His grandfather, John Jacob Astor, emigrated to the United States from Germany, aged just 21, with little more than a suitcase of musical instruments. However, he was a shrewd investor who ventured into various industries, including fur trading and real estate. Within 4 decades, he became the country’s first multi-millionaire.

Astor IV himself became a prominent figure in business and high society, by further building upon his family’s wealth and financial empire through savvy investments in New York City’s booming real estate market. He developed and owned prestigious properties, including the iconic hotels the Waldorf-Astoria and the St. Regis, as well as several other prominent buildings.

However, Astor IV is most famously remembered for his tragic demise aboard the Titanic, an ill-fated journey he had embarked upon in order to avoid the publicity of a family scandal. At the time of boarding he was aged 47 and as head of the Astor family, had a personal fortune worth approximately $80 million (equivalent to over $200 billion in today’s money). He was the wealthiest passenger aboard the Titanic.

Birth and family legacy

Born on 13 July 1864, in New York, John Jacob Astor IV hailed from one of the most affluent families in the world.The Astor family’s prestigious lineage dates back to the early 1700s when his great-grandfather, John Jacob Astor, arrived in America from a small village in Germany.

John Jacob Astor IV’s mother was Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, who had married William Backhouse Astor Jr. (the son of John Jacob Astor III and the grandson of the original John Jacob Astor).

John Jacob Astor built his family’s wealth as a successful exporter for a Canadian fur company, amassing a fortune of over $250,000 by the late 1790s. Astor later shifted his focus to New York City real estate, capitalising on the city’s expansion by strategically selling developed land along the routes of essential services. He amassed great wealth through real estate ventures, including acquiring land in Manhattan, which later became Times Square.

A privileged life

John Jacob Astor IV was raised in a world of opulence and privilege. His childhood was marked by luxurious living, surrounded by the finest amenities and cultural opportunities.

His father, William Backhouse Astor Jr., in contrast to his business-minded father, did not share his father’s drive for aggressively expanding the family fortune. Instead, he found joy in a life of luxury and leisure. He spent much of his time aboard the Ambassadress, the world’s largest private yacht at that time.

Despite his privileged upbringing, Astor IV received a well-rounded education, attending prestigious institutions such as St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University.

However Astor IV did not complete his studies, and spent several years abroad before returning to New York to join the family real estate business.

Real estate success and iconic hotels

After his father died in 1892, John Jacob Astor IV utilised his inherited wealth by investing heavily in real estate projects. In 1897, he constructed the Astoria Hotel adjacent to the Waldorf Hotel, built by his cousin William Waldorf Astor. The combined establishments became renowned as the Waldorf-Astoria. Astor’s real estate interests extended to other hotels as well, including the Hotel St. Regis (1905) and the Knickerbocker (1906).

Marriages and private scandal

John Jacob Astor IV married Ava Shippen in 1891, and together they had a son named Vincent and a daughter named Ava. However, their marriage faced challenges, and they eventually divorced in 1909. Astor’s second marriage in 1911 to Madeleine Force garnered significant attention due to their substantial age difference. At the time of their marriage, Madeleine was only 18 years old, while Astor was 47.

The couple’s union caused a scandal due to the rarity of divorce and remarriage during that time, and drew public criticism, prompting them to seek refuge abroad. They travelled extensively, spending time in Europe and Egypt, before deciding to return to the United States aboard the luxurious RMS Titanic.

Washington Times story about Madeleine Force, the future bride of John Jacob Astor IV in 1911.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

A fatal decision

The couple boarded the ship at Cherbourg, on 10 April 1912, accompanied by their respective staff members and Madeleine’s nursemaid due to her pregnancy.

Just 2 days later the Titanic struck an iceberg. Astor was one of the first to realise the boat was sinking. He woke his wife, advised her to dress warmly, adorned her with jewellery, and placed her in a lifeboat. His wife was reluctant to leave his side, but Astor assured her that she would be safe and that they would reunite in the morning.

John Jacob Astor IV, wearing a distinguished dinner suit and clutching his personalised pocket watch, was last sighted on the deck of the Titanic. His body was recovered by the cable ship Mackay-Bennett on 22 April, identified by the initials sewn into his jacket, and the watch which was engraved with the initials J.J.A. He was buried at Trinity Cemetery, New York.

A young newspaper seller holds a banner declaring TITANIC DISASTER GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Cockspur Street, London, UK, 1912.

Image Credit: Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo

A controversial inheritance

If Astor had survived and reached the United States, he intended to make his unborn child with Madeleine the heir to his fortune. However, the majority of his wealth passed on to his first son, Vincent Astor, who dropped out of University and dedicated the rest of his life to philanthropy.

The Vincent Astor Foundation was established in New York City in 1948 for the purpose of “alleviating human misery” and Astor donated a significant portion of his fortune to educational institutions, healthcare initiatives, and the arts. He played a pivotal role in the development and funding of notable institutions such as the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bronx Zoo.

The rescue mission was led by the RMS Carpathia, a passenger ship, which swiftly responded to distress signals from the sinking Titanic, arriving approximately 2 hours after it had sunk. As the Carpathia approached, it encountered a harrowing sight — the icy waters strewn with debris and lifeboats.

While the loss of life was staggering, there were also stories of miraculous survival. Around 710 people managed to escape the sinking ship and were rescued by other vessels. 

Upon reaching New York City, the survivors were met with a city in mourning and a media frenzy. Families anxiously awaited news of their loved ones, hoping for joyous reunions but often faced with heart-wrenching losses. 

Here are the stories of 5 of those Titanic survivors, and the extraordinary circumstances that led to their miraculous escapes.

Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown

Margaret Brown, known as the ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown,‘ was an American socialite and philanthropist. Already a trailblazer, she had made history as one of the first women to run for political office in the United States, years before women gained the right to vote. During her travels in Europe, she received news of her ill grandson and promptly booked passage on the earliest available ship — Titanic — destined for New York, which she boarded at Cherbourg, France.

Mrs. Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown. Unknown date.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

When disaster struck, women and children were urged to board the lifeboats, but Brown chose to remain on the vessel, and assisted others in their escape. It was only when a crew member forcefully placed her in lifeboat number 6 that she reluctantly left the sinking ship.

Once on the lifeboat, Brown engaged in a heated confrontation with Quartermaster Robert Hichens. She implored him to turn back and rescue any survivors in the water, and threatened to throw him overboard when he refused. While it is uncertain if she succeeded in turning the boat around, she convinced Hichens to allow women in the boat to row, which ensured they stayed warm amidst the frigid waters.

Following the tragedy, Brown dedicated herself to social activism, becoming a prominent figure in advocating for women’s suffrage and workers’ rights. Her character was immortalised in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, further solidifying her place in history. 

Brown died at the age of 65, of a brain tumour, in New York on 26 October 1932.

