With the dawning of Tuesday morning came the awful news of the true fate of the Titanic.
CHAPTER XXI
The Most Sumptuous Palace Afloat
DIMENSIONS OF THE TITANIC—CAPACITY—PROVISIONS FOR THE COMFORT AND ENTERTAINMENT OF PASSENGERS—MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT—THE ARMY OF ATTENDANTS REQUIRED
THE statistical record of the great ship has news value at this time.
Early in 1908 officials of the White Star Company announced that they would eclipse all previous records in shipbuilding with a vessel of staggering dimensions. The Titanic resulted.
The keel of the ill-fated ship was laid in the summer of 1909 at the Harland & Wolff yards, Belfast. Lord Pirrie, considered one of the best authorities on shipbuilding in the world, was the designer. The leviathan was launched on May 31, 1911, and was completed in February, 1912, at a cost of $10,000,000.
SISTER SHIP OF OLYMPIC
The Titanic, largest liner in commission, was a sister ship of the Olympic. The registered tonnage of each vessel is estimated as 45,000, but officers of the White Star Line say that the Titanic measured 45,328 tons. The Titanic was commanded by Captain E. J. Smith, the White Star admiral, who had previously been on the Olympic.
She was 882½ feet long, or about four city blocks, and was 5000 tons bigger than a battleship twice as large as the dreadnought Delaware.