The Sinking of Titanic

Titanic began its first voyage from Southampton to New York on April 10^th 1912. Its journey was commanded by Captain Edward J. Smith. When titanic left its berth, The Liner New York brought away from its moorings. It was drawn closely about four feet to Titanic before a tugboat towed away the Liner New York. This accident delayed departure for an hour. After crossing the English channel, Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to board additional passengers and stopped again the next date at Queenstown, Ireland. It was such a small harbour that Titanic had to anchor off-shore, with boats ferrying the embarking passengers out to Titanic. There were 2240 people aboard when Titanic set out of New York. It was so luxury that many people sailed on it.

Titanic, the largest ship owned by the White Star Line, was designed to compete with the rival Cunard Line. Titanic and its twin, Olympic, were intended to be the most luxurious ships. Construction of Titanic began on March 31^st 1909 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. It was located in Belfast, Ireland. The construction was funded by J.P Morgan, one of the rich men in America. On May 31^st 1911, Titanic was launched. Its outfitting was completed on March 31^th 1912. Because it also carried mail, its name was preceded by RMS (Royal Mail Steamer). Titanic which had 269 meters long and 28 meters wide could carry 3547 passengers and crew. It was so large that both poor people and rich people sailed on titanic. The rich people were provided with 46 first classes, but the poor people were provided with 40 open berthing areas. Some famous people in the world which traveled in first class were millionaire John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeleine Force Astor, Industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, millionairess Margaret Brown, US presidential aide Archibalt Buitt, White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay, Titanic's builder Thomas Andrews, and others. Thomas Andrews was on board because he wanted to observe any problems and assess the general performance of the new ship. Titanic had luxury features designed which other ships never had. First class room were adorned with elaborate wood paneling, expensive furniture. The other features are swimming pool, gymnasium, Turkish bath, libraries, and squash court. Titanic was designed with luxury features, so not only poor people but also the most prominent people in the world sailed on Titanic.

Disaster happened while titanic was sailing. On the night of Sunday, April 14^th, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was calm. Titanic received iceberg warnings on the way of its journey. First day, there was an iceberg warning from the Steamer America. The next day, Captain Smith received another report of numerous large icebergs again, but all iceberg warning were ignored. While Titanic was sailing on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, one of the passengers saw a large iceberg, directly ahead of Titanic. Afterwards, the ship's officer turned left the ship and turned down the speed, but the collision could not be avoided anymore. Finally, Titanic struck an iceberg. The iceberg brushed the ship's hull and broke the rivets under the ship which covered by water. The watertight doors could be closed when the water had filled the fifth part of the watertight doors. Captain Smith realized that Titanic would sink because he knew that Titanic would not sink if the water had not filled more than the fourth part of the watertight doors, but it had filled until the fifth part. After that, he ordered to stop the ship and prepared the lifeboats. The ship's officer announced the passengers that Titanic would sink. He asked them to rescue themselves on the lifeboats, but most of the passengers thought Titanic was such an unsinkable ship that it could not sink. Because of that, many passengers keep stayed on the ship. Another ship's officer sent a distress call to the nearest ships. Some ships received the call, but they were too far from Titanic to reach before sinking. Before another ship came to help, Titanic sank into two pieces. A few minutes before it broke into two pieces, by 02:05 AM, the ship's bow was under the water. Around 02:10 AM, the stern rose out of the water showing the propellers. The water had reached the boat deck at 02:17 AM. Two lifeboats floated off the deck and one of them was filled with water. While the stern rose, the electrical system and the lights went out. Afterwards, the stress on the hull caused Titanic broke and the bow went under the water. Then, the stern rose vertically and Titanic sank into the ocean at 02:20 AM after it broke into two. Many passengers died due to Titanic disaster. The majority of dead people were caused by hypothermia. The people of the third class could not survived, but all women and children in the first and second class were saved. Only two of 18 lifeboats rescued the people after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 picked up five people, two of whom died. An hour later, lifeboat 14 rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. It was an unbelievable tragedy when Titanic struck an iceberg because it ignored the warnings, so the ship sank and caused many people died.

Evacuations were done in New York after Titanic disaster happened. White Star Line chartered Steamer Ship Mackay-Bennett to evacuate the victims. There were 338 dead people. Most of them were evacuated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, but the unknown dead people were evacuated to Fairview. Besides of that, the survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia. This ship arrived at the place where Titanic sank, and rescued the survivors. On the deck of RMS Carpathia, the people prayed for the dead people. After that, the deads were buried. Six passengers were buried at sea. They were Thomas Beattle, a first class passenger, two crew members, a fireman, and a seaman. The Steamer Ship Mackay-bennett recovered the bodies of first class passengers, preferring to bury them at sea. White Star Line officials stopped the sea burials due to the outcry from family members. Bodies recovered, except those that could not identify, were preserved to be taken to the nearest city. Some bodies were shipped to be buried in their hometowns. Then, investigations were planned to discover what had happened on Titanic. The investigations were done before the survivors arrived in New York. The United States senate initiated an inquiry into the disaster on April 19^th, a day after Carpathia arrived in New York. The chairman of the inquiry wanted to gather accounts from passengers and crew because they obviously remembered how Titanic sank. He also asked the British citizens to come to the judicature while they were in America. It prevented all survivors and crew from returning to England before the American inquiry finished until May 25^th. The investigations found that many safety rules were out of date. The investigators also learned that Titanic had enough lifeboats for all first class passengers, but it had not enough lifeboats for the lower classes. Titanic disaster had been handled as soon as possible. After rescuing the survivors and burying the dead victims, the chairman of the inquiry did investigations. New laws were recommended after knowing the causes of the sinking to increase the safety of passengers while going on board.

In conclusion, after Titanic hit an iceberg, it sank and caused many people died, but the survivors could be rescued by another ships. If the ship's officer had not ignored the iceberg warnings, this disaster would not have happened. Before sinking, it broke into two pieces. This disaster had the greatest number of dead victims because only 706 of 3547 passengers could survive. Many people did not believe that Titanic, “the unsinkable ship”, could sink. Because of that, the chairman of the inquiry investigated to know what had happened. The investigations found that Titanic had many out of date safety rules. Finally, the government recommended new laws so that the passengers' safety were more guaranteed . People got a value experience from the sinking of titanic. They believed that nothing was perfect in this world so that Titanic sank although it had constructed to be an unsinkable ship.