Charles Joughin

Charles Joughin was an experienced chief baker, who had served on Titanic’s sister ship, Olympic. On the ill-fated voyage, he supervised a team of 13 and was one of the highest-paid crew members, earning a monthly wage equivalent to £12.

Joughin later testified that he was off duty when the accident occurred, but sent his bakers with 50 loaves of bread for the lifeboats, and returned to his room for a drink. He returned again to the boat deck to reach his assigned lifeboat (10) on the port side, and assisted in placing women and children in the boat, but didn’t board himself. Joughin returned again to his room for another stiff drink before going back to the boat deck, only to find all the lifeboats had already departed. He eventually reached the starboard side of the poop deck, where he clung to the ship’s outer rails. As the ship went down into the icy water, he managed to stay afloat and eventually was picked up by lifeboat B at daybreak.

It has been speculated that his high alcohol consumption played a role in his survival, as alcohol can increase body heat and potentially provide some insulation against hypothermia.

Despite the traumatic experience, he continued to work at sea for several more years before retiring.

Charles Joughin passed away on 9 December 1956, at the age of 78.

Violet Jessop

Violet Jessop, an Irish-Argentine ocean liner stewardess, had an extraordinary connection to maritime disasters. She had previously served on the Olympic, the eldest of the 3 sister ships, which had collided with HMS Hawke in 1911. She reluctantly joined the Titanic, in 1912 aged 24, after being persuaded by her friends that it would be a unique experience. 

Immediately after the Titanic’s collision, Jessop assisted in the evacuation by aiding women and children into lifeboats, and was entrusted with caring for a baby. She boarded lifeboat 16 which was rescued by the Carpathia the following morning.

Some years later, whilst working as a nurse for the British Red Cross, she was assigned to the hospital ship HMHS Britannic, which was the sister ship of both the doomed Titanic and Olympic. On the 21 November 1916 the Britannic struck a mine and began to sink, with Jessop on board, who survived yet another maritime disaster. Some 1,000 individuals were saved but the incident still claimed the lives of 30 people.

Jessop died of heart failure in 1971, at the age of 83.

Colonel Archibald Gracie IV

Eva Hart

Eva Hart, aged just 7 at the time, was a British girl traveling on the Titanic with her parents as second-class passengers. Her father, Benjamin, placed her, along with her mother, Esther, into lifeboat 14, and they were rescued the following morning by the Carpathia. Eva’s father did not survive the sinking.

For the rest of her life she was traumatised by nightmares, vividly recounting the noise of the “terrible screams” in frequent interviews.

Benjamin, Eva and Esther Hart

Image Credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons

She went on to became an advocate for maritime safety and actively campaigned for stricter regulations and increased safety measures on ships. She frequently criticised the White Star Line, the shipping company that owned the Titanic, for failing to provide enough lifeboats.

She was one of the last remaining survivors, who labelled the shipwreck’s salvagers as “fortune hunters, vultures, pirates, and grave robbers”, before her death from cancer on 14 February 1996, just 2 weeks before turning 91.

In spite of receiving several iceberg warnings, the Titanic’s captain Edward Smith continued to sail full-throttle into the night. This decision proved deadly: the mighty ship collided with an iceberg, which tore a hole into the hull, causing it to flood and sink. Around 1,500 people died in what was then the greatest loss of life from any peacetime shipwreck.

The disaster sent shockwaves around the world, not least to the White Star Line and its engineers, who had boasted of the Titanic’s supposedly unsinkable design.

So how, where and why was Titanic built?

It was the biggest ship on the company’s line

Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff and the White Star Line shipping company had an exclusive contract that specified that White Star could only go to Harland and Wolff to have their ships built, and Harland and Wolff could not build for rival companies.

RMS Titanic, its name derived from the Titans of Greek mythology, was to be the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners (the others being RMS Olympic and HMHS Britannic), which were by far the largest of White Star Line’s fleet. The genesis of the three ships was first discussed in mid 1907 between the White Star Line chairman and American financier J. P. Morgan.

It was designed to be the biggest passenger liner in history

The Titanic ready for launch. The ship was constructed on Queen’s Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour which was part of the Harland and Wolff shipyard.

Though many ships already offered passage from Europe across the Atlantic, Titanic aimed to be the grandest, biggest and most luxurious passenger liner available. In particular, White Star Line aimed to dwarf rival Cunard Lines’ ships the Lusitania and Mauretania, which were then the fastest passenger ships in service, as well as German lines Hamburg America and Norddeutscher Lloyd.

The company chose to dominate in terms of size and luxury, rather than speed, as a means of strengthening the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York service that was inaugurated in 1907.

It had a near unlimited budget

When it came to the design and construction of the ships, White Star Line would normally sketch out a general idea, then allow Harland and Wolff to turn this into a ship design. Cost considerations were low on the agenda; Harland and Wolff were authorised to spend almost whatever they liked on the ships, in addition to a 5% profit margin. In the case of the Olympic-class ships, £3 million (around £310 million in 2019) was allocated to the first two ships.

However, some elements of the original design were altered or removed as Titanic went severely over construction budget, which included removing extra luxury features such as extra swimming pools and electric lifts.

Two new slipways were required for its construction

The Titanic‘s construction began on 31 March 1909 when designer Thomas Andrews laid the first keel plate in Harland and Wolff Shipyards, Belfast. Her sister ship, The Olympic, had begun some three months earlier, and the two ships were constructed simultaneously by over 15,000 workers. By the time the ship was built, 8 workers had lost their lives as a result of the large and dangerous construction site.

At the time that Titanic was built, no facilities existed to build or berth such a vast ship. As a result, Harland and Wolff built two new slipways, two gantries that featured moving cranes and lifts and a vast, 200-ton floating crane to lift the boilers and other mechanical items.

It was bigger and heavier than its nearest rival

RMS Olympic’s rudder with central and port wing propellers; for scale, note the man at the bottom of the photo.

Image Credit: Robert Welch - Harland & Wolff Collection N.M.N.I. Olympic-Fitting-out.html / Wikimedia Commons

The Titanic featured 3 million hand-driven rivets, weighed 46,000 tons and measured more than 882 feet (269 metres), making her over 100 feet longer and over 50% heavier than their nearest rival. Indeed, she was the largest man-made moving object ever built at the time.

The ‘unsinkable’ hull was divided into 16 watertight compartments, and featured over 2,000 portholes for the wealthier guests to look out of. Titanic was built to stay afloat even if two of the middle compartments or four front compartments flooded, which was indeed an ingenious stroke of engineering and design that was lamentably let down by poor budgeting and execution. Indeed, in the wake of the disaster, the quality of the rivet installation and metalworking was blamed for succumbing to the iceberg so quickly.

Speed was compromised in favour of comfort, with the propellors deliberately positioned to create no noticeable vibration or disturbance for customers – the peak of luxury. Indeed, media flocked to the dry dock throughout the construction of both Titanic and Olympic, which naturally helped ensure that tickets for passage on the ships were sold out for years to come.

