Table Of ContentA fAscinAtinG look At the mAkinG of TiTanic
in vivid, full-color detAil OFFIcIAL
When she set sail from Southampton on her doomed maiden voyage on April 10, cOMpANION
1912, RMS Titanic was the jewel in the crown of the White Star Line. A floating
palace weighing nearly 50,000 tons, she was the largest and most technologically TO The
advanced moving object in the world. Titanic spent barely five days at sea, but NAT GeO
alo nskgi,l lhedar dw,o arknfdo rocfete onf dthaonugsearonudss coof nmdeitnio annsd— wtoo bmueilnd hthade stohiilpe din f oar ryeemaarsrk—abamle id GILL dOcuMeNTAry
feat of design and engineering.
As author Anton Gill shows in this lavishly illustrated volume, the story of the
vessel’s construction is also the story of these dedicated men and women.
Riveters risked deafness from hammering millions of rivets to hold together
the enormous steel hull; engineers fitted gargantuan engines to power the
massive liner across the Atlantic at 23 knots; electricians installed state-of-
the-art communications systems and enormous steam-driven generators; and
carpenters, cabinetmakers, and artisans labored over every last detail of the
opulent staterooms.
Featuring numerous archival photographs and illustrations alongside a host
of illuminating sidebars, we discover that, contrary to legend, no one at the
White Star Line ever called Titanic “unsinkable.” We venture as never before
into the veritable city of surprising comforts aboard the ship, which contained a
darkroom, gym, hospital, squash court, swimming pool, Turkish bath, wireless
telegraph office, barber shops that also sold souvenirs, a printing department
that issued a daily newspaper, and even a mail room staffed by five postal
workers who went down with the ship, protecting the mail.
From the engine room to the ballroom, this companion volume to the five-part
Nat Geo documentary Rebuilding Titanic stands as a moving testament to those
ANTON GILL
who designed, built, and fitted the “ship of dreams.”
Anton Gill is a historian and the author of more than twenty books, including
Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim and Il Gigante: Michelangelo,
Florence, and The David. He lives in London.
Cover design by Tom Poland
Cover photograph © Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Back cover photograph: Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division, Washington, DC
Lyons Press is an imprint of
BuILdING The WOrLd’s MOsT FAMOus shIp
Globe Pequot Press
Guilford, Connecticut
LyonsPress.com
Lyons
Press
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TITANIC
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TITANIC
Building the World’s
Most Famous Ship
ANToN GIll
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Parsons: George Grantham Bain Collection/Library of Congress/Science
Photo Library; 118–19: Turbinia: Science Photo Library; 120: turbine being
lifted on board Britannic, 1 August 1914: NMNI/H2159; 122: Crippen led
from Montrose, 31 July 1910: © Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy; 123:
engine of Titanic in works erecting shop: NMNI/H1711; engine bedplate
lifted from the dockside, Britannic: NMNI/H1986; 125: Olympic boilers,
October 1909: SSPL via Getty Images; 127: fitting the starboard tail shaft,
Text copyright © 2010 by Anton Gill Titanic, 1912: NMNI/H1557; 128, 131: chain-makers, Hingley works, 1900–
1910: both courtesy James Hicks from his great-grandfather, Joseph Hicks/
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced www.cradleylinks.co.uk; 132: women chain-makers’ strike, 1910, photo by
or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, Edward Beech: www.cradleylinks.co.uk; 134–5: starboard main generating
including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and set, Olympic, May 1911: UR&TM/H1534; 136: Turkish bath ticket, Titanic,
retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the 1912: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 141: first-class reading room, Titanic,
publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to Globe Pequot 1912: Underwood & Underwood/Corbis; 142: stores lift, Olympic: NMNI/
Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford, H1528; 143: first-class lifts, Titanic, 1912: akg-images; 146–7: loading mail,
CT 06437. 11 April 1911: Father Browne/Getty Images; 147: White Star Line calendar,
1912: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 148: passengers boarding Titanic, 11
First published in the UK in 2010 by Channel 4 Books, an imprint of April 1912: Father Browne/Getty Images; 149: ‘The Victim’, cartoon by
Transworld Publishers Bernard Partridge from Punch, 6 March 1912; 150: colliers, South Wales, 27
February 1912: Getty Images; 152: firemen in the boiler room, Titanic:
First published in the USA in 2011 by Lyons Press, an imprint of Globe INTERFOTO/Alamy; 154: Lord Kelvin, 1902: Getty Images; 158: bridge,
Pequot Press Olympic, c.1912: Getty Images; 159: telegraph receiving apparatus: © World
History Archive/Alamy; 162: Jack Philips, 1912: Topham Picturepoint/Press
Rebuilding Titanic is produced by Twenty Twenty Television, a Shed Media Association Images; 163: Harold Bride, 1912: MEPL; 166: Harold Bride,
Company, for Channel 4 and National Geographic. Titanic, 11 April 1912: Father Browne/Getty Images; 169: Titanic survivors
in a collapsible lifeboat, 15 April 1912: Getty Images; 171: ‘Boats carried and
Designed by Bobby Birchall, Bobby&Co. boats needed to save all’: TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 172: lifeboats, Titanic,
1912: Getty Images; 175: port bow profile of Olympic: NMNI/H1515; 176–7:
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. first-class staircase on Olympic: Mary Evans Picture; Library/Onslow
Auctions Ltd; 178: parlour suite, Titanic, 1912: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd;
ISBN 978-0-7627-7829-4 180: private promenade deck, Titanic: © TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 181: Café
Parisien, Titanic, 1912: NMNI/H1733; 183: Titanic band, 1912: The Granger
Printed in the United States of America Collection/TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 185: first-class suite, B58, bedroom,
Titanic, 1912: NMNI/H1728; 186: second-class stateroom, Titanic, 1912:
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 188: Titanic poster, 1912: MEPL/Onslow
Auctions Ltd; 191: painters’ studio, Harland & Wolff, photo by R. J. Welch,
1899: NMNI/H505; 192: poster, c.1910: The Art Archive/Kharbine-Tapabor/
Picture Credits: NMNI = © National Museums Northern Ireland 2010/ Collection Galdoc-Grob; 195: reading-and-writing room, Olympic, Sphere,
Collection Harland & Wolff. Photograph reproduced courtesy the Trustees supplement, 27 April 1912: Popperfoto/Getty Images; 196: first-class suite
of National Museums Northern Ireland. NMM = © National Maritime B59, bedroom, Titanic, 1912: NMNI/H1725; 199: third-class general room,
Museum, Greenwich. MEPL = Mary Evans Picture Library. Half title: house Titanic, 1912: NMNI; 200: private bathroom, Titanic: NMNI/H1530; 201:
flag, White Star line: NMM; opp. title page: Harland & Wolff men leaving third-class, two-berth stateroom, Titanic, 1912: NMNI; 202-3: first-class
work, May 1911: NMNI/H1555; opp. contents page: great gantry, Queen’s dining-room, Titanic, 1912: Father Browne/Getty Images; 204–5: dining
Island, May 1911: NMNI/WAG3734; 11: Titanic poster, 1912: courtesy of The saloon, Titanic, 1912: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 209: White Star Line
Advertising Archives; 12–13: workers in front of Olympic: NMNI/H1555; 13: plate: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 210: Duchess of Sutherland, June, 1910:
ticket for Titanic launch, 31 May 1911; 14: Lord Pirrie and Bruce Ismay, 31 PA Archive/Press Association Images; 211: cut-glass bowl, White Star Line:
May 1911: NMNI/H23640; 15: Titanic ready for launch, 31 May 1911: NMNI/ MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; cup and saucer, White Star Line: MEPL/
H23641; 18–19: Harland & Wolff shipyard, c.1912: Getty Images; 20: J. P. Onslow Auctions Ltd; third-class teacup, White Star Line: Stanley Leary/
