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Titanic in Belfast Author: Michael O'Sullivan, approved at 09.05.2007
Everyone knows the story of RMS Titanic, yet few realise the ship was built in Belfast. In fact, no other city in the world can lay claim to having lived beneath its magnificent shadow for so long. The emerging superstructure dominated Belfast’s Harland & Wolff shipyard for just over two years, from the moment its keel was laid in March 1909 to its launch on 31 May 1911. Only the cold, Atlantic seabed has been its home for longer.

Titanic was conceived in 1907, following discussion between Joseph Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line and William Pirrie, chairman of Harland and Wolff. The previous year White Star's great rivals on the lucrative North Atlantic route, Cunard, had launched the Lusitania and the Mauretania, whose size, speed and elegance heralded a new age in ocean liners.

On 31 July 1908 the two companies agreed to the construction of two new ships, Olympic and Titanic. Their names reflected their awesome size - Titanic and Olympic were over 882 feet (269 m) long with a 46,328 gross tonnage. The largest moveable man-made objects on earth, their length comfortably exceeded the height of the tallest buildings of the time.

Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911 before a cheering crowd of ten thousand onlookers. Titanic was now towed to the new Thompson Outfitting Wharf and Graving Dock where the virtually empty vessel was transformed into the floating palace of legend. It was now that the great boilers and engines, funnels and superstructure were added.

White Star had made one fateful decision, dramatically reducing the number of lifeboats proposed by Titanic's original designer, Alexander Carlisle. While Titanic's 20 lifeboats exceeded Board of Trade requirements, they, and the four collapsible boats provided space for barely half the crew and passengers aboard. The company put great faith in the ship's much vaunted series of watertight bulkhead.

Titanic departed Southampton on 10 April 1912, dropping anchor at Cherbourg in early evening. Here, ferried by White Star tenders Traffic and Nomadic, a further 247 passengers boarded. Ninety minutes later Titanic departed for Queenstown (Cobh) on the south coast of Ireland, from where she set out for New York.

The ship had made over 1,500 miles when the first warning of icebergs, five miles to the south, were received on the evening of 14 April. At the 11.30pm an iceberg was spotted ahead but, though the steering wheel was spun tight, it could not be avoided. At 11.40pm Titanic struck the iceberg scraping its hull below the waterline. Buckling it in several places and opening water channels into six watertight compartments. The ship was fatally damaged.

Soon after midnight the first wireless messages for help were transmitted. By 12.15am the first confused and terrified passengers were being guided to the lifeboats and 30 minutes later first lifeboat was lowered into the freezing waters. As distress rockets lit the air, the loading of the lifeboats became more hectic, with desperate efforts being made to get women and children aboard first. As the boat sank faster, people were washed off the forward end of the deck. The lights finally went out and the seconds and third funnels broke away. At 2.20am Titanic finally began to sink beneath the waves.

Of the 2228 passengers and crew there were only 705 survivors, picked up by the SS Carpathia, which had been en route to New York when it was diverted. Belfast was a City in mourning, not only for family and friends who had been lost, but also for the magnificent ship it produced. However, over the years, the tremendous pride felt in Belfast for the Titanic has been renewed.

Today, there are hundreds of museums and attractions around the world dedicated to Titanic but only in Belfast can you find the true birthplace of the world's most famous ship.