Construction and Launch of the R.M.S. Titanic

From Titanic's construction in 1909 until her launch in 1911. This section describes where and how she was built, her design explained, when Titanic was launched, beautiful historical photo's from the time Titanic was construced and information that will definitely interest you.

R.M.S. 'Titanic' leaving Southampton on her Maiden Voyage. April 10, 1912

By 1900, Belfast had become one of the world’s most prosperous industrial cities. It had the design skills and top quality workmanship to produce world-class steamships, despite having to import almost all the raw materials for shipbuilding.

The powerful men who built up Harland & Wolff: (left to right) Gustav Wolff, W.H. Wilson, William J. Pirrie and Edward Harland. William Pirrie’s energy and business acumen ensured that the firm prospered in the early years of the twentieth century. Harland & Wolff Collection, National Museums, NI

Around 15,000 people were employed by Harland & Wolff when Titanic and her sister ship Olympic were under construction. There were close community links with the shipyard which often employed several members of a family, spread across two or more generations.

The Drawing Office at Harland & Wolff was where the design of Olympic Class ships was worked out in intricate detail. Building on years of expertise in ship design, every aspect of the ships’ construction was carefully considered and set out in the drawings. A ship was only drawn once, so the plans for Olympic were also used for Titanic and any changes and improvements were duly noted.

The Drawing Office at Harland & Wolff © Harland & Wolff Collection, National Museums NI

Blueprint for the Olympic and Titanic, two ships in one

Olympic and Titanic where identical and only later differences where added to keep the ships apart from each other

Ships plans were often very long and highly detailed so large, well-lit, drawing desks were required for ease of working. The design of the Olympic Class ships owed much to Alexander Carlisle who retired as chief draughtsman in 1910, the Chairman William Pirrie and Thomas Andrews who was head of the Naval Architects’ Department at Harland & Wolff. He was the naval architect in charge of the plans for Titianic and Olympic.

Thomas Andrews, age: 38. January 1, 1911

Thomas Andrews, circa 1912

In 1907 the White Star Line decided to create a class of luxury liners, and Harland and Wolff was tasked with building the vessels. Thomas Andrews became the main designer of both the Olympic and the Titanic.

Thomas Andrews was born on 7 February 1873 at Ardara House, Comber, County Down, in Ireland, to The Rt. Hon. Thomas Andrews, a member of the Privy Council of Ireland, and Eliza Pirrie. Andrews was a Presbyterian of Scottish descent, and like his brother considered himself British. Thomas Andrews lived with his family in Ardara, Comber. In 1884, he began attending the Royal Belfast Academical Institution until 1889 when, at the age of sixteen, he began a premium apprenticeship at Harland and Wolff where his uncle, the Viscount Pirrie, was part owner.

Harland and Wolff

At Harland and Wolff, Andrews began with three months in the joiners' shop, followed by a month in the cabinetmakers' and then a further two months working on the ships. The last eighteen months of his five-year apprenticeship were spent in the drawing office. He worked tirelessly during the day and continued his studies in the evening hours. In 1901, boarding at 11 Wellington Place, after working his way up through the many departments of the company, he became the manager of the construction works. That same year, he also became a member of the Institution of Naval Architects. In 1907, he was appointed the managing director and head of the drafting department at Harland and Wolff. By that point, Andrews had earned a reputation as a genius in the field of ship design. During his long years of apprenticeship, study, and work, he had become well-loved in the company and amongst the shipyard's employees. Everyone loved him. His kindness and generosity was well-documented. He was always willing to acknowledge the hard work of other people, and his wife recalled that he had of himself "The humblest opinion of anyone I ever knew".

In 1907, Andrews began to oversee the plans for three new ocean liners for the White Star Line: the RMS Olympic, the RMS Titanic and the RMS (later HMHS) Britannic. All three ships were designed by William Pirrie and general manager Alexander Carlisle along with Andrews to be the largest, safest and most luxurious ships at sea. As he had done for the other ships he had overseen, Andrews familiarised himself with every detail of Olympic, Titanic and Britannic, in order to ensure that they were icreated in perfection. Titanic and Olympic where plannend to look identical. Andrews's suggestions that the ship have 48 lifeboats instead of 20, was overruled.

Titanic was supposed to be the largest and arguably most luxurious liners of her time. The final plans included 16 watertight compartments featuring doors that could be closed from the bridge, sealing off the compartments if necessary; four could flood, and the ship would still stay afloat. This system, in part, led White Star to describe the vessels as practically 'unsinkable'.

