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How the Titanic Worked: Part One · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
0:04
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Ahoy, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
0:13
Speaker 1: your captain. There's Chuck, your other captain, and your third captain, Jerry,
0:18
Speaker 1: all of us equal captains here. Uh is out there
0:23
Speaker 1: hovering around silently like the creepiest captain of all, even
0:27
Speaker 1: creepier than Captain Stubbing. Um. Yeah, and that of course
0:32
Speaker 1: makes this stuff you should know. I always loved it
0:34
Speaker 1: when Captain Stubbing would have the rare love storyline. Yeah
0:41
Speaker 1: now and then, yes, so good. He's usually just overseeing
0:45
Speaker 1: the love of others, you know exactly. He was a
0:48
Speaker 1: father figure, so that's why it was off putting when
0:51
Speaker 1: he had his own love thing. Yeah, but he wants
0:55
Speaker 1: to see Captain Stubbing, you know, go all the way.
1:00
Speaker 1: Uh we should mention. And I wish I knew her name.
1:03
Speaker 1: But for many, many years, one of our young listeners
1:06
Speaker 1: asked us to do Titanic at every turn. And uh,
1:11
Speaker 1: I imagine that that young girl is now a grown woman,
1:15
Speaker 1: probably who doesn't listen anymore, but who knows who knows? Also, Chuck,
1:21
Speaker 1: I think most recently was requested by our Scottish correspondent Noah. Oh,
1:27
Speaker 1: don't you remember when he said hi last time? Sure,
1:31
Speaker 1: I don't remember the Titanic part, but Noah. You know,
1:34
Speaker 1: I'm happy for Noah to take the place of this
1:36
Speaker 1: young girl who left us yesterday's news which I can't
1:41
Speaker 1: prove used us up and just threw us away. Chuck. Yeah,
1:45
Speaker 1: I think we resisted for so long because the movie
1:49
Speaker 1: is so linked to this event. In the movie, despite
1:54
Speaker 1: its faults, did a really pretty accurate job of and
1:58
Speaker 1: I know that was important to James Cameron, of kind
2:01
Speaker 1: of really telling the accurate story of exactly what happened.
2:04
Speaker 1: So we're like my bother. Yeah, there's actually um From
2:08
Speaker 1: the filming of that movie, they may have settled at
2:11
Speaker 1: least one major mystery as to what happened when it sank.
2:18
Speaker 1: The no the what happened to the Grand Staircase, which
2:24
Speaker 1: they found when they finally discovered the Titanic later on
2:27
Speaker 1: uh in the eighties, was just totally missing. It was
2:30
Speaker 1: now like a seven story vertical basically an elevator shaft,
2:34
Speaker 1: a huge hole, and none of the staircase remained. And
2:38
Speaker 1: when they filmed that movie The Titanic, the Grand Staircase
2:43
Speaker 1: detached and started to float away, and James Cameron was like,
2:46
Speaker 1: I'll bet you that's exactly what happened to the real Titanic.
2:50
Speaker 1: And I have a feeling that Jewel the Sea isn't
2:52
Speaker 1: even right. What was it called? Had a name Jim
2:56
Speaker 1: of the there's so many angry people right now of
3:00
Speaker 1: the gam of the on it. I think it was
3:04
Speaker 1: the Heart of the Sea, the Heart of the Ocean,
3:05
Speaker 1: something like that, The Jewel of the Wind. Did you
3:10
Speaker 1: like the movie? Yeah? It was fine. Um, you remember
3:14
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson's Bible where he cut out all the magic
3:16
Speaker 1: momo jumbo and just had like the morality of the
3:20
Speaker 1: whole thing. If you could go through and cut out
3:22
Speaker 1: like the love story of that movie, I would probably
3:25
Speaker 1: like it much more. Well, I kind of disagree there,
3:29
Speaker 1: because you gotta pain it around something. Whoa, You gotta
3:34
Speaker 1: frame it around some kind of a story of people.
3:37
Speaker 1: Are you just saying you would have done another person story? Yeah?
3:40
Speaker 1: Why not just throw Captain Stooping in there and have
3:43
Speaker 1: him have the love story? I thought the love story
3:46
Speaker 1: was good. I just think Jim Cameron is I think
3:50
Speaker 1: he can be a little ham fisted with his screenwriting sometimes. Yeah,
3:54
Speaker 1: And there was some stuff like that. I remember even
3:56
Speaker 1: at the time, like Billy Zane, you know, little pithy mom.
4:00
Speaker 1: It's like, you know that Picasso, who's ever heard of him?
4:03
Speaker 1: That will be never be worth a thing like or
4:06
Speaker 1: something like that. I remember the time being like, come on, man,
4:09
Speaker 1: Billy Zane does what he's told on set ze. So yeah,
4:14
Speaker 1: there was another one. I had forgotten about this line,
4:17
Speaker 1: but somebody else was basically saying the same thing that
4:19
Speaker 1: you are about that movie, or James Cameron. James Cameron's
4:22
Speaker 1: writing that when Leo was, you know, running with Kate
4:27
Speaker 1: Winslet through um first class and there's band. The band
4:31
Speaker 1: is playing and he stops for a second and goes
4:35
Speaker 1: music to drown two. Now I know I'm in first class.
4:39
Speaker 1: So yeah, the whole thing is just rife with that
4:42
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But overall, I mean just the fact
4:45
Speaker 1: that like they went to the extremes that they did
4:48
Speaker 1: too to try to try to get it as accurate
4:50
Speaker 1: as possible and overlaid like a you know, a romantic
4:54
Speaker 1: love story on it like it was. I mean, it
4:56
Speaker 1: was a good It was a good movie in a
4:57
Speaker 1: lot of ways, in so many more ways than it
4:59
Speaker 1: was a add movie that it's just overall a really
5:02
Speaker 1: good movie. Yeah. I think the most brilliant decision in
5:05
Speaker 1: that movie was to have that beginning bit where it's
5:08
Speaker 1: a little ham fisted, but the part where Bill Paxton
5:11
Speaker 1: and the c Nerds go over exactly how it sank.
