Construction, launch and fitting-out

Titanic prior to her launch.

The sheer size of Titanic and her sister ships posed a major engineering challenge for Harland and Wolff; no shipbuilder had ever before attempted to construct vessels of this size. The ships were constructed on Queen"s Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter , in Belfast Harbour . Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new slipways , the biggest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate the giant ships. ^{[ 7 ]}

Their construction was facilitated by an enormous gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co. , a Scottish firm responsible for the building of the Forth Bridge and London"s Tower Bridge . The Arrol Gantry stood 228 feet (69 m) high, was 270 feet (82 m) wide and 840 feet (260 m) long, and weighed more than 6,000 tons. It accommodated a number of mobile cranes. A separate floating crane, capable of lifting 200 tons, was brought in from Germany. ^{[ 63 ]}

The construction of Titanic and Olympic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic " s hull laid down first on 16 December 1908 and Titanic " s on 31 March 1909. ^{[ 12 ]} Both ships took about 26 months to build and followed much the same construction process. They were designed essentially as an enormous floating box girder , with the keel acting as a backbone and the frames of the hull forming the ribs. At the base of the ships, a double bottom 5 feet 3 inches (1.60 m) deep supported 300 frames, each between 24 inches (61 cm) and 36 inches (91 cm) apart and measuring up to about 66 feet (20 m) long. They terminated at the bridge deck (B Deck) and were covered with steel plates which formed the outer skin of the ships. ^{[ 64 ]}

The 2,000 hull plates were single pieces of rolled steel, mostly up to 6 feet (1.8 m) wide and 30 feet (9.1 m) long and weighing between 2.5 and 3 tons. ^{[ 65 ]} Their thickness varied from 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) to 1 inch (2.5 cm). ^{[ 66 ]} The plates were laid in a clinkered (overlapping) fashion from the keel to the bilge. Above that point they were laid in the "in and out" fashion, where strake plating was applied in bands (the "in strakes") with the gaps covered by the "out strakes", overlapping on the edges. Steel welding was still in its infancy so the structure had to be held together with over three million iron and steel rivets which by themselves weighed over 1,200 tons. They were fitted using hydraulic machines or were hammered in by hand. ^{[ 67 ]}

General view of Titanic in the fitting-out berth following her launch; the final stages of construction and outfitting were carried out here. Here the final coat of paint has begun to be applied starting at the stern

The interiors of the Olympic -class ships were subdivided into sixteen primary compartments divided by fifteen bulkheads which extended well above the waterline. Eleven vertically closing watertight doors could seal off the compartments in the event of an emergency. ^{[ 66 ]} The ships" exposed decking was made of pine and teak, while interior ceilings were covered in painted granulated cork to combat condensation. ^{[ 68 ]} The superstructure consisted of two decks, the Promenade Deck and Boat Deck, which were about 500 feet (150 m) long. They accommodated the officers" quarters, gymnasium, public rooms and first-class cabins, plus the bridge and wheelhouse. The ships" lifeboats were carried on the Boat Deck, the uppermost deck. ^{[ 14 ]} Standing above the decks were four funnels, though only three were functional – the last one was a dummy, installed for aesthetic purposes – and two masts, each 155 feet (47 m) high, which supported derricks for loading cargo. A wireless aerial was slung between the masts. ^{[ 69 ]}

The work of constructing the ships was difficult and dangerous. For the 15,000 men who worked at Harland and Wolff at the time, ^{[ 70 ]} safety precautions were rudimentary at best; a lot of the work was dangerous and was carried out without any safety equipment like hard hats or hand guards on machinery. As a result, deaths and injuries were to be expected. During Titanic " s construction, 246 injuries were recorded, 28 of them "severe", such as arms severed by machines or legs crushed under falling pieces of steel. Six people died on the ship herself while she was being constructed and fitted out and another two died in the shipyard workshops and sheds. ^{[ 71 ]} Just before the launch a worker was killed when a piece of wood fell on him. ^{[ 72 ]}

Titanic was launched at 12:15 pm on 31 May 1911 in the presence of Lord Pirrie, J. Pierpoint Morgan and J. Bruce Ismay and 100,000 onlookers. ^{[ 73 ]} 22 tons of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship"s passage into the River Lagan . ^{[ 72 ]} In keeping with the White Star Line"s traditional policy, the ship was not formally named or christened with champagne. ^{[ 73 ]} The ship was towed to a fitting-out berth where, over the course of the next year, her engines, funnels and superstructure were installed and her interior was fitted out. ^{[ 74 ]}

Although Titanic was virtually identical to her earlier sister ship Olympic , a few changes were made to differentiate the two ships. The most noticeable of these was that Titanic (and her later sister Britannic ) had a steel screen with sliding windows installed along the forward half of the A Deck promenade. This was installed as a last minute change at the personal request of Bruce Ismay, and was intended to provide additional shelter to first class passengers. ^{[ 75 ]} These changes made Titanic marginally heavier than her sister, and thus she could claim to be the largest ship afloat. The work took longer than expected due to design changes ordered by Ismay and a temporary pause in work occasioned by the need to repair Olympic , which had been in a collision in September 1911. Had Titanic been finished earlier, she might well have missed her rendezvous with an iceberg. ^{[ 72 ]}

Sea trials

Titanic leaving Belfast for her sea trials on 2 April 1912

Titanic"s sea trials began at 6 am on Monday, 2 April 1912, just two days after her fitting out was finished and eight days before she was due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage. ^{[ 76 ]} The trials were delayed for a day due to bad weather, but by Monday morning it was clear and fair. ^{[ 77 ]} Aboard were 78 stokers, greasers and firemen, and 41 members of crew. No domestic staff appear to have been aboard. Representatives of various companies travelled on Titanic " s sea trials, Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding of Harland and Wolff and Harold A. Sanderson of IMM. Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie were too ill to attend. Jack Phillips and Harold Bride served as radio operators, and performed fine-tuning of the Marconi equipment. Francis Carruthers, a surveyor from the Board of Trade, was also present to see that everything worked, and that the ship was fit to carry passengers. ^{[ 78 ]}

The sea trials consisted of a number of tests of her handling characteristics, carried out first in Belfast Lough and then in the open waters of the Irish Sea . Over the course of about twelve hours, Titanic was driven at different speeds, her turning ability was tested and a "crash stop" was performed in which the engines were reversed full ahead to full astern, bringing her to a stop in 850 yd (777 m) or 3 minutes and 15 seconds. ^{[ 79 ]} The ship covered a distance of about 80 nautical miles (92 mi; 150 km), averaging 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h) and reaching a maximum speed of just under 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h). ^{[ 80 ]} On returning to Belfast at about 7 pm, the surveyor signed an "Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew", valid for twelve months, which declared the ship seaworthy. An hour later, Titanic left Belfast again – as it turned out, for the last time – to head to Southampton, a voyage of about 570 nautical miles (660 mi; 1,060 km). After a journey lasting about 28 hours she arrived about midnight on 4 April and was towed to the port"s Berth 44, ready for the arrival of her passengers and the remainder of her crew. ^{[ 81}