TITANIC SINKING

THE NIGHT OF

APRIL 14/15, 1912

Hey Hounders

Abby here with Part 2 of my series.  Most of y'all have probably seen Mr. Cameron's original release of his movie TITANIC so you should be familiar with the disaster but there's a lot of stuff of interest no directly addressed by the film, plus they had to add a lot of factious plot and subplots to rake in the coin.

ABBY (TBH+K)

Sinking of the RMS Titanic

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This article is about the sinking. For the ship itself, see RMS Titanic.

Sinking of the RMS Titanic

"Untergang der Titanic" by Willy Stöwer, 1912
Date	14 April 1912 – 15 April 1912
Time	23:40–2:20[a]
Location	North Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates	41°43′55″N 49°56′45″WCoordinates: 41°43′55″N 49°56′45″W
Cause	Collision with iceberg
Participants	Key persons[show]
Outcome	Shipwrecking of ocean liner Improvements to navigational safety Cultural impact
Death(s)	c. 1,500

The sinking of the RMS Titanic occurred on the night of 14/15 April 1912 in the north Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had 2,223 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship's time) on 14 April 1912. She sank two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 on 15 April, causing the deaths of over 1,500 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Titanic had received several warnings of sea ice during 14 April but was traveling near her maximum speed when she collided with the iceberg. The ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen compartments to the sea. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four flooded compartments but not five, and the crew soon realised that the ship was going to sink. They used rocket flares and wireless messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. However, there were far too few lifeboats available and many were not filled to their capacity due to a poorly managed evacuation.

The ship broke up as she sank with over a thousand passengers and crew members still aboard. Almost all those who jumped or fell into the water died from hypothermia within minutes. RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and had rescued the last of the survivors in the lifeboats by 09:15 on 15 April, little more than 24 hours after Titanic's crew had received their first warnings of drifting ice. The disaster caused widespread public outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax shipping regulations and the unequal treatment of the different passenger classes aboard the ship. Enquiries set up in the wake of the disaster recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations. This led in 1914 to the establishment of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today.

Background

Titanic on her sea trials, 2 April 1912

At the time of her entry into service on 2 April 1912, RMS Titanic was the largest ship in the world; she and her slightly smaller sister Olympic had almost half again as much gross register tonnage as Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania, the previous record holders, and were about 100 feet (30 m) longer. Titanic could carry 3,547 people in speed and comfort, and was built on a hitherto unprecedented scale. Her reciprocating engines were the largest that had ever been built, standing 40 feet (12 m) high and with cylinders 9 feet (2.7 m) in diameter, and she could generate more steam than any previous ship, requiring the burning of 600 long tons (610 t) of coal per day.

Her passenger accommodation was said to be "of unrivalled extent and magnificence"; the First Class accommodation included the most expensive seagoing real estate ever, with promenade suites costing $4,350 for a one-way passage (equivalent to over $80,000 in 1997 prices). Even Third Class was unusually comfortable by contemporary standards and was supplied with plentiful quantities of good food, providing its passengers with better conditions than many of them had experienced at home.

Route of Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton to New York

Titanic's maiden voyage began shortly after noon on 10 April 1912 when she left Southampton on the first leg of her journey to New York. A few hours later she reached Cherbourg in France, a journey of 80 nautical miles (92 mi/148 km), where she took on passengers. Her next port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, which she reached around midday on 12 April She left in the afternoon after taking on more passengers and supplies.

By the time she departed westwards across the Atlantic she was carrying 892 crew members and 1,320 passengers. This was only about half of her full passenger capacity of 2,435, as it was the low season and shipping from the UK had been disrupted by a coal miners' strike. Her passengers were a cross-section of Edwardian society, from millionaires such as John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, to poor immigrants who had traveled from countries as disparate as Armenia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Syria and Russia to seek a new life in America.

