35 Interesting Facts About the Titanic

The disaster of the Titanic is the most famous shipwreck in history. Despite the fact that its causes have been more or less reliably established, there are still several theories claiming that the giant cruise liner did not sink solely due to its collision with an iceberg. Unfortunately, the wreck lies deep at the bottom of the ocean, making its study a challenging task.

Facts About the Titanic Disaster:

1. From 1985 to 2010, there were 17 expeditions to the Titanic wreck, during which over 5,000 items were recovered—from passengers’ personal belongings to a 17-ton piece of the hull.
2. Various projects were proposed to raise the sunken ship to the surface, but all were eventually abandoned.
3. The Titanic’s maiden voyage was also its first and last.
4. For decades, it was believed that the ship sank whole, but later research showed that it broke in two. The bow and stern sections lie 600 meters apart on the ocean floor.
5. The most likely reason why the iceberg that sent the Titanic to the bottom wasn’t seen in time is thought to be that the iceberg was overturned. As the underwater part of the iceberg melts, it shrinks, and eventually, the giant chunk of ice can flip “upside down.” The darker (and therefore less noticeable) underwater part then ends up on top.
6. The Titanic lacked a simple yet essential item: binoculars. The captain had fired his second officer, Blair, who took the keys to the safe containing the binoculars for the lookouts with him as revenge. According to another version, Blair simply forgot to hand over the keys. In 2007, this key was sold at auction for a large sum of money.
7. It was after the Titanic disaster that several countries joined forces to create a service to track all major icebergs. Since then, for over a century, there have been no major collisions between ships and icebergs.
8. Scientists have determined that rust and marine microorganisms will completely destroy the sunken Titanic’s remains by the end of the 21st century. Only the anchors and some other massive steel elements will survive.
9. Director James Cameron, who made the world-famous movie about this shipwreck, dived to the Titanic’s wreck several times in a submersible.
10. In 1898, writer Morgan Robertson wrote a book titled Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan. It told the story of a ship named Titan, making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic, which struck an iceberg and sank. The liner lacked sufficient lifeboats, but it was described as “unsinkable” because it was the largest ship of its time. This story was written 14 years before the Titanic’s sinking.
11. The first movie about the Titanic was made less than a month after the disaster, with the lead role played by an actress who survived the shipwreck.
12. It took 23 tons of grease, train oil, and liquid soap to launch the ship into the water, used to lubricate the slipways.
13. There were 12 dogs on board the ship, three of which survived.
14. After the Titanic collided with the iceberg, the ship’s deck was covered in snow and ice chunks, which many passengers mistook for an unexpected spectacle and began playing soccer with the ice, unaware of the impending disaster.
15. The remains of the Titanic were discovered only 73 years after the shipwreck.
16. Three million rivets were used in the construction of the Titanic, most of which were handcrafted.
17. A first-class ticket, when adjusted for inflation, would cost around $100,000 today. The upper deck was occupied by very wealthy individuals, the richest of whom was John Jacob Astor IV, whose fortune was estimated at $85 million. In today’s world, Astor would be considered a billionaire.
18. The ship was equipped with only 20 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 people, enough for less than half of the passengers. And there was also the crew… This was because the ship was considered unsinkable, and they decided to save money on lifeboats.
19. According to statistics, 74% of women and 20% of men survived the Titanic disaster.
20. News about the real situation with the surviving and deceased passengers remained a mystery to the rest of the world for several days, and the first newspapers even reported that all passengers and crew members had survived the Titanic’s sinking.
21. The shipwreck occurred on April 14, 1912. The events have been recreated in great detail. From early morning, the crews of other ships transmitted several reports that icebergs were nearby, but the Titanic ignored these warnings. The last report was received by the Titanic 40 minutes before the collision, but the ship’s radio operator did not even finish listening to the message before cutting off communication.
22. Lifeboats were critically scarce after the sinking, but some still departed half-empty due to panic.
23. The construction of the Titanic cost $7.5 million (an enormous sum by the standards of those times) and took three years.
24. At the time of its construction, the Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world, measuring 268 meters in length and weighing 46,328 tons when fully loaded.
25. The liner sank to the sound of music. The orchestra stood on deck until the end, playing a hymn to encourage those around them.
26. Russian deep-sea submersibles “Mir” descended to the wreck in 1991 and 1995. The Titanic lies at a depth of about 3.8 km.
27. Halomonas titanicae—a new bacterium that eats away at metal—was named after the shipwreck as it slowly destroys the ship’s metal remains.
28. Ironically, April 14th, the day the Titanic struck the iceberg, had been scheduled for lifeboat evacuation drills. For unknown reasons, Captain Smith canceled the drills, postponing them to the next day.
29. None of the 30 ship’s engineers survived. They remained in the engine room, keeping the steam engines running as long as possible so that others could be saved.
30. The Titanic could have stayed afloat if only four of its compartments had been flooded, but on that fateful night, six compartments were damaged.
31. Besides the Titanic, no other liner in history has ever been sunk by an iceberg.
32. UNESCO waited 100 years to declare the Titanic wreck a cultural heritage site, as this organization’s convention requires for such cases.
33. Officially, 1,513 people died in the Titanic disaster.
34. The ship was equipped with 29 steam boilers that consumed 825 tons of coal per day.
35. Out of the Titanic’s four smokestacks, only three were functional. The fourth was added for symmetry and aesthetics, serving as a ventilation channel.