Titanic: everything you wanted to know

Titanic: everything you wanted to know - HistoryExtra

"‘How were classes separated, you know, during sailing?’

‘Well, in 1912, there was quite a rigid class structure on transatlantic liners. And in particular, the Titanic had a third class, a second class and first class. And that was actually very rigidly upheld, because there were immigration laws into the US, which meant that third class and second class had to be kept segregated. And this was supposed to be to stop the spread of infectious diseases. And therefore, whilst Titanic was on her voyage, there were berths and gates, which were metal gates, drawn across the corridors that separated first, third from second class. However, once there was a distress situation, and they decided to abandon ship at about midnight on the 14th of April 1912, they did actually open up those gates. The reason why third class passengers are sort of shown in films to be locked down behind the gates, is because that's what happened in the first 20 minutes after collision. So Titanic collided at 11:40pm. And then it took them 20 minutes to assess the damage and work out they were going to abandon ship. And it was only at the point they worked out, they were going to sink that they opened these gates’

‘Right. Okay. And does that explain why so many sort of third class passengers were trapped below decks when it sank?’

‘Well, I'm glad you said that, Charlotte, because that that is actually a myth. And hopefully today we'll bust a few myths. But yes, in fact, they sent first and second class stewards down to help the third class stewards to direct third class to the boat deck from, in fact, from midnight, and the last, Titanic didn't sink until 2:20 in the morning. The reason why so many third class died is a couple of reasons. First of all, the first class passengers had, had access to the boats first, because they were physically nearer to the boats. There were no actual lifeboats on the third class deck, so third class had to sort of find their way up to the boat deck, although as I said, they did get assistance in that. So the first thing is a slightly first come first servem is that the first class passengers and second class are kind of there near the lifeboats as it were. But the other major factor is, and the main reason why so many more percentage more third class drowned than first and second, is because they had, third class, many of them were traveling with big families. They were traveling for a new life in America, so a lot of them had their children with them. And in fact, in 1912, you were a man when you were 13. So what that means was a lot of women for example, and fathers wouldn't want to part with their 13 year old sons and leave them on the deck of Titanic, so they chose to stay with them. And you can imagine a family, such as the Goodwin's, who had eight children, many of which were under the age of 13. You can imagine that the whole family would choose to stay together rather than separate. And it was for that reason that so many more third class drowned...

Third class was in 1912 money about five pounds. Now, you can actually times that by 100 today to get an idea of what that is in today's money. So let's say equivalent today of third class would be about 500 pounds. And you can imagine it almost a bit like airfare prices today, if that makes sense. So 100, 500 pounds would have got you a nice little bed, a wash stand, it should be said that third class on Titanic was as good if not better than second class on many other smaller ships. So all the third class would have felt they were in luxury. Third class also had hot and cold running water, which they wouldn't have had in their own homes. So it would really have been luxurious for everyone on Titanic. And then it was about three times more than third class for second class. So second class was about 15 pounds, which is about 1500 pounds in today's money. And then first class was about three times more than that, it kind of goes up by a factor of three for each class. So you'd be thinking about 5000 pounds in today's money for first class, however, there were some suites, and they would be about 80,000 pounds, the suites. But actually, that's a bit like traveling on the Queen Mary the Second today, for example. So in many ways, the prices were not dissimilar from today. But obviously the luxury was much greater. The amount of space you had was much greater in first class, in the suites, and therefore, they were perhaps more expensive than even the most luxury cabins today.’...

‘Is it true that enough light lifeboats could have been fitted, but it was chosen not to do so?’...

‘Titanic was designed at a time when the Board of Trade were reviewing the rules on how many lifeboats you were allowed to carry. And it's worth getting into a little bit of detail on the answer, because it's rather interesting. Basically, if you actually want to have enough lifeboats for everyone, on board a ship, you actually need to have enough lifeboats for twice the number of people on the ship. And that's because ships normally list to port or starboard, so they lean one way or the other in other words, and what that means is it puts out of action all the lifeboats down one side of the ship. So in fact, what the Board of Trade wanted to do is instead of having vessels piled high with lifeboats, making them unstable, and requiring a huge amount of crew to row them in the event of an emergency, what they wanted to do is actually reward ship owners for properly subdividing their vessels and making vessels have watertight compartments and making the vessels themselves safer. So what they did is they said, if your ship is very well built and passes our tests, which obviously Titanic did, then you are allowed to only carry enough lifeboats that are needed to ferry passengers from the stricken vessel to another nearby ship.’