The ship was commanded by 62-year-old Captain Edward John Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains. He had four decades of seafaring experience and had previously served as captain of Titanic's sister ship, RMS Olympic, from which he was transferred to command Titanic. The vast majority of the crew who served under him were not trained sailors, but were either engineers, firemen or stokers, responsible for looking after the engines; or stewards and galley staff, responsible for the passengers. The 6 watch officers and 39 able-bodied seamen comprised only around 5 per cent of the crew, and most of these had been taken on at Southampton so had not had time to familiarise themselves with the ship.

RMS TITANIC (Pt 1)

Hey Hounders

Abby here with the start of my series; after all, Max and Gracie had turns so why not me?  On April 4th of this year, James Cameron is re-releasing his film TITANIC, in 3D.  There will probably be a lot of stuff going on in newspapers,magazines and TV specials etc., as we approach the 100th anniversary of what is still the greatest maritime disaster of all time.  So I've picked out a few interesting primers concerning the great ship RMS TITANIC as an observance and memorial testament.

ABBY (TBH+K)

RMS Titanic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912
Career
Name:	RMS Titanic
Owner:	White Star Line
Port of registry:	Liverpool
Route:	Southampton to New York City
Ordered:	17 September 1908
Builder:	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	401
Laid down:	31 March 1909
Launched:	31 May 1911 (not christened)
Completed:	2 April 1912
Maiden voyage:	10 April 1912
Identification:	Radio callsign "MGY"
Fate:	Foundered on 15 April 1912 on its maiden voyage
General characteristics
Class and type:	Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage:	46,328 GRT
Displacement:	52,310 tons
Length:	882 ft 6 in (269.0 m)
Beam:	92 ft 0 in (28.0 m)
Height:	175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught:	34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Depth:	64 ft 6 in (19.7 m)
Decks:	9 (A–G)
Installed power:	24 double-ended and 5 single-ended boilers feeding two reciprocating steam engines for the wing propellers and a low-pressure turbine for the center propeller[1]. Effect: 46,000 HP
Propulsion:	Two 3-blade wing propellers and one 4-blade centre propeller
Speed:	Cruising: 21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph). Max: 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Capacity:	Passengers: 2,435, crew: 892
Notes:	Lifeboats: 20 for 1,178 people

RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried over 2,200 people – 1,316 passengers and about 900 crew.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, such as millionnaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in America. The ship was designed to be the last word in comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. She also had a powerful wireless telegraph provided for the convenience of passengers as well as for operational use. Though she had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, she lacked enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard. Due to outdated maritime safety regulations, she carried only enough lifeboats for 1,178 people – a third of her total passenger and crew capacity.

After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading westwards towards New York. On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; UTC-3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by the RMS Carpathia a few hours later.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today. Many of the survivors lost all of their money and possessions and were left destitute; many families, particularly those of crew members from Southampton, lost their primary bread-winners. They were helped by an outpouring of public sympathy and charitable donations. Some of the male survivors, notably the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, were accused of cowardice for leaving the ship while women and children were still on board, and they faced social ostracism.

The wreck of the Titanic remains on the seabed, gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since its rediscovery in 1985, thousands of artefacts have been recovered from the sea bed and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.

Background

Titanic was the second of the three Olympic-class ocean liners – the others were the RMS Olympic and the RMS Britannic (originally named Gigantic). They were by far the largest vessels in the White Star Line's fleet, which comprised 29 steamers and tenders in 1912. The three ships had their genesis in a discussion in mid-1907 between the White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, and the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan, who controlled the White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile Marine Co. The White Star Line faced a growing challenge from its main rivals Cunard, which had just launched Lusitania and Mauretania – the fastest passenger ships then in service – and the German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd. Ismay preferred to compete on size rather than speed and proposed to commission a new class of liners that would be bigger than anything that had gone before as well as being the last word in comfort and luxury.