5:16
Speaker 1: Uh that, Like, I don't think a lot of people
5:18
Speaker 1: understood that, and understanding that as you're watching the movie
5:22
Speaker 1: is pretty critical. So I think that was pretty smart. Yes, indeed,
5:27
Speaker 1: And one other thing about that movie. Will never mention
5:29
Speaker 1: it again for the rest of these two episodes, I'm sure. Um,
5:33
Speaker 1: but it costs about almost exactly half adjusted for inflation,
5:38
Speaker 1: um to make the movie Titanic as it did to
5:41
Speaker 1: make The Titanic. Oh wow, isn't that crazy? Yeah, And
5:45
Speaker 1: we just did an episode of movie Crush basically there
5:49
Speaker 1: there you go. That was a mini Crush. Although Nate
5:51
Speaker 1: demo this was this was actually his pick our buddy, Nate,
5:55
Speaker 1: He's Titanic. He did. That's awesome, Man, that doesn't surprise
5:59
Speaker 1: me at all, Right, I mean he he would love
6:02
Speaker 1: a movie like that that's set you know, like his
6:05
Speaker 1: like really accurate historical fiction. That would totally be up
6:08
Speaker 1: his his alley um. Okay, so we're talking believe it
6:14
Speaker 1: or not, everybody. I don't know if you figured this
6:16
Speaker 1: out yet, we're talking about the Titanic finally at long
6:19
Speaker 1: last um and like we're saying, you know, we kind
6:23
Speaker 1: of put this off because the movie had had just
6:26
Speaker 1: become so widespread that we basically had to wait out
6:29
Speaker 1: it's after effects. But I feel like we've kind of
6:32
Speaker 1: finally kind of reached that um so, and like I've
6:36
Speaker 1: been interested in the Titanic since I was just a
6:39
Speaker 1: young kid. Yeah, when they found the Titanic in like,
6:45
Speaker 1: I was at just the right age to to really
6:48
Speaker 1: get sucked into that um and the I think the
6:53
Speaker 1: Titanic was probably the first thing that introduced me to
6:56
Speaker 1: like the just the fascinating creepiness of looking at things
7:01
Speaker 1: they aren't supposed to be underwater, but now it's just
7:06
Speaker 1: perfect for that kind of thing. Yeah, and it's still
7:09
Speaker 1: really cool. Like I was looking at pictures today of
7:13
Speaker 1: that stern sitting there underwater, and it's, uh, it's it's
7:17
Speaker 1: still just like there's something about it that you can't
7:20
Speaker 1: not look at it and just stare at it, I know,
7:23
Speaker 1: And I'm like waiting for the day when things become uh,
7:27
Speaker 1: when technology reaches to the point where we can just
7:31
Speaker 1: explore every square into the Titanic on the bottom, I'm
7:34
Speaker 1: really looking forward to that. But so, I knew a
7:36
Speaker 1: lot about the Titanic to begin with, but just researching this,
7:39
Speaker 1: it dawned on me, like, I mean, there's just so
7:42
Speaker 1: much I didn't know that I found in in um
7:45
Speaker 1: the time spent researching this. But it also dawned on
7:47
Speaker 1: me that there is just so much more, Like some
7:50
Speaker 1: people dedicate like this is their hobby, like learning and
7:54
Speaker 1: talking and researching and reading and thinking about the Titanic. Yeah,
7:58
Speaker 1: and you know this is this be a two part
8:00
Speaker 1: episode and we're gonna do it stuff you should know
8:04
Speaker 1: style and probably about ninety minutes. But I'm quite sure
8:07
Speaker 1: there are podcasts out there fully dedicated to the Titanic
8:11
Speaker 1: where it's like you know, and now episode twenty the Cutlery,
8:17
Speaker 1: where people know, like like you're saying, people are obsessed
8:20
Speaker 1: with it and they know all the details. We're gonna,
8:23
Speaker 1: I'm sure get some stuff kind of wrong because we're
8:25
Speaker 1: not experts, but we're going to give it the old
8:27
Speaker 1: stuff you should know treatment you know, Yeah for sure.
8:30
Speaker 1: So yeah, So as as like I knew a lot
8:33
Speaker 1: about the Titanic. There's plenty of people out there who
8:35
Speaker 1: like dedicate themselves to it. Um. But just learning about this,
8:40
Speaker 1: like it's just such a huge monumental thing. A lot
8:43
Speaker 1: of people divide, like the nineteenth century the like the
8:46
Speaker 1: old era um and the modern age upon the sinking
8:50
Speaker 1: of the Titanic, Like that's how colossal a thing it's become. Um.
8:55
Speaker 1: But at the time, I mean, it was actually not
8:58
Speaker 1: that big of a deal. Like it was a maiden
9:00
Speaker 1: voyage of the Titanic, but it's sister ship, the Olympic,
9:04
Speaker 1: had already sailed, and that was actually kind of a
9:06
Speaker 1: big thing. The Titanic wasn't even sold out, um when
9:09
Speaker 1: it underwent its voyage. Actually, in retrospect, that was a
9:12
Speaker 1: very good thing. But there's a lot to learn from
9:15
Speaker 1: the Titanic just just researching it, even if you do
9:17
Speaker 1: feel like you already know basically everything about it. Yeah,
9:21
Speaker 1: I mean I learned a ton of stuff. Yeah, and
9:24
Speaker 1: I saw that movie a bunch so Um. Like I said,
9:28
Speaker 1: the Titanic had a sister ship, the Olympic, and it
9:31
Speaker 1: also had another sister ship, which was originally dubbed the Gigantic,
9:36
Speaker 1: but after the Titanic saying, they went back and renamed
9:38
Speaker 1: the Gigantic the Britannic because I thought, I think maybe
9:42
Speaker 1: they're they'd be like, well, we were we had enough
9:44
Speaker 1: hubrists for to last a lifetime with the Titanic. But
9:48
Speaker 1: these three ships came out of a dinner actually um
9:53
Speaker 1: between a guy named j. Bruce is May, who was
9:55
Speaker 1: the chairman of the White Star Line which owned those
9:57
Speaker 1: three ships, and another guy what was his name, Peery,
10:02
Speaker 1: Lord William Peery, and their their wives Florence who was
10:06
Speaker 1: married to Bruce, and Margaret Montgomery originally Carlisle and that
10:12
Speaker 1: you know that name will come back in just a second,
10:14
Speaker 1: so just put a pin in her. So the um
10:18
Speaker 1: this dinner was basically about how to compete with the
10:22
Speaker 1: Kenard lines. The Cunard people um were eating White Stars
10:27
Speaker 1: lunch to a degree because they had just released the
10:30
Speaker 1: Mauritania and the Lusitania, and I think the Mauritaneous at
10:34
Speaker 1: the speed record. Um, these things could make it across
10:37
Speaker 1: the Atlantic in five days, which was very very fast
10:40
Speaker 1: at the time, and White Star couldn't keep up. So
10:43
Speaker 1: they decided from this dinner what if instead of trying
10:46
Speaker 1: to make faster and faster ships, we just kind of
10:49
Speaker 1: go with our thing and make them bigger and more luxurious,
10:52
Speaker 1: so people want to spend that extra day. It took
10:55
Speaker 1: White Star six days to make it across. People want
10:58
Speaker 1: to spend that extra day because a ship is so
11:01
Speaker 1: ridiculously luxurious that they choose ours instead. And not only
11:05
Speaker 1: was this the birth of the Titanic in the Olympic
11:07
Speaker 1: and the Britannic, it was basically the birth of the
11:11
Speaker 1: cruise industry as we understand it today, just basically making
11:15
Speaker 1: these huge floating luxury hotels that that kind of became
11:20
Speaker 1: born from this dinner as well. Yeah, and so they said,
11:24
Speaker 1: you know, we want to make them about one and
11:26
Speaker 1: a half times the size of anything that Kunard is
11:29
Speaker 1: putting out there. And they started sketching around a little bit,
11:33
Speaker 1: and they sketched up a couple of masts and for
11:36
Speaker 1: smoke stacks, and I think by the time they got
11:38
Speaker 1: to the engineering phase, they said, by the way, we
11:41
Speaker 1: really only need three of these, and they said, no,
11:44
Speaker 1: we must have four. We want it to look symmetrical,
11:47
Speaker 1: and we'll figure out something to do with that fourth one,
11:49
Speaker 1: which they did became a ventilation system, which was pretty smart.
