TITANIC TIMELINE - PART ONE

Presenting background information on the TITANIC, from the inspiration to the sinking and more.   

Part One - Pre-Construction History

1867

Thomas Henry Ismay purchases the White Star Line, a line of sailing vessels, originally founded about 1850 and mainly engaged in trade centered on Australian goldfields.

1869

Ismay forms the Oceanic Stream Navigation Company in order to establish White Star as a high-class steamship service in the Atlantic passenger trade.



1869-1870

First ships built for White Star by Belfast shipbuilders Harland & Wolff.

1891



Lord W.J. Pierre

J. Bruce Ismay admitted to partnership of the White Star Line. He takes over after his father's death in 1899.

1894

William J. Pirrie becomes chairman of Harland & Wolff.

1898

 American author Morgan Robertson publishes the novel Futility in which a British passenger liner called the Titan hits an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage without enough lifeboats in the month of April in the North Atlantic. The fictional ship is eerily similar to the yet-to-be conceived Titanic in size, speed, equipment, numbers of passengers (both rich and poor), and those lost.

1902

The White Star Line purchased by the International Mercantile Marine Company, a shipping trust headed by U.S. financier J. Pierpont Morgan. While White Star ships will still fly the British flag and carry British crews, the company is essentially controlled by American interests.

1904   

J. Bruce Ismay

J. Bruce Ismay, age 41, with Morgan's full support, becomes president and managing director of International Mercantile Marine with complete control. As well, Harland & Wolff chairman William J. Pirrie becomes a director of Mercantile Marine.

1907

At a dinner party in William J. Pirrie's London mansion, Ismay discusses the construction of two huge ships (with a third to be added later) to compete with the luxury, size, and speed of rival lines. These ships are to be known as the Olympic class of liners, and are intended specifically to beat out the Cunard Line for the Atlantic luxury passenger trade.

1908

July 29: White Star owners, including Ismay, approve in principle the design plan for the Olympic class ships prepared by builders Harland & Wolff under direct supervision of Lord Pirrie, with the assistance of his nephew Thomas Andrews.
 

Harland & Wolff Drafting Room



July 31: A contract letter is signed for construction in the Belfast shipyards of Olympic, Titanic, and a third sister ship (Britannic) to follow. Ultimate decisions of design, equipment, and decoration are to be made by J. Bruce Ismay. The size of Titanic will be 882 feet 9 inches long, 94 feet wide, and 100 feet high to the bridge level. Final cost: £1,500,000 or approx. $7,500,000. New docks have to accommodate the size of these ships. Harland & Wolff build specially strengthened slips to take their weight, and a new gantry under which the will be built.

December 16: Keel laid down for Harland & Wolff yard number 400 - Olympic construction begins.



1909

March 31: Keel laid down for Harland & Wolff yard number 401 - Titanic construction begins.

 Part Two: Titanic Construction to Launch & Final Outfitting