The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, who had a long-established relationship with the White Star Line dating back to 1867. Harland and Wolff were given a great deal of latitude in designing ships for the White Star Line; the usual approach was for the latter to sketch out a general concept which the former would take away and turn into a ship design. Cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five per cent profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, a cost of £3 million for the first two ships was agreed plus "extras to contract" and the usual five per cent fee.

Harland and Wolff put their leading designers to work designing the Olympic-class vessels. It was overseen by Lord Pirrie, a director of both Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line; naval architect Thomas Andrews, the managing director of Harland and Wolff's design department; Edward Wilding, Andrews' deputy and responsible for calculating the ship's design, stability and trim; and Alexander Carlisle, the shipyard's chief draughtsman and general manager. Carlisle's responsibilities included the decorations, equipment and all general arrangements, including the implementation of an efficient lifeboat davit design.

On 29 July 1908, Harland and Wolff presented the drawings to J. Bruce Ismay and other White Star Line executives. Ismay approved the design and signed three "letters of agreement" two days later authorising the start of construction. At this point the first ship – which was later to become Olympic – had no name, but was referred to simply as "Number 400", as it was Harland and Wolff's four hundredth hull. Titanic was based on a revised version of the same design and was given the number 401.

Dimensions and layout

Side plan of RMS Titanic

Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m). Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m). She measured 46,328 gross register tons and with a draught of 34 feet 7 inches (10.54 m), she displaced 52,310 tons.

All three of the Olympic-class ships had eleven decks (excluding the top of the officers' quarters), eight of which were for passenger use. From top to bottom, the decks were:

Cutaway diagram of Titanic's midship section

• The Boat Deck, on which the lifeboats were positioned. It was from here in the early hours of 15 April 1912 that Titanic's lifeboats were lowered into the North Atlantic. The bridge and wheelhouse were at the forward end, in front of the captain's and officers' quarters. The bridge stood 8 feet (2.4 m) above the deck, extending out to either side so that the ship could be controlled while docking. The wheelhouse stood directly behind and above the bridge. The entrance to the First Class Grand Staircase and gymnasium were located midships along with the raised roof of the First Class lounge, while at the rear of the deck were the roof of the First Class smoke room and the relatively modest Second Class entrance. The wood-covered deck was divided into four segregated promenades; for officers, First Class passengers, engineers and Second Class passengers respectively. Lifeboats lined the side of the deck except in the First Class area, where there was a gap so that the view would not be spoiled.
• A Deck, also called the Promenade Deck, extended along the entire 546 feet (166 m) length of the superstructure. It was reserved exclusively for First Class passengers and contained First Class cabins, the First Class lounge, smoke room, reading and writing rooms and Palm Court.
• B Deck, the Bridge Deck, was the top weight-bearing deck and the uppermost level of the hull. More First Class passenger accommodation was located here with six palatial staterooms (cabins) featuring their own private promenades. On Titanic, the A La Carte Restaurant and the Café Parisien provided luxury dining facilities to First Class passengers. Both were run by subcontracted chefs and their staff; all were lost in the disaster. The Second Class smoking room and entrance hall were both located on this deck. The raised forecastle of the ship was forward of the Bridge Deck, accommodating Number 1 hatch (the main hatch through to the cargo holds), various pieces of machinery and the anchor housings. It was kept off-limits to passengers; the famous "flying" scene at the ship's bow from the 1997 film Titanic would not have been possible in real life. Aft of the Bridge Deck was the raised Poop Deck, 106 feet (32 m) long, used as a promenade by Third Class passengers. It was where many of Titanic's passengers and crew made their last stand as the ship sank. The forecastle and Poop Deck were separated from the Bridge Deck by well decks.
• C Deck, the Shelter Deck, was the highest deck to run uninterrupted from the ships' stem to stern. It included the two well decks; the aft one served as part of the Third Class promenade. Crew cabins were located under the forecastle and Third Class public rooms were situated under the Poop Deck. In between were the majority of First Class cabins and the Second Class library.
• D Deck, the Saloon Deck, was dominated by three large public rooms – the First Class Reception Room, the First Class Dining Saloon and the Second Class Dining Saloon. An open space was provided for Third Class passengers. First, Second and Third Class passengers had cabins on this deck, with berths for firemen located in the bow. It was the highest level reached by the ships' watertight bulkheads (though only by eight of the fifteen bulkheads).
• E Deck, the Upper Deck, was predominantly used for passenger accommodation for all classes plus berths for cooks, seamen, stewards and trimmers. Along its length ran a long passageway nicknamed Scotland Road by the crew, in reference to a famous street in Liverpool.
• F Deck, the Middle Deck, was the last complete deck and mainly accommodated Third Class passengers. There were also some Second Class cabins and crew accommodation. The Third Class dining saloon was located here, as were the swimming pool and Turkish bath.
• G Deck, the Lower Deck, was the lowest complete deck that carried passengers, and had the lowest portholes, just above the waterline. The squash court was located here along with the travelling post office where mail clerks sorted letters and parcels so that they would be ready for delivery when the ship docked. Food was also stored here. The deck was interrupted at several points by orlop (partial) decks over the boiler, engine and turbine rooms.
• The Orlop decks and the Tank Top were at the lowest level of the ship, below the waterline. The orlop decks were used as cargo space, while the Tank Top – the inner bottom of the ship's hull – provided the platform on which the ship's boilers, engines, turbines and electrical generators sat. This part of the ship was dominated by the engine and boiler rooms, areas that passengers would never normally see. They were connected with higher levels of the ship by flights of stairs; twin spiral stairways near the bow gave access up to D Deck.

I LOVE PIE

 PIE CHARTS THAT IS.

 

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Hey Hounders,

NAFOD Gracie here with the (thankfully) last installment of "graphics for life."  One of the things that the Bumpass Hounds love in life is pie, especially Jubal.  So I've decided to end my little graphics mini-series with a selection of pertinent pie charts.  I think that they're called pie charts because they look like one of the pies that mom buys in the store (she only bakes "real" pies at Thanksgiving).  

One of mom's favorite TV shows is CSI (not to be confused with NCIS).  She seldom misses it.  So naturally I've had to sit through a whole lot of blood & guts on the tube (she also watches Criminal Minds) on Wednesday nights. All that TV time hasn't gone to waste though.  Here's a graphic pie chart depiction of what I've learned:

I'M SINKING

Mom must have every Beatles album ever recorded.  She has the vinyl records (?) from the ages of antiquity and then had to go buy them on CD when they stopped making record players.  As I've sat on mom's office PC keyboard while avoiding being pushed or hit I've gotten to enjoy just about every Beatles song ever conceived.  Here again, this time has not been wasted.  I've carefully analyzed all the lyrics and now I'm sure that I could compose a #1 hit should Paul & Ringo decide to record together just one last time.  Here's what I've determined are the keys:
 

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE,

A good friend of mom's got married not too long ago and mom and dad were invited to the wedding ceremony.   I was talking to dad about it it and during our conversation I discovered that dads don't really like going to these wedding things, he implied it's kinda like wanting to have a vasectomy, whatever that is.  Anyway I've put together a graphic pie chart depiction of why dads go to weddings:

YEAH, I"M GUARDING

THE DOG BISCUITS

Well, that's it.  I've come to the end of my allotted segnment of posts with which to dazzle and razzle you with my knowledge of the graphic view of life.  I hope it hasn't been too boring and at least somewhat educational.  I have no idea who's up next or what they'll be spouting off about.  Have a Navy day.

