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

100 years ago today.

This is a picture of Captain Edward John Smith, master of RMS Titanic, an officer of White Star line since March 1880.

Today is the centenary of one of the most horrific events in seafaring history. On Sunday, April 14th, 1912, twenty minutes before midnight local time, RMS Titanic, ship of dreams, struck a massive iceberg and sustained a fatal injury to her starboard hull.

Four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm ship's time (GMT -3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, she gradually filled with water and sank hard by the bow.

This iceberg was photographed by the chief steward of the liner Prinze Adelbert on the morning of April 15, 1912, just a few miles south of where the Titanic went down. The steward hadn't yet heard about the Titanic. What caught his attention was the smear of red paint along the base of the berg, indication that it had collided with a ship sometime in the previous twelve hours.

This pictures shows RMS Titanic leaving her home port of Southampton on her first and only voyage. She would never be seen in British waters, or by British eyes, ever again.

This excellent CGI animation comes to us from the National Geographic Channel. James Cameron's forensic re-examination of precisely what happened to so beautiful and important a ship as RMS Titanic is astonishing to view, dear reader, and may I recommend clicking the little square in the bottom right hand corner of the item below, which will enable you to view this important video in full screen mode.

Today is the centenary of the event that caused her to sink. The centenary of her sinking is tomorrow. Please check again tomorrow, April 15th, for my memorial to the loss of the mighty Royal Mail Steamer Titanic.

The Bone Wreck. Sinking of the SS Armenian

The SS Armenian was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1895 and served with the Leyland Line until 1903. She spend a year chartered by the White Star Line and finished her life as a freighter. She was sunk by German Submarine of the Cornish coast in June of 1914


Search for the Bone Wreck

In June 1915, the SS Armenian, a large steamship managed by the White Star Line, the owners of the Titanic, heads into the Bristol Channel from the United States. She is carrying over 1400 mules destined for the Western Front. As the unarmed vessel nears the British coast, a German submarine spots the former liner and fires warning shots. To avoid capture, the Armenian makes a run for it. As the U-boat continually pounds her with shells, the captain orders the crew to abandon ship.

Once the remaining crew is safely off in lifeboats, the German U-boat fires a torpedo into the stern of the steamship. It only takes minutes for the Armenian to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic, with her unfortunate cargo of 1400 mules still on board. 29 American crewmembers also die, causing controversy as the United States have not yet officially entered the war.



More than 90 years later, the infamous White Star Line vessel has still not been found. Many have searched the waters off the coast of Cornwall, but the Armenian has proved to be elusive. Now, a new expedition of international divers is hunting for the ship known as the Bone Wreck. Using state-of-the-art dive and survey equipment, the team aims to be the first to find this long-lost vessel.

Underwater surveys have revealed several possibilities, and the divers’ first objective is to go down to two large wrecks near the point the captain of the Armenian noted as the location where he believed the ship went down. But even though one of those wrecks is full of bones, neither proves to be the Armenian. The expedition is forced to follow other lines of enquiry in order to locate the missing ship.

Unexpectedly, German archives reveal the actual log from the German U-boat that sank the mule transport. The German commander’s coordinates are at least 20 miles from where the ship was reported to have sunk and where the team has been searching. The final resting place of the Armenian has been found, with her sad cargo of thousands of mule bones aboard.

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 %