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The White Star Line had been purchased in 1867 by Thomas Henry Ismay for £ 1,000. He intended to redirect his new, bankrupt company's attention from Australian trade to the North Atlantic passenger trade. He got support from Gustav Schwabe, a Liverpool financier and uncle of Gustav Wolff, junior partner of the wharf Harland and Wolff. He promised to give him financial help, if White Star Line gets it new ships from his nephew's wharf.
In the year 1869 the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company Ltd. was registered with £ 400,000. The first ship, called "Oceanic" was so successful that five sisterships were built, obviously at the wharf of Harland and Wolff. In 1891 J. Bruce Ismay and his younger brother James succeeded their father. Their decision was probably the most striking point in the history of White Star Line. They decided to build all future vessels with comfort and luxury rather than speed. In 1902 White Star Line was bought for £ 10,000,000 by the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), created by J. Piermont Morgan, one of the richest mans of his period. Bruce Ismay remained not only president of White Star Line, he also became President and managing director of IMM in 1904 - so he had unlimited power. William J. Pirrie, managing director and chairman of Harland and Wolff soon joined White Star Line.
In 1907, five years before Titanic would set sail for her maiden voyage, Bruce Ismay met Lord J. Pirrie for dinner in the house of Pirrie in London . In that August night the main theme was the new ship of Cunard Line the "Lusitania" and the sistership "Mauretania" which were going to be the fastest and the largest ships in the world. It was obvious that White Star Line had to act. So the two men discussed plans for three new liners that would be like nothing the world had ever seen before. As comfort and luxury were the philosophy of White Star Line the flagships would have both reciprocating steam engines, the standard of this time and a turbine engine to power the center propeller of the three propellers. It was for comfort reasons to choose this engine configuration, although the turbine engines were faster, the reciprocating engines were more comfortable. Moreover, a double plated hull and a complicated and refined system of watertight compartments provided the highest standard of security. The three Royal Mail Steamships were to be called Olympic , Titanic and Gigantic. The suffix "ic" in the names of the ships stems to the tradition , of the White Star Line. They were to be virtually identical in size and structure, but Titanic was to be the star.
Harland and Wolff built an own hall for the construction team of these superliners, to get the best conditions for the drawings of the blueprints for these giant liners. The docks also had to be redone. The three old docks were converted into two new docks to hold the new giant ships that were nearly a sixth of a mile long. The building of the third ship "Gigantic", meanwhile renamed to "Britannic", was to be built later, due to the shortness of space. On December 16th 1908, the keel plate for the first giant liner, the "Olympic" was laid in Belfast, Ireland. While the work on the "Olympic" proceeded, keel plate for "Titanic" was laid three months later, on March 31 1909,. The construction of "Titanic" started. Meanwhile IMM was having some trouble to get the permission for lengthening the White Star piers. This permission was needed for the new giant liners, which were much longer than the longest ships of their period. The New York Harbour Control resisted in giving that permission. It took a lot of difficult conversations and a lot of money for Lord Pirrie to persuade the Harbour Control of the benefit of these new giant ships.
For over a year more than 15.000 Irishmen worked very hard on these two ships, as they laid side by side in their docks. Nearly two years after her construction started, "Olympic" was launched. It was the largest moving object in the whole world, created by the hands of human beings. Titanic should follow her later, profiting from modifications and improvements based on the experience won by the construction of Olympic. Olympic was launched on October 10th 1910.
