Essay On Titanic The Unsinkable

Alexa Sikora

Mrs. Giamalva

Honors English

2 April 2014

The Titanic: The Unsinkable

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that...” stated Captain E.J. Smith as the ocean liner set sail. The Titanic was never intended to be the most famous ocean liner to ever set sail, but on April 15, 1912, the Titanic’s infamous story began to unfold. Although the structure of the Titanic was designed to be indestructible, unexpected obstacles lead to the reveal of the flawed structure.

The story of the Titanic was told long before the ocean liner was even a thought. Fourteen years prior to the sinking of the Titanic, Morgan Robertson wrote a book called The Wreck of the Titan. In his book, a passenger ship called Titan set sail from England and was headed to New York loaded with first class passengers and luxurious items. The Titan hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, causing the ship to sink and the passengers to panic. The lack of lifeboats and life jackets on the Titan lead to the loss of many lives. Morgan Robertson’s book would predict the fate of the great ocean liner, the Titanic, fourteen years after.

Nearly a decade after the publishing of The Wreck of the Titan, two shipbuilders began to develop a plan to recreate the Titan. “At a London dinner party as they relaxed over coffee and cigars, J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star line of passenger ships, and Lord Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff Shipbuilders, discussed a plan to build three enormous ocean liners (Ballard 10).” The Olympic was the first of the three ships in the White Star line to set sail, but unlike the Titanic, the Olympic had a...

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...was shortly after four in the morning, and until approximately eight in the morning, the survivors continued to board the Carpathia. After all the remaining passengers were on board the Carpathia, the ship full of rescued people headed to New York.

Altogether, 705 passengers survived the crash, while 1,517 died. The first class children all survived, but only 97% of women and 32% of men were saved. In second class, all of the children were saved again, but only 86% of women and 8% of men were saved. In third class, 34% of children were saved, while 46% of women and 16% of men were saved. 62% of the first class passengers were saved, 41% of the second class was saved, and only 25% of the third class survived. “The overall survival rate for men was 20%. For women, it was 74%, and for children, 52%” (Encyclopedia Titanica | RMS Titanic Passengers and Crew Research).