11:53
Speaker 1: And initially Alexander Montgomery Carlisle was the head designer, who
11:58
Speaker 1: was uh, Margaret Lord William Peary's wife's brother, so it
12:04
Speaker 1: was his brother in law that was the initial designer,
12:06
Speaker 1: and then that was eventually handed over to Peery's nephew,
12:10
Speaker 1: Thomas Andrews And he was the guy played by Victor
12:14
Speaker 1: Garber in the movie The Dude from Alias. The Dad
12:17
Speaker 1: from Alias? Is it? Yeah? I mean I never saw Alias,
12:20
Speaker 1: but I know that when you're on TV, that's what
12:22
Speaker 1: you're most famous for. Yeah, isn't that weird? Yeah? Except
12:26
Speaker 1: in our case? Right, so um so yeah. So Thomas
12:35
Speaker 1: Andrews um would become the chief designer of the ship,
12:39
Speaker 1: and he had an amazing job of it. But the
12:41
Speaker 1: ship itself, the Titanic, was something like eight hundred and
12:44
Speaker 1: eighty two ft long, which is a little longer than
12:48
Speaker 1: the Transamerican Pyramid in San Francisco. Is the building in
12:53
Speaker 1: San Francisco is tall? Imagine tipping that into the ocean. Yeah,
12:59
Speaker 1: and then you have like and the Titanic was slightly
13:01
Speaker 1: longer than that. It was also ninety two ft wide,
13:05
Speaker 1: and it had a gross weight of forty five thousand tons.
13:08
Speaker 1: It was just by far the biggest ship that had
13:11
Speaker 1: ever been built. And so like the idea of bigness
13:14
Speaker 1: and uh indestructibility kind of was was part of the
13:19
Speaker 1: Titanics whole jam, like from the outset. Yeah, and there
13:23
Speaker 1: was one sort of fateful mistake. And you know, Titanic
13:26
Speaker 1: is one of those things where a lot of people
13:29
Speaker 1: have in hindsight said, well, there was of course the iceberg,
13:33
Speaker 1: but there were also this in this, in this that
13:36
Speaker 1: happened that could have led to, you know, it's ultimate demise.
13:40
Speaker 1: And one of those things was the rivets on the Titanic.
13:43
Speaker 1: There were three million wrought iron rivets that apparently, upon
13:48
Speaker 1: further examination, contained about three times the amount of slag
13:52
Speaker 1: residue as was allowable. And I think the result of
13:56
Speaker 1: that was when they're exposed to cold, they become more brittle.
13:59
Speaker 1: And so some people have posited that those you know,
14:02
Speaker 1: it was a well built ship for the most part,
14:04
Speaker 1: but those rivets could have been weaker than they should
14:07
Speaker 1: have been when push came to shove. Yeah, And I mean,
14:11
Speaker 1: if your rivets are the weak link in the chain,
14:15
Speaker 1: that's trouble right there. But yeah, not all of them
14:19
Speaker 1: were wrought iron, but enough of them were. And I
14:20
Speaker 1: also saw that they were double riveted, and they probably
14:23
Speaker 1: should have been triple riveted from what from what I
14:25
Speaker 1: saw in some engineering blog rivet exactly. Everybody knows that,
14:30
Speaker 1: sure so um So. They also had two engines on
14:36
Speaker 1: board UM that were just enormous. Each one was about
14:40
Speaker 1: three thirty ft tall, and they were capable of producing
14:45
Speaker 1: thirty thousand horsepower, which is about the same energy produced
14:49
Speaker 1: by ten diesel locomotives. Just these two engines UM, and
14:53
Speaker 1: they could push the ship pretty fast, something like um
14:57
Speaker 1: I think twenty two knots was the top speed it
14:59
Speaker 1: hit it. And like I said, the Mauritania had set
15:02
Speaker 1: the speed record at something like twenty three point nine
15:07
Speaker 1: I think, as far as the record goes, and it
15:10
Speaker 1: lasted until so the Titanic wasn't setting speed records or
15:16
Speaker 1: anything like that, but it was still going awfully fast,
15:18
Speaker 1: especially considering the size it was. But it was thanks
15:22
Speaker 1: to those huge engines, and they're the enormous propellers that
15:25
Speaker 1: they outfitted the ship with two oh man, those like
15:29
Speaker 1: if you're at home and you can access photographs safely,
15:33
Speaker 1: I strongly encourage you to look up some of these pictures.
15:36
Speaker 1: Just the pictures of the propellers are amazing. There are
15:40
Speaker 1: two three blade propellers that were about twenty three and
15:43
Speaker 1: a half feet in diameter, and then one four blade
15:46
Speaker 1: propeller that was about seventeen feet in diameter, And just
15:51
Speaker 1: seeing a photograph of these things is unbelievable to behold,
15:56
Speaker 1: Like how big these things are. Yeah, again, just bigness.
15:59
Speaker 1: It was just a common theme, you know. UM. One
16:02
Speaker 1: of the other things that the Titanic had that was
16:05
Speaker 1: pretty innovative was that so underwater in the hole, what
16:09
Speaker 1: would be beneath the sea surface, UM, as far as
16:14
Speaker 1: the boat was concerned. UM, where sixteen bulkhead compartments that
16:18
Speaker 1: had all sorts of things like one held the coal
16:21
Speaker 1: or I think multiple won't tell all the coal that
16:23
Speaker 1: the Titanic consumed something like six hundred tons a day
16:27
Speaker 1: to get that thing to move, um. And then there
16:31
Speaker 1: were just all sorts of other just just like rooms
16:34
Speaker 1: that were beneath sea level. And each of these rooms
16:37
Speaker 1: had an automatic door UM that would shut it off
16:41
Speaker 1: its seal. It They were water tight, so if any
16:43
Speaker 1: of these compartments caught water, started taking on water, it
16:47
Speaker 1: could fill up and as long as that door was shut, um,
16:50
Speaker 1: the Titanic would just be able to keep on keeping
16:53
Speaker 1: on basically. So that was a real, um, a real
16:57
Speaker 1: innovation that combined with its big us and and um
17:01
Speaker 1: just the amount of steel that was put into it
17:04
Speaker 1: combined to kind of create this idea that the Titanic
17:08
Speaker 1: was unsinkable. That's where that comes from, largely from those compartments. Yeah.