Titanic's Construction

Titanic's keel was laid and the construction of the Titanic started, March 31, 1909

Titanic's keel in progress

The Titanic and Olympic were built next to each other. Titanic on yard number: 401 Olympic was finnished first, then came Titanic The two ships were constructed on Queen's Island, now known as the Titanic Quarter, in Belfast Harbour. Harland and Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways and build two new ones, the largest ever constructed up to that time, to accommodate the ships.

The construction of the vessels was facilitated by a gantry built by Sir William Arrol & Co. which was 228 feet (69 meters) high, 270 feet (82 meters) wide and 840 feet (260 meters) long.

The construction of Olympic and Titanic took place virtually in parallel, with Olympic's keel laid down on December 16, 1908 and Titanic's laid down on March 31, 1909. Both ships took about 26 months to build. The 2,000 hull plates were single pieces of rolled steel plate, mostly up to six feet (1.8 meters) wide and 30 feet (9.1 meters) long and weighing between 2.5 and three tons. Their thickness varied from one inch (2.5cm) to 1.5 inches (3.8cm). The hull was held together with over three million iron and steel rivets, which by themselves weighed over 1,200 tons. They were fitted using hydraulic machines or were hammered in by hand.

Titanic's center anchor was the largest ever forged by hand; it weighed nearly 16 tons. Twenty Clydesdale draft horses were needed to haul the anchor by wagon from the Noah Hingley & Sons Ltd forge shop in Netherton, near Dudley, United Kingdom, to the Dudley railway station two miles away. From there it was shipped by rail to Fleetwood in Lancashire before being loaded aboard a ship and sent to Belfast.

Working on Titanic's keel, circa 1909

The cradle in which Titanic was built

Plates of steel being prepared

Building Titanic's hull

Titanic's bow being being finnished

Titanic's stern under construction

Finnishing the hull

Titanic (left) and Olympic (right) Titanic was almost finnished and her hull would be painted in standard colors: black and red, while Olympic was painted in special colors: light grey and red. Circa. 1911

Titanic ready to be launched. She only needs to be painted. Notice the windows. Titanic had even windows and Olympic uneven windows.

Building the Titanic

Titanic is Launced

Titanic was launched on May 31, 1911. Twenty-two tons of soap and tallow were spread on the slipway to lubricate the ship's passage into the River Lagan.

Titanic is launced on March 31, 1911 in Belfast, Northern Ireland

Titanic's launch on March 31, 1911. Notice the portholes, fourteen in total and the evenly wide spaced windows. Foto's of her maiden voyage show a ship with uneven small windows and sixteen portholes.

Titanic was virtually identical to the class's lead ship Olympic, a few changes were made to distinguish both ships. The most noticeable exterior difference was that Titanic had a steel screen with sliding even windows installed along the forward half of the A Deck promenade. Promenade A on Olympic was left open which was closed on Titanic. Extensive changes were made to B Deck on Titanic as the promenade space in this deck, which had proven unpopular on Olympic, was converted into additional First Class cabins. The À la Carte restaurant was enlarged, and the Café Parisien was added. These changes made Titanic slightly heavier than her sister, so she became the largest ship afloat.

Titanic following her launch on March 31, 1911

Photo frame of the only existing footage of the R.M.S. Titanic

The only original exisiting footage of the Titanic when on her sea trails. April 2nd, 1912

Titanic's Sea Trails

Titanic on her sea trails. April 2nd, 1912

Titanic’s fitting out at Harland and Wolff was now complete, and the next stage in her tragically-short life would be her sea trials. These were actually scheduled for 10.00am on Monday, 1st April, a mere 9 days before she was due to leave Southampton on her maiden voyage, but due to the adverse weather conditions which would have made sailing her down the narrow channel of the River Lagan pretty unsteady, the trials were reluctantly postponed until the following day. It meant that there would be one day less in Southampton to stock the ship with all of her provisions, but it wasn’t bad news for everybody. Many of the crew, both officers and engineers, saw it as a great chance to get to know more of this mammoth ship.

Tuesday April 2, 1912, and the weather was clear enough to undertake the trials. Crowds began to gather on the banks of the river to witness Titanic’s grand passage. Aboard Titanic were 78 members of her ‘black gang’; stokers, greasers and firemen. There were also a further 41 members of crew which included officers, senior crewmen, cooks and storekeepers, although intriguingly, none of the domestic staff appear on the ship’s signing-on logs. Also aboard were representatives of the various companies: Harold A. Sanderson was aboard on behalf of I.M.M., Thomas Andrews and Edward Wilding were aboard on behalf of Harland and Wolff.

