TITANIC

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Vessel type: Ocean Passenger Liner

Designer: Thomas Andrews

Builder: Harland and Wolff, Belfast

Keel Laid: March 31, 1909

Date Completed: March 31, 1912

Date Delivered: April 10, 1912

Date Sank: April 15, 1912

Length on deck:

Length overall: 882 feet 9 inches

Beam: 92 feet

Depth: 64 feet 6 inches

Draft: 34 feet 7 inches

Gross Tonnage: 46, 328 tons

Lightweight Tonnage:

Maximum Displacement:

Construction Material: steel

Crew Size: 885

Passenger Capacity: 2662

Propulsion Plant: Two four-cylinder reciprocating triple expansion steam engines

Horsepower: design 46,000 horsepower, maximum 59,000

Cruising Speed: 21 knots

Maximum Speed: 23 knots

Of the four Smokestacks, only three were for the boilers as the fourth was for a combination of ventilation and aesthetics. The Titanic had two sister ships, Britannic and the older Olympic. The ship’s design focused on transporting passengers across the Atlantic Ocean from Southampton to New York in the epitome of luxury and style for the time. The ship catered to a cross section of British and American society at the time with wealthy passengers taking stately rooms and progressively less expensive rooms available for less wealthy passengers. Titanic was divided for four groups, first class for the wealthy elite, second class for middle class professionals, third class for working class migrants, and quarters for the crew.

Titanic and her sister ships revolutionized the scale of shipbuilding during their day as they were as long as any man-made structure was tall.  They required new docks in Great Britain and New York to accommodate their massive size.

Her first command was Captain Edward J. Smith, who intended to retire after the voyage. She departed Southampton, England with passengers on April 10, 1912 for Cherbourg, France, and then toward Queenstown, Ireland. From there she departed for New York City but never arrived.  The Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on April 14 shortly before midnight.  Shortly after midnight on the 15th, Capt. Smith ordered to abandon ship but there were only enough lifeboats for half of the 2,227 people onboard.  Women and children received permission to board the lifeboats first, but even then the crew failed to fill all the lifeboats to their maximum capacity. After 2:00 am, the last lifeboat departs with 1,500 people still aboard the Titanic.  Carpathia picked up 705 survivors from the Titanic’s lifeboats.  The disastrous maiden voyage of the ship prompted reforms in the passenger liner industry and became the most infamous voyage, although not the worst, in maritime history.

The Titanic disaster received so much worldwide coverage that it resulted in international cooperation in developing regulations for the safe construction of ships in international trade.  This was the first international code of safety, design, and construction, the SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) treaty. This treaty was the prototype for hundreds of subsequent 20^th century international treaties that dealt with the use of modern technology across country borders and on the world’s oceans.

When the vessel sank it was not expected she would ever be seen again, until in 1985 the vessel was found by a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute team, led by Dr. Robert Ballard, using sonar equipment.  During the summer of 1986 the vessel was first visited by the team using deep diving submarines.  Since that time various artifacts have been recovered and the vessel continues to fascinate the world population as she solely disintegrates.  While the Titanic is thought of as a failure it should be remembered that her sistership the Olympic had quite a successful career.

Henry Scheaffer completed this model in 2003 from an Amati plywood kit.  The plating strakes on the hull are more pronounced than on the full-size vessel.  Mr. Scheafer liked the emphasis on the plating since it played such a role in the sinking of the vessel.