17:13
Speaker 1: I think they said two of the four could flood,
17:16
Speaker 1: and they said, really, up to four of these could flood,
17:20
Speaker 1: but no more than four. Yeah, put a put a
17:22
Speaker 1: pin in that one. Uh. And on that coal, there
17:25
Speaker 1: were twenty nine steam boilers. And if you're thinking like
17:29
Speaker 1: how much coal, you said, six pounds or I'm sorry,
17:32
Speaker 1: six hundred tons a day a day. That was a
17:35
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty two furnaces of two hundred men shoveling
17:39
Speaker 1: coal basically NonStop. Yeah. There was actually a fire um
17:44
Speaker 1: aboard the Titanic, Like the Titanic was on fire when
17:47
Speaker 1: it was taking on passengers right, um. And it was
17:51
Speaker 1: because those those coal deposits, one of them had caught fire.
17:54
Speaker 1: And when you have coal that's on fire in that situation. Basically,
17:58
Speaker 1: the only way to put it out is to you
18:00
Speaker 1: is that coal that's on fire. So not only were they,
18:03
Speaker 1: you know, shoveling like under routine conditions, they were shoveling
18:07
Speaker 1: even more coal than normal to keep the fire from spreading. Yeah,
18:11
Speaker 1: and that's another one of those things that people have
18:14
Speaker 1: Now some people experts have gone back and said the fire,
18:19
Speaker 1: uh could have started up to three weeks before they
18:21
Speaker 1: even set sale, and that it could have weakened um
18:25
Speaker 1: some of those holds they found evidence of, like some
18:29
Speaker 1: some burn marks and stuff like that where they said
18:32
Speaker 1: it could have weakened some of that metal. And uh,
18:35
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds very strange to have a fire
18:38
Speaker 1: going for three weeks and say here we go, everybody
18:41
Speaker 1: right exactly, but that was the deal. Plus it also
18:43
Speaker 1: just gets across how enormous Titanic was that it could
18:46
Speaker 1: have a fire and just be like whatever, it's all good,
18:49
Speaker 1: We're we're the Titanic. But yeah, they discovered a picture
18:53
Speaker 1: that shows some sort of like kind of stripe across
18:58
Speaker 1: the whole of the ship that is about where the
19:01
Speaker 1: iceberg hid it. And they said that's from that that
19:03
Speaker 1: coal fire, we think, which is surprising still after all
19:07
Speaker 1: this time. I think that's another reason why the Titanic
19:10
Speaker 1: story is so engrossing is there's there's just so much
19:13
Speaker 1: still that people are learning about it, even a hundred
19:16
Speaker 1: and nine years on. Oh totally. Uh. You also have
19:19
Speaker 1: to remember, when you build something this big, you also
19:22
Speaker 1: have to build the things that help you build this thing,
19:25
Speaker 1: because they didn't exist. So they had to get a
19:28
Speaker 1: boat slip that could accommodate it. So they built the
19:31
Speaker 1: this enormous white Star dock, and then something called the
19:34
Speaker 1: Great Gantry, which was it sort of looks like a
19:37
Speaker 1: big it's sort of like a skeleton of a big
19:40
Speaker 1: airplane hangar. You should look at these pictures too, it's
19:43
Speaker 1: pretty remarkable. But it was a series of tin cranes
19:46
Speaker 1: basically that held this boat in place while it was
19:49
Speaker 1: being built, to could lift the people up to work
19:51
Speaker 1: on it, lift materials up to wherever they needed to go.
19:55
Speaker 1: And it's it's actually something to behold in itself, like
19:58
Speaker 1: seeing the Titanic sus ended like above the ground like that. Yeah,
20:02
Speaker 1: And it took eleven thousand people to build this ship.
20:05
Speaker 1: Eleven thousand people and they built it. They built the
20:09
Speaker 1: actual ship itself, uh, and was launched into the water.
20:13
Speaker 1: I think, although it was basically always in the water
20:15
Speaker 1: because it was basically impossible to dry dock. Um. Well
20:19
Speaker 1: that when it was in the hangar, I was sitting
20:20
Speaker 1: up there. Okay, you're right, sorry, But it was actually
20:24
Speaker 1: launching in the water then on May thirty one, nineteen eleven.
20:27
Speaker 1: But it didn't have any interior, it didn't have its
20:29
Speaker 1: engines yet. It was fully completed March thirty first, nineteen twelve,
20:34
Speaker 1: and it began its maiden voyage and started taking on
20:36
Speaker 1: passengers on April tenth, nineteen twelve. And I proposed, Chuck
20:40
Speaker 1: that before we take on passengers, we take a break.
20:44
Speaker 1: Let's do it all right? So um. One thing I
21:17
Speaker 1: didn't realize about the Titanic was it's It had three
21:20
Speaker 1: little stops before it left the UK for New York.
21:24
Speaker 1: It started out in Southampton, uh, in England, moved on
21:29
Speaker 1: to Cherbourg, France, and then went on to Queenstown, Ireland
21:35
Speaker 1: before leaving for New York. Did you know that? I
21:39
Speaker 1: didn't know that. That's right, it wasn't so. Um. The
21:45
Speaker 1: Titanic costs about four hundred million dollars in two thousand
21:48
Speaker 1: nineteen dollars to make, which to that's that's actually less
21:52
Speaker 1: than Carnival Cruise Lines Splendor, which was launched in two
21:56
Speaker 1: thousand and eight for like four hundred and fifty fifty million.
21:59
Speaker 1: It's actually for For as luxurious as it was, it
22:02
Speaker 1: was a pretty pretty good bargain, to tell you the truth. Yeah,
22:06
Speaker 1: And here's my deal with cruises. I think we've talked
22:10
Speaker 1: about cruise ships before. I'm not a fan. I've been
22:12
Speaker 1: on exactly one cruise and uh, just not a fan.
22:16
Speaker 1: And a lot of it has to do with the decor,
22:19
Speaker 1: like shopping mall carpet and bowling alley carpet and you know,
22:24
Speaker 1: gold railings and things like that, but not like cool looking. Uh.
22:30
Speaker 1: I think if they took a note from the and
22:32
Speaker 1: maybe they are building cruise ships like this now, but
22:35
Speaker 1: if they took a note from the Titanic and other
22:37
Speaker 1: ships of the day today and had that really nice
22:41
Speaker 1: wicker furniture and some you know, if not iron, some
22:45
Speaker 1: stuff painted to look like iron, and not so much
22:48
Speaker 1: of that shiny gold shopping mall garbage. Look, I think
22:54
Speaker 1: I would be more into it, a little more classy,
22:56
Speaker 1: refined thing. And I think it could go a long
23:00
Speaker 1: way towards getting people like me on cruise ships. There's
23:03
Speaker 1: some that are like that, like kind of some throwback
23:05
Speaker 1: ones are there. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, but I get
23:08
Speaker 1: what you mean that whole You know, all you had
23:11
Speaker 1: to say was shopping mall. You kind of nailed it
23:13
Speaker 1: right there. Like when you look at the Titanic, it
23:15
Speaker 1: looks like something the Kellogg Brothers would have been keen on. Well,
23:19
Speaker 1: it's funny you say that because we mentioned this in
23:21
Speaker 1: the Kellogg Brothers episode, but they had equipment on board
23:25
Speaker 1: the Titanic ins gym, and the gym happened to be
23:29
Speaker 1: located on the boat deck, which was the same place
23:31
Speaker 1: where the captain's bridge was. F y I in case
23:35
Speaker 1: about the various decks, Yeah, I think we should. There
23:38
Speaker 1: are a number of them actually, and they they lettered
23:42
Speaker 1: them by letter appropriately enough. That's right. So there's that
23:46
Speaker 1: boat deck, like you said, where the bridge, the gym,
23:49
Speaker 1: and I think just sort of that nice lovely pine
23:52
Speaker 1: open deck is. You had the promenade deck, which is
23:56
Speaker 1: the first deck deck A and that had those two
24:00
Speaker 1: first class staircases that you were talking about, had a lounge,
24:04
Speaker 1: had a reading and writing room, had the all male
24:07
Speaker 1: first class smoking room, all male places. Sure, they had
24:13
Speaker 1: the he Man Woman Haters Club. Uh, there was a
24:17
Speaker 1: Veranda cafe in Palm Court, which is really lovely if
24:20
Speaker 1: you go look at pictures of this as well. Yeah
24:23
Speaker 1: that that's that's up my alley as well. Yeah, the
24:26
Speaker 1: Palm Court, it's nice, right. Yeah. I knew you'd love
24:29
Speaker 1: it because I was like, look at all that wicker furniture.
