Message From The R.M.S. Titanic

Some facts:  R.M.S. Titanic was built at Harland and Wolff Shipbuilding in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1912.  She was 882 feet long and had a gross tonnage of 45,000 tons.  She was owned by White Star Line (recently purchased by J.P. Morgan).  She carried only 16 lifeboats, and 4 life rafts, an insufficient number to cover 3200 passengers and crew.  The passengers could choose between 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd class accommodations for the voyage, the difference in price being L870 for a first class ticket and as little as L2 for a third class one.  The majority of passengers were third class.

The Titanic had 28 staterooms and suites for the first class passengers.  The special staterooms were located amidships on B and C decks and were designed in differing ways.  The first class passengers could choose between a room in these following designs:  Empire, Renaissance, Georgian, Modern and Old Dutch, Regency, Queen Ann and Louis XIV, and XV.  A few of the rooms even had fireplaces and burned coal in the sitting room, and had gigantic beds in the bedroom.  The most expensive suites had five rooms and a private lavatory also.

One of the places people could meet on board and have dinner was the giant restaurant which was located on D deck.  It measured 92 feet wide by 114 feet long.  It took a maximum of 500 people sitting.  The ship also had a French Restaurant, “Café Parisien” with French waiters.

The first class met at the Lounge on the Promenade deck.  It’s walls were very similar to the ones at Versailles castle near Paris and were very exquisite.  Situated next to this room was the Georgian reading room and writing room for ladies, and next to that was the smoking room for men. 

The entire crew consisted of about 860 men and women, 340 of which worked below decks in the engine compartment as engineers, trimmers, boilermakers, greasemen, window-washers and linen keepers.  Only a few dozen were actually engaged in seamanship, and fewer still were officers.  The Captain at the time of this maiden voyage was Captain E.J. Smith, whose career was long and professional before this voyage.  He had sailed over 2 million miles for White Star Line and they had complete confidence in him.  This was to be his last voyage before his retirement.

Titanic’s keel (number 401) was laid down on March 31, 1909 and she was launched May 31, 1911.  She had nine decks including the orlop deck.  Below the topmost boat deck were decks A, B, C, D, E, F, and G  Below G deck were the boiler rooms and holds.  The hull was divided into sixteen watertight compartments by means of fifteen watertight bulkheads extending up through deck F.  Heavy watertight doors provided communication between bulkheads during normal operation.  They were electrically operated and also had a floatation mechanism for automatic closing.  She was designed to remain afloat with any two compartments flooded, possibly three, enabling her to withstand a collision at the joint of two compartments.  Her overall length was 882.5 feet, her beam was 92.5 feet from waterline to boat deck.  Her gross tonnage was 46,328 tons, net tonnage 24,900 tons.  She was driven by a three prop design that used two outboard reciprocating engines with a low pressure turbine in the middle driving the centre prop.  The reciprocating engines were of the four cylinder, triple expansion direct acting and inverted type.  Each engine developed 15,000 horsepower at 75 revolutions per minute.  The low pressure turbine in the middle was of the Parsons type.  It developed around 16,000 horsepower at 165 rpm.  It was an elegant design as the middle turbine was driven from the excess steam exhaust from the other reciprocating engines.  The steam required to run all this came from 29 huge, three story high boilers.  For a complete description of Titanic’s propulsion system, see this excellent 10 minute utube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptDFqY-0Do8&feature=em_share_video_user or if that link doesn’t work log onto http://www.youtube.com and type into the search box “The Engines of the Titanic” by Hoe ishetmugelijk.

Titanic’s complement of passengers and crew was not adequately provided for in event of the worst disaster, the sinking of the ship.  The British board of regulations required that any ship over 10,000 tons had to carry at least 16 lifeboats.  As Titanic carried 20 lifeboats she was well within regulation.  Sixteen of these were regular wooden type and four Engelehardt collapsibles, as A, B, C, and D.  In fact, no liner afloat at that time carried enough lifeboats to evacuate all passengers and crew.  The reason for lifeboats came from this disaster.  Prior to this the general opinion was, should a ship become stricken, that lifeboats were used to ferry passengers to rescue ships waiting nearby in the already crowded North Atlantic shipping lanes.  With the invention of wireless, this made this even more credible.  Any large ship in trouble was expected to remain afloat for many hours or even days and help would be promptly summoned by radio.  [The world today lives by this same precarious standard, as seen when a country’s civil and emergency plans and stockpiles are carefully examined.  Three percent of the modern western world’s population produces well over 75 percent of all the food grown in the world!]

