Titanic

You might think you know all there is to know about the RMS Titanic, the infamous 'unsinkable' ship that hit an iceberg, and well, sunk. The movie Titanic gives a nice story, but of course, movies do fabricate quite a bit. Do you know everything there is to know about the real Titanic? The Titanic set sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912. It was heading to New York City, but unfortunately, the trip was only four days long. About 1,500 out of the 2,200 people on board passed away after the Titanic hit an iceberg. 1. It was one of the most expensive ships built at the time RMS Titanic / Wikimedia Commons The Titanic cost a record $7.5 million to build! To put it in perspective, that would equal around $150 million today. However, today's cruise ships can cost around $1 billion! 2. It took over two years to build Building the Titanic / Flickr It took a little over two years to fully construct the Titanic. Can you imagine doing all of that work and then it sinking within four days? There were about 3,000 men who worked on the construction of the Titanic. There were many injuries and even deaths from just building this massive ship. 3. The makers of the Titanic wanted it to look like a hotel The first class area in the Titanic / Wikipedia For the rich, the first class areas of the ship were made to look like a luxury hotel. It had many perks including a saltwater swimming pool, a Turkish bath, incredible restaurants, and much more. Remember how extravagant everything looked in the movie? Even for people who could only afford third class, it was much better than other ships with more amenities. 4. There were 900 crew members for only about 1,300 passengers Titanic passengers / Wikimedia Commons Only 23 of these crew members were female! Talk about a lot of men on board. It may seem like a lot, but there were lots to do... engineers, firefighters, cooks, etc. Read on to the NEXT page for even more facts about the real Titanic! 5. There were famous people on board Benjamin Guggenheim / Wikimedia Commons There were several famous people on the Titanic including Benjamin Guggenheim, John Jacob Astor IV, and Isidor Straus. They all died when the Titanic sunk. 6. There were not enough lifeboats to save everyone Titanic lifeboats / Wikipedia There were only 20 lifeboats! They clearly didn't anticipate any emergency. Perhaps if they had realistic safety precautions, more people could have been saved. The crew was also ill prepared for emergencies. The morning they set sail, they were supposed to do a lifeboat drill, but the captain canceled it! 7. The ship had its own newspaper Titanic / Coast Guard Compass They put out a daily newspaper called the Atlantic Daily Bulletin. 8. The last known survivor died in 2009 Millvina Dean / Wikimedia Commons She was 97 years old when she passed. She was only nine weeks old when she was on the Titanic! How crazy that she likely doesn't even remember all of the craziness? Which fact did you learn about the Titanic today? If you enjoyed this article, please SHARE with your friends and family who are fascinated by the Titanic! Check out this real video of the Titanic departing in 1912: