By 1912 the Titanic was all but complete. Although by today's standards the ship may have lacked lifeboats, at the time this was not the case. Regulations at the time did not permit that the Titanic have enough lifeboats to accommodate more than half of the ship's total number. As such, it was the case that the Titanic met the minimum requirements in this respect.
Final preparations were made for the Titanic's maiden voyage from Southampton in 1912. Sea-trials for the ship took place at the Titanic's shipyard. Here, the naval architects such as Mr Andrews were in attendance for the trials, and the ship was deemed to be sea-worthy by those in attendance and documents signed stating as such.
In April the maiden voyage of the Titanic would begin at Southampton. Captain E.J Smith would be the captain for this first, and last, voyage of the Titanic. The Titanic set sail with over 2,000 boarding the ship.
The ship first headed to France before it began its run across the Atlantic. It covered more than half its stretch, and the Titanic therefore lasted four days of its voyage. During this trip it is believed that Mr Ismay, a Managing Director of White Star Line, encouraged the captain to try and speed the Titanic's trip so that it would arrive at its destination ahead of schedule. As such, many consider this to be why there was a lack of caution in freezing iceberg waters.
The Titanic maintained its current speed despite raised concerns about potential icebergs as temperatures dropped. Therefore, icebergs were spotted very late indeed by the crew of the Titanic, and a last desperate manoeuvre to steer the ship away from them resulted in the icebergs scraping the hull of the Titanic. This was enough to penetrate most of the Titanic's water-tight compartments, and so they began to be flooded and filled with water.
With this, the Titanic's fate was sealed. Captain Smith met with Mr Andrews to discuss the impact. It soon became clear that the ship had to abandoned and so the captain duly gave the orders to evacuate. During the evacuation the Titanic shot flares out to alert nearby ships to the Titanic. Some of these flares were in fact ignored by the likes of the California which mistakenly considered them to be Titanic party fireworks.
In addition to this, the ships that did arrive arrived somewhat too late. The Titanic disappeared from the ocean, and the hundreds of survivors were picked up. Today, it is almost 100 years since the Titanic sinking, and 2012 will be the 100th anniversary of the Titanic. As such, anniversary commemorations are planned with the opening of the Titanic Quarter in Belfast among others.
