Tragic, fascinating, mysterious, and full of the unexpected. This is the TITANIC. The ‘floating palace’ of 1912 was over three football fields long, and was the grandest ship of its time. There were several isolated classes on the Titanic, just as other boats in that time had. The Titanic was considered to be unsinkable, securing it as the safest ship in world and time, so no one ever assumed a great tragedy could befall the Titanic. Leaving the Carpathia stunned at the sight of distress signals from the Titanic. Many interesting tales followed after the Titanic, one story of great sadness. Enter a true tragedy full of mystery and the unexpected.
Designed by Thomas Andrews, the Titanic was created to be a comfortable temporary home floating across the sea. With several dining rooms, cafes, and living rooms, Thomas Andrews completely succeeded in his goal. The Titanic was eleven stories high, and had three decks. The bottom dedicated to the third class passengers, the middle deck was for second class, and the highest deck belonged to the first class passengers. A grand staircase was the transportation to and from each deck, which had a glass dome over it. Letting light in through the day, and the sight of the stars in the thick of the night. The Titanic had two thick layers of steel at the bottom, making almost impossible for anything to create a leak in the bottom of the large ship. It had sixteen waterproof compartments, in case of the “impossible” event that water would enter into the Titanic, and begin to fill a few of the compartments. In which they would seal the overflowing compartments, and stop the leakage. The Titanic could take on four compartments full of water, and still be afloat. However, even with all this extra armour, they never anticipated damage to the side of the ship, causing the death of hundreds.
Classes are defined as the system of ordering a society in which people are divided into sets based on perceived social or economic status. This society was one taking a voyage across the sea on the Titanic. They separated the society into three groups, depending on the one who could pay more or less. The class of the very best was the first class. The first class was full of the important rich people of the world. These people had many foods at the dinner table, such as, fresh lobster, roast duckling, fancy puddings, and french ice cream, and for their entertainment there was an orchestra playing. There was no more than five children in first class, but they had the choices of swimming, playing on a brand new rowing machine, and riding a mechanical horse inside the gym. The second class had many average people, they were the ones who were not low and dirty, but were not high and rich. They had an orchestra in their dining room, and the same food choices as the first class, but they had not as much variety. There was twenty-two children in all in second class, and they had the choice to spend their days on the second class deck, or read a book from the library. The third class passengers consisted of several immigrants. They had very little choice of food, and no orchestra in their dining hall. However they had much fun square dancing, and creating their own music with fiddles. There were seventy-three children in third class and they had the opportunity to explore the third class deck, and some even journeyed into the boiler room. These isolated classes made up the society of the Titanic.
No one ever assumed the Titanic might sink, after all it was called the unsinkable ship for a reason. On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic was sailing across the calm sea, when the men in the crows nest spotted an iceberg. They rang the bell three times, signaling an iceberg was directly in front of them. The ship slowly began to turn, and was almost past the looming iceberg, when a bump jostled the ship, and a scraping sound rung in their ears. The Titanic had been struck toward the bottom in the side. All hands were suddenly required on deck, and few passengers made their way up the grand staircase, to find out what had happened. Children were playing soccer with the ice which had broken off onto the deck. The frantic stewards made their way to every single cabin to warn the passengers. Many did not believe them, and the third class did not understand what was going on because they spoke no english, so many never left the Titanic. Because of the many people who did not believe of the danger they were in, when they began to fill the lifeboats many left only half full. Finally, as the Titanic neared closer to its death, the passengers began to realize the danger they were in, and began scrambling to secure a place on a lifeboat. However there was not nearly enough lifeboats, even with four more lifeboats then the law required, they took pride in the fact that it was ‘unsinkable’ so the Titanic still did not have nearly enough for the two-thousand two-hundred fifty passengers, plus crewmen aboard. After almost four hours the Titanic split down the middle, to the bottom, where it stopped. Then the stern sunk down into the water, and the bow leveled out, the bottoms still connected. After a second or two, the bow was drug down by the stern, and they spiraled down to the bottom, until they broke into two parts and landed two-thousand feet apart. The death toll after this great ship sunk, was one-thousand five-hundred people dead. In this one event, during the maiden voyage, the myth of the Titanic being unsinkable was debunked.
The Carpathia was not the closest ship in the Atlantic ocean to the Titanic when it sunk. There was a light only ten miles away from the Titanic. Many people believe it was a ship titled, the California. Why did this near ship not come to the Titanic’s aid? Because the ship’s only operator for the wireless messages went to catch some beauty sleep before the Titanic struck the iceberg. Interestingly however, the California was the last one to send off warnings of icebergs toward the Titanic. But instead of the California coming to help, the Carpathia came, and gathered up the survivors two hours after the Titanic went down. They took the seven-hundred fifty survivors back to New York, and cured them of the illnesses and injuries they had received. So, although the Carpathia was not the closest ship to the Titanic, it was the one who came to their aid.
The sad story of a cold hearted man soon followed after the Titanic, and spanned over the time of many decades. Fredrick Fleet was a lookout on the Titanic. Early on in the journey, he left his binoculars in Ireland, the binoculars which were meant to help the lookout in the crows nest. He was on duty the night of the Titanic’s tragedy. And he carefully watched the sea all night long, until he noticed the iceberg looming directly ahead. He rang the bell, and warned of the iceberg. Then, when everyone began to pull lifeboats out, he was one of the crew members to board a lifeboat, to help the passengers. He watched the Titanic, his crew, and other people go down to the bottom of the sea. And he felt horrible, because he knew if he had brought along his binoculars, the tragedy could have been avoided. Slowly his guiltiness turned to bitterness, and he became a cold-hearted man. By the time he was eighty-five years old he was a recluse, and his wife had died. He was living with his brother-in-law the weeks after his wife died, but then he asked Fredrick to leave his home. So he did. The morning after his brother-in-law asked him to leave, Mr. Fleet was found hanging from a tree in the backyard. A horrible end for a recluse, a man who had buried himself in sorrow for decades.
The Titanic is a story full of sorrow, and tragedy, and one laced with many mysteries. The ‘unsinkable ship’ was designed by Thomas Andrews, and created to be a luxurious place. The society of the Titanic made sure to separate each class of people from one another, and succeeded very well. No one ever guessed a tragedy could happen to the Titanic, and especially not on her maiden voyage. Making the the light in the distance not at all suspicious of the danger the Titanic was in. A story of great sadness from the Titanic of a man who blamed himself for the fall of the Titanic. A story full of mysteries, the Titanic is full of the unexpected and tragedy.
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