35 Fascinating Details About the Titanic That You Probably Never Knew
There are quite a few things James Cameron left out.
Over 100 years ago, on April 15, 1912, a giant luxury passenger ship deemed to be "unsinkable" hit an iceberg and sank off the coast of Newfoundland. Though it claimed more than 1,500 lives in total, it would take 73 years for the ship's wreckage to finally be found — and still many more years to uncover the full story of the tragedy. Now, over a century later, the Titanic is still one of the most fascinating stories in history, and has inspired countless movies, books, and research about its tragic and mysterious tale. But how much do we really know about the secrets of the Titanic and those on board? To honor the 108th anniversary of one of the most famous disasters in history, we've gathered 35 of the most mind-blowing facts about the Titanic, including details you definitely didn't see in the movie.
It didn't come cheap.
The ship cost $7.5 million to build. Fun Fact: James Cameron's 1997 movie about the disaster had a production budget of $200 million.
It was definitely not a one-man job.
It took 3,000 Harland & Wolff shipbuilders to construct the ship.
It was over 882 feet long.
That's almost three football fields. It also weighed 52,310 tons.
One of the smokestacks didn't work.
Only three of the four smoke stacks were actually functional. The extra one was just to make the ship look more impressive.
There were only 20 lifeboats.
The ship was equipped to hold 64. Many of the lifeboats were sent out before they were full. There were 28 people on the first boat and the capacity was 65.
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The interior design was based on a London hotel.
The Ritz in London's Piccadilly neighborhood loosely inspired the interior of the ship. The hotel opened in 1906 and is still operating today.
There were plenty of amenities in first class.
Luxuries included a swimming pool, Turkish bath, squash court, and a dog kennel.
It required a lot of coal.
Over 800 tons of coal were burned to power the ship every day.
It had a huge send-off.
Over 100,000 people attended the ship's launch. It left from Belfast, Ireland.
There were over 2,200 people on board.
The numbers vary on exactly how many people were on the ship, but only 32% survived the sinking.
The exact number of fatalities is still unknown.
There are rough estimates based on the ship manifests, but people traveled under fake names and from so many different places that those lists weren’t entirely accurate.
It was supposed to be a romantic vacation for some.
Thirteen couples on board were on their honeymoon.
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There were only 23 female crew members.
Those 23 women made up the estimated 885 crew members that were on board.
The musicians had a tough job.
The musicians on the ship were expected to know all 352 songs listed in a song book given out to first-class passengers so they could make requests.
They continued to play as the Titanic went down.
The iconic scene from the movie also happened in real life: To help calm down the guests, all of the musicians continued to play as the ship went down, ultimately losing their lives in the sinking.
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The ship had its own newspaper.
The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed and posted every night in the First Class Smoking Room.
The ship's final dinner was a feast.
The last meal served on the Titanic consisted of 10 courses. The menu included oysters, cream of barley soup, poached salmon, and much more.
It had 15,000 bottles of ale and 1,000 bottles of wine on board.
The ship was also stocked with 850 bottles of liquor as well as 8,000 cigars! Some of the champagne was actually recovered when the shipwreck was discovered in 1985.
There were first class passengers and then there was John Jacob Astor IV.
Astor was the wealthiest passenger on board. He was worth over $90 million. That's over two billion dollars by today's standards when taking inflation into account.
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The ship's baker, Charles Joughin, was among the survivors.
Joughin spent two hours in the water before being rescued. He claimed he was able to last so long because he drank a lot of whiskey beforehand.
Adam is an NYC-based writer who has covered everything from men's fashion to video games and travel. He loves any opportunity to write about pop culture or essays inspired by his personal life.
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