An ordinary meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday 2nd April 2008. The President was in the chair. A minutes silence was observed in memory of Dr Peter Robinson. The President then introduced the speaker Dr John Wales who spoke to the title ‘A Night to Remember’.
Dr Wales said that the shipping trade, at the turn of the 20th century, was one of conducting vast numbers of emigrants from the old world to the new world – and that included lots of Irish. The shipping lines made their money from the 3rd class passengers. On the Titanic the 3rd class was as good as first in some ships.
The Titanic was the third liner in a series of 4, built in 1907, which the White Star Line planned to have built by Harland and Wolff - the first two being Oceanic and Atlantic. She was 882 feet long and displaced 60,000 tons. She had 29 boilers [Oceanic had 12] and 159 furnaces which along with the engines took up the bottom of the ship. Safety was not paramount: the bulkheads did not reach the top as it would interfere with the design of the first class area and indeed when Harland and Wolff suggested 64 lifeboats were needed the suggestionwas turned down as they would be in the way of the first class passengers. She didn’t compare with Brunel’s Great Eastern which did not sink when it struck a rock. She entered service with only half a days trials in Belfast Lough. She was never tested flat out or performing full speed turns. On the way to Cherbourg she zigzagged to test this manoeuvre.
Titanic’s departure was delayed by a coal strike in Southampton and she finally departed on April 10th 1912 at 12 noon carrying 1324 passengers and 899 crew. She nearly collided with the liner New York when leaving, bound for Cherbourg.
On the 14th April 1912 she collided with an iceberg. At 0900 that morning she received the first ice report. At 10.30 pm the sea temperature was recorded as 31 degrees F. At 11.00pm the Californian radioed a warning about ice but the Titanic still maintained her speed of about 22 knots. At 11.40 pm she hit an ice berg at 49W and 41N. At 12.05 the lifeboats were uncovered but 16 boats and 4 collapsibles were unusable. The Captain had been told that she would sink in 1 ½ hours but even so the first distress call was not made until 12.15am. At 12.45 8 rockets were fired and the first boat was lowered. The nearest ships were the Carpathia a very small ship who came across survivors ‘sooner than expected’ and the Californian who was drifting 21 miles to the NNW but with her radio off at night.
That night 1500 people died and 700 survived
Among the survivors there were three doctors: an English one in first, an Italian in 2nd and a Hungarian in 3rd class. In all from first class 31% of the men and 92% of the women and children, from second class 9.6% of the men and 81% of the women and children, and from third class 14.2% of the men and 46.9% of the women and children were saved. Of the crew 22% of the men and only 13% of the women survived.
As a result of the disaster rules for ships were enacted that specified double hulls, fireproof extended bulkheads, enough lifeboats for everyone and the maintenance of 24 hour radio watch.
The meeting then proceeded to the AGM of the Society, the minutes of which will be read at the next AGM.