24:31
Speaker 1: Chuck's gonna go crazier for this. They would never allow
24:34
Speaker 1: that in a mall. Uh, what's on deck B? Deck?
24:40
Speaker 1: B friend, I thought you'dn't ever ask. Included the first
24:43
Speaker 1: class cabins and suits, the restaurant Cafe Parisian, which was
24:48
Speaker 1: this all male second class smoking room, third class poop deck,
24:53
Speaker 1: which is where the third class people kind of strolled
24:55
Speaker 1: around like gerbils um. And then they also kept some
25:00
Speaker 1: of the larger cargo equipment on the poop deck for
25:03
Speaker 1: the third class people that uses obstacles maybe to climb
25:06
Speaker 1: over and stay fit. Yeah, they tried to hide most
25:09
Speaker 1: of that stuff great care and making sure that it
25:13
Speaker 1: looked just like a luxury kind of hotel and not
25:16
Speaker 1: you know, And that's one of the reasons why they
25:18
Speaker 1: didn't have as many lifeboats, but you know, we'll get
25:20
Speaker 1: to that. So yeah, that was something that I also
25:23
Speaker 1: didn't know about the Titanic is that the designers, um
25:27
Speaker 1: and and builders really went to great lengths to make
25:30
Speaker 1: it as luxurious as possible for everybody from first class
25:34
Speaker 1: to third class, which is also called steerage. Um. You know,
25:38
Speaker 1: just over the years it's been it's been it's been
25:42
Speaker 1: made into such a class conflict, social stratification fable, because
25:50
Speaker 1: it definitely was, but really it just kind of followed
25:54
Speaker 1: the conventions of the day. But because of the conventions
25:57
Speaker 1: of the day, a lot of people died who otherwise
26:00
Speaker 1: might not have, which we'll talk about believe me. Um,
26:05
Speaker 1: it's just really people have kind of glomped onto that,
26:07
Speaker 1: and especially a hundred years later, it just seems so
26:09
Speaker 1: bizarre and awful to us. But at the time, I mean,
26:12
Speaker 1: this is just the way things were. But because of that,
26:16
Speaker 1: you know, that whole idea that it was like, you know,
26:18
Speaker 1: there's third class and there's first class. Um, the the
26:23
Speaker 1: you you just kind of missed the point that that
26:25
Speaker 1: they were like even in third class, this was incredible
26:28
Speaker 1: luxury compared to what they were used to for passages
26:31
Speaker 1: like this, and it was because the designers purposefully made
26:34
Speaker 1: it that way. Yeah, I mean they were mostly immigrants
26:38
Speaker 1: coming to America for the first time. And uh, like
26:43
Speaker 1: you said, it's it was appropriate luxury for third class.
26:47
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't like the rooms weren't these big open
26:49
Speaker 1: rooms with like thirty bunk beds and no door. They
26:52
Speaker 1: were private rooms. They had doors on their rooms. I
26:54
Speaker 1: think they were with their six people per room down there,
26:57
Speaker 1: I saw four. I also saw six, Okay, not too
26:59
Speaker 1: bad though. They had little wash basins in each room,
27:02
Speaker 1: which was a really big deal in a big luxury
27:06
Speaker 1: although I do think they had only two bathtubs for
27:10
Speaker 1: third class to share among the seven hundred plus people,
27:14
Speaker 1: one for men and one for women. And um, I
27:17
Speaker 1: saw that explained away as third class passengers probably thought
27:23
Speaker 1: that you could develop respiratory illness by bathing too much,
27:27
Speaker 1: so they probably wouldn't have had much of an issue
27:30
Speaker 1: with that. It doesn't seem as bad as it it
27:32
Speaker 1: does to us in retrospect. Yeah, I don't think I
27:35
Speaker 1: would have taken a baths. I would have just spend
27:39
Speaker 1: It's like I wouldn't take a poop on a bus trip.
27:43
Speaker 1: I'm with you, man, I hope I'd never ever go
27:45
Speaker 1: to jail for any extended period of time because I
27:49
Speaker 1: would have a big problem with the pooping thing. You mean,
27:53
Speaker 1: when it's just a little silver, silverything in the corner
27:56
Speaker 1: with all the other people in there. Yes, I mean, like, yes, yeah,
28:00
Speaker 1: I think that's a big problem. That would be a
28:02
Speaker 1: problem for me. I think that would be a problem
28:04
Speaker 1: for anybody. I feel bad, like I really feel that's
28:07
Speaker 1: a terrible aspect I think of jail life. But yes, yes, yeah,
28:12
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. All right, So where were we? Uh? Well,
28:15
Speaker 1: ironically we were on the poop deck. Uh, dex C
28:19
Speaker 1: was the shelter deck. Um. I don't think we said
28:22
Speaker 1: Deck B was the bridge deck. But DEXI is the
28:24
Speaker 1: shelter deck. Purser's office there, third class smoking room, second
28:28
Speaker 1: class library, and lounge. You know, everything is very divided
28:32
Speaker 1: by class. Everyone needs their smoking rooms because everybody smoked, right,
28:37
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Uh, saloon deck deck D. What are
28:41
Speaker 1: you getting there? Uh? First class reception room and the
28:44
Speaker 1: dining saloon um like they had Like when you showed
28:48
Speaker 1: up for dinner, you would probably sit in the reception
28:51
Speaker 1: room and maybe like have a drink while you're waiting
28:53
Speaker 1: to be seated if you showed up a little early.
28:57
Speaker 1: From what I saw agreed. From what I saw. The
29:01
Speaker 1: dining saloon, the actual dining room UM was large enough
29:06
Speaker 1: to see all of the first class passengers at once.
29:10
Speaker 1: And I think the second class one was just enormous.
