John Eaton, one of the co-authors of Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy said that in the summer of 1907, J. Bruce Ismay and Lord James Pirrie, a partner in Harland and Wolff, met to discuss plans to build two ocean liners that will surpass anything built to date. This simple meeting set off a chain of events that led to the death of over 1500 people less than five years later.
The two ocean liners were to be called the Olympic and the Titanic. A third ship was added to the plans later. The Titanic's hull plate was laid in 1909 and a little over two years later, Titanic's 26,000 ton hull is launched at Harland and Wolff's shipyard. The ship reached a speed of twelve knots when it slid into the water before six anchor chains and two piles of cable drag chains weighing 80 ton's each brought her to a halt. The White Star Line never christened their ships. Many people still consider this to be a bad omen (Eaton 87-90).
On April 2, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Belfast and completed her sea trials. A small fire started in boiler room 6 that would smolder for weeks in the coal dust of the starboard bunker due to a spark from one of the boilers. Just eight days later, passengers began to board the ship to take the maiden voyage of the huge ocean liner. Shortly after noon on April 10, the Titanic's' mooring ropes were cleared and tug boats began to tow her from the dock. According to Colonel Archibald Gracie, a survivor of the wreck and author of the article Out of the Wreck, the movement of Titanic's' huge mass in the harbor causes all 6 mooring ropes of the ocean liner New York to snap. The New York began to swing towards the Titanic's hull, but the tug boat, the Vulcan, managed to catch the New York's bow and heads off the collision. After some delay, Titanic is towed from the harbor and begins the 24 mile crossing of the English Channel. By Friday, Titanic is well on her way out to the North Atlantic, running at 21 knots (Eaton 105-109).
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