TITANIC SINKS, a century ago today.

RMS Titanic and the nineteen keys of Edith Russell.

Passenger category	Number aboard	Number saved	Number lost	Percentage saved
Children, First Class	6	5	1	83.4%
Children, Second Class	24	24	0	100%
Children, Third Class	79	27	52	34%
Women, First Class	144	140	4	97%
Women, Second Class	93	80	13	86%
Women, Third Class	165	76	89	46%
Women, Crew	23	20	3	87%
Men, First Class	175	57	118	33%
Men, Second Class	168	14	154	8%
Men, Third Class	462	75	387	16%
Men, Crew	865	192	693	22%
Total	2224	710	1514	32%

Career
Name:	RMS Titanic
Owner:	White Star Line
Port of registry:	Liverpool, United Kingdom
Route:	Southampton to New York City
Ordered:	17 September 1908
Builder:	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	401
Laid down:	31 March 1909
Launched:	31 May 1911 (not christened)
Completed:	2 April 1912
Maiden voyage:	10 April 1912
Identification:	Radio callsign "MGY"
Fate:	Foundered on 15 April 1912 on its maiden voyage
General characteristics
Class and type:	Olympic-class ocean liner
Tonnage:	46,328 GRT
Displacement:	52,310 tons
Length:	882 ft 6 in (269.0 m)
Beam:	92 ft 0 in (28.0 m)
Height:	175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels)
Draught:	34 ft 7 in (10.5 m)
Depth:	64 ft 6 in (19.7 m)
Decks:	9 (A–G)
Installed power:	24 double-ended and 5 single-endedboilers feeding two reciprocating steam engines for the wing propellers and a low-pressure turbine for the center propeller.[1] Effect: 46,000 HP
Propulsion:	Two 3-blade wing propellers and one 4-blade centre propeller
Speed:	Cruising: 21 kn (39 km/h; 24 mph). Max: 24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Capacity:	Passengers: 2,435, crew: 892
Notes:	Lifeboats: 20 for 1,178 people

Remembering RMS TITANIC

It took 4000 proud Irish men to build her, and one fated Englishman to sink her.

The magnificent White Star Liner TITANIC sank on this day, ninety seven years ago. This blog is a testament to her enduring mystique in the collective mind of human kind ever since. For those who may be interested, kindly refer here to an astonishing interview with survivor Edith Russell, and if you listen closely, you will learn the reason for the decision to title my blog Nineteen Keys.


The Royal Mail Ship TITANIC sank on this day, 97 years ago.

Survivors, victims and statistics

Category, Number Aboard, Number of Survivors, Percentage That Survived, Number Lost, Percentage That Were Lost

First Class 329 199 60.5 % 130 39.5 %
Second Class 285 119 41.7 % 166 58.3 %
Third Class 710 174 24.5 % 536 75.5 %
Crew 899 214 23.8 % 685 76.2 %
Total 2,223 706 31.8 % 1,517 68.2 %

Nineteen Keys.

And the sea will grant each man new hope, his sleep brings dreams of home.

I'm about to embark upon a major sea journey to mark my forty-fourth birthday and official entry into middle age. Naturally, one's thoughts have turned to magnificent disasters of the past in seeking to make sense of one's own.

The Grand Daddy of them all, within a nautical context, is undoubtedly the loss of RMS Titanic, in the first hours of April 15th, 1912. Of all the stories to emerge from this iconic catastrophe, is a taped interview with Edith Russell, survivor of the disaster. I'll let her words speak for themselves, since no introduction of mine would do them justice except to note, with bemused irony, that we share the same birthday. Given planned events in my very near future, one sincerely hopes we don't share the same nautical fate.

Listen carefully to the reminiscences of this global treasure and witness to the endless folly of man, and you'll learn the reason for the title of this, my latest attempt at an enduring blog.

(Edith Russell, born Cincinnati, Ohio, on 12 June 1879. Died 4 April 1975 in London. She was 96.)