TITANIC By Matthew Browne

Belfast in the early 1900s In 1901, Belfast was the largest city in Ireland Belfast City Hall was built in 1906 In the early 1900’s Harland and Wolff were a major ship building company based in Belfast In 1908 Harland and Wolff agreed to build the Titanic. Every1 was poor 100 yrs ago so tickets were very expensive.

Why build the Titanic? In 1907 Cunard launched the 2 fastest passengers ships in the world. The White Starline were rivals with Cunard so White Starline wanted to make the 2 biggest passenger ships. Competition was one of the main reasons for building the Titanic Cunard launched the 2 fastest passengers ships ,so White Starline wanted 2 make the 2 biggest Olimpic & Titanic.

The building of Titanic Construction began in Belfast in 1909 It took 3,000 workers 2 years to complete Titanic. The Hull (the bottom of the ship) was made from 2,000 steel plates held together by 3,000,000 steel rivets. The centre anchor was over 18ft long and weighed over 15 tons. 254 people were injured ,and 8 people died during the building of titanic .

Fitting Out After the launch the Titanic was towed to Harland and Wolff fitting out basin. The exterior work including fitting the bridge ,the funnels and the propellers. Workers in the interior included joiners, plumbers , electricians , painters , tilers and carpet layers.

The launch of Titanic Before the launch the bosses of White Star line inspected the Titanic. A rocket was fired to signal the launch and the Hull of Titanic slid down the slip way.

Maiden Voyage On the 10th April 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton. It stopped at France and Ireland then had 1,320 passengers and 907 crew The first few days were uneventful except a fire in the coal bunker It didn’t take long for the passengers to settle in to the titanic even know there was a lot of passengers coming in & out.

The Sinking of Titanic At 11:40 pm 14th April 1912 the Titanic’s look out phoned the bridge and shouted “Iceberg right ahead!” The ship turned to try and miss it but it was too late. The emergency doors were closed but the damage was too much and Titanic began to sink. That night the captain was asleep and the look out from the bridge shouted “iceberg right ahead”.

Rescuing the Passengers Many of the passengers and crew got into life boats. Other ships that received Titanic distress call began heading in it’s direction. Some of the life boats searched for people in the water Some of the life boats weren’t full so there wasn’t enough boats for all the passengers.

Survivors of Titanic MEN 20% WOMEN 75% CHILDREN 51% Less men survived because in a disaster women and children are rescued first. there wasn’t enough life boats for all the passengers so the men stayed behind until all the women and children had got on the life boats 1st

Acknowledgments www.wikipedia.org www.titanicfacts.net www.historyoftitanic www.NMNI.com www.historyonthenet.com www.titanicandco.com