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Built in Belfast, Ireland, it took two years, 3,000 men and $7.5 million to build Titanic.
Built by Harland and Wolff Shipbuilders, the ship was 882.5 feet long—as tall as the 11th floor of the Chrysler Building—and had four funnels (or smokestacks), but only three were functional. The fourth one was there for aesthetic reasons and was used merely as an air vent.
Titanic set sail from the White Star docks of Southampton, England, en route to New York at noon on April 10, 1912. At 6:35 p.m. that evening, the 46,000-ton Titanic docked in Cherbourg, France, where 274 passengers boarded. Titanic departed Cherbourg at 8:10 p.m. and arrived in Ireland at noon the next day, April 11. There she took on sacks of mail and additional passengers and departed that afternoon at 1:30 p.m. In Ireland 120 passengers boarded the ship, but a few actually left, including Belvedere College teacher Frances M. Browne, who shot some of the last photographs ever taken of Titanic's ill-fated voyage.
Over the next three days, Titanic, commanded by Captain Edward J. Smith, received several warnings of heavy ice ahead. On April 14 alone, there were six ice warnings that described an ice area of more than 78 miles wide.
At 11:40 p.m. on April 14, just as passengers and crew were climbing into bed after a long night's celebration, Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of Newfoundland. The iceberg tore several holes in the hull, totaling only 12 square feet, but the holes were torn over a distance of 248 feet, damaging the first four compartments and a portion of the fifth. It is estimated that 16,000 cubic feet of water entered through those holes in the first 40 minutes after impact.
At 12:45 a.m. on the morning of April 15, the first lifeboat was lowered to the water from Titanic. Although each lifeboat was able to hold 65 people, poor training and lack of information caused the crew to fill the first lifeboat with only 28 passengers. Surprisingly, many of the 2,227 passengers and crew initially miscalculated that the sinking ship was safer than one of the departing lifeboats. It was not until 1:15 a.m., when the ship began to go under, that passengers and crew quickly filled the lifeboats.
Becoming one of the first ships in history to use the new SOS international distress signal, Titanic sent its last message before the final light went out and the ship sank to the bottom of the ocean by 2:20 a.m. The Carpathia arrived around 4 a.m. to rescue the people in lifeboats.
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Titanic
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