first trip across the Atlantic.