8 facts about the Titanic/ Tangent

I've found that after my project was done and dusted I still had a whole plethora of facts stored in my brain. My brain was a sponge during the project and I would like to share some knowledge with you all. 

Here goes.......

1. The Titanic was known as 'Unsinkable' because watertight doors were installed up to a certain level on the ship. From up to the first four compartments damage wouldn't have a huge impact on the ship; the ship would still be able to float. Professionals couldn't imagine a crash larger than the area protected by the watertight doors and so quoted the ship as "practically unsinkable".

2. Binoculars- in actual fact they were not used by the Lookouts of the Titanic. There was indeed a pair on board, however, they were in the locker of a crewmember that ended up not sailing on the Titanic. For this reason, the only pair of binoculars were locked away in the locker and not available for the Lookouts.

3. There is strong evidence to suggest that at the time of the
Titanic two crewmembers were not at their correct station and
one crewmember was unconscious. When two separate warnings of “ice ahead” were called Robert Hichens, the man steering the ship had to leave his station to try and wake the unconscious first officer. Failing in this he is proposed to have gone to the bridge where it was deserted of crewmembers. After the disaster, it is reported that the crew was rounded up and paid to keep quiet about the lack of care/professionalism.

This piece of information is incredibly rare and has strong evidence to back it up.

4. Telegraphists Jack Phillips and Harold Bride worked extremely hard to communicate with another ship and gain help via Morse code.

It wasn't until the power had completely gone that Jack and Harold left their station to save themselves.

Harold survived, Jack, unfortunately, was never found.

5. The crew did not have enough time to load the 20 lifeboats

they had, only 18 were loaded (and not all to the full capacity). So even though there weren't enough lifeboats there wasn't enough time to fill each boat before the ship sunk.

6. There were a total of 20 lifeboats on board the Titanic- enough for less than half of the passengers/crew.


7. Living organisms named Bacteria, aka Rusticles, currently eat away at the Titanic. In thousands of years, the ship will no longer sit at the bottom of the ocean.

8. It is proposed that when sinking the stern stuck up in the air vertically and then sunk rather than the famous movie depiction where it bobbed in the water

and then splashed back down onto the surface: vertical sinking.


We will never really know what happened during the calamitous event, information changes as the story grows familiar. Some accounts were tweaked at the time of the disaster and some altered when retold. It is possible that the above facts I have inherited stray from accuracy, but then again some may be 100% precise. 

Thank you for reading!

Bibliography
Fact 1&4:  Lord, W. (2012). A night to remember. London: Penguin.

Fact 2: Titanic.nmni.com. (n.d.). Titanic - No binoculars for the lookouts on Titanic. [online] Available at http://titanic.nmni.com/Myth-Memory/Myth/No-binoculars-for-the-lookouts-on-Titanic.html [Accessed 19 Jun. 2018].

Fact 3: Nilsson, S. (2011). The man who sank Titanic. Gloucestershire: The history
press, pp.13, 14,15.

Fact 5, 6 & 8: Titanic: 20 years later with James Cameron. (2018). [video] National Geographic.

Fact 7: Drain the Titanic. (n.d.). [video] National Geographic.