Seven months later, on May 31st 1911, Lord J. Pirrie and his wife, Bruce Ismay and his daughter and J. P. Morgan stood together on the tribune in front of the hull of Titanic. There were three more tribunes, two for paying customers and one for more than one hundred reporters. Most of the press had arrived with the steamer "Duke of Agryll", chartered by White Star Line just for this occasion, from England to Belfast. The whole morning, extra trains of the Belfast Railway were carrying the thousands of visitors to the Harland and Wolff wharf . Even the close, huge Albert Quay was crowded with people. Plenty of visitors, who had come to Belfast to see this spectacle framed the River Lagan, which had been digged out. Otherwise the new huge ships would have hit ground, due to their draft of 33 feet. As usual at Harland and Wolff and at White Star Line, the ship christening was skipped. At 12:05 two rockets were launched, followed by another one five minutes later. At 12:13 Titanic was released and slipped due to her own weight and the help of 23 tons of soap and suet. It slipped with a maximum speed of twelve knots, being stopped by six anchors and two brake chains, weighing 80 tons, each. At the same day, Harland and Wolff handed over the completed and fitted out Olympic. Ismay and the others travelled home to Liverpool onboard the new Olympic, starting a new chapter in the race across the Atlantic. Titanic came into Harland and Wolff's fitting out basin.
There she got the four funnels. The fourth funnel was set on only for aesthetic reasons, technically three would have been enough. The mounting of the engines and the transforming of an empty iron hull into a floating palace took ten months and several million hours of work. On April 2nd 1912 Titanic left the harbour of Belfast for tests.
A closer look at the Titanic shows what has been so revolutionary.
The accommodations were superior to any vessel of that time. Even the third class was fitted out like the second class on many other luxury liners. The Titanic featured quite comfortable cabins for families, separated cabins for men and women, who were travelling alone, clean facilities and individual chairs instead of benches in dining saloons, that were like a restaurant. This was very unusual for a third class on a vessel and raised up the standards of the future. As expected, Titanic's second class was superior to any first class on other liners. The public rooms and the cabins featured no less than five different types of luxurious wood. Passengers of first and second class were separated from the third class passengers. However, most spectacular about travelling on the Titanic was the revolutionary first class.
The furniture was more than equal to the accommodations of the finest first-class hotels on the shore. All the features of the finest hotels were available onboard Titanic : E.g. a gymnasium, tennis courts, a dark room for photographers, a dozen different styled VIP-Rooms, kennels for the dogs, Turkish baths, a swimming pool (the first onboard a ship), private enclosed promenades and even elevators (the first time this technique has been used onboard a liner).
So the title "floating palace" was given to the Titanic legitimately. First class passengers had more than ten different Cafés to choose. Each Café featured a different style. E.g. The Café Parisien, which had been inspired by an sidewalk in Paris. The waiters were real Frenchmen, everything has been copied in detail. One of the most famous furniture pieces of Titanic was the first class forward grand staircase , which has been often interpreted in Hotels like the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, USA.
The Technique also brought some striking news:
This vessel had triple screws, the center screw has been operated by an turbine engine, the two other propellers were driven by reciprocating steam engines. The reciprocating steam engines were favoured instead of the modern turbine engines for their comfort. Although the turbine engine was faster, the reciprocating engine was more comfortable, but slower. The engines had a power of 46,000 HP, enough power to speed up the colossus Titanic with a displacement of 46,000 tons to a speed of 21 knots. Titanic had a complex system of sixteen watertight compartments conducted by watertight doors. With these doors shut, she could stay afloat with two of her sixteen compartments flooded, or even with four of the five bow compartments flooded. Also pumps were installed to save time in case of sinking. A double-iron hull offered additional protection. These features were absolutely unique for this time and made people consider Titanic to be the "unsinkable ship". Maybe that's why this vessel has been fitted out with only twenty lifeboats, which had a capacity of 60 persons each. So there were only lifeboats for 1200 people which was required by the law. But Titanic has been designed to carry more than three times this number of persons. The space required for additional lifeboats was used to provide more deck-chairs. Aboard Titanic a whole new radio generation was used, called the "Marconi wireless". The radio on board Titanic was the most powerful communication device used on a passenger vessel in these days. It allowed the operator to set up distress calls in case of an unexpected emergency. It was not only an safety feature, it was also used to transmit personal messages of the guests.
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