Titanic Timeline

A list of important events in the story of the Titanic, from the early days of the White Star Line, right through to current day salvage operations.

Year	Details
1867	Thomas Henry Ismay purchases the struggling White Star Line, which operated traditional sailing vessels centred mainly on the diminishing Australian gold rush trade.
1869	Thomas Henry Ismay creates the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, the house flag of which is the familiar burgee of the White Star Line, a red background with a five-pointed white star in the centre. The formation of this company is the beginning of Ismay's dream of providing a top quality service to the United States and Canada.
1869 - 1870	Belfast shipbuilders Harland & Wolff begin construction of Oceanic, the first of many fine ships for the fledgling White Star Line. It's the beginning of a long and fruitful period between the owners and the builders.
1891	Joseph Bruce Ismay, son of Thomas Henry, joins the White Star Line as a partner.
1894	William J. Pirrie is made chairman of Harland & Wolff.
1898	Morgan Robertson publishes Futility, a novel about an ocean liner, the Titan, which sinks on the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage after a collision with an iceberg. The book bears many spookily-similar aspects to the sinking of the Titanic.
1899	Thomas Henry Ismay dies, leaving the way clear for his son Joseph Bruce Ismay to take over the running of the White Star Line.
1902	The White Star Line is taken-over by American financier J. Pierpoint Morgan. His shipping trust, the International Mercantile Marine (I.M.M.), now effectively runs the company.
1904	J. Bruce Ismay becomes president of Morgan's I.M.M., and is allowed complete control, such is Morgan's respect for Ismay.
1907	William J. Pirrie invites J. Bruce Ismay to his London residence, Downshire House, for a dinner party, the purpose of which is to discuss the construction of two massive new ocean-liners for the White Star Line. Pirrie and Ismay hope the Olympic-class liners will rival Cunard's transatlantic speedsters, Mauretania & Lusitania, not for speed, but for opulence and grandeur.
July 1908	White Star Line officially approve the design of the Olympic-class liners with Harland & Wolff. The initial order of two ships will be followed by a third in time. Because of the huge size of these mammoth new vessels, Harland & Wolff have to build huge new slipways to accommodate them, with a huge gantry spanning them.
December 16th 1908	Olympic, first of the Olympic-class liners, is born as her keel is laid down in Belfast. Construction of what will become the world's largest vessel has begun.
March 31st 1909	Harland & Wolff lay down the keel on yard No. 401; Titanic is born.
October 20th 1910	Olympic, the first of the trio, is launched at Harland and Wolff. She is the world's largest man-made moving object, but not for long.
May 31st	Titanic is launched in front of a crowd of over 100,000 people in Belfast, the second of the Olympic-class liners to take to the waters.
June 1911	Southampton witnesses the departure of the world's largest liner, Olympic.
July 1911	Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line agree upon a proposed sailing date for Titanic; 20th March 1912.
September 20th 1911	Olympic is badly damaged in a collision with the Royal Navy cruiser H.M.S. Hawke. As workers are diverted to undertake repairs to Olympic, work on Titanic slows a little, and her sailing date will have to be revised.
October 1911	The White Star Line announce the revised date for Titanic's departure on her maiden voyage; 10th April, 1912.
February 3rd 1912	Titanic is dry-docked at Harland and Wolff's yard in the Thompson Dry Dock.
March 25th 1912	Titanic's lifeboats are tested.
March 31st 1912	Titanic is now largely complete as far as the fitting-out process goes, however, internally there is still much to be done.
April 2nd 1912	Titanic sails for the very first time under her own power as she undergoes her delayed sea trials in Belfast Lough.
April 3rd 1912	Titanic arrives in Southampton just after midnight after journeying down from Belfast.
April 5th 1912	Titanic is 'dressed' in her signal flags and pennants as a Good Friday tribute to the people of Southampton.
April 6th 1912	Today is recruitment day, when all the still-remaining vacancies on the ship's crew are filled. Coal and cargo begin to be loaded today too.
April 8th 1912	All of the fresh food for the forthcoming maiden voyage begins to be loaded at Southampton.
April 10th 1912	Titanic's sailing day has finally arrived, and Captain E. J. Smith comes aboard at 7.30am. Titanic's maiden voyage finally gets underway at 12 noon. She sails across the English Channel to Cherbourg, her first port of call, arriving there just after 6.00pm. After a couple of hours or so of embarking some new passengers, and disembarking some of the ones who boarded at Southampton, she heads across the Irish Sea to Ireland.
April 11th 1912	Titanic arrives at Queenstown, now known as 'Cobh', and once more drops-off passengers, whilst taking-on board some new ones for the voyage to New York.
April 11th - 12th 1912	Titanic covers 386 miles, which included the stop at Queenstown.
April 12th -13th 1912	Titanic covers 519 miles, during which time she received many warnings of ice.