Timeline
1898 Morgan Robertson writes his novel Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.
1907, summer months White Star Line's managing director J. Bruce Ismay wants to build two new giant steamers to outstand the Cunard Line in case of luxury and size. He orders Harland and Wolff chairman William Pirrie, head of Harland and Wolff's design department Thomas Andrews and general manager Alexander Carlisle to design the new giants. They regularly send the plans to Ismay for suggestions and approval.
July 29th, 1908 Ismay is shown the design of the new Olympic-Class steamers and he agrees.
July 31st, 1908 The contract is signed and the construction of the Olympic and Titanic can begin.
March 31st, 1909 Titanic's keel is laid, funded by the American J.P. Morgan and his International Mercantile Marine Co.
May 31st 1911 Titanic is lowered into the water.
July 1911 Titanic is annonced to depart on her maiden voyage on March 20th, 1912.
September 20th 1911 The Olympic collides with cruiser Hawke and is badly damaged. Workmen building the Titanic need to move to the Olympic repairs, delaying the Titanic's departure.
October 11th 1911 Titanic is annonced to depart on her maiden voyage on April 10th, 1912.
January The lifeboats are installed on the ship.
February 3rd Titanic docks in Belfast.
March The deck crew is collected.
March 25th The lifeboats are tested. All 16 wooden boats are lowered until a few ft above the waterline, a few are lowered into the water.
March 31st Titanic is completed.
April 1st Scheduled sea trials are canceled due to strong winds.
April 2nd, 6 A.M. Titanic is pulled into Belfast Lough for sea trials.
April 2nd, 8 P.M. Departure to Southampton on the delivery trip.
April 3rd, just before midnight Arrival in Southampton.
April 4th just after midnight Docking in Southampton.
April 5th The ship is pavorised for Good Friday.
April 10th, shortly after noon Departure from Southampton on the maiden voyage. Near-collision in Southampton.
- Main article: Timeline of the Titanic/Maiden voyage
April 10th, 6:35 P.M. Arrival at Cherbourg.
April 10th, 8:10 P.M. Departure from Cherbourg to Queenstown.
April 11th, 11:30 A.M. Arrival in Queenstown.
April 11th, 1:30 P.M. Departure from Queenstown.
April 14th, 11:40 P.M. Titanic hits an iceberg and starts to sink.
- Main article: Timeline of the Titanic/Sinking
April 15th, 2:20 A.M. Titanic sinks.
April 15th, 4:10 A.M. - 8:30 A.M. Carpathia picks up Titanic's survivors.
April 17th The Mackay-Bennett is chartered by the White Star Line and departs to the disaster zone with coffins and ice. The crew has the task to recover bodies.
April 18th 9:00 P.M. The Carpathia arrives in New York. She first ditches the lifeboats before disembarking the survivors at Pier 54.
April 19th The US Titanic Inquiry begins.
April 22nd The White Star Line sends the Minia to the disaster zone to pick up bodies.
April 24th When the Olympic is about to leave Southampton on a new voyage, the Engineering crew goes on strike. They know that there aren't enough lifeboats for everyone onboard and 285 firemen desert. The voyage is canceled.
May 2nd The British Inquiry begins.
May 6th The White Star Line sends out the Montmagny to the disaster zone to recover bodies.
May 15th The White Star Line sends the Algerina to the disaster zone to recover bodies, but they only find one.
May 25th The US Titanic Inquiry ends. 82 survivors have been questioned.
July 2nd The British Inquiry ends.
April 1913 The International Ice Patrol is born to guard the Nord Atlantic routes for icebergs.
May 7th, 1915 Titanic's main rival, the RMS Lusitania, goes down and takes 1100 souls, 128 American, with her to the bottom of the Irish Sea, and the number of survivors is exactly the same as on Titanic. She was torpedoed by a German submarine U-20 and only lasted 18 minutes after that.