29:14
Speaker 1: Second class, like it is almost never talked about. When
29:17
Speaker 1: you just generally talk about the Titanic, it's always first
29:21
Speaker 1: or third. But there's a huge second class um, a
29:25
Speaker 1: huge space for second class. I think it's set a
29:28
Speaker 1: couple of thousand people at once. Third Class I think
29:32
Speaker 1: was enough to serve um the the third class passengers
29:38
Speaker 1: over three sittings. I believe maybe even more than that,
29:41
Speaker 1: maybe four. All right, that's a lot. It is still
29:46
Speaker 1: a lot, but yeah, for first class you probably had
29:49
Speaker 1: just one sitting. Uh. And I think when you mentioned
29:52
Speaker 1: that could be uh. That restaurant was an ala carte restaurant,
29:57
Speaker 1: So it's sort of like modern cruise upstairs, the big
30:01
Speaker 1: dining room, but then there's also the pizza place and
30:04
Speaker 1: the this and the that, and I think the little
30:07
Speaker 1: a la carte restaurant was one of those it's like
30:10
Speaker 1: the mall food court, except probably not as good. Uh.
30:15
Speaker 1: Deck E was the second and third class cabins. It's
30:18
Speaker 1: called the upper deck, and then the middle deck. Deck
30:20
Speaker 1: F this is a little confusing, was the third class saloon,
30:25
Speaker 1: the Turkish Bath, which um they not too long ago
30:30
Speaker 1: got some really good photos of lurking there at the
30:33
Speaker 1: bottom of the Atlantic. It's amazing. But the Turkish Bath
30:36
Speaker 1: was kind of like what you call the spa aboard
30:38
Speaker 1: a ship today. Yeah, maybe some of the well, actually,
30:42
Speaker 1: I guess the Kellogg stuff was in the gym. Yeah,
30:44
Speaker 1: I believe it was all in the gym because it
30:46
Speaker 1: was like the shaky band and um oh, I can't
30:49
Speaker 1: remember what else the I think the thing where where
30:52
Speaker 1: they would loosen up the poop with the sun tan bed.
30:55
Speaker 1: I can't remember exactly, but there were definitely multiple pieces
30:58
Speaker 1: of Kellogg equipment and it wasn't the gym yet. So
31:02
Speaker 1: then you've got the lower deck, the orlop deck. That's
31:04
Speaker 1: where they get a play squash if you wanted to.
31:08
Speaker 1: They had a post office. There was a lot of
31:10
Speaker 1: you know, people love to send post when they're on
31:13
Speaker 1: an ocean voyage. I know, but I was thinking about that.
31:16
Speaker 1: You just show up at the post office and they're like, okay, thanks,
31:20
Speaker 1: we'll mail it when when we get to the same
31:22
Speaker 1: place at the exact same time as you. Yeah, it
31:26
Speaker 1: seems so dumb, but I think it's being postmarked by
31:29
Speaker 1: the Titanic, which is you know what. Okay, you're like, uh,
31:36
Speaker 1: there's someone working the post office is literally turns everyone
31:39
Speaker 1: away when you just hang onto that and mail it
31:40
Speaker 1: when we get there, A right, why yeah, probably better
31:43
Speaker 1: off just dropping it's somewhere in New York. You're fine. Uh,
31:47
Speaker 1: there's the carpentry shop, the plumbing shop, electrical workshops. You
31:49
Speaker 1: gotta have all that stuff. Um. They had these enormous
31:53
Speaker 1: refrigerated rooms that were cooled by these copper pipes, just
31:57
Speaker 1: like miles and miles of copper pipes in each area.
32:01
Speaker 1: Like you could you do a whole episode on just
32:04
Speaker 1: the refrigeration of the Titanic and the cheeses and the
32:07
Speaker 1: flowers and the wines and the foods that they had
32:09
Speaker 1: to keep chilled. And they have extensive They did it
32:13
Speaker 1: after the cutlery episode, probably so um. And so they
32:18
Speaker 1: we talked about how luxurious it was, like it was
32:20
Speaker 1: just as luxurious as anything was in the world at
32:23
Speaker 1: the time. The Titanic um with all, but there was
32:27
Speaker 1: also kind of like a uh airy kind of vibe
32:31
Speaker 1: to the whole thing, Like the choices and colors and
32:33
Speaker 1: wallpapers and plants and all of that in the wicker
32:36
Speaker 1: furniture was all this kind of light and airy and cheery.
32:40
Speaker 1: So it had a really nice feel to it. Um
32:43
Speaker 1: from first to third across the board. Yeah, like Steerage
32:49
Speaker 1: wasn't just a rat infested, gross place to be. That's
32:53
Speaker 1: how it's always portrayed, you know, like basically a floating
32:56
Speaker 1: tenement is how I've always seen it portrayed. And I
33:00
Speaker 1: think that's kind of how um James Cameron did portrayed
33:04
Speaker 1: it too, which is I guess where I got my impression,
33:07
Speaker 1: Like you, I mean, the only thing I remember, I
33:09
Speaker 1: think they maybe showed them in their Leo and his
33:12
Speaker 1: uh in Fabrizio and remember Fabrizio in their little in
33:18
Speaker 1: their little room. And then of course there was the
33:21
Speaker 1: the Irish jig that they danced down there when she
33:25
Speaker 1: decided to you know, slum it with Steerage, and that
33:28
Speaker 1: did look a little like a like a you know,
33:31
Speaker 1: an old pub, and it was a brand new boat, right,
33:33
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. Yeah, so, um, I think I
33:37
Speaker 1: said earlier that the Titanic wasn't full when she set sail. Again,
33:41
Speaker 1: this is her maiden voyage, which accounts for why J.
33:44
Speaker 1: Bruces May, the chairman of the White Star Line, whose
33:47
Speaker 1: father was the founder, I believe, and why Thomas Andrews,
33:51
Speaker 1: the designer of the Titanic and Olympic and Britannic, we're
33:55
Speaker 1: both aboard. It was just custom for the the those
33:59
Speaker 1: p bowl who were in those positions to be aboard
34:02
Speaker 1: a ship for its maiden voyage. But there wasn't it
34:05
Speaker 1: wasn't sold out. There was room for something like thirty
34:09
Speaker 1: two hundred and people. Yeah, there was only dred and
34:16
Speaker 1: twenty nine people. So there was like more room for
34:21
Speaker 1: more than a thousand passengers, basically because the the crew
34:25
Speaker 1: was virtually full, Like the room for the crew was
34:28
Speaker 1: virtually full, but it was the passengers that hadn't you know,
34:32
Speaker 1: booked as much as it was expected. Should we take
34:35
Speaker 1: another break? Oh boy? Yeah, alright, let's take another break
34:39
Speaker 1: and we'll talk about a couple more things here. Two
34:42
Speaker 1: round out Part one of the Titanic. Right after this
35:03
Speaker 1: all right. So, uh, this thing, I guess we're where
35:21
Speaker 1: it sets sail, right, Yeah, I believe so basically, yeah,
35:27
Speaker 1: at least from being launched in Belfast, right, Yeah. So
35:30
Speaker 1: it started out in Belhafast, went to Southampton on April three,
35:34
Speaker 1: and then on the tenth it went and picked up
35:37
Speaker 1: a few people in Southampton and then went to France
35:42
Speaker 1: and then to Queenstown, Ireland to get some more people.
