Try refreshing the page. J. Bruce Ismay, in full Joseph Bruce Ismay, (born December 12, 1862, Crosby, near Liverpool, England—died October 17, 1937, London), British businessman who was chairman of the
Later life. Though cleared of blame by the official British inquiry, Ismay never recovered from the Titanic disaster. Already emotionally repressed and insecure before his voyage on Titanic, the tragedy sent him into a state of deep depression from which he never truly emerged.
The Chief Designer of the 'Titanic' Saved Everyone He Could as His Ship Went Down. Thomas Andrews was born on this day in 1873. He died in 1912, when the ship he had designed sank, after encouraging the Titanic's passengers to get off the ship if they could.
The designer of the Titanic went down with his ship, whereas the man whose company owned the liner left on the last lifeboat, a decision he almost immediately regretted.
While we cannot know for sure how he spent his final moments, it is known that Captain Edward Smith perished in the North Atlantic along with 1517 others on April 15, 1912. His body was never recovered.
The sea's surface shone like glass, making it hard to spot icebergs, common to the North Atlantic in spring. Nevertheless, Captain Smith kept the ship at full speed. He believed the crew could react in time if any were sighted. (Related: go on the trail of Titanic in the UK.)
The average lifespan of an iceberg in the North Atlantic typically is two to three years from calving to melting. This means the iceberg that sank the Titanic "likely broke off from Greenland in 1910 or 1911, and was gone forever by the end of 1912 or sometime in 1913."
Robert Hichens: How 'man who sank the Titanic' spiralled into depression before being jailed for attempted murder. The man at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck a fateful iceberg in 1912 has not been remembered well throughout history.
John Jacob Astor was the wealthiest passenger aboard Titanic. He was the head of the Astor family, with a personal fortune of approximately $150,000,000.
Oceanographers have pointed out that the hostile sea environment has wreaked havoc on the ship's remains after more than a century beneath the surface. Saltwater acidity has been dissolving the vessel, compromising its integrity to the point where much of it would crumble if tampered with.
Why Did Titanic Not Turn Quickly Enough? After spotting the iceberg, William Murdoch gave the order to stop the engines and to make a hard left turn. Due to the size and speed of the Titanic it was not able to avoid the iceberg.
The lack of sufficient lifeboats was chief among the reasons cited for the enormous loss of life. While complying with international maritime regulations (Titanic carried more than the minimum number of lifeboats required), there were still not enough spaces for most passengers to escape the sinking ship.
Introduction. After the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, hundreds of the survivors, families of victims, and owners of cargo filed claims against the White Star Line for loss of life, property, and for injuries sustained. Their claims totaled $16.4 million.
A water temperature of a seemingly warm 79 degrees (F) can lead to death after prolonged exposure, a water temperature of 50 degrees can lead to death in around an hour, and a water temperature of 32 degrees – like the ocean water on the night the Titanic sank – can lead to death in as few as 15 minutes.
While Titanic holds her own when it comes to length, the ship's width is substantially smaller than modern cruise ships. Titanic's length from one side to the other measured 92.5 feet. Modern cruise ships are typically around 120 feet today, which is about 22% bigger than Titanic.
They included dogs, cats, chickens, other birds and an unknown number of rats. Three of the twelve dogs on the Titanic survived; all other animals perished.
When the collision occured the order was quickly given for women and children to be placed in the lifeboats, despite this 61 children died in the Titanic disaster: one first class child passenger, two second class, and an astonishing fifty-seven third class. Both child crew members were lost.
On today's date in 1912, the body of James McGrady, a saloon steward aboard the RMS Titanic, was interred in Halifax, N.S., where he's buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Recovered in the preceding weeks, McGrady's body was the last body recovered from the tragic sinking that took place about two months prior.
If we take these statistics and assume all first-class passengers paid 30 pounds in berth fare, the total fare was 18,091 pounds or $90,455 in 1912. In today's money, it would equal 2.2 pounds or $2.75 million.
People have been diving to the Titanic's wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.
This included the ship's baker, Charles Joughin, who is believed to be the last person who survived the ordeal to leave the ship, and made his improbable escape to safety in part because he got drunk. Joughin was born in England in 1878 to parents of modest means.
Had the Titanic sank in warm water, most of those in the water would have survived. Almost all had life jackets on, and the lifeboat passengers were rescued only a couple of hours after the ship sank. Passengers of sunken cruise ships can't survive indefinitely though unless the water is tropical.
Three small dogs, two Pomeranians and a Pekingese, survived the Titanic disaster cradled in their owners' arms as they climbed into lifeboats.
On April 14, 1912, however, the Titanic sideswiped a massive iceberg and sank in less than three hours. Damaging nearly 300 feet of the ship's hull, the collision allowed water to flood six of her sixteen major watertight compartments [Gannon, 1995].