How many people were aboard the titanic

The Titanic was the product of intense competition among rival shipping lines in the first half of the 20th century. In particular, the White Star Line found itself in a battle for steamship primacy with Cunard, a venerable British firm with two standout ships that ranked among the most sophisticated and luxurious of their time. The same year that Cunard unveiled its two magnificent liners, J.

Bruce Ismay, chief executive of White Star, discussed the construction of three large ships with William J. Pirrie, chairman of the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. In March , work began in the massive Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, on the second of these three ocean liners, Titanic, and continued nonstop for two years.

More than , people attended the launching, which took just over a minute and went off without a hitch. According to some hypotheses, Titanic was doomed from the start by a design that many lauded as state-of-the-art. The Olympic-class ships featured a double bottom and 15 watertight bulkhead compartments equipped with electric watertight doors that could be operated individually or simultaneously by a switch on the bridge. The second critical safety lapse that contributed to the loss of so many lives was the inadequate number of lifeboats carried on Titanic.

Titanic could carry up to 2, passengers, and a crew of approximately brought her capacity to more than 3, people. As a result, even if the lifeboats were loaded to full capacity during an emergency evacuation, there were available seats for only one-third of those on board.

Titanic created quite a stir when it departed for its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April 10, Absent was financier J. Morgan , whose International Mercantile Marine shipping trust controlled the White Star Line and who had selected Ismay as a company officer.

Morgan had planned to join his associates on Titanic but canceled at the last minute when some business matters delayed him. The wealthiest passenger was John Jacob Astor IV, heir to the Astor family fortune, who had made waves a year earlier by marrying year-old Madeleine Talmadge Force, a young woman 29 years his junior, shortly after divorcing his first wife. The employees attending to this collection of First Class luminaries were mostly traveling Second Class, along with academics, tourists, journalists and others who would enjoy a level of service and accommodations equivalent to First Class on most other ships.

But by far the largest group of passengers was in Third Class: more than , exceeding the other two levels combined. It was Third Class that was the major source of profit for shipping lines like White Star, and Titanic was designed to offer these passengers accommodations and amenities superior to those found in Third Class on any other ship of that era.

A small coal fire was discovered in one of her bunkers—an alarming but not uncommon occurrence on steamships of the day. The plot of Morgan Robertson's novel "Futility" bears an uncanny resemblance to the Titanic disaster.

The novel tells the story of the Titan, the largest ship ever built, billed as "unsinkable," which strikes an iceberg in April and sinks. In the book, more than half the passengers die in the North Atlantic because of a lifeboat shortage. The book was published 14 years before the Titanic sank. Edward G.

Crosby, a Milwaukee veteran of the Civil War, founded a steamship company on Lake Michigan but became famous for refusing to put enough lifeboats for all the passengers on his steamers. Aboard the Titanic, he was unable to find a place on a lifeboat, and he sank with the ship. He went into the Atlantic waters after the collision.

Jennie made it into a lifeboat and lived until Louise Kink Pope was 4 years old when she went on board the Titanic. She and her mother, Luise, were loaded into a lifeboat, but her father was told to remain on deck.

Instead, he jumped into the lifeboat as it was being lowered. The family survived and Pope died in Milwaukee at age 84 in Unfortunately for scriptwriter James Cameron, Lake Wissota is a man-made reservoir that didn't exist until The first-class dining saloon was sheathed in hand-cut mahogany paneling. Many of the first-class female passengers left the Titanic still dressed in the silk evening gowns they had worn to dinner.

The Titanic was stocked with 20, bottles of beer and stout, 1, bottles of wine and 8, cigars for use by first-class passengers. The last dinner served in the first-class saloon consisted of 11 courses. First-class passengers were given copies of "The White Star Music Book" containing songs so they could make requests. The musicians had to know all the titles.

Second-class accommodations were equivalent to first class in most other ocean liners of the time. Third-class passengers could hear the loud roar of the ship's engines in their cabins at all times. Only two bathtubs were available for more than third-class passengers — one for men, one for women. Gates separating the third-class spaces from the other classes were kept locked even after the collision, according to some firsthand reports.

