250 posts and not one yet of the most famous ship of all time -
HMS Titanic. One of the 3
Olympic class ocean liners, these ships built in the early 1910's -
Olympic (1911),
Titanic (1912 and
Britannic (1914) were nearly the size of the Iowa class battleships with a length of 882 ft, beam of 92 ft and displacement of 52,000 tons. 59,000 HP gave them a maximum speed of 24 knots.
Of note on propulsion,
Propulsion was achieved through three propellers: two outboard or wing propellers had three blades, while the central propeller had four. The two lateral propellers were powered by reciprocating steam triple expansion, while the central shaft was driven by a steam turbine.[23] All power on board was derived from a total of 29 coal-fired steam boilers in six compartments. However, Olympic's boilers were adapted for firing by oil at the end of the First World War,[24] which reduced the number of engine crew required from 350 to 60.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
One wonders how many people could have been saved if the
SS Californian had rendered assistance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Californian
Some have suggested that a coal fire prior to departing port severely weakened the hull and contributed to the sinking.
A Coal Fire May Have Helped Sink the ‘Titanic’
A new documentary claims the Titanic’s hull was weakened before it struck an iceberg
Read more:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...d-sink-titanic-180961699/#4R6RBvfs7bfaxC8g.99
Perhaps the unluckiest person on the ship (or the luckiest depending on your viewpoint) was White Star line stewardess / nurse Violet Jessop, who survived a collision on the
Olympic in 1911, the sinking of the
Titanic in 1912 and the sinking of the
Britannic in 1916.
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912.
Very good movie - no, not that movie, but rather
Saving the Titanic, a British film from 2012 from the viewpoint of those engineers and crew who knew they were doomed but fought on.
And the book that made author Clive Cussler famous,
Raise the Titanic!