Jim's Titanic Site


Titanic: Facts & Figures
Updated 12/18/2005
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RMS TITANIC - SPECIFICATIONS

  • Length: 882 feet, 8 inches/268 meters
  • Gross tonnage: 46,328 tons
  • Net tonnage: 24,900 tons
  • Total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew, fully loaded
  • Decks: 9 in total (counting the orlop deck) the boat deck, A,B,C,D,E,F,G and below G boiler rooms.
  • Beam: 92.5 feet/28 meters
  • Height: 60.5 feet waterline to Boat Deck, 175 feet keel to top of funnels.
  • Depth: 59.5 feet
  • Draft: about 34 feet
  • Engines: 2 reciprocating 4 cylinder, triple expansion, direct - acting, inverted engines: 30,000hp 77 rpm. 1 low pressure Parsons turbine: 16,000hp 165rpm
  • Propellers: 3 ; Center turbine: 17 feet ; Left/Right wings: 23 feet 6 inches
  • Boilers: 29 (24 double ended boilers and 5 single ended boilers)
  • Furnaces: 159 providing a total heating surface of 144,142 sq. feet
  • Steam pressure: 215 P.S.I.
  • Watertight compartments: 16, extending up to F deck
  • Lifeboat davits: 14 double acting Welin's with Murrays disengaging gear
  • Lifeboats: 20 total as follows:

      14 wood lifeboats each 30’0" long by 9’1" by 4’0" deep with a capacity of 65 persons each
      2 wood cutters 25’2" long by 7’2" by 3’0" deep with a capacity of 40 persons each
      4 Englehardt collapsible boats 27’5" by 8’0" by 3’0" deep with a capacity of 47 persons each

  • Lifeboat Total Rated Capacity: 1,178 persons
  • Personal floatation devices: 3560 life jackets and 49 life buoys
  • Fuel requirement: 825 tons of coal per day
  • Water consumption: 14,000 gallons of fresh water per day
  • Top Speed: 23 knots
  • Staterooms: 840

      First Class: 416
      Second Class: 162
      Third Class: 262 plus 40 open berthing areas

  • Construction and fitting out time:   3 Years
  • Rivets used in the hull:  3 million

    Note: The Titanic was designed to hold 32 lifeboats, though only 20 were on board; White Star management was concerned that too many boats would sully the aesthetic beauty of the ship.


TITANIC PROVISIONS


  • Fresh Meat 75,000 lbs
  • Fresh Fish 11,000 lbs
  • Salt & dried fish 4,000 lbs
  • Bacon and Ham 7,500 lbs
  • Poultry and game 25,000 lbs
  • Fresh Eggs 40,000
  • Sausages 2,500 lbs
  • Potatoes 40 tons
  • Onions 3,500 lbs
  • Tomatoes 3,500 lbs
  • Fresh Asparagus 800 bundles
  • Fresh Green Peas 2,500 lbs
  • Lettuce 7,000 heads
  • Sweetbreads 1,000
  • Ice Cream 1,750 lbs
  • Coffee 2,200 lbs
  • Tea 800 lbs
  • Rice,dried beans etc.10,000 lbs
  • Sugar 10,000lbs
  • Flour 250 barrels
  • Cereals 10,000 lbs
  • Apples 36,000
  • Oranges 36,000
  • Lemons 16,000
  • Grapes 1,000lbs
  • Grapefruit 13,000
  • Jams and Marmalade 1,120 lbs
  • Fresh Milk 1,500 gal
  • Fresh Cream 1,200 qts
  • Condensed Milk 600 gals
  • Fresh Butter 6,000lbs
  • Ales and Stout 15,000 bottles
  • Wines 1,000 bottles
  • Spirits 850 bottles
  • Minerals 1,200bottles
  • Cigars 8,000

  • 57,600 items of crockery
  • 29,000 pieces of glassware
  • 44,000 pieces of cutlery

      Among these:

    • Tea Cups: 3,000
    • Dinner Plates: 12,000
    • Ice Cream Plates: 5,500
    • Soufflé Dishes: 1,500
    • Wine Glasses: 2,000
    • Salt Shakers: 2,000
    • Pudding Dishes: 1,200
    • Finger Bowls: 1,000
    • Oyster Forks: 1,000
    • Nut Crackers: 300
    • Egg Spoons: 2,000
    • Grape Scissors: 1,500
    • Asparagus Tongs: 400
  • Linens
    • Aprons: 4,000
    • Blankets: 7,500
    • Table Cloths: 6,000
    • Bed Covers: 3,600
    • Eiderdown Quilts: 800
    • Single Sheets: 15,000
    • Table Napkins: 45,000
    • Bath Towels: 7,500
    • Fine Towels: 25,000
    • Roller Towels: 3,500
    • Double Sheets: 3,000
    • Pillow-slips: 15,000
 