‘Another question that has been quite popular is why do you think that this particular sinking looms so much larger and collective memory than, than other ship disasters?’

‘Absolutely. Well, it was one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history. It occurred before the horrors of the First World War where obviously 1000s and 1000s of men died in the trenches, etc. So it was quite shocking for what happened is the Victorians brought on science and progress. The Edwardians brought on labor laws, and they improved diet and life expectancy was going up. And basically, if you like, science and mankind's ingenuity, if you like, was conquering nature. So they didn't expect that the best they could do, this wonderful ship would actually sink on its maiden voyage, before even getting to its destination of New York for the first time. And that was very shocking to people. But the other reason is, which is perhaps slightly deeper, is that as human beings, we love tragedy, there's something about, you know, the smallness of, of human beings and then the vastness of nature that really appeals to the human condition. So the our tragedies today are things like the Titanic, and the Titanic is the perfect tragedy, because no one was really to blame, everyone was trying their best and trying their hardest. And really, she sank because of the awesome power of nature...

There was an orchestra on the Titanic and they did very bravely play to keep people calm, and and obviously entertained as well while they were cooling their heels and waiting for the lifeboats to become ready. However, after the last lifeboats were gone from the ship, then the band did stop playing’...

‘Why did the ship sail so close to icebergs? Was this a calculated risk? Or was the iceberg adrift?’...

‘In a nutshell, it was a calculated risk. So in 1912, you couldn't just sort of sail about anywhere on the, on the North Atlantic as a liner, passenger liner, there was a westbound track to New York, which was laid down, is a particular line that ships should follow. And there was an eastbound track from new law, New York to Europe. The tracks were about 60 miles apart. And that was to avoid collisions in fog of ships going different ways. And Titanic was right where she should be. She was on her westbound track to New York, they'd had many reports of ice, so they knew they were entering into an ice area. However, the weather was extremely clear, there was no moon, but there were lots of stars out. And the sort of common knowledge among captains in 1912 was in fact that as long as it was clear weather, you would always be able to see an iceberg in time to avoid it. So what the Titanic did instead of slow down is she posted good lookouts in the crow's nest, and she darkened down her hatches in front of the bridge, so that everything was dark before the bridge to give the officers on Titanic, the best night vision. And in fact, even to avoid having any glass in the way looking ahead. In fact, Murdoch who was in charge of Titanic that night actually stood out on the wing bridge, so that he had an absolutely clear view ahead. And unfortunately, they were caught out eventually by the weather conditions, but that's perhaps another part of the question...

‘She had 15 watertight compartments, and they went right the way up to the deck, or nearly right the way up to the top deck. And they were, they were to create cells and tight safety cells if you like. And Titanic could float with any four of her first watertight compartments flooded, and she could float with any two compartments in conjunction flooded anywhere in the ship. And this is because the builders thought that the worst thing that would happen to Titanic would be a collision with another vessel on the point where two watertight compartments joined, thus breaching two compartments. What they didn't bank on was the very unusual kind of sideswipe disaster, which happened to Titanic’...

‘So if the ship had hit the iceberg straight on, would it have remained afloat?’

‘Yes, it would have done, it would have done. One of the designers of the Titanic, obviously the chief designer of Titanic, Thomas Andrews actually drowned aboard the vessel, died in the sinking. But Edward Wilding was another one of the naval architects involved, or marine architects, I should say, involved in the construction of Titanic. And he gave evidence at the Titanic inquiry in London. And he did explain that if Titanic had hit the iceberg head on, it would have killed all the firemen who was sleeping down in the bow, probably about 80 firemen would have been killed, or at least 40. Because half of them were stoking and, but half of them were in their bunks. That would have killed those people sleeping in the front, and the bow and it would have stove in the first 100 feet of Titanic… But it wouldn't actually even have thrown people out of their beds, the impact, because it would have created a crumple zone in Titanic’"