Hi, I'm Chris Frame and thanks so much for joining me. There's probably no more talked
and I thought I would share five of them with you. Number one most of the photographs of Titanic that
you've seen are actually photographs of the Olympic. Today the Titanic might be the most
famous ship in the world but this wasn't the case when she entered service in 1912.
Titanic was the second ship in the Olympic-class of liners. The three ships of the Olympic-class
were all based on the same general design sharing a similar external appearance internal layout and
standard of fixtures and fittings. Olympic was launched first in 1910 and set sail on her maiden
voyage in June of 1911 - almost a year before that of Titanic. Because she was the first of her kind
it was Olympic that got most of the attention at least prior to the Titanic disaster. When the
new Olympic was ready for service White Star Line spent considerable time and funds on photographing
the ship. Photography in 1911 was a big deal and certainly more complicated than it is today,
it wasn't like applying a instagram filter to make an iPhone pic look good... It took a lot
of time to set up photographs and get the lighting right, while development costs were also high. But
with Olympic being the largest liner in the world, White Star were keen to showcase her sumptuous and
luxurious interiors to the world. White Star also photographed Titanic before she entered service,
but while onboard Olympic most of the public spaces were photographed,
on Titanic only rooms that were specific or unique to Titanic were snapped...
With the two ships being so similar in most areas it wasn't deemed necessary to photograph public
spaces that the two ships shared. It is for this reason that some of the most well-known Titanic
photos that you have seen are actually from aboard the Olympic - including the iconic photos of the
grand staircase. There are no known photographs of Titanic's grand staircase. Number two, there were
dogs on board. When Titanic set sail for America in 1912 the only way to cross the Atlantic was
by ship. Aircraft existed, but the technology was in its infancy and many decades would need
to pass before airplanes could supersede ships as the preferred mode of transport. This left people
with little choice but to travel by ship. But what about those guests with means that couldn't bear
the thought of going on a transatlantic crossing without their beloved dog? Well White Star Line
had you covered. First-class travelers often traveled aboard passenger ships with their pets
and Titanic was no exception. In fact as the ship left the Irish coast and headed out to
open ocean on her maiden voyage there were 12 dogs on board. Proud owners of the dogs were expected
to host a dog show for first-class passengers on Sunday the 15th of April 1912, however fate
would intervene with the ship going down in the early hours of that same morning. Of the 12 dogs
that sailed with Titanic, three survived the disaster - that's a 25 survival rate which is
better than the survival rate of the crew, 76 percent of which died when the ship went down.
As a side note the Titanic also had a ship's cat - this was common practice at the time. Titanic's
cat was named Jenny and she had previously sailed with the Olympic. She was on board the
ship to keep any stowaway mice at bay. Now while the fate of Jenny is unknown there were rumors
that circulated at the time of Titanic's departure that the ship's cat left the ship, and it was seen
as a bad omen by many of the crew, although of course the true story will never really be known.
Number three; Titanic wasn't the fastest ship in service or the most revolutionary.
At the time the Titanic entered service shipbuilding design was progressing at a
staggering pace. At the turn of the 20th century the largest ship in the world was White Star
Line's Oceanic, clocking in at a mere 17,000 tons and powered by huge but highly conventional triple
expansion reciprocating engines. Just seven years later Cunard's Lusitania revolutionized
transatlantic travel. At over 31,000 tons she was almost twice the size of Oceanic
and introduced revolutionary but still experimental steam turbine engines. The
turbines were a master stroke allowing Lusitania to capture the transatlantic speed records,
while ensuring the ship was more economical than many of her reciprocating contemporaries. So with
this in mind you would think that Titanic built in 1912 would have pushed the envelope even further,
but this isn't really the case. Titanic was a big ship for her day,
the biggest in the world when she entered service at 46,000 tons. Bigger than Lusitania as well as
her even speedier sister-ship Mauretania, but nowhere near double the size. As an interesting
side note the Titanic size by today's standards is relatively small in fact she is over 4.8
times smaller than the world's largest passenger ships the Oasis-class from Royal Caribbean. The
size of Titanic and Olympic was of interest to the public and something that White Star Line promoted
heavily in their sales material. Additionally Titanic was slower than both Lusitania and
Mauretania, and the design of the ship lagged behind their Cunard rivals. Unlike the Cunarders,
which embraced turbines wholeheartedly, Titanic and Olympic employed a combination power plant.
The Olympic-class would triple screw ships employing one less propeller than their Cunard
rivals. A central turbine powered the one central propeller, whilst reciprocating engines powered
both outboard propellers. That said the slower speed wasn't an issue for the White Star Line,
the company opted out of the transatlantic speed race choosing rather to woo passengers with the
high quality of the onboard experience. Number Four; The Titanic had a post office on board.
Like most British ships of the time the Titanic was designated RMS,
or Royal Mail Ship. As a result she carried mail for the Royal Mail across the Atlantic and this
was managed on board by an onboard post office. To assist with this Titanic not only had the post
office on board but also a special male sorting room where thousands of letters and parcels could
be sorted during the voyage. A team of postal workers would undertake this task allowing
for the time at sea to be utilized to prepare the mail for its ultimate destination in the Americas.
Titanic had five postal workers on board and sadly all of them perished in the disaster.
Had Titanic survived her major voyage she would have taken on mail in America to bring back
to the United Kingdom. As a fun fact you could also send a letter home from onboard the Titanic
whilst the ship was at sea. This tradition is carried on today on board the RMS Queen Mary 2
the last of the transatlantic liners and the last big ship to be designated RMS. Number Five;
Titanic left on her maiden voyage almost one month late. Titanic was originally intended to leave
on her maiden voyage on 20th of March 1912, but this had to be delayed due to the olympic needing
repairs Olympic collided with the HMS Hawk on the 5th of October 1911 near the Isle of Wight.
Both ships were badly damaged and had to be taken out of service. The damage to Olympic was focused
on the aft end of the ship and actually included severe damage to her propeller shaft as a result
of this she needed to go back to Belfast for repairs to get olympic back into service quickly
Harland and Wolff took workers and parts from the Titanic which was still under construction at the
time. This included taking one of the propeller shafts from Titanic to utilize it on the Olympic.
As a result of this the Titanic's maiden voyage was delayed because the construction of the ship
was delayed they had to get new parts to complete the build in Titanic. Titanic's
maiden voyage was delayed by three weeks with her entering service on the 10th of April 1912.
The sinking of the Titanic was a highly publicized maritime disaster.
Many people lost their lives and many of those that survived were haunted by the aftermath.
But there were some positive outcomes as well. There were several inquiries into the disaster
and from these inquiries new regulations and recommendations were made that influence
shipping even today. Some of those things are the requirement that there are enough life jackets
and lifeboats for every person carried on board a vessel. There's also the international ice patrol
which monitors icebergs in the Atlantic and the Arctic Oceans and radio rooms became manned 24/7
something that was done on board Titanic but not on many of the other smaller liners. Additionally
the first version of the international Safety Of Life At Sea convention or SOLAS was created,
which specified minimum standards for construction equipment and safety procedures of vessels.
Thanks so much for watching and I hope you found the video interesting. If you did please don't
forget to give it a like and subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss future
videos. Are there any more things about the Titanic that you think people might not know?
If there are share it in the comments below. If you're interested in more maritime history
check out my maritime history playlist, or if you'd like to learn more about some of the
ships that i spoke about check out my website - I've linked them in the description below.
Thanks so much for watching and when it is safe for us to travel again I hope to see you on board.