GRACIE (TBH+K)

REALITY GRAPHICS

 FACT AND FICTION

Hey Hounders,

It's Moi, NAFOD, again with more graphic presentations of some prominent everyday assumptions and situations.  It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  It's only mid March of the new year.  So how are you doing on those New Year's resolutions that you put into place over the holiday season?  How's that diet working for ya?  What about the gym membership?  Are you still being nice to the dufuss next door?  And what about that home gym that you demanded Santa leave under the tree?  Is it still there?  Have you at least tried it once?  Well, here's how the average is working out on that one:

      

                   

Remember your camping out days, whether it was in scouts or survival school in the Army.  All those weird food groups that y'all just had to try under peer pressure from your buddies.  How'd that old saying go?  "Once your lickin' it'll taste like chicken."  Why is that?  "Here, try some of this crap, it tastes just like chicken."  My research indicates that the only thing that actually tastes just like chicken is, you guessed it, CHICKEN.

That's enough information for one day.  I don't want to expand your brains too much in one session.  I've got a few more things to pass on to you the next time.

GRACIE (TBH+K)

FACTS OF LIFE

 THE GRAPHIC EVIDENCE

GRACIE IN CAT TREE

Hey Hounders,

NAFOD (a.k.a. Gracie) here again with some graphic vu-graph interpretations of what we all know to be factual data from our everyday existence.  You might have asked yourself "Self, how is it that Gracie is so adept at vu-graph presentation?"  The answer is simple:  Mom is a retired federal civil servant and dad is a federal support contractor.  Y'all know how much the federal bureaucracy loves presentations.  Mom and dad were/are always on their PCs working on one presentation or another.  Since I'm always close by to interfere help, I guess it just rubbed off on me.

GRACIE IN A BOX

You know that old expression about how time flies.  Well that all depends on the circumstances.  Does time fly when you're sitting in the dentist's chair getting a root canal?  Here's a graphic presentation of a normal person's concept of a mere 60 seconds, one minute, under various circumstances:

JUST A MINUTE PLEASE

Likewise, circumstances and environment can affect are ability to do certain tasks.  The degree of difficulty associate with a task can be significantly influenced by surrounding circumstances and situations, here's a simply example:

ONE SHEEP, TWO SHEEP; THREE SHEEP,  ETC.

How does my graphic evidence correspond to your actual experiences?  Am I right or wrong?  Let me know.  Well that's it for today, I'll be back again with more graphic data.

GRACIE (TBH+K)

GRAPHIC LIFE DEPICTION

 LET'S VIEW SOME VU-GRAPHS

 
Hey Hounders,

Gracie, otherwise known as NAFOD (No Apparent Fear Of Death), here with some vital information for all of our readers out there in the blogosphere.  Are you sometimes overwhelmed by trying to keep up with your social commitments.  We live in a real time society where it seems everyone feels a need to Tweet and Post their every mood, move, situation and thoughts.  For what?  Who really cares?  Lets take Facebook for instance.  You spend all that time composing posts, seeking out contacts and creating friends.  Once you're on there the rest of the world's population can "find" you, even if you don't want to be found by them.  Here's some graphic evidence of the probable results of the expenditure of all of that time:

Add caption

 

 

 

 

 

Another area of concern to many young people and pups today is their progression through life and their quest to better themselves.  All of those Liberal Arts majors in college know what I'm talking about.  Why tie yourself down to a professional career in fields such as engineering, nursing, medicine, information technology and the like.  People that don't have any specific plan for life often look back on their choices and see graphic evidence like this:

 

Well, that's enough depressing graphic evidence for today.  I'll be back next time with some more graphic testimony of life in the modern world.  Have a Krazy Kat day.

GRACIE (TBH+K)

A DOG'S GOTTA DO WHAT A DOG'S GOTTA DOO

 ERRRR, EXCUSE ME JUST A MINUTE PLEASE

Hey Hounders,

Charlie (the newest Bumpass Hound) here.  I really feel sorry for this young lady.  She seems really talented but nature just kinda stepped in and disqualified her.  Just click on the "OOPS!" to see what we're all barking about around the water bowl this morning.

CHARLIE (TBH+K)

  

OOPS!