For the 15,000 men who worked at Harland and Wolff at the time, there were very few safety precautions. During the construction of the Titanic, 246 injuries were recorded, of which 28 were classified as ‘severe’. Six workers died on the ship while she was being kitted out, while two more died in the shipyard sheds and workshops.

It didn’t have enough lifeboats to hold everyone on board

Though no expense was spared when it came to luxury, the same rules weren’t applied to safety precautions on board.

The ship was equipped with 16 lifeboat davits, which were each capable of lowering three lifeboats for a total of 48 boats. However, she only carried 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved difficult to launch while the ship was sinking – one was swamped and filled with a foot of water, while another entirely overturned while launching.

Together, the 20 lifeboats could only hold 1,178 people – about half the number of people on board. To make matters worse, when many of the lifeboats were launched, they were only half full.

It produced around 46,000 horsepower

The Titanic naturally required an enormous power source. In the early 1900s, that source was coal-powered steam. The ship featured 24 double-ended Scotch class boilers as well as five single-ended boilers housed in six boiler rooms. With all boilers firing, the TItanic produced around 46,000 horsepower.

The original design was so efficient that it only required three funnels to service the huge boilers 150 feet below. However, White Star Line believed that a ship of such grandeur should possess four funnels. As a result, a fourth, non-functional funnel was added as an aesthetic element and to provide fresh air to the engine rooms.

Its launch was a huge affair

Launch, 1911 (unfinished superstructure)

Image Credit: Public domain: Launch, 1911 (unfinished superstructure) / Wikimedia Commons

On 31 May 1911, the 26,000 ton hull of the Titanic still smelt of fresh black enamel as it descended down the slipway assisted by some 25 tons of grease and soap. Large crowds, dignitaries and press totalling around 100,000 flocked to the sight, many believing that such a massive steel object wouldn’t possibly float.

A White Star Line employee was quoted saying, ‘Not even God himself could sink this ship.’ The rest is history.

The wreck of RMS Titanic was discovered in 1985. Since then numerous expeditions have been mounted to photograph the exceptional site, which is located 350 nautical miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, some 12,000 feet below sea level.

Here are 10 eerie underwater photographs of the Titanic wreck.

1. Deck of Titanic

MIR submersible illuminates part of Titanic’s deck, 2003 ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Image Credit: © Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Titanic is probably the most famous shipwreck of all time. It was the largest and most luxurious ship in the world when it launched on 31 May 1911. Built in Belfast, Northern Ireland by Harland and Wolff, it was intended for transatlantic passage between Southampton, England and New York City in the United States.

2. Bow of the wrecked Titanic

View of the bow of the RMS Titanic photographed in June 2004 by the ROV Hercules during an expedition returning to the shipwreck of the Titanic.

Image Credit: Public Domain

At 11.39 on 14 April, four days after departing Southampton, lookouts spotted an iceberg dead ahead of the ship. The crew desperately tried to avoid the collision, but the iceberg struck the vessel on its starboard side, leaving a 200-foot gash in the ship into which water began to seep.

By midnight, the order had been given to prepare the lifeboats. During the following desperate hours, distress signals were sent by radio, rockets and lamps. The ship broke in two, and by 2.20 am the still buoyant stern had sunk.

The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985. This photograph of the wrecked Titanic‘s bow was taken in June 2004 by the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Hercules.

3. Rusticles on Titanic‘s stern

Rusticles on the RMS Titanic cover the hanging stern.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the RMS Titanic Team Expedition 2003, ROI, IFE, NOAA-OE.

Microbes at work nearly 4 kilometres under the sea feed off iron on the ship, forming “rusticles”. Given the way the embrittled steel at the stern of the ship provides a better “habitat” for rusticles, scientists have determined that the stern section of the ship is deteriorating at a faster rate than the bow section.

4. Window frames on Titanic

Window frames belonging to the Titanic.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the RMS Titanic Team Expedition 2003, ROI, IFE, NOAA-OE.

Rusticles grow on either side of the window frames belonging to the Titanic. The icicle-like rusticle formations appear to pass through a cycle of growth, maturation and then fall away.

5. Captain Smith’s bathtub

A view of the bathtub in Capt. Smith’s bathroom.

Image Credit: Courtesy of the RMS Titanic Team Expedition 2003, ROI, IFE, NOAA-OE.

Most of RMS Titanic remains in its final resting place. It is located 350 nautical miles from the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, some 12,000 feet below sea level.

After the Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, some objects were salvaged among the flotsam and jetsam. Salvage of the ship was impossible until 1985, when modern technology was used to make remotely operated approaches on the vessel. Not only is the ship almost 4 kilometres underwater, the water pressure at that depth is over 6,500 pounds per square inch.

6. MIR submersible observing the bow of the Titanic wreck, 2003

A MIR submersible observing the bow of the Titanic wreck, 2003, (c) Walt Disney/courtesy Everett Collection

Image Credit: © Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

It was long thought that the Titanic sank in one piece. Though previous expeditions had been mounted, it was the 1985 Franco-American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel and Robert Ballard which discovered that the ship had split apart before sinking to the seabed.

The ship’s stern and bow lie around 0.6 km apart in a site since named Titanic Canyon. Both sustained huge damage when they collided with the seabed, especially the stern. The bow, meanwhile, contains relatively intact interiors.

7. Bottles of wine on the seabed

Bottles of wine, primarily French Bordeaux, litter the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean near the remains of the Titanic, more than 12,000 feet below the surface, 1985.

Image Credit: Keystone Press / Alamy Stock Photo

The debris field around Titanic is around 5 by 3 miles large. It is spread over with furniture, personal items, wine bottles and parts of the ship. It is from this debris field that salvagers have been permitted to collect items.

While many of Titanic’s victims who would have worn life jackets may have been swept miles away, some victims are thought to have lain in the debris field. But decomposition and consumption by sea creatures has likely left just their shoes. The possibility of extant human remains has been raised, however. Proponents argue that the wreckage should be designated a gravesite with prohibitions on salvage.

8. One of Titanic‘s anchors

One of Titanic’s anchors, 2003 ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Image Credit: © Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

The centre anchor and two side anchors were among the last items to be fitted to Titanic before her launch. The centre anchor was the largest ever forged by hand and weighed nearly 16 tons.

9. An open hatch on Titanic

One of the open hatches on Titanic, 2003 ©Walt Disney Co./Courtesy Everett Collection

Image Credit: © Walt Disney Co. / Courtesy Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

The Titanic wreck continues to deteriorate. A submersible dive in 2019 identified the loss of the captain’s bathtub, while another submersible vehicle crashed into the ship later that year while filming a documentary.

According to EYOS Expeditions, “intense and highly unpredictable currents” resulted in “accidental contact [being] occasionally made with the seafloor and on one occasion the wreck”.