Titanic on her sea trails, her stern visible. April 2nd, 1912

Missing was Bruce Ismay, and Lord Pirrie could not make it because of illness. The two Marconi radio operators were also aboard. Jack Phillips and Harold Sydney Bride were not only there to keep Titanic in touch with the rest of the world, but there was also some fine tuning of the Marconi equipment to be done. Also testing the ship’s equipment were several employees of Messrs. C.J. Smith of Southampton, who had provided the compasses for the ship, and had to ensure that they were set-up correctly. Finally, a very important man indeed had to be present: Mr. Carruthers was the Board of Trade surveyor who had to see that everything worked, and that the ship was fit to carry passengers. If all was well, he would sign a certificate, ‘An Agreement and Account of Voyages and Crew’, valid for twelve months.

Shortly before 6.00am, the tugs that would guide Titanic from her berth and into open water arrived. Harland and Wolff’s own yard tug, Hercules, was given the honour of getting the first line aboard. The other tugs took up their positions too; Huskisson at the port side of the stern, Herculaneum at the starboard side of the stern. Hornby was stationed on the starboard bowline, whilst Herald pulled the forward line.

Titanic’s mooring lines were dropped, and on a whistle from the main tug, they all began to take up the slack in the ropes. She began to move away from the jetty, and soon lay in the middle of the river, waiting to move further. She made her way down the river, passing the crowds cheering and waving from the banks, glad that they had witnessed this leviathan progressing gracefully down the Lough.

She proceeded down the Belfast Lough, as seen in these two beautifully atmospheric photographs, until she was only 2 miles off Carrickfergus, still with the tugs providing the power. But the time had come to detach the tugs. They all stopped, casting off their lines. and stood clear of the massive liner. A rush of excitement passed through everybody as a blue and white burgee was raised: ‘I am undergoing speed trials’. The bells of the telegraph ran out across the bridge, and was repeated deep down in the engine-room. It was the moment of truth! As the valves were opened allowing the steam to travel from the boilers to the two huge engines, Titanic’s propellers began to turn, slowly, but surely. There was no mistaking the turbulence in the water at the stern, and the ship began to move under its own power for the very first time.

Cautiously at first, but then faster and faster, Titanic was worked-up to about 20 knots. Upon an order from the bridge, Titanic’s engines were stopped, and she was allowed to drift to a stop. Several more manourvres were called for, including turning using only the rudder, turning using only the propellers, and several start-stop tests. Just before lunch, there was another test to perform: while the ship was traveling straight ahead, the wheel was ordered hard over. The circle Titanic travelled had a diameter of 3,850 yards.

Following a hearty lunch, there was yet another task to conduct, this time a major stopping test. A buoy was dropped in the water, and Titanic turned and ran at full speed towards it. When the vessel was alongside the buoy, Officers Moody and Murdoch observed the position of the buoy through their sextants, and the engines of the ship were put ‘full astern’. When Titanic came to a dead stop, she had taken about 850 yards to come to rest. All the while, Mr. Carruthers and various representitives were jotting down the results of all of the tests, and comparing notes and data.

At 2.00p.m., Titanic was set on a straight course out into the Irish Sea, traveling for two hours and covering a distance of approximately 40 miles. She turned, traveling for yet another two hours, heading straight back down towards the Belfast Lough, putting in a few twisting port and starboard turns to test her handling as she returned to the City of her birth. At about 7.00pm, she came to a halt.

Titanic during her trails

Mr. Carruthers demanded one final test – the lowering of the port and starboard anchors. This completed, he signed the certificate, together with Sanderson and Andrews, enabling Titanic to ply her trade. Anybody who was not to travel on to Southampton were ferried ashore, including Harland and Wolff staff, and Mr. Carruthers, the Board of Trade surveyor.

At about 8.00pm, Titanic departed for Southampton. Speed was of the essence now, as she had to arrive in Southampton on Wednesday’s midnight tide. Titanic wheeled around, using her propellers to turn, and began to leave Belfast. This time, it would be forever.

After an uneventful near 600 mile voyage to Southampton, she was met by five tugs of the Red Funnel Line, Ajax, Hector, Vulcan, Neptune and Hercules. They all combined to warp Titanic efficiently into Berth 44, the place where she would depart Sourthampton a week later to start her "Ill maiden voyage" to New York.

Postcard of the R.M.S. Titanic