Morgan: Topham Picturepoint/TopFoto.co.uk; 22–3: swimming pool and AP/Press Association Images; 215: floor plan of the first-class dining saloon
Turkish bath, Titanic, 1912: both MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 24: Titanic and reception room: from The Shipbuilder, 1911; 216: dining saloon,
poster, 1912: courtesy of The Advertising Archives; 26: Edward J. Harland, Titanic: © Underwood & Underwood/Corbis; 217: first-class menu, Titanic,
from The Shipbuilder,1911: Science Museum Library; 29: Great Britain, 10 April 1912: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 220–1: first-class restaurant
Bristol, 19 July 1843: © TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 31: Thomas Andrews, 1911: reception room, Titanic, 1912: NMM; 222: third-class dining saloon,
NMNI/TR60-60A; 32: Tayleur, engraving, 1853: The Granger Collection/ Olympic, 1911: SSPL via Getty Images; 223: third-class menu, 14 April 1912:
TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 33: Thomas Henry Ismay, Vanity Fair, 1894: SSPL TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 224–5: the bridge, Titanic, 1912: The Granger
via Getty Images; 34: Emigrants arriving at New York, April 1890: NMM; 37: Collection/TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 226–7: plan of the boat deck, Titanic,
diagram from The Shipbuilder, 1911; 38: Joseph Bruce Ismay, 1912: Getty from The Shipbuilder: SSPL via Getty Images; 228: gymnasium, Titanic,
Images; 40: cartoon from Puck by Frank Arthur Nankivell, c.1910: © The 1912: Father Browne/Getty Images; and The Granger Collection/TopFoto/
Art Archive/Alamy; 42: William James Pirrie, from The Shipbuilder, 1911: TopFoto.co.uk; 229: John Jacob Astor, 1909: George Grantham Bain
SSPL via Getty Images; 45: poster by Charles Dixon, 1907: courtesy of The Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; 230: A deck, Titanic, 11
Advertising Archives; 47: illustration from a White Star Line brochure, April 1912: Father Browne/Getty Images; 231: Father Browne’s stateroom,
1911: MEPL/Onslow Auctions Ltd; 48–9: launch of Olympic, 20 October Titanic, 11 April 192: Father Browne/Getty Images; 232: plan of suite of
1910: Getty Images; 50–1: bird’s-eye view of Queen’s Island, Belfast, 1921: rooms on B deck, Titanic: from The Shipbuilder, 1911; 233: Mr and Mrs
NMNI/1262; 52: construction of slips, Queen’s Island, 1907: NMNI/H1227; Isador Strauss: © Bettmann/Corbis; 234: plans of decks C and D of Titanic,
53: Olympic, postcard, c.1910: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; 54–5: from The Shipbuilder: SSPL via Getty Images; 236: plans of the lower decks
arrival of Olympic, New York, c.1910: Getty Images; 55: inspection of the of Titanic: from The Shipbuilder, 1911: SSPL via Getty Images: 238–9: Capt.
lifeboats on Olympic, 1912: © Illustrated London News Ltd/MEPL; 57: Capt. Smith and the officers of Titanic: NMNI/40253; 240: Titanic pulled by tugs,
Sir Arthur Henry Rostron: © TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 58: Mauretania: 1912, Belfast: NMNI/H1723; 242: Charles Lightoller: © UPPA/Photoshot;
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; 59: Vaterland anchor, c.1900: stewardesses picked up by Carpathia, 4 May 1912: Tophams Picturepoint/
ullstein bild/TopFoto/TopFoto.co.uk; 62–3: Thompson Graving Dock, May Press Association Images; 245: Titanic leaving Southampton, 10 April 1912:
1911: NMNI/H1656; 64–5: Queen’s Bridge, Belfast, early twentieth century: NMNI/Courtney#6; 250:John Jacob Astor,Waterloo Station, 10 April 1912:
NMNI/WAG3728; 67: Orange Parade, Belfast, c.1912: NMNI/L843/1; 68: Father Browne/Getty Images; 251: Father Browne, c.1900: Getty Images;
Castle Place, Belfast, c.1905: Getty Images; 71: Harland & Wolff ‘Rules’, 253: second-class passengers boarding Titanic, 10 April 1912: Father
1888: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; 72: linen mill worker, early Browne/Getty Images; 255: Irish emigrants, Queenstown, 11 April 1912:
twentieth century: NMNI/H10-31-16; 74: poster, 1903: courtesy The Father Browne/Getty Images; 256: Benjamin Guggenheim: © Bettmann/
Advertising Archives; 78: cross section of gantries, from The Shipbuilder, Corbis: 258-9: Titanic leaving Queenstown, 11 April 1912: Father Browne/
1911; 79: construction of Arrol gantry, 1908: NMNI/H2547; 80–1: drawing Getty Images; 260–1: Brendan and Yewande in front of the anchor: Bill
office, 1912: NMNI/H501; 84–5: transportation of Titanic’s anchor, 1 May Stephenson; 262: Engineerium, Hove: © Andrew Lavender; 263: boiler,
1911: NMM; 86: cross section of Titanic: Roger-Viollet/TopFoto/TopFoto. Engineerium, Hove: © imagespace/Alamy; 264: the team in Thompson
co.uk; 88: hand-riveters, Britannic, 1913: NMNI/H1915; 90: hydraulic Graving Dock, Belfast, 2010: Roger Laxon; 265: the team in front of the hull,
riveters, Britannic, 1913: NMNI/H1919; 93: Olympic, May 1909: NMNI/ 2010: James Baker; 267: Dave, Yewande and Luke in front of the anchor:
H2389; 94: frames, Olympic, 1909: NMNI/H2396; 98: rudder and propellers Callum Bulmer; 270: transporting the anchor: Bill Stephenson; 272: firing
of Olympic, April 1911: NMNI/H151; 99: watertight bulkhead door, Olympic, the rivets; Luke and Brendan working on the hull: both James Baker; 273:
1910: NMNI/H1471; 100: Mould Loft, c.1910: NMNI/H57; 102–3: web frame Luke and Yewande working on the oven doors: Roger Laxon; Luke
with outer plating, Britannic: NMNI/H1907; 107: Olympic funnel leaving hammering rivets: James Baker; 274: reconstruction of a third-class cabin:
workshops, 23 March 1911: NMNI/H2412; 109: page from injury log, 10 Liz Collier; 275: gymnasium, Titanic, 1912: akg-images; reconstruction of
April 1912: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; 110, 113: ‘Fatality on the smoking-room: Liz Collier; 276: side view of the stem reconstruction:
Titanic’, photo of Robert L. Murphy, and of his funeral: Irish Daily Telegraph, James Baker; 277: CGI images of the hull frame: Fluid Pictures Ltd; 279: the
17 June 1911: British Library, Newspaper Library, Colindale; 114–15: team in front of the stem reconstruction: James Baker; 281: cover of White
turbine rotor being bladed, Britannic, 1914: NMNI/H1975; 116: Parsons Star booklet, May 1911 (facsimile): NMNI. Endpapers hardback edition:
Steam Turbo-Generator 60KW, 1901: Science Museum; 117: Charles Harland & Wolff workers in front of Olympic: NMNI/H1555
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CoNTENTS
Introduction 7
Prologue: launch 10
PArT 1: lAyING-doWN To lAuNCh
1. The Main Players 18
2. Sisters and rivals 48
3. Ports and Preparations 62
4. Number 401 80
5. Propelling Power 114
6. The Age of Electricity 134
PArT 2: lAuNCh To MAIdEN VoyAGE
7. Sailing in the Modern Age 144
8. decor and design 176
9. Food and drink 202
10. layout 224
11. Crew and Passengers 238
12. rebuilding 260
Acknowledgments 280
Appendix: Money 281
references 282
Glossary 284
Index 287
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When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly
forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been
winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience,
I have never been in any accident of any sort worth speaking about. I
have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a
wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament
that threatened to end in disaster of any sort.
Edward J. Smith, RD, RNR, captain of the Titanic, his last command before retirement
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INTroduCTIoN
There had never before been ships quite like the Olympic-class
liners built for the White Star Line by Harland & Wolff, and the story of
the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic, the second and best known of the
three liners of her class built, and her fateful encounter with an iceberg
on the night of April 14–15, 1912, is well known. The greatest piece of
man-made technology on Earth spent a bare five days at sea before she
sank, taking with her the lives of two-thirds of the passengers aboard.
