Britannic. "Theirs is the thirty-thou-sand-tonner period," reported a news-paper in 191O, referring to Cunard'streasures. "But fthey] must now takesecond place. Olympic ushers in theforty-thousand-ton period.... So, thepride of place, for everythingin mercan-tile marine construction but speed, hascome back to Belfast."

More than a century later, Belfastremained intricately tied to the ships-including the most famed of them all-that were built there. Una Reilly, thegreat-granddaughter of a cabinetmakerwho worked onthe Titanic, still owns achess board made from a multihued as-semblage ofthe inlaid woods supposedlyused in crafting the ship's ornate interi-ors. "The rest of the world can only ob-serve the disaster of the Titanic," saysReilly, a co-founder ofthe Belfast TitanicSociety. "In Belfast, we celebrate her cre-ation. She was only on the world scenefor 13 days, but she was part ofthe Belfastskyline for three years."

About a third of Harland & Woolf'stotal labor force, or some 4,500 people,ultimatelyworked onthe Ti fdnic. Some,like Thomas Millaa even went downwith it. The 33-year-old assistant engi-neer spent much of his career at theshipyard, but by the time the Titanic setsail, he had shiftedjobs to be a seagoingengineer for White Star. "Tommywouldhave been on deck, looking after winch-es and cranes," explained his great-granddaughter, Susie, who le adsTitanic-themed tours around Belfast. Recentlywidowed, Tommyhoped tobegin a newlife after arrivingin NewYork, where hisyoung sons, Thomas and William, wouldjoin him once he got settled. Until then,he exhorted, the boys should resistspending the two bronze pennies hepressed upon each of them before heleft. But the familywould never reuniteand, said Millar, the unspent coins havebeen passed down through the genera-tions.

Perhaps the most famous of those

connected with the Titanic who lost theirlives, however, was Thomas Andrews.Andrews entered the employ of Harland& Wolff as a l6-year-old apprentice. ,,Itis not necessary and scarcelypossible, tofollow Andrews with any closeness asrapidly, step by step, he climbed the lad-der," wrote hisbiographer, Shan Bullock,in 1912, shortly after the ?ltanic disaster."The record of his career is written in thewonderful story of the Queen's IslandYard fsite of H&W] through all its devel-opments onward from 1894." Andrews'feats, documented by Bullock, includedthe now-standard lengthening of a shipby dividing a vessel and inserting a newsection, and the reconstruction of awrecked ship. In 19O5, Andrews becamehead ofdesign and was soon concurrent-lynamed managingdirector, aswhichhesupervised 53 branches. "It seems agiant's task," wrote Bullock in the floridstyle of the time. "Yet Andrews shoul-dered it, unweariedly, cheerily, jofully,for pure love of the task."

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In the biography, Bullock paints apicture of life at the yard, describing awalk accompanied by two men whohad worked with Andrews. ..In and out,up and down we went...over cobblestones and tram lines. Then into shopafter shop in endless succession, eachneeding a day's journey to traverse....Boilers as tall as houses, shafts a boy'sheight in diameter, enormous pro-pellers hanging like some monstroussea animal in chains, turbine motors onwhich workmen clambered as upon acliff, huge lathes, pneumatic hammers,and quiet slow-moving machines thatdealt with cold steel, shearing it,punching it, planing it....,' At last, the in-trepid Bullock found himself in thegreat, arching Drawing Hall. In thissun-filled building Andrews and hisdraughtsmen (and women, this beingthe only place where they worked inthe yards) conceived and created theplans for the Titanic.

That building where everythingbe-

gan, still exists. Here, Andrews and hisstaff interpreted the imprecise sketchesand sweeping visions of H&W,s chair-man, Lord William pirrie, into thou-sands of intricately detailed engineeringdrawings. Andrews came to know theships, includi ng the Titanic, intimately."He could have built a ship himself, andfitted her-yes, and sailed her, too," Bul-lock quotes one worker. It was no won-der he was chosen to lead the other eightmen-including the chief draughtsman,a foreman fitter, the manager of the elec-trical department, and several appren-tices-who together formed th e Titanic's"guarantee group;'an elite force ofex-perts who would sail a maiden voyage tometiculously note every aspect of theship's performance.

Below: tte ttartand & Wotff shipyard, where theRMS litanic was built, still loom large over thewatedront in presentday Belfast, Northern lteland.Right: fle Uows of the orympic and lheTttanicproject from the construction scaffolding at Harland& Wolff during their constructaon.