10. Fish over Titanic

Fish over the Titanic, pictured during the 1985 expedition.

Image Credit: Keystone Press / Alamy Stock Photo

Fish have been pictured in the vicinity of the Titanic wreck. On the surface, the water’s freezing temperatures meant that many of the survivors in the water died of hypothermia before the first rescuers on board RMS Carpathia arrived around 4 am on 15 April 1912.

After the collision, he and his personal valet, Victor Giglio, famously left the boat deck as people scrambled to board lifeboats, instead returning to their quarters and donning their finest suits. They wanted, according to some survivors’ accounts, “to go down like gentlemen.”

Benjamin and Giglio were last seen enjoying brandy and cigars together as the Titanic sank. Neither of them survived, but in the wake of the disaster, their remarkable story earned renown the world over.

Millionaire

Benjamin Guggenheim was born in New York in 1865, to Swiss parents Meyer and Barbara Guggenheim. Meyer was a renowned and wealthy copper mining mogul, and Benjamin, the fifth of seven brothers, went on to work for his father’s smelting company alongside some of his siblings.

A photograph of Meyer Guggenheim and his sons.

Image Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Benjamin married a Florette J. Seligman in 1894. Together, they had three daughters: Benita Rosalind Guggenheim, Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Guggenheim (who grew up to become a famed art collector and socialite) and Barbara Hazel Guggenheim.

But despite being married with children, Benjamin was renowned for living a jet-setting, bachelor’s lifestyle. Benjamin and Florette ultimately grew apart as his lucrative business endeavours took him around the world.

So, upon the departure of the RMS Titanic, he was accompanied not by his wife, but his mistress, a singer from France called Leontine Aubart. Joining Benjamin on the ship were Benjamin’s valet Giglio, Leontine’s maid Emma Sagesser and their chauffeur, Rene Pemot.

Their doomed voyage

On 10 April 1912, Benjamin and his party boarded the Titanic in Cherbourg, on the north coast of France, as it made a brief stop after leaving the English port of Southampton. From Cherbourg, the Titanic made its way to Queenstown in Ireland, now known as Cobh. Queenstown was supposed to be just the last European stop on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but it turned out to be the last port the ‘unsinkable’ ship would ever call at.

On the night of 14 April 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg. Benjamin and Giglio slept through the initial impact in their first class suite, but were alerted to the disaster by Leontine and Emma shortly after.

Benjamin was put into a lifebelt and a sweater by one of the ship’s stewards, Henry Samuel Etches. The party – except for Pemot, who had been staying separately in second class – then ascended from their quarters to the boat deck. There, Leontine and Emma were granted room on lifeboat number 9 as women and children were prioritised.

As they bade farewell, Guggenheim is thought to have said to Emma, in German, “we will soon see each other again! It’s just a repair. Tomorrow the Titanic will go on again.”

Like gentlemen

Harold Goldblatt as Benjamin Guggenheim (left) in a scene from the 1958 film A Night To Remember.

Image Credit: LANDMARK MEDIA / Alamy Stock Photo

But it soon became clear that Benjamin was mistaken, and the ship was going down. Rather than wait or fight for space on a lifeboat, Benjamin and Giglio made their way back down to their quarters, where they got dressed into their finest evening wear.

They emerged, reports suggest, donning full formal suits. Accounts from survivors quoted Benjamin as stating, “we’ve dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen.”

One survivor, Rose Icard, purportedly later recalled, “after having helped the rescue of women and children, [Benjamin] got dressed and put a rose at his buttonhole, to die.” Etches, the steward who helped Benjamin into a lifebelt, survived. He later recalled that Benjamin relayed to him a final message: “if anything should happen to me, tell my wife I’ve done my best in doing my duty.”

The last recorded sighting of Benjamin and Giglio places them in deckchairs, enjoying brandy and cigars as the ship went down.

Victor Giglio

Benjamin and Giglio swiftly earned international renown for their remarkable story, with their names featured in newspapers around the world after the disaster. They remain two of the most widely known victims of the Titanic, and were depicted in the 1958 film A Night to Remember, the 1996 miniseries Titanic and James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, amongst other works.

Despite the posthumous fame earned by both men, no photographs of Giglio were known to exist until 2012. At that point, the Merseyside Maritime Museum issued an appeal for information about Giglio, himself a Liverpudlian. Eventually, a photo surfaced of Giglio, aged 13, some 11 years before the incident.

Benjamin’s legacy

View of the bow of the RMS Titanic photographed in June 2004 by the ROV Hercules during an expedition returning to the shipwreck of the Titanic.

Image Credit: Public Domain

More than a century after Benjamin’s death aboard the Titanic, his great-great-grandson, Sindbad Rumney-Guggenheim, saw the Titanic stateroom where Benjamin perished all those years ago.

As part of a National Geographic documentary, titled Back to the Titanic, Sindbad watched on screen as an underwater camera traversed the wreck of the Titanic right back to the spot where Benjamin sat in his finery to “go down like a gentleman”.

According to the Sunday Express, Sindbad said of the experience, “’we all like to remember the tales of him dressed in his best and sipping brandy, and then going down heroically. But what I’m seeing here, with the crushed metal and everything, is the reality.”

Certainly, the offbeat tale of Benjamin’s death is underpinned by the harsh reality that he, and so many others, died that fateful night.

The Titanic: her name is synonymous with those of Jack and Rose, fictional passengers on her maiden voyage. In the midst of the many myths and fictions surrounding the famous cruise liner and her ill-fated maiden voyage, here are 10 facts about the Titanic.

1. People died on the Titanic even before it set out

During the 26 month construction of the Titanic at the Harland and Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, 28 serious accidents and 218 minor accidents were recorded. 8 workers were killed.

This was a smaller number than expected for the time, which was one death for every £100,000 spent. As the Titanic cost £1.5 million to build, 15 deaths could have been anticipated.

Most of the 8 were killed by injuries sustained from falling either from the ship or the staging surrounding it.

A 43-year-old shipwright, James Dobbin, was actually killed on the day of the Titanic’s launch. At 12:10 on 31 May 1911, an estimated 10,000 people watched as the massive ship slid from the yard onto the River Lagan.

Dobbin was crushed during the process of removing the timber stays which had been holding the ship upright.

The RMS Titanic ready for launch, 1911

Image Credit: Public Domain

2. The largest liner in the World

On her launch, the Titanic became the largest movable man-made object. She was 269 metres long and 28 metres wide. From keel to bridge she was 32 metres high, 53 metres to the top of the stacks.

Because of her grandeur, it was felt that the Titanic should have four exhaust stacks. Thomas Andrews’ efficient original design, however, necessitated only three. The ship therefore had one purely decorative stack.

Titanic’s unprecedented size resulted from competition between her owners at White Star Line, and Cunard Line.