TITANIC CARGO CLAIMED AS LOST

  • 3,364 bags of mail and between 700 and 800 parcels.
  • One Renault 35 hp automobile owned by passenger William Carter.
  • One Marmalade Machine owned by passenger Edwina Trout.
  • Oil painting by Blondel, "La Circasienne Au Bain" owned by Hokan Björnström-Steffanson.
  • Seven parcels of parchment of the Torah owned by Hersh L. Siebald.
  • Three crates of ancient models for the Denver Museum.
  • 50 Cases of toothpaste for Park & Tilford
  • 11 bales of rubber for the National City Bank of New York
  • Eight dozen tennis balls were lost which were to go to R.F. Downey & Co.
  • A cask of china headed for Tiffany's.
  • Five Grand Pianos.
  • Thirty cases of golf clubs and tennis rackets for A.G. Spalding.
  • A jewelled copy of The Rubáiyát by Omar Khayyám, with illustrations by Eliku Vedder sold for £405 at auction in March of 1912 to an American bidder. The binding took two years to execute, and the decoration embodied no fewer than 1,500 precious stones, each separately set in gold.
  • Four cases of opium

MORE FACTS

Cost of a ticket (one way)

  • First Class (parlor suite) £870/$4,350 ($69,600 today)
  • First Class (berth) £30/$150 ($2400 today)
  • Second Class £12/$60 ($960 today)
  • Third Class £3 to £8/$40 ($172 to $640 today)

Note: In 1912, skilled shipyard workers who built Titanic earned £2 ($10) per week. Unskilled workers earned £1 or less per week. A single First Class berth would have cost these workers 4 to 8 months wages.

Fee to send a wireless telegram: 12 shillings and sixpence/$3.12 ($50 today), for the first 10 words, and 9 pence per word thereafter.
Passenger telegrams sent & received during the voyage: over 250.

Cost of the Titanic (in 1912): $7,500,000
Cost to build Titanic today: over $400,000,000

Crew Salaries

  • Captain E.J. Smith, Titanic: £105 a month
  • Captain Rostron, Carpathia: £53 per month
  • Seaman Edward Buley: £5 a month
  • Look-out G.A. Hogg: £5 and 5 shillings a month
  • Radio Operator Harold Bride: £48 per month
  • Steward Sidney Daniels: £3 and 15 shillings a month
  • Stewardess Annie Robinson: £3 and 10 shillings a month

Note: The range of wages was quite extreme in 1912. In today's money, Captain Smith earned about $100,000 per year while Stewardess Robinson earned only $3300 per year!

Passenger Facilities:

  • 2 Parlor Suites each with a 50 foot private promenade and 67 other First Class Staterooms & Suites. Decorating designs included: Louis Seize, Empire, Adams, Italian Renaissance, Louis Quinze, Louis Quatorze, Georgian, Regency, Queen Anne, Modern Dutch and Old Dutch. Some had marble coal burning fireplaces.
  • Gymnasium with rowing machines, a stationary bicycle and an electric horse.
  • A heated swimming pool (the first ever built into a vessel).
  • Squash court on F deck.
  • Turkish bath.
  • 2 Barber shops with automated shampooing and drying appliances available for all classes..
  • First & Second class smoking rooms (for the men).
  • Reading and writing rooms (for the ladies).
  • First & Second class libraries.
  • 10,488 square foot First Class Dining Saloon. Seating capacity 554.
  • Authentic Parisian Café with French waiters.
  • A Veranda Cafe with real palm trees.
  • A piano in the Third Class common room/saloon (a luxury for its day).
  • Electric light and heat in every stateroom.
  • 4 electric elevators complete with operators. (3 in first class, 1 in second class)
  • A state of the art infirmary staffed by 2 physicians that included an operating room.
  • A fully equipped darkroom for amateur photographers to try their skills.
  • A 5 kilowatt Marconi wireless radio station for sending and receiving passenger's telegrams.
  • A 50 phone switchboard complete with operator for intra-ship calls.

PEOPLE FACTS

People on board: 2228

    337 First Class
    285 Second Class
    721 Third Class
    885 Crew

Survived: 705
Perished: 1523
Note: There are quite a few opinions about the number of survivors. I have seen estimates from 701 to 713. I have chosen the numbers most often and recently used.

Bodies recovered: 306
The White Star chartered Mackay-Bennett sailed from Halifax on Wednesday, April 17 1912, two days after the sinking. Between Sunday, April 21 and Friday, April 26 they retrieved bodies still floating at the wreck site.

RATIO of SURVIVORS
  Women & Children Men Total
First Class 94% 31% 60%
Second Class 81% 10% 44%
Third Class 47% 14% 25%
Crew 87% 22% 24%

(chart source: The Titanic: End of a Dream)

Final(?) resting place of the Titanic

  • 1000 miles due east of Boston, Massachusetts, and 375 miles southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland. Depth: 12,500 feet.
  • Stern Section: 41°43'35" N, 49°56'54" W
  • Boilers:41°43'32" N, 49°56'49" W
  • Bow Section:41°43'57" N, 49°56'49" W

Titanic Location Map


Speed of the Titanic at impact: 20.5 knots

Titanic's Radio Callsign: "MGY"

Port of registry: Liverpool

Official Vessel Number: 131428

Poignant quote:

"When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experience in nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storms and fog and the like. But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident ... or any sort worth speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort."

Edward J. Smith, 1907
Captain, RMS Titanic, 1912

Captain Smith was planning to retire after the maiden voyage of Titanic.



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Jim Sadur



Copyright © 1996-2005 James E. Sadur.