Amazing & Extraordinary Facts: Titanic

Stuart Robertson is a Naval and maritime expert and editor and is the author of The War at Sea (Conway) and The Pirate's Pocket Book (Conway).

Introduction





Harland and Wolff: Belfast’s

steely identity


The birthplace of Titanic





From Liverpool to Southampton

via bankruptcy


The White Star Line’s chequered history





Building for comfort not speed


Blue Riband takes a back seat





American-financed,

American-owned…


How British was Titanic?





Heavy metal


The Olympic class on the stocks





Slip sliding away


Launch day





It’s big


Largest moving man-made object on Earth








Ill-starred sister?


The Olympic and the origins of the `unsinkable’ description





The epitome of safety at sea


Titanic’s state of the art design philosophy





The eerie foresight of Robertson

and Stead


Predictions of the disaster?





A doomed ship?


Nonsense or truth?





A quick jaunt down the lough


Titanic’s trials – and a baptism of fire?





`Not very good material

for a story’


The confident Captain Smith





The embodiment of luxury afloat


Titanic’s unique selling points





Who sailed on the Titanic?


And where did they come from?





How many?


And in what class?





Proud point of departure


Southampton for the first and last time





Biscuit and grog of the

highest quality


Provisioning the world’s most

luxurious ship





A room of one’s own


Accommodation aboard Titanic





The points of no return


Getting on at Cherbourg and Queenstown





Unusual ways of boarding


Stories of stowaways and kidnappings





Rearranging the deckchairs...


Pastimes aboard ship





Fit to bust


What’s for dinner? And where?





Morse, Marconi and messaging


The value of wireless aboard ship





Flags and call-signs


How Titanic identified herself at sea





You have been warned


Ice warnings received – and ignored?





`Ice, right ahead’


Up in the crow’s nest with the lookouts





The gash that was actually

a buckle


What’s the real damage?





The chief designer of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews


There at the beginning, there at the end





Bad tidings


The men in the mail room





Binoculars and searchlights


Would they have made a difference?





That iceberg


Where is it now?





CQD or SOS?


Titanic’s distress calls





The show must go on


The Titanic’s stoic musicians





Signalling to the end


The scene in the wireless room





Make that the last verse...


The musicians’ last hurrah





`Be British, boys, be British!’


The last words and deeds of

Captain Smith





`A queer feeling’


The unsettled chief officer, Henry Wilde





The evacuation under way


The scandal of the half-filled lifeboats





Women, children...


And Americans first?





Titanic’s last hour


The giant slips under the waves





The Strauses


Together forever





You can’t take it with you...


John Jacob Astor IV


From steerage to

dressing Guggenheim


Bedroom steward Henry Etches





Hypothermia or drowning?


Life expectancy in the North Atlantic





The Carpathia to the rescue


Cunard collects the casualties





The tragic inactivity of

the Californian


What was she doing?





The news spreads...


Inaccurately





The Mackay-Bennett and Halifax


Bringing the dead back to shore





Titanic’s grim statistics


Who lived and who died





The authorities investigate


The US and British inquiries





Taking the rough with

the smooth


How did White Star treat Third

class passengers?





Hindsight is a wonderful thing


The question of Captain

Smith’s negligence





Anyone seen my

Marmalade Machine?


The curious possessions lost

aboard Titanic





The tangled bureaucracy

of death


Why the official tolls don’t match up





Southampton mourns


A fitting maritime memorial





Cold steel


Was the Titanic’s hull too brittle in

cold water?





It’s all a question of luck


The indomitable Violet Jessop





On the silver screen


Titanic in the cinema





Titanic back under the hammer


The trade in memorabilia








Secret assignment for Ballard


Cold War casualties are proving

ground for Titanic search





Scattered across the sea-bed


The resting places of the wreck





The slumbering giant disturbed


The ethical questions of visiting

the wreck





The last survivors of the Titanic


Lillian Asplund and Millvina Dean





Titanic sails up the Thames


Tragedy, tourism and trade





`Rusticles’


What’s eating the Titanic?