3. One of three

Because of her size and the new equipment it would require, it would have been too expensive to build the Titanic alone. Instead, she was built alongside two sister ships, both of which also had eventful lifetimes.

Construction of the RMS Olympic began first, and the ship was launched on 20 September 1910. For the next twelve months, the fractionally smaller Olympic was the largest liner in the world.

RMS Titanic (right) at the fitting out wharf in Belfast, whilst RMS Olympic (left) gets repaired on 2 March 1912. Photograph by official photographer of Harland & Wolff

Image Credit: Public Domain

Less of the attention to detail applied to the aesthetic of the Titanic was used on the Olympic. After the former sank, however, improvements included lifeboats for all and, in October 1912, the installation of a watertight inner skin.

The Olympic rescued soldiers from the sinking British battleship, Audacious, in October 1914, and served as a troop ship carrying Canadian soldiers to the European front.

She was the only one of the three to survive more than half a decade. The third and biggest ship, the Britannic, went into production after the Titanic disaster and sank in 1916 after hitting a mine. She had been a British hospital ship.

4. Room for one (thousand) more

Around 2,200 people were on board when the Titanic sank in 1912, but her maximum capacity was around 3,500. Of these, 1,000 would be crew. In 1912, there were 908 crew members, but fewer passengers. There were 324 in First Class, 284 in Second, and 709 in Third.

Between 1,490 and 1,635 of these people died as the ship sank, including the Captain.

5. The estimated overall wealth of the passengers in first class was $500 million

$87 million of this is attributed to John Jacob Astor IV.

On their voyage from New York in January 1912, Astor and his wife Madeleine travelled on the Olympic. Astor was the richest passenger on the Titanic on their return journey, and one of the richest people in the world. He died in the sinking as a ‘women and children first’ protocol was generally followed.

Drawing of the Grand Staircase of the RMS Titanic, from the 1912 promotional booklet (Credit: Public Domain)

Image Credit: Public Domain

It is estimated that $6 million worth of belongings went down on the Titanic.

Not included, however, were the supposed riches of Alfred Nourney. Travelling under the false title Baron Alfred von Drachstedt, Nourney used his assumed aristocratic status to transfer to first class.

As the ship sank he quickly gained access to a lifeboat from the first class smoking room, unlike the 168 men in his original second class quarters, only 14 of whom survived the sinking.

6. In first class, Titanic was a place of luxury

The liner had 4 restaurants and passengers ate off the 50 thousand pieces of bone china crockery supplied by Liverpool’s Stonier and Co.

There were reading rooms, 2 libraries, 2 barber shops and a photographic darkroom on board. A heated swimming pool was reserved for use by first class passengers, at 1 shilling a time. There were also Turkish baths and electric baths, each for 4 shillings a time.

The swimming pool on the Titanic

Image Credit: Public Domain

The Titanic had its own Atlantic Daily Bulletin printed on board, including news, society gossip and the day’s menu.

A first class passenger would pay £30 for a regular room, or £875 for a parlour suite. The majority of passengers, however, were in third class, and payed between £3 and £8.

There were just two baths for all of the passengers in third class, many of whom were bunked in the 164 bed dormitory on deck G.

7. Titanic was officially responsible for delivering mail for the British Postal Service

There were 5 mail clerks, a post office and a mail room on decks F and G, along with 3,423 sacks of mail.

It was reported that during the 2 hours and 40 minutes that the ship took to sink, the clerks prioritised moving sacks of mail to the upper deck.

8. A lifeboat drill scheduled for the 14 April was called off

This was possibly because Captain Edward Smith wished to deliver a final Sunday service before retirement. The ship sank that night.

The crew had only done one lifeboat drill, whilst the ship was docked.

Even if the crew had been better trained and each lifeboat had been filled, there was only sufficient space for around a third of the ship’s maximum capacity. It was believed that the ship would not sink, so there would be time to ferry passengers off it.

This oversight was made possible by the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894, which was not updated to accommodate ships exceeding 10,000 tonnes.

Photograph taken by a passenger of Cunard Line’s RMS Carpathia of a lifeboat from the Titanic

Image Credit: passenger of the Carpathia, the ship that received the Titanic's distress signal and came to rescue the survivors, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

9. The wreck was discovered in the last 50 years

The Titanic wreck lies 3,700 metres below the surface of the Atlantic. It was not discovered until 1985, at which time it was confirmed that the boat had split in two.

The task of finding the Titanic was included in a military operation to survey the remains of some nuclear submarines led by Robert Ballard.

The separated bow and stern are around a third of a mile apart. Debris from the ship covers an area of 15 square miles.

Many areas of the ship remain unexplored, as they are inaccessible to underwater vehicles.

The bow of the Titanic photographed in 2004 by the ROV Hercules

Image Credit: Public Domain

10. Titanic’s legacy endures

The sinking of the Titanic has inspired many films and documentaries. A requiem tracking the launch, journey, sinking and aftermath of the Titanic was written by Robin and RJ Gibb, and performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Whilst the ship itself is too fragile to be brought to the surface, innumerable smaller parts and objects have been salvaged. Many, including a section of the hull, sit in the Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.

Immortalised in the 1997 film Titanic, Margaret Brown’s legacy is one that continues to fascinate. However, beyond the events of the tragedy of the Titanic itself, Margaret was better known for her social welfare work on behalf of women, children and workers, and for routinely ignoring convention in favour of doing what she felt was right.

Here’s a rundown of the life of the unsinkable – and unforgettable – Molly Brown.

Her early life was unremarkable

Margaret Tobin was born on 18 July 1867, in Hannibal, Missouri. She was never known as ‘Molly’ during her life: the nickname was earned posthumously. She grew up in a humble Irish-Catholic family with several siblings, and took work in a factory at the age of 13.

In 1886, she followed two of her siblings, Daniel Tobin and Mary Ann Collins Landrigan, along with Mary Ann’s husband John Landrigan, to the popular mining town of Leadville, Colorado. Margaret and her brother shared a two-room log cabin, and she found work for a local sewing store.

She married a poor man who later became very rich

While in Leadville, Margaret met James Joseph ‘JJ’ Brown, a mining superintendent who was 12 years her senior. Though he had little money, Margaret loved Brown and gave up her dreams of marrying a wealthy man to marry him in 1886. Of her decision to marry a poor man she wrote, “I decided that I’d be better off with a poor man whom I loved than a wealthy one whose money had attracted me”. The couple had a son and a daughter.

Mrs. Margaret ‘Molly’ Brown, survivor of the Titanic sinking. Three-quarter length portrait, standing, facing right, right arm on back of chair, between 1890 and 1920.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

As her husband rose up the ranks of the mining company in Leadville, Brown became an active community member who helped miners and their families and worked to improve the schools in the area. Brown was also known for not being interested in conventional behaviour and dress in line with other prominent town citizens, and enjoyed wearing big hats.