35:47
Speaker 1: Like I said, I never knew like you that this
35:49
Speaker 1: is what it was doing, operating basically like an uber chair. Yeah,
35:54
Speaker 1: I guess. So have you ever done that? No? I
35:57
Speaker 1: never have. I'm very very careful. Fall I did once
36:01
Speaker 1: and someone they stopped and I was like, what's going on?
36:03
Speaker 1: And someone got in. I was like, really, what's going on?
36:08
Speaker 1: I made a new friend. Oh that's nice. I thought
36:11
Speaker 1: it was in the cash cab. I don't think he
36:14
Speaker 1: stops to pick up other people. He just asked a
36:16
Speaker 1: lot of questions. Yeah, that's true, all right, So it's
36:19
Speaker 1: picked up all the folks at this point. Uh. In
36:21
Speaker 1: the end, and there are some discrepancy about the final
36:24
Speaker 1: numbers because a lot of people sold their tickets, a
36:29
Speaker 1: lot of people switch tickets, a lot of people can't
36:32
Speaker 1: quite make it on time. In the case of Leonardo DiCaprio,
36:36
Speaker 1: he he wins those tickets in a poker game right
36:38
Speaker 1: before it launches. No way they could have accounted for him. No,
36:42
Speaker 1: And actually, I mean that's not exactly that far off. Um,
36:46
Speaker 1: and I suspect it's based loosely on the story of
36:50
Speaker 1: UM Thomas Hart who was hired on as a fireman.
36:53
Speaker 1: But UM went off and got really really drunk and
36:56
Speaker 1: lost his boarding papers, UM while he was drunk, and
37:01
Speaker 1: they were stolen by somebody else because Thomas Hart showed
37:04
Speaker 1: up and worked as far as anybody's anyone was concerned
37:07
Speaker 1: as far as the logs went. But it just clearly
37:10
Speaker 1: wasn't that Thomas Hart. Rum, he just missed it like that. Uh.
37:14
Speaker 1: There was one one group of wealthy industrialists starting with
37:18
Speaker 1: Henry Clay Frick, onto JP Morgan and then Jay Horace
37:22
Speaker 1: Harding who transferred boarding papers for sweets B fifty two,
37:28
Speaker 1: fifty four and fifty six. Well, ultimately we're taken on
37:31
Speaker 1: by J Bruce is may It just turns out all
37:34
Speaker 1: of them had a reason why they suddenly couldn't go
37:36
Speaker 1: toward the last minute. Um, yeah, I think the unsinkable
37:41
Speaker 1: Bolly Brown's daughter. She was um. You know. Molly Brown
37:45
Speaker 1: was portrayed by Kathy Baits. She was the hero of
37:47
Speaker 1: Lifeboat six that really wanted to go and try and
37:50
Speaker 1: save people. I think her daughter was supposed to come,
37:53
Speaker 1: but she was studying at the Sarbone so she did not.
37:56
Speaker 1: So there's a big list of people. They called it
37:58
Speaker 1: the just Mistic Club, and uh apparently in nineteen twelve,
38:03
Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Journal put that numbers high, six thousand people
38:07
Speaker 1: that were saved because they did not sail on the
38:09
Speaker 1: Titanic obviously couldn't been that much. It's one of those
38:12
Speaker 1: things I think we're like everyone was at you know,
38:15
Speaker 1: the game where Michael Jordan's scored whatever points and you know,
38:18
Speaker 1: it's one of those sort of things where history uh
38:21
Speaker 1: fudges itself a little bit. But in the end they
38:24
Speaker 1: put the number somewhere around thirteen hundred and twenty four
38:27
Speaker 1: passengers and those eighty four officers, which is a very
38:33
Speaker 1: high ratio of of crew members to passengers. Yeah, there
38:36
Speaker 1: really is um there, and it's speaking of crew. In
38:39
Speaker 1: addition to Thomas Hart, there were the Slade brothers who
38:43
Speaker 1: um left Southampton after um passing muster uh one got
38:48
Speaker 1: drunk and then came back and they wouldn't lower the
38:51
Speaker 1: gang plank for them again, so they got left behind
38:53
Speaker 1: go for them. But most of all, there was a
38:55
Speaker 1: guy named Davey Blair who was an up and coming
38:58
Speaker 1: officer for the White Star Line, and he was initially
39:01
Speaker 1: assigned the second officer position, which is huge for an
39:05
Speaker 1: upcoming guy. He um he was at the last minute,
39:10
Speaker 1: I think he sailed from Southampton to share Burg and
39:13
Speaker 1: then at Sharburg basically as somebody who was a more
39:16
Speaker 1: senior officer than him was was given that position and
39:20
Speaker 1: he was moved off to the Olympic and he was
39:22
Speaker 1: really disappointed about this. There's like a surviving postcard um
39:27
Speaker 1: that that expresses how how upset he was and saddened
39:31
Speaker 1: that he kind of lost that big opportunity. But even
39:34
Speaker 1: more important than that is Davy Blair was on there
39:37
Speaker 1: long enough to be entrusted with the key to the
39:41
Speaker 1: crow's nest locker, which held the binoculars for the pocular locker.
39:46
Speaker 1: The binocular locker, Yeah, I mean, I think there's kind
39:51
Speaker 1: of long been a myth that there were not binoculars
39:53
Speaker 1: on board, but there were, But yeah, he walked with
39:56
Speaker 1: that key, and that key and that postcard sold at
39:59
Speaker 1: auction for like a hundred and fifty grand or something,
40:02
Speaker 1: didn't it as far as I know, Yeah, it's amazing.
40:05
Speaker 1: But that's a big deal because later on they would
40:07
Speaker 1: say that had they had binoculars in the crow'sness, they
40:10
Speaker 1: most definitely would have cited that icebergs in time to
40:15
Speaker 1: maneuver away from them. That the lookouts said that later
40:18
Speaker 1: on at an inquiry. Yeah, and of course people debated
40:21
Speaker 1: that as well. Um, it's hindsight is twenty but it
40:25
Speaker 1: certainly wouldn't have hurt. Yeah, you know, no, definitely wouldn't have. So. Um.
40:30
Speaker 1: I mentioned some wealthy industrialists that was mostly first class
40:35
Speaker 1: passengers were all extraordinarily well above average wealthy people, like
40:40
Speaker 1: even for wealthy people, they were above average wealthy. Um.
40:43
Speaker 1: And that was reflected in the ticket prices that some
40:46
Speaker 1: of them paid for passage on the Titanic. Dude, Yeah,
40:49
Speaker 1: big money in today dollars, anywhere from sixty six grand
40:53
Speaker 1: to a dred and twenty grand for passage. Yeah. I
40:56
Speaker 1: don't think that fully gets it across, because you're like, Okay,
40:59
Speaker 1: I can see a billionaire selling something like that out.
