The launch of a leviathan

THERE WAS no ceremonial breaking of a bottle on the ship's bow. Instead, the signal to launch was given by the firing of rockets. Shortly after noon on the last day of May, 1911, in warm sunny weather, huge crowds of cheering shipyard workers and spectators witnessed Titanicslide faster and faster down the greased slipway into the water.

It took 62 seconds for Titanic'shuge hull – more than 269m long and weighing 24,360 tons – to slide from its building berth into the waters of Victoria Channel in Belfast Harbour. The most famous ship in history had been launched.

Titanicwas built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast at the leading edge of Edwardian shipbuilding technology in the largest and most advanced shipyard of the day. The tragic story of the great liner and those who sailed in it is one of the epic tales of modern times.

Less than a year after its launch, on the evening of April 14th, 1912, the world’s largest and most luxurious ship was steaming across the Atlantic on her maiden voyage from the Old World to the New World. All on board were unaware of the iceberg ahead and the imminence of destruction and death.

There was no sense of danger. Titanic'sowners, White Star Line, had assured passengers that "time given to slumber and rest will be free from noise or other disturbance . . . The interval between the old life and the new is spent under the happiest possible conditions."

Titanicwas an international floating hotel with accommodation for all social classes, from wealthy capitalists to stateless emigrants. Enshrining the values and self-confidence of the era, the ship was a microcosm of western civilisation and its misplaced certainties in the gilded age before the first World War.

Technically Titanicwas built to the highest standards of safety at the time. With its double bottom and a system of bulkheads that involved 16 virtually watertight compartments, it was designed to be its own lifeboat in the event of an accident.

The White Star publicity declared that it was “practically unsinkable”.

When Titanicstruck an iceberg 640km off Newfoundland at 11.40pm on April 14th, 1912, her steel hull was opened below the waterline along a length of 90m/300ft. The enormous rush of water flooding into the forward compartments, which the pumps could not cope with, doomed the ship. It was designed to float with any two compartments flooded, and could even have floated with four flooded, but with six compartments open to the sea Titaniccould not survive. It was inevitable that the liner would sink by the head as water flowed from compartment to compartment over the top of the bulkheads.

Although Titanicmet all board-of-trade regulations, the board's lifeboat rules were inadequate for the large new liners being built at the time. The Titaniccarried 20 lifeboats, but these did not provide enough places for all on board ship. The complacent, market-driven failure to make sufficient lifeboat provision was at the heart of the Titanicdisaster. Following the wholly unforeseen terminal damage inflicted by the collision with the iceberg, there was no effective plan B to prevent almost 1,500 people perishing in the freezing waters of the north Atlantic.

Contrary to popular belief Titanicwas not a unique vessel but the second of an intended trio of giant passenger ships for the White Star Line's premier service between Southampton and New York. Titanic(1912) and its sister ships, Olympic(1911) and Britannic(1914), were the company's response to increasing competition in the north Atlantic, particularly from German liners and the Cunard ships Lusitania and Mauretania.

White Star’s competing strategy was to build the largest ships in the world with the highest standards of accommodation in all classes. With beautiful lines, they were designed as the embodiment of elegance and dignity at sea. First-class passengers, especially wealthy Americans, were to be attracted to the new White Star ships not by the promise of high-speed crossings (as offered by the rival Cunarders) but by the prospect of travelling in luxury, with comfortable steadiness on the ocean, at a moderately fast speed in the greatest liners afloat.

The construction of the new White Star leviathans by Harland and Wolff at Queen’s Island in Belfast was a considerable shipbuilding and marine-engineering achievement. Each succeeding vessel boasted increased tonnage and improved design.

There was a close and long-standing business relationship between builders and owners, as Harland and Wolff had built all of the White Star ships since the pioneer liner Oceanic in 1870. By 1912 Harland and Wolff had become the largest, as well as one of the most modern, of the world’s shipyards.