In 1893, the mining company discovered gold at the Little Johnny Mine. This resulted in JJ being given a partnership at the Ibex Mining Company. In a very short period of time, the Browns became millionaires, and the family moved to Denver, where they bought a mansion for around $30,000 (about $900,000 today).

Brown’s activism contributed to a breakdown in her marriage

While in Denver, Margaret was an active community member, founding the Denver Women’s Club, which aimed to improve women’s lives by allowing them to continue in education, and raising money for children’s causes and mine workers. As a society lady, she also learned French, German, Italian and Russian, and in an unheard of feat for women at the time, Brown also ran for a Colorado state senate seat, though she eventually withdrew from the race.

Though she was a popular hostess who also attended parties that were held by socialites, as she had only recently acquired her wealth she was never able to gain entry into the most elite group, the Sacred 36, which was run by a Louise Sneed Hill. Brown described her as the ‘snobbiest woman in Denver’.

Amongst other issues, Brown’s activism caused her marriage to deteriorate, since JJ held sexist views about the role of women and refused to support his wife’s public endeavours. The couple legally separated in 1899, though never officially divorced. In spite of their separation, the pair continued to be great friends throughout their life, and Margaret received financial support from JJ.

She survived the sinking of the Titanic

By 1912, Margaret was single, rich and in search of adventure. She went on a tour of Egypt, Italy and France, and while she was in Paris visiting her daughter as part of the John Jacob Astor IV party, she received word that her eldest grandchild, Lawrence Palmer Brown Jr., was seriously ill. Brown immediately booked a first-class ticket on the first available liner leaving for New York, the RMS Titanic. Her daughter Helen decided to stay in Paris.

On 15 April 1912, disaster struck. “I stretched on the brass bed, at the side of which was a lamp,” Brown later wrote. “So completely absorbed in my reading I gave little thought to the crash that struck at my window overhead and threw me to the floor.” As events unfolded, women and children were called to board the lifeboats. However, Brown stayed on the vessel and helped others escape until a crew member quite literally swept her off her feet and placed her in lifeboat number 6.

While in the lifeboat, she argued with Quartermaster Robert Hichens, urging him to turn back and rescue any survivors in the water, and threatening to throw him in the water when he refused. Though it’s unlikely she was able to turn the boat around and rescue any survivors, she managed to take some control of the lifeboat and convinced Hichens to let the women in the boat row to stay warm.

After a few hours, Brown’s lifeboat was rescued by the RMS Carpathia. There, she helped to pass out blankets and supplies to those who needed them, and used her multiple languages to communicate with those who didn’t speak English.

She helped those who had lost everything on the ship

Brown recognised that in addition to the huge loss of human life, many passengers had lost all of their money and possessions on the ship.

Mrs. ‘Molly’ Brown presenting trophy cup award to Capt. Arthur Henry Rostron, for his service in the rescue of the Titanic. The committee for the award was chaired by Frederick Kimber Seward. 1912.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

She created a survivors’ committee with other first-class passengers to secure basic necessities for the second and third-class survivors, and even provided informal counselling. By the time the rescue ship reached New York City, she had raised some $10,000.

She later ran for congress

Following her acts of philanthropy and heroism, Brown became something of a national celebrity, so spent the rest of her life finding new causes to champion. In 1914, miners went on strike in Colorado, which caused the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company to harshly retaliate. In response, Brown spoke up for miners’ rights and urged John D. Rockefeller to change his business practices.

Brown also drew a parallel between miners’ rights and women’s rights, pushing for universal suffrage by advocating for ‘rights for all’. In 1914, six years before women were guaranteed the right to vote, she ran for the US Senate. She quit the race when the onset of World War One, choosing instead to run a relief station in France. She later earned France’s prestigious Légion d’Honneur for her service during the war.

At this time, a reporter in New York stated “If I were requested to personify perpetual activity, I believe I’d name Mrs. JJ Brown.”

She became an actress

Margaret Brown in 1915.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

In 1922, Brown mourned the death of JJ, stating that she’d never met a “finer, bigger, more worthwhile man than JJ Brown”. His death also catalysed a bitter battle with her children over their father’s estate which fractured their relationship, though they later reconciled. In the 1920s and ’30s, Brown became an actress, appearing onstage in L’Aiglon.

On 26 October 1932, she died of a brain tumour at the Barbizon Hotel in New York. Over the 65 years of her life, Brown had experienced poverty, riches, joy and great tragedy, but most of all, was known for her kind spirit and unfailing help for those less fortunate than herself.

She once said, “I am a daughter of adventure”, and is justly remembered so.

Below is a timeline of the ship’s ill-fated maiden voyage.

10 April 1912

12:00 RMS Titanic left Southampton, watched by crowds who had come to watch the start of the maiden voyage of the World’s largest ship.

18:30 The Titanic arrived at Cherbourg, France, where it picked up more passengers.

20:10 Titanic departed Cherbourg for Queenstown, Ireland.

11 April 1912

11:30 The Titanic anchored in Queenstown.

13:30 After the last tender left RMS Titanic, the ship departed Queenstown and began its ill-fated voyage across the Atlantic.

Sea Trials of RMS Titanic, 2 April 1912. Depiction by Karl Beutel, oil on canvas.

Image Credit: via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

14 April 1912

19:00 – 19:30 Second Officer Charles Lightoller testified a drop of 4 degrees Celsius as RMS Titanic crossed from the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream to the much colder waters of the Labrador Current.

Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith, dined with the passengers. Contrary to the myths, he did not get drunk.

23:39 The lookouts in the Crow’s Nest of RMS Titanic spotted an iceberg ahead of them. Immediately they rang the warning bell three times. This meant iceberg dead ahead.

The engines were ordered to stop, as the crew desperately attempted to evade a collision.

23:40 The Titanic struck the iceberg on its starboard side. The damage appeared relatively light at first. The iceberg had only scraped the ship.

What was significant, however, was the length of the damage. The ‘side-swipe’ collision had occurred along 200 feet of Titanic’s length. 5 water-tight compartments were damaged and started taking in water.

The crew immediately had the watertight doors of the damaged compartments sealed.

23:59 Just before midnight RMS Titanic came to a halt. Excess steam was vented to prevent the boilers in the damaged compartments from exploding when coming into contact with the sea.

Around the same time the order was given to prepare the lifeboats and wake the passengers.

15 April

00:22 As the Titanic started taking on a starboard list her designer, Thomas Andrews, who was onboard, confirmed that the damage was too extensive and that Titanic would sink. Titanic was capable of staying afloat with 4 watertight compartments being breached, but it couldn’t sustain 5.

Andrews estimated that they would have 1-2 hours before Titanic submerged beneath the waves. Within minutes Titanic’s radio operators sent out the first distress call.

The nearby SS Californian did not pick up the distress call as their sole radio operator had just gone to bed.