41:02
Speaker 1: You know, it's gaudy and gross. But what really drove
41:05
Speaker 1: it home to me was at the time, um, so
41:08
Speaker 1: they were paying up to forty dollars and their dollars
41:12
Speaker 1: and at the time, the average American made eight hundred
41:15
Speaker 1: dollars a year. Wow, and these guys showed out forty
41:20
Speaker 1: hundred for a one way ticket. This was not round trip,
41:23
Speaker 1: this was one way from the UK to Americas and
41:28
Speaker 1: that nuts. Uh. Third class steerage I think even costs
41:33
Speaker 1: close to a thousand dollars and today dollars, which is
41:36
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I mean thirty five bucks back then,
41:39
Speaker 1: but um that that's not cheap, no, but it was
41:42
Speaker 1: definitely a lot more affordable than a hundred nine dollars.
41:47
Speaker 1: That's right. So I guess we should talk a little
41:51
Speaker 1: bit before we wrap up about um kind of the
41:55
Speaker 1: controversy over the size of the ship. As we said
41:58
Speaker 1: at the beginning, they wanted it to the biggest and
42:01
Speaker 1: the best, all three of those sister ships, just to
42:04
Speaker 1: be the biggest thing ever, to really rub it in
42:06
Speaker 1: the Kunard lines face. And that presented some problems though,
42:10
Speaker 1: one of which was the Board of Trade didn't know
42:13
Speaker 1: how many lifeboats or at least hadn't acted on it
42:16
Speaker 1: and said how many lifeboats you should have because in
42:20
Speaker 1: merchant Shipping Act, Uh, they topped out at ten thousand
42:23
Speaker 1: tons and said you need, uh, sixteen lifeboats if you're
42:26
Speaker 1: ten thousand tons. Titanic was thirty five thousand tons. Uh,
42:30
Speaker 1: and they had sixteen lifeboats because that's just where the
42:34
Speaker 1: Merchant Shipping Act ended. And they didn't like the you know,
42:37
Speaker 1: the unsightliness of them, so they weren't going to add
42:39
Speaker 1: any Uh. It does not mean because it was three
42:42
Speaker 1: times a size they needed forty eight lifeboats. I think
42:46
Speaker 1: in retrospect they said twenty six would have done it.
42:50
Speaker 1: But as we'll get to you know, the whole accident,
42:54
Speaker 1: that the speed at which it sank it may not
42:56
Speaker 1: have mattered anyway. But um, that was one of the
42:59
Speaker 1: big problems with its size. That was a very big problem. Yeah,
43:03
Speaker 1: not adding enough lifeboats because they seemed unsightly. It's not
43:06
Speaker 1: a good move. Um. Another one is that the Titanic
43:11
Speaker 1: um only had like six or seven hours of testing
43:15
Speaker 1: before it's sailed, and that was mostly just to check
43:19
Speaker 1: its maneuverability. It was never sailed at full speed. Before
43:22
Speaker 1: it set sail for America. UM, so the testing wasn't
43:27
Speaker 1: very good. And then even even more important, as far
43:31
Speaker 1: as lifeboats go, they never fully um did like a
43:35
Speaker 1: full drill to lower all the lifeboats to board. And
43:40
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why people died was not just
43:42
Speaker 1: because there weren't that many lifeboats that was a huge,
43:45
Speaker 1: huge issue, but also because there just wasn't a lot
43:49
Speaker 1: of needed protocol in launching the lifeboats as far as
43:53
Speaker 1: the crew was concerned. A lot of them had had
43:55
Speaker 1: just had come aboard basically the day before they were
43:59
Speaker 1: they were taking passengers and it didn't even have a
44:02
Speaker 1: poster a position while they were passengers on that first day. Yeah,
44:06
Speaker 1: I mean that's a It was basically an hr nightmare
44:10
Speaker 1: with people showing up. As the passengers are showing up,
44:13
Speaker 1: going where do I go? What do you want me
44:15
Speaker 1: to do? They're like, have you ever waited tables? Have
44:17
Speaker 1: you ever shoveled goal? And they were just kind of
44:21
Speaker 1: sticking people where they needed them, And like you said,
44:23
Speaker 1: I think they only were able to lower two of
44:25
Speaker 1: those sixteen lifeboats. And in the end, what that also
44:29
Speaker 1: means is you don't know how long it's going to
44:31
Speaker 1: take to lower them all. So it was just h
44:34
Speaker 1: they were kind of just flying or sailing blind, right exactly.
44:38
Speaker 1: So those were just really really big problems that would
44:41
Speaker 1: turn out to be um extremely important when the ship
44:46
Speaker 1: started going down, because any one of those things being
44:51
Speaker 1: slightly different or improved or not being a problem means
44:54
Speaker 1: that people's lives definitely would have been saved. You can
44:57
Speaker 1: debate like how many people would have been saved, but yeah,
45:00
Speaker 1: there were there was definitely room for more people to
45:03
Speaker 1: have survived the Titanic than did. Yeah. There was also
45:07
Speaker 1: a weird incident that happened on April tenth that possibly
45:11
Speaker 1: altered history. The Titanic was being pulled out by tug boats. Uh,
45:17
Speaker 1: and it I think, as the story goes, the captain
45:21
Speaker 1: kind of a little too early said go ahead and
45:23
Speaker 1: release us, and we'll just fire this baby up. It's
45:25
Speaker 1: really itching to get those propellers spinning. And he said,
45:28
Speaker 1: and give me a two two while you're at it.
45:31
Speaker 1: And uh, when he started turning those propellers, it was
45:35
Speaker 1: a big, violent suction and it sucked this other steamer, Uh,
45:39
Speaker 1: the s s New York into its wake. Uh. It
45:42
Speaker 1: was attached to the Oceanic and it started pulling this
45:46
Speaker 1: boat over to it. I think it snapped away from
45:49
Speaker 1: the Oceanic. It kind of ripped off the moorings. And
45:53
Speaker 1: if it weren't for quick action by tug boats reattaching
45:56
Speaker 1: pulling the New York away, and then the captain realizing
45:59
Speaker 1: what was going on and hitting the engine hard and
46:02
Speaker 1: turning out of the way like there. It shows pictures
46:05
Speaker 1: that they miss hitting each other by just a few feet.
46:09
Speaker 1: And not only would that if it had actually hit it,
46:12
Speaker 1: that would have caused a delay that could have altered history.
46:15
Speaker 1: But there was a slight delay anyway, just because of
46:18
Speaker 1: this incident that you know, who knows if those you know,
46:23
Speaker 1: events would have lined up with that iceberg in there
46:25
Speaker 1: at the exact moment it needed to be. Yeah, that's
46:27
Speaker 1: an amazing point, Chuck, I hadn't seen that one. So
46:31
Speaker 1: they they leave Queenstown, Ireland on April elevenelve, I believe right, yes,
46:40
Speaker 1: and start heading out to see full speed ahead. Uh,
46:44
Speaker 1: and we will stop here. What do you think? Boy?
46:47
Speaker 1: What a cliffhanger? What's going to happen? I don't know.
46:50
Speaker 1: We'll find out in the next episode of Stuff. You
46:54
Speaker 1: should know Stuff you should know is a production I
47:00
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