In nineteen hundred and twelve, Titanic sailed the ocean to delve...into something…
Hey look, not many relevant words rhyme with twelve, okay.
But it’s true.
The Titanic's only voyage ended in tragedy on April fifteenth, 1912.
At the time of the disaster, it was the largest and most advanced ship ever constructed, and
that got me wondering about something.
With over a century of advancement, how are today’s cruise ships different from those
of Titanic’s day.
Sure, we all know they’re now required to carry more lifeboats, but that isn’t exactly
what makes them the life of the party.
Let's start with the size.
Everyone knows that the Titanic was the largest ship of its time, but how big was it exactly?
The Titanic stretched 882 ft from bow to stern and had a beam, or width, of 92 ft.
The ship’s nine decks rose to an impressive 175 ft, making it about the height of an eleven-story
building.
Designed to carry more than 2,400 passengers and almost 900 crewmembers, the Titanic had
certainly earned its name.
Even had it managed to avoid the iceberg, the Titanic wouldn’t have held on to its
title for very long.
The SS Imperator would steal its crown a year later when it undertook his maiden voyage
in 1913.
That's right, “his.”
Even though most ships are referred to with female pronouns, Kaiser Wilhelm the Second
specifically requested the ship be considered a male.
It's not entirely clear why, but one possibility might be grammar, since Imperator, meaning
emperor, is an exclusively male title in German.
Still doesn't explain why Kaiser thought it was so important, but whatever floats your
boat.
As the decades passed, ships only got bigger and bigger as countries and companies competed
for the crown.
As of 2019, the largest cruise ship in the world is the Symphony of the Seas, which is
operated by Royal Caribbean.
The Symphony dwarfs Titanic in every way.
1184 ft across and 215 ft wide, her eighteen decks are double the Titanic’s height and
provide spacious accommodations for well over five thousand passengers.
And since we're on the subject of accommodations, it might be time to talk about the different
purposes these two ships were created for.
The Symphony of the Seas is a cruise ship, not an ocean liner like the Titanic and Imperator.
Think of it as the difference between a city bus and a tour bus.
You board a cruise ship to have fun and an ocean liner when you need to get somewhere.
Ocean liners filled the same role airlines perform today.
As with airlines, the quality of the journey was heavily dependent on the amount of money
passengers were willing to spend.
First-class passengers would enjoy a saltwater pool, spa, gymnasium, and multiple restaurants
decorated in the styles of French cafés and swanky New York hotels.
Ooh-la-lah!
First-class cabins were large and well furnished, containing multiple rooms such as lounges
and private studies.
Second-class rooms were smaller and not as glamorous, but luxuriously furnished.
And the passengers still had access to a number of the ship's amenities.
The people staying in these rooms were mostly upper-middle-class professionals, and their
tickets cost the equivalent of $1,800 in today's money.
Third Class, also known as steerage, wasn't quite so luxurious, although the accommodations
were still nicer than on many ships of the same era.
Each small room featured four bunks, and the third-class passengers had access to communal
bathrooms and dining areas.
Most ships of the era didn't even provide steerage passengers with running water or
electricity.
Titanic was also one of only a few ships that provide steerage passengers with food and
allowed them access to the outdoor decks.
Titanic’s cramped bunkrooms might not be the lap of luxury but were far better than
a moldy cot in the ship’s hold.
Modern cruise ships don’t really have classes in the way as the Titanic or even modern airlines.
People go on cruises for fun instead of transportation, so it wouldn't do to cram their passengers
into bunk beds.
Even the least expensive room on a cruise ship is still going to be about the level
of a modest hotel room.
Instead of rigid classes, many modern cruise lines divvy their rooms up based on size and
location, with interior rooms being the least expensive and large, balcony equipped suites
on the other end of the spectrum.
Some suits are multiple floors, and many include private cinemas and game rooms.
Symphony of the Seas’ Ultimate Family Suite even comes equipped with a tube slide for
the kids.