00:45 By quarter to one the lifeboats on board RMS Titanic were readied for loading. So far only two boats had been launched. The lifeboats had the capacity for up to 70 people, but fewer than 40 passengers were on board each.

The first distress rocket was launched.

SS Californian spotted the distress rocket and their crew tried to signal the Titanic with morse lamps. Titanic would respond, but neither ship could read the morse because the still, freezing air was scrambling the lamp signals.

00:49 RMS Carpathia picked up the distress call of Titanic by accident. The ship headed for Titanic’s location, but it was 58 miles away. It would take 4 hours for Carpathia to reach Titanic.

RMS Titanic of the White Star Line sinking around 2:20 AM Monday morning, 15 April 1912 after hitting iceberg in the North Atlantic.

Image Credit: Classic Image / Alamy Stock Photo

01:00 Mrs Strauss refused to leave her husband, as women and children were loaded onto the lifeboats first. She gave her place on the lifeboat to her maid.

As this was unfolding the Titanic orchestra continued to play, trying to keep the passengers calm as the crew lowered them into the lifeboats.

01:15 The water had risen up to Titanic’s nameplate.

c.01:30 Lifeboats continued to be launched, each now with more people onboard. Lifeboat 16, for instance, was launched with 53 people.

Meanwhile more ships had responded to Titanic’s distress call. RMS Baltic and SS Frankfurt were on their way. SS Californian, however, had not moved.

01:45 More lifeboats were launched and there was almost a collision as Lifeboat 13 struggled to escape from under Lifeboat 15 as the latter was being lowered.

01:47 Despite being close, SS Frankfurt was unable to locate Titanic due to miscalculated coordinates.

01:55 Captain Smith ordered the telegraph operators to abandon their posts and to save themselves. The operators, Harold Bride and Jack Phillips, decided to stay longer and continued sending out transmissions.

02:00 Captain Smith made a futile attempt to call back half-filled lifeboats to allow more passengers on. The attempts failed. The orchestra continued playing.

02:08 The last wireless transmission was sent, but with power fading and the ship within minutes of sinking, the message was unintelligible.

02:10 The last collapsible boats were lowered into the water with passengers onboard. Moments later 4 explosions were heard deep within Titanic.

Around 1,500 people were still onboard the ship. Almost all of them were on the stern.

c.02:15 The stern of RMS Titanic broke away from the rest of the ship. Because the ship was so well sub-divided, the stern then crashed back down into the water. For a moment the people still on the stern thought this meant the stern would stay afloat.

But RMS Titanic’s submerged, water-saturated bow started to tug the floating stern underwater.

A young newspaper seller holds a banner declaring TITANIC DISASTER GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Cockspur Street, London, UK, 1912.

Image Credit: Shawshots / Alamy Stock Photo

Rather than rise up into the air, the stern slowly – and very quietly – started to sink. One passenger who survived later recalled how he swam off the stern as it started to submerge. He didn’t even get his head wet.

02:20 RMS Titanic’s stern had by now disappeared beneath the water.

The water’s freezing temperatures ensured that many survivors in the water died of hypothermia before rescuers arrived.

c.04:00 RMS Carpathia arrived to rescue the survivors.

The oil tankers in the photographs appear to be floating in the sky because they are seen on a raised horizon at the top of a mirage strip known as a ‘duct’, which hides the normal horizon.

The same weather conditions that caused these mirages may have contributed to the Titanic disaster. On the night of 14 April 1912, the optical effect of an apparent fog bank around the horizon reduced the contrast between the icebergs and the sky and sea beyond them. This meant that Titanic’s lookouts saw the fatal iceberg a few seconds too late, because the berg suddenly emerged as a dark mass out of the peculiar haze in front of them.

‘Flying ship’, taken from The Herra at Gillan Cove on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. A phenomenon said to echo what caused the wreck of the Titanic.

Image Credit: David Morris / APEX picture agency

‘Flying ship’, Aberdeenshire

Image Credit: Colin McCallum

Miraging strips

Mirages are caused by light refracting abnormally as it travels along layers of air of different temperatures. Superior mirages occur mainly in the Arctic regions in the Spring, when warmer air overlays colder air, known as a thermal inversion.

A miraging haze

Abnormal refraction at sea can cause navigational errors and accidents, the most famous of which is the Titanic disaster, which occurred on 15 April 1912.

Mirage strips frequently appear as fog banks on the horizon, because of the depth of air you can see through in the duct, even when the weather is completely clear. The Vikings called these apparent fog banks ‘Hafgerdingar’ meaning ‘sea hedges’.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on 10 April 1912.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Thermal Inversion and the Titanic

Titanic sank in the freezing waters of the Labrador Current in the North Atlantic, surrounded by dozens of large icebergs, some of which were 200 feet high. But above the level of the top of those icebergs much warmer air drifted across from the nearby warmer waters of the Gulf Stream, trapping cold air underneath it.

This created the same thermal inversion conditions at Titanic’s crash site as occurred along the coast of Britain in early 2021, creating apparent fog banks or “sea hedges” above which ships appeared to float in the sky, despite the perfectly clear weather.

In fact, several ships which passed through the area in which Titanic sank, both before and after the Titanic tragedy, recorded abnormal refraction and mirages at the horizon.

The night the Titanic sank was also calm and clear, but Titanic’s lookouts noticed the mirage strip appearing like a band of haze stretching all around the horizon, as they entered the thermal inversion in the ice region.

Titanic did not slow down because the weather was so clear that her officers expected to see ice in time to avoid it. But the optical effect of the apparent fog bank around the horizon reduced the contrast between the icebergs and the sky and sea beyond them.

This caused Titanic’s lookouts to see the fatal iceberg a few seconds too late, as the berg suddenly appeared as a dark mass out of the peculiar haze in front of them. Titanic’s lookout, Reginald Lee, explained the dramatic moment under cross-examination at the Inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic:

What sort of a night was it?
– A clear, starry night overhead, but at the time of the accident there was a haze right ahead – in fact it was extending more or less round the horizon. There was no moon.

And no wind?
– And no wind whatever, barring what the ship made herself.

Quite a calm sea?
– Quite a calm sea.

Was it cold?
– Very, freezing.

Photograph taken by a passenger of Cunard Line’s RMS Carpathia of the last lifeboat successfully launched from the Titanic.

Image Credit: Public Domain

Did you notice this haze which you said extended on the horizon when you first came on the look-out, or did it come later?
– It was not so distinct then – not to be noticed. You did not really notice it then – not on going on watch, but we had all our work cut out to pierce through it just after we started. My mate happened to pass the remark to me. He said, “Well; if we can see through that we will be lucky.” That was when we began to notice there was a haze on the water. There was nothing in sight.

You had been told, of course, to keep a careful look-out for ice, and you were trying to pierce the haze as much as you could?
– Yes, to see as much as we could.