November 9th, 1915 The Californian, the ship which was close to Titanic when she sank, is sunk in the Aegean Sea by a German Navy U-boat.
November 21st, 1916 Titanic loses her other sister, the new Britannic. It struck a mine and sank in just 55 minutes, whereas Titanic took 2 hours and 40 minutes. The Britannic had Watertight Bulkheads up to B-deck. And she was a hospital ship by then. Still, only 30 got killed due to enough lifeboats. The only victims were caused by the propellers, who sucked in two lifeboats.
July 17th, 1918 The Carpathia is sunk by an Imperial German Navy U-boat. It killed 5 people.
November 15th, 1929 Launch of the Titanic-inspired film Atlantic.
1935 The Olympic, after a long service, is demolished at a scrapyard.
April 11th, 1953 Release of the unfamiliar film Titanic by 20th Century Fox.
November 1955 Revival of interest in Titanic. A book called "A Night to Remember" comes out. It shows the sinking wrong, but still many people love it.
July 1st, 1958 The book A Night to Remember is made into a movie, still considered the best Titanic movie ever and the most historically correct ever.
September 23rd, 1979 Release of the unfamiliar TV film S.O.S. Titanic.
August 1st, 1980 Release of the unfamiliar film Raise the Titanic.
May 25th, 1983 Sid Daniels dies. He was the last living crewmember of the RMS Titanic.
September 1st, 1985 Robert Ballard locates the position of the wreck, broken in two sections. After many years of people who searched and tried to recover it, the Titanic is found!
July 1986 Ballard and his team return to the wreck of the Titanic with the manned sub Alvin. they take a lot of photographs but leave the wreck alone.
July-September 1987 IRFREMER goes to the wreck site with the manned sub Nautile. They salvage over 1800 items but damage the wreck in several places, most notably the crows' nest.
1991 A joint Russian-Canadian-American team visits the wreck site for scientific research. They shoot loads of film on IMAX, lots of it being used for the Titanica documentary.
June 1993 IRFREMER returns to the wreck site with Nautile, salvaging another 800 items.
1995 James Cameron visits the wreck site to shoot footage for his Titanic movie.
November 17th, 1996 Release of the unfamiliar TV film Titanic.
December 19th, 1997 James Cameron's 3-hour Titanic film is released. Though it gets many historical facts besides fictional characters right, it shows the sinking not quite accurately.
2000 RMS Titanic Inc. visits the wreck site, salvaging over 800 items.
2001 A US couple gets married in a submersible standing at the wreck of Titanic's bow, mirroring an infamous scene of the 1997 movie. It caused great controversy.
2001 James Cameron returns to the wreck of the Titanic, filming footage for his film Ghosts of the Abyss.
June 2004 Robert Ballard returns to the Titanic to take HD pictures of the wreck.
2005 Titanic's wreck is visited twice for a documentary. One by James Cameron (Last Mysteries of the Titanic) and one to search for unseen pieces of wreckage (Titanic's Final Moments: Missing Pieces)
May 31st, 2009 Millvina Dean dies. She was the last living survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
2010 The entire debris field of Titanic's wreck site is mapped.
April 2012 A Titanic miniseries airs on ITV.
April 14th, 2012 The wreck of the Titanic becomes eligible for UNESCO protection.
August 2019 Titanic's wreck is visited for the first time in 9 years. The deterioration of the wreck is documented well.
June 18-22, 2023 --- "The Titan's, a submarine designed to explore shipwrecks, disappears and implodes, while visiting the wreck of the RMS Titanic's. All of her 5 occupants die. Investigation is still needed to determine the cause.Notes
Passengers
Crew
Actors/Actresses
Cargo
See Also
| General Titanic Pages |
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| RMS Titanic
Numbers · Books and weblinks · Sinking · Passenger and crew list · Timeline · Changes in safety practices · Myths, legends and alternative theories · Lifeboats · British Inquiry · US Inquiry · Wreck · Maritime Memorial Act |