Matthew's POV: The Titanic

Everyone knows the story (at least I hope so) of the Titanic. It was the "unsinkable ship." But on its maiden voyage, the ship hit an iceberg and sank within a few hours. But did you know that the ship's engineers and builders never called it unsinkable? No, they actually never said it. The people who said it were bystanders and people who didn't know much about ships, (obviously) because it DID sink. One person said, "God couldn't sink it himself!" Okay, yeah, umm, definitely over exaggerated that one. In this paper, I'm going to delve into some things that you may not know about the infamous Titanic.

First, I'd like to say something that is pretty creepy. At least I think it is. (comment below if you think so too) In 1898 (14 years before the Titanic's first voyage) Morgan Robertson wrote a book called, Futility, or as it's called now, The Wreck of the Titan. You can probably see where this is going. The Titan was a ship that, while being built, was deemed an “unsinkable ship.” Then it set sail from Europe to America through the North Atlantic ocean. (so did the Titanic) During the month of, you guessed it, April. Okay, if you're not creeped out yet then you watch way too many horror movies or something. Then, the Titan hits an iceberg during the night, (so did the Titanic) on the same side as the Titanic. It hit the iceberg at 25 knots/hour. The Titanic hit the iceberg at 22 ½ knots/hour. CREEPY. And to add on to it, they were both 400 miles away from Newfoundland. So, you creeped out yet? Well, there is more. Both of the ships carried too few lifeboats for how many people they were carrying. Then when they sank, 2500 died on the Titanic, 2200 died on the Titan. After the disaster of the Titanic, Robertson was asked if he had clairvoyance. He said the similarities were because he knew a lot about shipbuilding and maritime trends. That has got to be the eeriest coincidence ever.

Here are a few things you probably didn't know:

Originally, a lifeboat drill was scheduled to take place on board the Titanic on April 14, 1912 - the day the Titanic hit the iceberg. However, for an unknown reason, Captain Smith canceled the drill. Many believe that had the drill taken place, more lives could have been saved.

Although most passengers had to share bathrooms (only the two promenade suites in first class had private bathrooms), third class had only two bathtubs for more than 700 passengers.

When the Titanic began sending out distress signals, the Californian, rather than the Carpathia, was the closest ship; yet the Californian did not respond until it was way too late to help. At 12:45 a.m. on April 15, 1912, crew members on the Californian saw mysterious lights in the sky (the distress flares sent up from the Titanic) and woke up their captain to tell him about it. Unfortunately, the captain issued no orders. Since the ship's wireless operator had already gone to bed, the Californian was unaware of any distress signals from the Titanic until the morning, but by then the Carpathia had already picked up all the survivors. Many people believe that if the Californian had responded to the Titanic's pleas for help, many more lives could have been saved.

In what is now an iconic image, the side view of the Titanic clearly shows four cream and black funnels. While three of them released the steam from the boilers, the fourth was just for show. The designers thought the ship would look more impressive with four funnels rather than three. (I think it does, do you? Comment below.)