What did the iceberg look like?
– It was a dark mass that came through that haze and there was no white appearing until it was just close alongside the ship, and that was just a fringe at the top.

It was a dark mass that appeared, you say?
– Through this haze, and as she moved away from it, there was just a white fringe along the top.

Quite right; that is where she hit, but can you tell us how far the iceberg was from you, this mass that you saw?
– It might have been half a mile or more; it might have been less; I could not give you the distance in that peculiar light.

The Wreck Commissioner:
I mean the evidence before and after the accident is that the sky was perfectly clear, and therefore if the evidence of the haze is to be accepted, it must have been some extraordinary natural phenomenon…

Unfortunately Titanic’s lookouts were not believed, but these recent photographs of ‘flying ships’ show the unusual atmospheric phenomenon which caught out Titanic’s experienced officers.

‘Flying ship’ phenomenon observed at Aberdeen during the Scottish Golf Tournament in July 2014.

Further affects of abnormal refraction on the Titanic tragedy

Even more tragically, the abnormally raised horizon behind the Titanic caused her to appear to the nearby Californian to be a 400ft ship only five miles away, when in fact she was the 800ft Titanic, sinking about 10 miles away.

That optical illusion caused the Californian’s Captain to believe that what they thought was a relatively small nearby ship had no radio, as they knew the only ship in the area with radio that night was the Titanic.

So Californian instead signalled Titanic by Morse lamp, but the stratified air in the thermal inversion, combined with the much greater than apparent distance to Titanic, caused the Morse lamp signals between the two vessels to appear like randomly flickering masthead lamps.

SS Californian on the morning after Titanic sank.

Image Credit: Public Domain

In the final nail in Titanic’s coffin that night, her distress rockets were exploding in the normally refracting air high up, but Titanic’s hull was seen distorted through the very cold air nearer the sea surface, which optical effects combined to make Titanic’s rockets appear very low.

These unusual optical phenomena caused comprehension errors on Californian which meant that the nearest vessel to Titanic took no action to rescue her 2,200 passengers from the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.

The sinking of the Titanic remains the world’s worst peacetime maritime disaster, costing the lives of 1,500 men, women and children.

Tim Maltin is a British author and one of the world’s leading experts on the Titanic. He has written three books on the subject: 101 Things You Thought You Knew About The Titanic… But Didn’t!, Titanic: First Accounts, both published by Penguin, and his latest book Titanic: A Very Deceiving Night – the subject of his Smithsonian Channel documentary Titanic’s Final Mystery and National Geographic film, Titanic: Case Closed. You can find out more about Tim’s work on his blog.

This is a timeline exploring some of the key events in the development and use of steam power on ships and how that changed the maritime world.

1712

Thomas Newcomen invented the first steam engine.  

1783

Arguably the first really successful steamboat, the Pyroscaphe was built by Claude-François-Dorothée, Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans. She was a paddle steamer whereby a steam engine would power sidewheels, or paddles, that would move the vessel through the water.

1801

Scottish engineer William Symington had been working on ways to improve and adapt James Watt’s engine for marine use (using paddle wheels). With the sponsorship of Lord Dundas, Symington patented an engine in 1801 that would be installed in a new steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas (named for Lord Dundas’ daughter). She was launched in 1803 and was successful in towing barges along the Forth and Clyde Canal. 

1807

The North River Steamboat, also known as the Clermont, was built and used on the Hudson River. She was the first commercially successful steamboat (built to carry passengers).

1819

The SS Savannah became the first steamship to sail across the Atlantic. Some contend this honour as she spent the majority of the voyage under sail rather than using steam power (steamships would also be fitted with sails as an alternative source of power).

Diagram of the SS Savannah, fitted with sails and paddle wheels.

Image Credit: G. B. Douglas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1821

The Aaron Manby became the first iron steamship to go to sea, crossing the English Channel in 1822. The use of iron and new materials in ship construction would help in the development and application of steam power at sea.

1836

Inventors John Ericsson and Francis Smith re-invent the screw propeller. Moving away from paddles, screw propellers, fitted to the underneath of the aft of the ship, would mean that ships could travel faster than before. They were also more reliable and less prone to damage than paddles as they were below the waterline.

1838

SS Archimedes was the first steamship driven by a screw propeller.

1838

Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Western undertook her maiden voyage, sailing from Bristol to New York. She was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship and was the largest passenger ship in the world until 1839. She was however beaten to her destination by the SS Sirius who arrived in New York a day earlier.

1840

Of the 2.3 million tons in the British merchant fleet, steam accounted for 87,000 tons.

Cunard Lines was founded. Major shipping companies like Cunard, Inman and White Star that charted voyages and owned fleets of ships would push forward the development in marine engineering and steam power.

1843

The SS Great Britain, the first large iron ship to be screw propelled was launched. 

A view of the SS Great Britain’s screw propeller.

Image Credit: Howard Dickins from Cardiff, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

1845

HMS Terror and HMS Erebus became the first Royal Navy ships to be fitted with steam engines and a screw propeller prior to Franklin’s final expedition to find the Northwest Passage.

1847

Cunard’s Washington and Hermann steamships provide a regular Atlantic crossing service. 

1858

The maiden voyage of Brunel’s SS Great Eastern. At 20,000 GRT, she was the largest liner of the late 19th century. 

1865

The launch of the SS Agamemnon, one of the first successful long-distance merchant steamships. Long voyages, such as Europe to Asia, were not practical for steamships due to the need to carry coal, leaving little space for produce. Agamemnon was fitted with a new compound engine that required less coal.

1869

The Suez Canal opened. The waterway was not practical for sailing vessels so steamships dominated the new route to Asia. 

1870

Steam power made up 1.1 million tons out of 5.7 million tons in the British merchant fleet.

1881

The SS Aberdeen became the first ship to be successfully powered by a triple-expansion steam engine. The triple expansion engine was significantly more economical than other engines so became widely used in shipping.

1894

The Turbinia became the first steam turbine-powered steamship to be built and was the fastest ship in the world at the time. She was demonstrated at the Spithead Navy Review in 1897 and transformed maritime engineering.

1903

Alternatives to steam power that were more efficient and economical were being sought. The Vandal, launched in 1903, was one of the first marine vessels to be powered by diesel. 

1906

RMS Mauretania became one of the first ocean liners to use the steam turbine engine. The use of electricity as a power source was cheaper and more efficient and was soon adopted by shipping companies and navies. Most ships today use steam turbines.

RMS Mauretania and Turbinia. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911.

Image Credit: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1912

The sinking of the RMS Titanic, the largest steamship in the world at the time. 

1938

Launch of RMS Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger steamship ever built.

1959

The first nuclear-powered merchant ship was launched. The NS Savannah was commissioned by the US government as a way of demonstrating peaceful uses of nuclear power.

1984

The last major passenger steamship, the Fairsky, was built.