The Titanic, a ship full of curiosities and secrets that you (probably) did not know

The fateful sinking of the titanic, the best-known ocean liner in history, turns 111. A ship of 269 meters in length with a weight of 46,000 tons. An icy ocean to cross, the Atlantic. More than 2,000 passengers full of dreams to fulfill their way to North American lands. About 1,500 deaths. Just 700 survivors. A tragedy turned into a movie. A love story (or many).

The main character of the major 20th century naval disaster construction began in 1910 by the shipping company White Star Line with the goal of becoming the largest and most luxurious ship ever built. she planned set sail on april 10 from the south of England (Southampton) to New York and did so. What nobody knew is that after its inauguration it would end up in pieces at the bottom of the ocean almost 4,000 meters deep after colliding with a iceberg the night of April 14 to 15, a day that became night forever for many.

The construction of the Titanic was quite a challenge for the 20th centurynot only for its size but for its luxurious appearance, both outside and inside, and for its advanced engineering: It came to have up to four chimneys (the fourth, false) with 24 boilers and four generators that produced 400 KW. Their 840 cabins They were distributed into three classes: lower class, middle class and upper class, thus creating a reflection of the different strata into which British society was divided by then.

Its construction, its journey, its sinking, its rescue and a love story, gave James Cameron to do one of highest grossing movies of all time in 1998, winning eleven Oscars from the Hollywood Academy: ‘Titanic‘. And it is that, nobody imagined that this ship “unsinkable” it would become a milestone in history, containing many secrets and curiosities, unknown to many.

Curiosities about the Titanic

Despite seeming to know everything about the famous most imposing ship in the world, many are the oddities surrounding the Titanicship whose official name was RMS (Royal Mail Steamer) Titanicby the acronyms that refer to the steamships that carried postal mail. We tell you some of those peculiarities:

• Initially the Titanic I was going to have 64 lifeboats, which were enough to save all the people on board, but they were eventually reduced to 20. The first lifeboat only carried 24 people (of the upper class) despite having a capacity of 65.
• After the Titanic catastrophe, a new rule that is still in force today today: cruise ships are required to carry enough lifeboats to save 25% more of the crew on board.
• The book entitled ‘Futility’, by Morgan Robertson, predicted the catastrophe of the sinking of the Titanic in 1898. The main ship in literary history was called Titan.
• The youngest passenger on the ship was just nine weeks old and became one of the survivors of the shipwreck. Her name was Millvina Dean and she died at the age of 97.
• Twelve dogs were traveling on the ship, of which only three survived the tragedy.
• The Titanic had two more brothers, the Olympic and the Britannic, which were ordered to be built as the largest, most luxurious and safest ships in the world, but all three were involved in fatal accidents.
• The Titanic’s rudder was 24 meters high and weighed about 100 tons, it was so big that special steam engines were needed to move it.
• The price of the third class ticket was about 7 pounds (about 800 current pounds), the second class cost 13 pounds (about 1,500 current pounds) and the first class cost about 30 pounds (which is equivalent to 3,300 current pounds). , according to BBC.
• On the ship there were rooms reserved exclusively for men where women could not enter: the smoking rooms.
• The same day of the sinking a drill was scheduledbut for some unknown reason, Captain Smith called it off.
• The ship could go up to 42 kilometers per hour and had 55,000 engine horsepower.
• The remains of the Titanic were not found until 1985. 685 kilometers south-southeast of the Newfoundland (Canada) coast.