'Practically unsinkable'
As soon as the waves of the North Atlantic closed over the stern of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912, the myths began surrounding her design, construction and transatlantic voyage. The Titanic disaster today is a classic tale, a modern folk story, but like all folk stories our understanding of what really happened has been clouded by the way the disaster has been recounted over the years.
'The claim actually made was that she was 'practically unsinkable'...'
It was said that the builders and owners of Titanic claimed she was 'unsinkable'. The claim actually made was that she was 'practically unsinkable', close enough, but nevertheless an unfortunate statement and one which would haunt both builder and owner for years.
Titanic, the largest vessel in the world when she entered service in 1912, was neither the finest nor the most technically advanced of her day. Size, seldom an indication that something is better, was the only record she held. The ships that Titanic, and her slightly older sister Olympic, were designed to compete with were the Cunard liners Lusitania and Mauretania, which entered service in 1907. Designed and built as record breakers, both held the coveted 'Blue Riband' for the fastest Atlantic crossing. They were built principally from lessons learnt from advances in warship construction, but most importantly both were powered by steam turbines driving quadruple screws, each fitted with a large balanced rudder, making them faster than the competition and easier to manoeuvre. This was a giant leap forward in marine engineering, comparable to the advances made in 1969 with the introduction of the Concorde supersonic aircraft.
Titanic and Olympic should best be described as the 747s of their day. As huge people carriers, travelling at moderate speed, with space for large cargoes, they posed a great commercial threat to the smaller and more expensive-to-operate Cunarders.
Published: 2002-04-01
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