Titanic’s Whistles

It probably won’t surprise anyone familiar with the story of Titanic to learn that at the time of the Olympic-class liners’ construction, the whistles were quite naturally the ever to take to sea. Weighing-in close to 750lbs each, and constructed of heavy-duty hard-wearing bronze, they stood a little over 4ft. tall and were powered by steam. Three individual chambers, with …

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Titanic’s Watertight Compartments

Titanic, according to the many legends, was ‘practically unsinkable’, but in reality, no ship can ever be made trulyunsinkable, even almost a century after Titanic’s conception. However, steps had been taken by the ship’s builders, Harland And Wolff, during the design of the Olympic-class liners to ensure that these vessels would be the safest ships to ever take to the seas at that time, and the …

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Titanic’s Engines

As Titanic was the largest moving man-made object built to date when launched, she needed some rather powerful machinery to push her along. The White Star Line’s major rival, Cunard, was already operating the quadruple-screw, turbine-driven sister ships Lusitania and Mauritania, and the turbine-only propulsion system these vessels both employed was a great success, combining good speed with economy too, and embraced technology …

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Titanic’s Lifeboats

Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats, but Alexander Carlisle, one of the managing directors at Harland and Wolff, had suggested using a new type of larger davit, which could handle more boats, giving Titanic the potential of carrying 48 lifeboats, providing more than enough seats for everybody on board. But in a rare cost-cutting exercise, the White Star Line decided that only …

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