One recent scientific theory holds that the moon's extremely close approach to Earth on Jan. The Titanic's launch was delayed by six weeks because her sister ship Olympic needed repairs in the same dry dock. That delay put seasonal icebergs right in the Titanic's path.

Titanic Capt. Edward Smith did try to avoid ice danger by altering the ship's course to the south after receiving warnings of icebergs from other ships. At p. At 32 degrees, the iceberg was warmer than the water Titanic passengers fell into that night.

The ocean waters were 28 degrees, below the freezing point but not frozen because of the water's salt content. A recent story in Smithsonian magazine theorizes that atmospheric conditions on the night of the sinking created optical illusions that prevented the Titanic's lookouts from seeing the iceberg.

Gibson quit acting shortly afterward. After that, Gibson's life is a bit cloudy. Her affair with a prominent film producer was a scandal in America and prompted Gibson to move to Paris. As WWII began, there were allegations that she herself was a Nazi sympathizer — the veracity of those rumors is unclear. Later, while living in Italy in the s, the former actress was imprisoned by fascists.

She survived prison but died shortly after the war. The industrialist was the founding president of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, a now-defunct steel-manufacturing business.

Wick had been traveling in Europe in order to improve his health. Unfortunately, he booked a trip on the Titanic in order to return to the US. According to Encyclopedia Titanica , he was last seen on the deck of the ship, waving to his wife, daughter, cousin, and aunt as they escaped on a lifeboat.

They both survived the catastrophe by getting on the same lifeboat as Molly Brown. Later, in , she was admitted to the bar and became the first woman barrister to practice in the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales.

Hays started out in the railway business as a teenaged clerk. The American railway magnate may have had some reserves about embarking on the Titanic's maiden voyage. But Hays had died when the Titanic sank — his body was later recovered and he was buried in Montreal. The American writer traveled extensively and befriended a number of prominent individuals, including Theodore Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan.

She booked a passage on the Titanic in order to return to the US to care for her son, who'd been injured. Despite breaking her ankle during the chaotic evacuation, according to Biography.

Harris was a major player on Broadway when he lost his life on the Titanic. He'd started producing plays and managing stars back in , and was returning to the US after a business trip to London. He went down with the ship after ensuring his wife Renee, who had previously broken her elbow after falling down the ship's grand staircase, got on a lifeboat.

Renee achieved prominence by taking up her husband's line of work , becoming one of the first female theatrical producers in the US. The Independent reported that banker and tennis star Karl Behr only booked a trip on the Titanic in order to pursue his future wife, Helen Newsom. Behr survived the disaster because he was asked to help row one of the lifeboats. According to Encyclopedia Titanica , it was reported that he may have asked Newsom for her hand in marriage while they were adrift in a lifeboat.

Behr went on to continue his successful tennis career after surviving the disaster. The Georgia native started out as a journalist, working for the New York Herald and the Boston Post — two now-defunct papers. But, according to Biography. He penned a series about fictional detective Professor Augustus S. Van Dusen. His most famous story was " The Problem of Cell Futrelle and his wife dined with Henry and Renee Harris on the night the ship sank. Futrelle ensured that his wife got on a lifeboat and was last seen speaking on deck with John Jacob Astor.

Rosenbaum was a stylist, fashion buyer, and journalist who was returning to the US on the Titanic after embarking on a reporting assignment in Paris.

As the ship went down, the stylist would play the toy's tune to calm and distract the crying children on her lifeboat. And the poor children were so interested, most of them stopped crying. He served in Cuba and the Philippines.

Later, he became President Theodore Roosevelt's military aide in He served Roosevelt's successor William Taft in the same capacity. If you have found this account of the Titanic casualties interesting, why not read about the sinking of the ship , find out about the gruesome task of body recovery and see a list of the casualties.

Introduction More than two-thirds of the people on the Titanic lost their lives, still one of the worst peacetime disasters at sea. How many people died on the Titanic? How many children died on the Titanic? Back to top. Second Class 14 years, 27 days — the age of the youngest female victim from second class, Mrs Adele Nasser.