Despite the respect and acclaim An-drews garnered duringhis shortlife, theTitanic wasn' tparticularly innovative. Itwas simply huge. And while changeshad to be made to accommodate itssize-everything from the creation of anextra-commodious dry dock to enlarg-ing the piers in New york-the realprogress in shipbuildinghad come earli-er. "Edward Harland, one of the yard'sfounders, had come up with the idea ofgiving the ships a flatter bottom wayback in the 1870s," says StephenCameron, a co-founder of the BelfastTitanic Society. "That design came to beknown as the Belfastbottom, and itwassignificant in that it enabled builders to

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increase the length of the ships withoutaffecting their widths."

At BB2 feet and 9 inches, the Titanicand her sister ship, Ihe Olympic,werepegged to come in at just about 100 feetlonger than the Cunard ships. They werebilled as some of the largest man-madecreations ever, with an illustration in aWhite Star brochure of the time com-paringtheir lengths to the height ofsuchcelebrated modern buildings asPhiladelphia's City Hall and New York'sWoolworth Building and grand monu-ments such as the Egyptian pyramids.

The Tr'tanic's drawings show sevendecks given over to passenger accom-modations, with the upper decks re-served for first-class voyagers. But eventhe other class cabins were "remarkablywell appointed," writes Rod Green inBuilding the Titanic: The Creation ofHis-tory's Most Famous Ocean Liner."The[ir] overall finish was to a standardthat made fthem] the equal of the major-ity of the White Star Line's rival's first-class cabins," he continues. 'fhe Titanicwas one of a few ships to offer theamenity of a swimming pool, and first-class passengers also enjoyed squash

courts and steam rooms reminiscent ofTurkish baths.

Although the O lymp ic and the Titan-ic looked almost identical, improve-ments and modifications were made tothe second ship, such as the late decisionto partially enclose the promenade deckreserved for first-class passengers. Tnthe Titanic's staterooms, ornatelycarved wood paneling etched glass,painted ceilings, and sumptuous bro-cades and damasks were the order of theday, all hand-crafted to echo the accom-modations of the era's finest hotels. Inits public spaces, the Titanic especiallyshined: Its grand staircase, a virtuosopiece of wrought ironwork and intricatemarquetry has gained iconic status.

The Titanic's desigrers had thoughtof eveqrthing when it came to outfittingthe largest and most luxurious of oceanliners. Harland and wolff had even rec-ommended the ship stock more lifeboatsthan the 16 officially required. "WhiteStar protested, saying that it didn't wantto crowd the boat decks," says Cameron."In the end, there were 16 lifeboats, plusfour collapsible ones that Harland &Wolff sort of snuck on." Even if every

lifeboat were filled to capacity, therewould have been enough to save onlyabout half of the approximately 2,2OOpassengers and crew.

The lifeboat shortage might havecontributed to the severe loss oflife-about three-quarters of those onboarddied-but so did the confusion of hittingan iceberg just before the midnight hour,the severity of the incident, and theship's unknowable hugeness. Unknow-able, that is, except to one man. Whenthe ship's designer, Thomas Andrews,surveyed the damage shortly after the11:40 p.m. collision, he predicted the lin-er would go down within two hours.

Eventually, the unsinkable did indeedsuccumb to the unthinkable, and the Tr-tanic disappeared from the horizon at2:2O a.m. Atragedy, surely; a disappoint-men! too, forAndrews and the thousandswho labored on the "pride of Belfast."Ultimately, though, the ?itanic's briefshining moments are tied to the years ofperspiration and inspiration that led upto them. And that's the stuffof legend.

JoaNN Gnrco is a freelance writer fromPhiladelphia,Pa.

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/f, s the world pauses to reflect on the loOth anniversary ofFthe fitanic, Kansas City, Mo.'s Union Station will paytributeto the tragedy with a poignant look at the ship and its passen-gers. "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" will feature more than300 relics from the ship and its debris field (March 3-Sept. 3).

The Belfast neighborhood where Harland and Wolff designed and built the Titanic is now called Titanic Quarter, andfeatures docks, slipways, and buildings associated with itsconstruction. This April, a $156 million [200 million pounds]attraction, Titanic Belfast [titanicbelfast.com], will be added to

the mix. The six-story building features interactive exhibitsthat detail the stages involved in constructing the ship, andexplores its maiden voyage, sinking, aftermath, and mythsand legends. Closer to home, Titanic Museum Attractions(titanicattraction.com) in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., and Branson,Mo., tell the story through re-created environments (includinga replica ofthe ship's grand staircase), artifacts, and person-al histories. And, still closer-at just about every movie screenimaginable-will arrive the re-release of James Cameron'sepic film, fitanic; this time it's in 3D. These are no doubtmerely the, er, tip of the iceberg. But they're the ones thatmost promise-yes, you've got it-a night to remember.*le

36'ii I l.l I i i 51 ()ii! (ll|\ii \I:ll- \ir\Cl AZT )il: MARCH / APRIL 2012 thehistorychannelclub.com