This was a boom period for Belfast shipbuilding, with regular increases in tonnage output. Between 1910 and 1912 Harland and Wolff launched 23 ships in addition to Olympic and Titanic. By the end of the 1910-11 financial year the company's profits totalled nearly £110,000 (equivalent to about €7.3 million in today's money), and by the close of 1911 the number of men at work in the shipyard had risen sharply to almost 15,000. The company's weekly wage bill was about £25,000 (€1.6 million today), a sizeable figure for the time. The shipyard's tremendously impressive output would have been impossible without efficient practices, a skilled and well-organised workforce, forward planning and the international business expertise of the Harland and Wolff chairman, Lord Pirrie.

At the beginning of the 20th century Belfast was unlike any other Irish city. It was a fast-growing commercial and manufacturing metropolis, exporting to world markets. As a major port with extensive overseas and cross-channel trading links, it took its wealth from industrial shipbuilding, engineering and the production of linen.

Belfast's modernity and progress were reflected, for example, in its extensive electric-tram system, which, from 1905, connected the city centre to the ever-growing suburbs. The new City Hall, opened in 1906, was a marbled temple to civic pride and commercial success. The confidence and imperial grandeur of its architecture complemented the Queen's Island skyline, dominated by the great steel gantry where Titanicwas taking shape. These iconic structures, municipal and maritime, were emblematic of a city set within a natural frame of mountains, hills, valley and lough.

Design drawings for the building of Olympicand Titanicwere agreed on July 29th, 1908. The construction of the new liners required a huge reorganisation of the shipyard, with considerable investment in new plant and facilities. Two huge slips, numbered two and three, were laid out, replacing three existing slipways. The ground in the way of the new slips was piled and covered with almost 1.5m of concrete.

An enormous gantry was then erected over the slips and equipped with a system of cranes, beside four large electric lifts. New workshop facilities were provided and the platers’ shed was remodelled and fitted with new steelworking machinery. A 200-ton floating crane was purchased from Germany to lift propelling machinery and boilers on board the giant ships after their launch.

Belfast Harbour Commissioners, continuing a policy of co-operation with Harland and Wolff, had begun the construction of a new dry dock in 1903. Intended to be the largest in the world, it was completed in time for the first dry-docking of Olympic, on April 1st, 1911.

As ship number 400, Olympic had its keel laid on December 16th, 1908, on the newly built slip number two. Three months later, on March 31st, 1909, the keel of Titanic, ship number 401, was laid on the adjoining slip number three. Construction of the two huge hulls went on side by side, with Olympicbeing launched in October 20th, 1910. As it was the lead ship there was great interest in the event in both the popular and the technical press. To aid photography of the launch Olympic'shull was painted light grey.

COMPARED WITHthat for Olympicthere was much less contemporarypublicity about the construction of Titanic. As the second ship, Titanic was essentially an improved version of Olympic. However, although the hull dimensions of the two ships were identical, the additional enclosed space in Titanicincreased the tonnage figure and made it the largest ship in the world in 1912, at 46,328 tons.

While Olympicwas being completed at the fitting-out wharf, construction work on Titanic'shull continued for the next seven months on slip number three. By May 1911 the liner was ready to be launched, an event timed to coincide with the sea trials of Olympicand its departure from Belfast.

Launches have always been dramatic and emotional events in the life of a shipyard, but the launch of Titanicevoked special feelings of pride in the hearts of the men who built it. As with all ship launches, this was a symbolic rite of passage, a giving-birth as well as a practical operation to move a hull from land to sea. Feelings of relief were tinged with poignancy as, within a few moments, Titanicchanged from an inert structure of riveted steel to a proud vessel floating in its natural element for the first time.

A Belfast newspaper described the scene: "Over the bows of the vessel the White Star company's flag floated, and there was displayed a code signal which spelled the word 'success'. If the circumstances under which the launch took place can be accepted as an augury of the future, the Titanicshould be a huge success."

Within an hour of the liner's launch the crowds had disappeared. Its bare hull was towed to the deep-water wharf for the second phase of construction: the fitting-out of the passenger accommodation, together with the installation of all equipment and machinery, including engines, boilers and funnels, necessary to turn Titanicinto a seagoing passenger liner.