The chef aboard had made a list of things which he wanted for the maiden voyage.  It included among other things:  35,000 fresh eggs, 40 tons of potatoes, 1,000 bottles of wine, and 15,000 bottles of beer.  Also were 12,000 dinner plates, 40,000 towels of different sorts, 45,000 napkins, 1,000 oyster forks and 15,000 champagne glasses.

On her first day, Titanic sailed 386 miles, the second day 519 miles and the third day over 546 miles as she picked up speed.  The Captain proceeded to increase speed further on the fourth day until she was doing 22.5 knots.  At that speed, by the time the lookouts saw the iceberg in the dark of night, with her rudder of insufficient size, she could not avoid a glancing blow which caused the iceberg to run along down her side, opening up horizontal gaps in her hull-plates anywhere from six inches to a foot high from at least bow to midships.  The Carpathia immediately answered the call and set course eastward toward Titanic.  The collision awakened many members of the crew and passengers in their quarters.  The passengers were less wakened by the noise than by the water swirling about the deck at their feet.  The Titanic carried lifeboats for 1200 people, but this evening only about 700 boarded the lifeboats, mostly women and children.  A few men succeeded in smuggling themselves onboard and a few clamoured aboard after jumping into the cold waters of the north Atlantic.  It was dawn when the Carpathia arrived, but not before 2,207 had died, mostly by freezing to death in the icy night waters of the north Atlantic.  Only 712 people were rescued by the Carpathia.” 

[Most of the details from this account were taken from Hannah Goransson’s webpage on the Titanic.]

The R.M.S. Titanic is a perfect example of today’s society in the western world today.  The people onboard the Titanic had the best that modern technology and entertainment had to offer.  Exquisite living for the rich and warm shelter and good food for even the poor.  Most of Titanic’s passengers were poor or middle class at best, same as those in our respective western nations.  Comfort, warmth, and decent quarters on a ship headed for the cold depths of the north Atlantic.  Now she resides at least three miles down under the ocean.  In Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation, particularly chapters 16 and 19, Jesus shows us that this end-time society of mankind will hit a similar iceberg called the great tribulation, or in modern language, World War III, which will sink man’s society under the waves of oblivion.  When all the prophecies in the Bible are taken into account, both in the Old and New Testaments, the clear indication is that maybe 10 percent of the world’s population will live on into the Kingdom Age of Jesus Christ.  Nine tenths of the 7.2 billion will die.  Seven million, two hundred thousand (7,200,000) survivors out of 7.2 billion people, will be all that remain of mankind.  Very interestingly, modern military analysts estimate that the number of global fatalities for another World War will be 90 percent, leaving only 10 percent surviving.  The military experts are in total agreement with Bible prophecy.  Bible believing Christians know this is going to happen, because God’s Word says it will.  Is there any way we can know the Bible is for real and these predictions are not hoaky? The analogies that can be drawn between Titanic and this world’s society are both frightening and accurate. 

Historically speaking, the Bible’s prophecies have never failed, one third of all prophecies in the Bible are now in the history books, fulfilled. That’s a fact. The people who boarded Titanic, both rich and poor, were awed by her size and technical sophistication, much in the same way mankind in our western societies are awed by the same type of things around them, helping them be the masters of their environment.  I am just trying to get you to see the striking similarities between mankind in our present age and those who boarded Titanic.  The attitude was one of awe toward what man had created, while letting fly the statement “That even God couldn’t sink her.”  Are things much different today?  World War III won’t be brought on by God, just as World War I or World War II weren’t.  Don’t try to hang that one on God, it won’t stick.  Jesus will have to come back to save mankind from annihilating himself from off the planet, or else the remaining 10 percent would be toast as well.  What are we headed for?  First of all, how can you know God’s Word, and the prophecies contained in it are even true?  See http://www.unityinchrist.com/ProofOfTheBible-FulfilledProphecy.htm .  What are some of the prophecies about the coming World War III?  See http://www.unityinchrist.com/prophecies/2ndcoming_4.htm  Does God really exist?  For some proof, see http://www.unityinchrist.com/Does/Does God Exist.html .