Following that dreadful collision, Titanic passed from history into
legend, a symbol of what can befall humankind’s hubris, a poke in the
eye for Victorian and Edwardian smugness, and the sense people had
then of the omnipotence of man.
The accident has bred dozens of books and several films, and
controversy still rages about precisely what could or should have been
done to prevent it. But there is another story: the story of how the ship
was constructed, and the story of the men and women who built her
and sailed her. This is that story.
When Titanic set off from Southampton on her maiden voyage,
on Wednesday (the traditional departure day for White Star liners)
April 10, 1912, she surpassed even her slightly older sister, Olympic,
as the largest (by a few feet), and certainly the most technologically
advanced moving object in the world. Developments in the building
7
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of liners, especially those destined for the extraordinarily important
transatlantic route, progressed in leaps and bounds between the 1880s
and the 1940s. Titanic and her sisters would be outstripped in a couple
of decades, just as they had outstripped their immediate predecessors.
If you moored Titanic next to the queens of the Atlantic of the 1930s
to the 1960s—the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, both run by
Cunard White Star—she’d seem small by comparison, as both the
latter ships were almost twice her tonnage. And if you set her by those
ships’ successors, the QE2 (1969–2008) and the QM2 (from 2004), she’d
be dwarfed. Titanic’s gross tonnage was 46,328, and in 1912 her cost
on completion was £1.5 million. That would be about $647 million in
today’s money. The QE2 cost just over £29 million (about $655 million
today), and her gross tonnage was 70,327. The recent QM2 is a monster:
costing £460 million, she weighs in at 148,528 tons. She is 1,132 feet
long and her beam at the waterline is 135 feet, as opposed to Titanic’s
dimensions of 882 feet 9 inches and 92 feet respectively.
By the mid-1960s the airplane was beginning to take over from the
great liner as the preferred mode of transport, not just for the privileged,
but also for the masses, and now it is the privileged who travel on liners
for the most part for pleasure. The last passenger ship built by Harland &
Wolff was the Canberra in 1960.
The ferrying of passengers, from humble emigrants to wealthy
tourists, was a fiercely competitive and lucrative business. And the
liners constructed to handle the trade were the work of many thousands
of people, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, whose toil was long, hard
and frequently dangerous. For all the technological advancement and
sophistication of the Victorian and Edwardian ages, shipbuilding and
heavy engineering in general depended upon a massive workforce
prepared to put up with conditions that people in the developed world
would now flinch at. Yet all this was going on just a century ago. In
1909, the year in which Titanic’s keel was laid down, three-quarters
8 TITANIC
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of the workforce in Great Britain was made up of manual laborers.
Harland & Wolff of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, was the greatest
shipbuilding concern in the world, and White Star, Titanic’s owners,
by then a subsidiary of the massive American company International
Mercantile Marine (owned by financier John Pierpont Morgan), was
the jewel in that organization’s crown. It all came down to business, of
course, but the ships had a real, practical purpose, their lines were still
graceful, and they had a romantic quality as well.
The story of Titanic’s construction is also the story of the
individuals who took part in it—4,500 of them at least, almost one-
third of Harland & Wolff’s workforce—over exactly three years, not
to mention the other workers across Britain who provided everything
from bed linen and crockery to dynamos and anchors for this
incredibly complex undertaking.
It is to their memory, and to that of those who sailed Titanic, that
this book is respectfully dedicated.
Men worked with their brothers, their fathers, uncles, neighbors
and friends. While blokes were at the yard, the women would
be running the homes; washing, cooking, cleaning, trying to
earn money where they could. As for the kids, well, there were
schools of sorts, but most hardly went—by the time you were
twelve you had to earn your keep and going to school didn’t
pay a wage. The simple truth back then was that if you had no
work you couldn’t survive. There was no social security and no
National Health Service, and the Poor House beckoned those
who couldn’t make their way.
Anonymous present-day Belfast inhabitant
INTroduCTIoN 9
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