This phase was completed 10 months after the ship's launch. Titanicwas scheduled to sail from Belfast to Southampton on April 1st, 1912, but a strong north-westerly wind delayed the sailing until the following day.

Again the Belfast press reported the event: " Titanic, the largest vessel in the world, floated proudly on the water, a monument to the enterprise of her owners and the ingenuity and skill of the eminent firm who built her . . . The mammoth vessel presented an impressive and picturesque spectacle, looking perfect from keel to truck . . . When the tugs were left behind the compasses were adjusted, after which a satisfactory speed run took place and the latest triumph of the shipbuilder's art then left for Southampton carrying with her the best wishes of the citizens of Belfast."

On April 10th, 1912, Titanic, under the command of its captain, Edward J Smith, sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, calling first at Cherbourg and Cobh. With 2,228 passengers and crew on board, the vessel steamed confidently into the Atlantic with lifeboats for only 1,178.

Titanictales 'My great-uncle was the chief designer, and he went down with the ship'

JOHN ANDREWS

"All my life I've been aware that my great-uncle Thomas Andrews was the chief designer of the Titanicand that he went down with the ship on its maiden voyage on April 14th, 1912. But the disaster wouldn't have been discussed in the family because it was such a terrible tragedy.

"It wasn't talked about in Belfast either. Harland and Wolff reckoned that the sinking was a bad advert for the shipyard. I believe that the company even wanted to get the first Titanicfilm, A Night to Remember, banned. There was always this sense of shame. Time has eased that.

"I have always been fascinated by the story of Titanic, and I read books about it from an early age. Public interest grew after the wreck was discovered in 1985, and again after the James Cameron film in 1997. I still wonder why, because it was such a terrible thing that happened. I suppose it was like a Greek tragedy in a way. It was certainly a gripping story. You had all these frightfully rich people from first class, and all the poor people from steerage, and yet they all ended up at the bottom of the ocean.

"The centenary of the launch is Belfast's one chance to commemorate the building of the ship. Because next year will be the centenary of the tragedy, and you can't commemorate the loss of 1,500 people, can you?

"I know my great-uncle Thomas was a wonderful man. My father used to talk about being at the launch with him. He was known for working frightfully hard, going to the shipyard at 5am. But he enjoyed it, and took great responsibility for his work. He also loved sailing on Strangford Lough and playing cricket. I found out recently that he was a bee-keeper too.

"I am proud of the Titanic. But what annoys me more than anything is the succession of elementary errors that took place on the maiden voyage: people not paying attention to each other, not paying attention to messages coming through on the Marconi . These mistakes were the reason she sank. There was nothing wrong with the ship herself.

"One thought troubles me. On that night in 1912 there was another ship nearby, the Californian, which had stopped because of the ice. When the people on board saw the distress flares going up on the Titanic, they thought the passengers were just having a party, and went on to bed.

"They could have saved everybody if they had realised what was really happening."

CHRISTOPHER CARNAGHAN

"When I was 10 years old I discovered the tools my great-grandfather James Carnaghan used when he was a cabinetmaker helping to build the Titanic. I'm 20 now, and I've never forgotten that day. The Titanicis a big part of my life now.

"I was in the attic of my granny's house, looking through lots of her old things, and I came across some dusty old toolboxes, along with some documents and a certificate saying my great-grandfather had worked on the Titanic. I didn't realise how important it was at the time, but I brought the toolbox into school to show my teacher, because we were doing a Titanicproject.

"Mrs Murphy couldn't believe it. She told me that it was a real piece of proper history. She got in touch with the Belfast TitanicSociety, and now it shows the tools as part of its exhibitions. I feel like I'm part of a new generation of the worldwide Titanicfamily.

"The tools connect me to the ship, and I'm proud of that. After I finish technical college I plan to take a gap year and get more involved in promoting this great ship's legacy."  Fionola Meredith

Michael McCaughan is the author of

The Birth of the Titanic

(Blackstaff Press, 1998). He is working on an expanded edition of the book, to be published this autumn. See blackstaffpress.com