I'm sure most of you are familiar with the story of the Titanic, but how much do any of us really know about this magnificent ship and her passengers and crew?

Seriously i gotta ask why put a symbol of a trophy on a thread that's about hundreds of people dying are you that warped

I really have to agree here, and I must add that , for instance, the book website Goodreads 102 books on the Titanic, which may be a conservative number of the ones actually published, quite aside from the Newspaper accounts from the time, the films and the diaries and personal accounts published. I really think as a subject it has gone into overkill pardon the pun.

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Many people from Southampton perished and there is a memorial there.

Thanks for removing the icon, Bloomsby, now let's get back to the subject we're meant to be discussing.

Yes, I would be interested to know why we need more information after all those sources I mentioned?

This is from the Southampton Daily Echo

Titanic Belfast museum, situated in the city where she was built, has compiled a list of 30 things you never knew about the luxury liner.

1. Titanic’s design was conceived over fine food and a glass of wine. Asked about the potential length of the ship, J. Bruce Ismay, head of the White Star Line, replied: "Build me a stable ship that will not disturb the sediment in these fine wines.”

2. Titanic (271m) was long enough to span three tempestuous Atlantic Ocean wave crests.

3. Due to the size of the Olympic-class ships, of which Titanic was one of three, the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast needed two years to prepare for their construction.

4. At the time, Belfast was the fastest growing city in the British Empire, with the largest shipbuilding firm on the planet.

5. The ship had three wheels for steering.

6. Titanic’s funnels were wide enough to drive a train through.

7. The first class cabins on Titanic were the same standard as hotels, while second class was as good as first class on other ships.

8. The famous staircase, which was among the most luxurious appointments on the ship, was inspired by the staircase at Belfast City Hall, which can still be visited today.

9. Titanic's stock of food and drink included 40,000 eggs and 15,000 bottles of ale.

10. Titanic was launched in 62 seconds on May 31 1911.

11. She now lies 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, nearly two-and-a-half miles (4000m) below sea level overlooking a small canyon below.

12. At Titanic Belfast, visitors can view Dr Ballard’s high definition footage of what Titanic looks like today and can learn more about individual items in the wreckage using interactive pods.

13.Titanic Belfast is built where the Titanic was designed and launched.

14. Visitors can take the award-winning Discovery Tour, which includes the Harland & Wolff drawing offices and slipways.

15. Titanic Belfast is the world’s largest Titanic visitor experience.

16. It has welcomed approximately 2.5 million visitors from more than 145 countries.

17. Guests have included David Cameron, the Queen, former US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Titanic movie director James Cameron.

18. The museum can hold over 3,547 visitors at any one time, the same number as the capacity of Titanic.

19. Titanic Belfast’s overall shape represents the bow of the ship.

20. The hulls are the same height of Titanic from keel to Boat Deck!

21. About 40,000 tons of concrete were used in Titanic Belfast’s foundations, nearly the same as for Titanic.

22. The museum has recently opened three new galleries that capture the excitement of launch day as well as the ship’s maiden voyage. Visitors can also experience what it was like to work in the Palm Court Café.

23. At Titanic Belfast, guests are now transported on to Titanic’s deck promenade as part of the experience. Guests can walk on deck, look out to sea, hear the ocean, hold onto the railings and feel the ship's engines rumbling as if they were on the liner itself.

24. The last letter ever to be written on board the Titanic by Essex-born Esther Hart and her seven-year-old daughter Eva just eight hours before the ship hit an iceberg and sank in April 1912 is on display. It recently sold at auction for a world record sum of £119,000.

25. A note from the Titanic assistant ship's surgeon Dr John Simpson is also on display.

26. Titanic Belfast is home to the historic plan, commissioned by the Board of Trade for the British inquiry, was designed and prepared by White Star Line architects. It is the second most expensive Titanic artefact in the world.

27. The plaza surrounding Titanic Belfast includes a huge map showing Titanic’s route from Belfast.

28. The wooden benches surrounding the building are spaced out in a way that replicates the Morse code distress signal sent by Titanic.

29. The slipway area includes a life-sized plan of Titanic’s promenade deck showing where the lifeboats, benches and funnels would have been.

30. A nearby memorial garden includes lawns alternating with wooden decking to show how many people from each passenger class lost their lives.

For some of those who lost their lives aboard the Titanic, Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) is where their story came to an end.

Within days of the sinking, the White Star Line dispatched the first of four Canadian vessels to search for bodies. The first two vessels to carry out this grim task were the Halifax-based Cable Ships Mackay-Bennett and Minia, which recovered 306 and 17 victims respectively. In all, 150 unclaimed victims were laid to rest in Halifax.

Today, the city of Halifax and the Province of Nova Scotia retain many reminders: from the gravestones of victims, to memorial monuments; preserved fragments of the vessel, to original photographs and documents. Nova Scotians have remained respectful keepers of the memory of the ship and of the lives lost.

Here's something you may not know. In the 1890s, British Board of Trade regulations stated that all British ships weighing more than 10,000 tons had to carry 16 lifeboats able to provide space for 962 people. Eighteen years later, the regulations hadn't been updated, despite the fact that Titanic weighed more than 46,000 tons. Alexander Carlisle, who designed Titanic's original plans, was well aware of such safety issues, and his design planned for Titanic to carry 64 lifeboats which would have been enough to provide a seat for everyone on board. However, key figures at either the White Star Line or the IMMC (International Mercantile Marine Company) insisted on larger promenade decks, which were gained at the expense of the lifeboats. Naturally, Mr Carlisle argued but unfortunately his arguments were overridden and he was forced to decrease the number of lifeboats to 20. The tragic result was the loss of more than 1500 lives.

Why did you start this thread? I know the Titantic was a topic of many discussions when the hundred year anniversary rolled around but that was a few years ago.

There was some interesting stuff there Sue.

Much has been written about the lack of lifeboats on the Titanic and undoubtedly the casualty list would have been lower if there were sufficient lifeboats. However, if there had been sufficient boats, I wonder how many of them would have been launched? I understand that they were trying to launch a collapsible lifeboat as the bow went under, so was there time to have launched many more boats?

I started this thread for the same reason I started my "Let's talk about dinosaurs" thread. Titanic is a famous ship but I wanted to see just how much everyone actually know about her and the people who travelled on her. For example, how much do you know about Third Class passenger Stella Sage? Where did she originally come from and where in America was she travelling to (and why)? What was her occupation? Who was she travelling with? Did she live or die? Let's see who can answer these questions without using a book or another website.

Unless people are fans (not the right word)/aficionados (not the right word)/obsessively interested in the Titanic they're not going to know anything about individual passengers unless they were/have become famous for another reason. Knowing about Stella Page from third class is not trivia, it's detail - and it's the level of detail that only someone who has researched the Titanic would know. And even then, most researchers wouldn't know off the top of their heads, they'd check their facts in a book or another website. There's a whole encyclopaedia on RMS Titanic, anyone who wants to know about the passengers should start there.

Those passengers were people by the way, people with families; they left people on this side of the Atlantic or the other. It was a long time ago but there are still people around whose uncles, aunts, grandparents - fairly close relatives - died in that tragedy. I don't think it's appropriate for every detail to be raked over for other people's amusement. Some people, like the Astors or Captain Smith, can't escape it; other people should be allowed to do what your title for this thread suggests: Rest in Peace.

I coudln't have put it better myself Caroline.

No other town or city was more affected than my home town, more than 500 households lost a family member when she sank. Having said that I am not really interested in learning such detail.

OK, so I understand most people won't know anything (or be interested in knowing anything) about individual passengers unless they were famous people, but for those who ARE interested, here's some info on Stella Sage: She was 20 years old and worked as a Dressmaker. Her original residence was Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, and she was travelling to Jacksonville, Florida, USA, with her mum (Annie), dad (John), 5 brothers (George, Douglas, Frederick, Anthony and Thomas) and 3 sisters (Dorothy, Elizabeth and Constance) because her dad had purchased a block of land which he intended to turn into a farm where the family would grow and sell nuts. George was also engaged to his American girlfriend. They boarded Titanic in Southampton but, sadly, the entire family died in the sinking. Only the body of Anthony was recovered and positively identified. There are reports that Stella was seen entering a lifeboat but left it when other members of the family were unable to join her.


I remember a couple of years ago having a dream where I was on board Titanic and met Stella. Since then, I believe she was trying to tell me that one of the recovered yet unidentified bodies is that of her sister, Dorothy.