Not that grownups can’t use the slide.
I mean, who doesn’t like orange plastic?
In addition to TVs and in-room slides, there are many other amenities found on modern cruise
ships that wouldn’t have been available in the early twentieth century.
The Titanic may have had its own pool, but many modern cruise ships feature their own
miniature water parks, complete with attractions such as slides and wave pools.
Other features may include things like golf courses, performance venues, and complimentary
childcare.
Deluxe tickets may still come with exclusive perks not available to everyone, and some
restaurants and shows will cost extra, but unlike aboard the Titanic, most amenities
are open to all passengers.
Now, ships didn’t go from coal-powered steamers to towering oceanic resorts overnight.
Shipbuilding had to come a long way before these immense mobile vacation spots became
a reality.
The Titanic was constructed in Belfast harbor on a special slipway built specifically to
accommodate its unprecedented bulk.
Above the drydock was a massive steel structure known as the Arrol gantry.
This 228-ft-tall gantry utilized numerous cranes for lifting the large plates into a
position where they could then be riveted into place.
Many folks don’t know that there were special green frogs up on the gantry whose purpose
was to inspire the workers to “rivet, rivet”.
nah, I made that part up.
Could you tell?
The hull of the Titanic was made up of thousands of these overlapping plates with the lower
hull consisting of two layers.
This was done to protect the Titanic from damage caused by scraping against the seabed.
Unfortunately, the damage from the iceberg was just below the waterline, where there
was only one layer of plating between the ocean and the ship's interior.
Titanic's primary safety feature was the sixteen watertight compartments making up the lower
decks.
The ship was designed to stay afloat with four of these compartments completely flooded.
Again, unfortunately, the iceberg opened a long gash across five.
The chambers also failed to extend all the way to the top of the hull.
Once the water reached the top of the five breached compartments, it quickly overflowed
and spilled into the others, dragging the ship down at an even greater speed.
Ships of today are still made from steel, but advancements in smelting and metallurgy
have resulted in hulls stronger and less brittle than were possible a hundred years ago.
Aluminum is also widely used to reduce the ship's weight.
This allows the vessels to achieve their towering height while still maintaining a low center
of gravity thanks to the heavy engines and fuel tanks at the bottom of the hull.
The reduced weight also means lower emissions.
Speaking of the engines, modern cruise ships run primarily on either diesel, natural gas,
or some combination of the two.
The vessels that use both often employ diesel engines for propulsion and natural gas to
drive the motors that produce electricity.
This is a far cry from ships of the Titanic's era, which used coal furnaces to boil the
water powering its steam engines.
Modern ships may not be emission-free, but it's a lot better than belching clouds of
ash and smoke.
Construction techniques have also changed over the years, although that's no surprise
considering how radically the ships themselves have transformed.
Instead of only having a few large internal compartments, the internal structure of modern
cruise ships is a vast network of steel webs radiating inward from the hull with every
fourth web supporting a massive wall of steel.
The girders are concealed within the walls of the ship and serve as the vessel’s primary
loadbearing structure.
However, the most unusual aspect of modern cruise construction is that they're not built
hull to funnel as a single construction.
Instead, the hull and cabins are built as separate modules, then assembled in the drydock.
Have you ever seen those giant cranes shaped a bit like a boxy lower-case n?
Those are called goliath cranes, and now you know what they’re for.
In addition to the ship being assembled like a giant Lego set, the larger hull pieces are
constructed upside down.
This is because the hull's tapered shape makes it easier to weld the plates together from
the top down.
This might all sound monstrously complex, but the modular design means that cruise ships
can be constructed much more quickly than a building of the same size.
The tradeoff is that not every port comes equipped for such a massive undertaking.
The largest cruise ships and oil tankers are assembled in just six locations worldwide,
the most prolific being the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea.
So, are you ready to sail the high seas in some of these state-of-the-art vessels?
Why don’t you let me know down below?
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