WEBVTT - How the Titanic Worked: Part One 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.840 Heart Radio. Ahoy, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.200 your captain. There's Chuck, your other captain, and your third captain, Jerry, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.960 all of us equal captains here. Uh is out there 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.240 hovering around silently like the creepiest captain of all, even 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:32.120 creepier than Captain Stubbing. Um. Yeah, and that of course 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:34.839 makes this stuff you should know. I always loved it 0:00:34.840 --> 0:00:39.879 when Captain Stubbing would have the rare love storyline. Yeah 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:45.919 now and then, yes, so good. He's usually just overseeing 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.360 the love of others, you know exactly. He was a 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:50.920 father figure, so that's why it was off putting when 0:00:51.000 --> 0:00:55.760 he had his own love thing. Yeah, but he wants 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.720 to see Captain Stubbing, you know, go all the way. 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:03.320 Uh we should mention. And I wish I knew her name. 0:01:03.400 --> 0:01:05.920 But for many, many years, one of our young listeners 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.400 asked us to do Titanic at every turn. And uh, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.320 I imagine that that young girl is now a grown woman, 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:21.920 probably who doesn't listen anymore, but who knows who knows? Also, Chuck, 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:27.400 I think most recently was requested by our Scottish correspondent Noah. Oh, 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.680 don't you remember when he said hi last time? Sure, 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.960 I don't remember the Titanic part, but Noah. You know, 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:35.800 I'm happy for Noah to take the place of this 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:41.440 young girl who left us yesterday's news which I can't 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.200 prove used us up and just threw us away. Chuck. Yeah, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:49.240 I think we resisted for so long because the movie 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:54.120 is so linked to this event. In the movie, despite 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.560 its faults, did a really pretty accurate job of and 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:01.200 I know that was important to James Cameron, of kind 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.360 of really telling the accurate story of exactly what happened. 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.200 So we're like my bother. Yeah, there's actually um From 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.440 the filming of that movie, they may have settled at 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:17.040 least one major mystery as to what happened when it sank. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:23.640 The no the what happened to the Grand Staircase, which 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.040 they found when they finally discovered the Titanic later on 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.360 uh in the eighties, was just totally missing. It was 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:34.440 now like a seven story vertical basically an elevator shaft, 0:02:34.480 --> 0:02:38.519 a huge hole, and none of the staircase remained. And 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.320 when they filmed that movie The Titanic, the Grand Staircase 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.320 detached and started to float away, and James Cameron was like, 0:02:46.320 --> 0:02:49.000 I'll bet you that's exactly what happened to the real Titanic. 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.399 And I have a feeling that Jewel the Sea isn't 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.839 even right. What was it called? Had a name Jim 0:02:56.000 --> 0:03:00.080 of the there's so many angry people right now of 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:04.160 the gam of the on it. I think it was 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:05.880 the Heart of the Sea, the Heart of the Ocean, 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:10.080 something like that, The Jewel of the Wind. Did you 0:03:10.120 --> 0:03:14.000 like the movie? Yeah? It was fine. Um, you remember 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:16.680 Thomas Jefferson's Bible where he cut out all the magic 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.000 momo jumbo and just had like the morality of the 0:03:20.000 --> 0:03:22.480 whole thing. If you could go through and cut out 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.960 like the love story of that movie, I would probably 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.160 like it much more. Well, I kind of disagree there, 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:34.480 because you gotta pain it around something. Whoa, You gotta 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.800 frame it around some kind of a story of people. 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.640 Are you just saying you would have done another person story? Yeah? 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:43.240 Why not just throw Captain Stooping in there and have 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:46.280 him have the love story? I thought the love story 0:03:46.360 --> 0:03:50.000 was good. I just think Jim Cameron is I think 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.640 he can be a little ham fisted with his screenwriting sometimes. Yeah, 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.760 And there was some stuff like that. I remember even 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:00.160 at the time, like Billy Zane, you know, little pithy mom. 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.680 It's like, you know that Picasso, who's ever heard of him? 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.520 That will be never be worth a thing like or 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:09.520 something like that. I remember the time being like, come on, man, 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:14.520 Billy Zane does what he's told on set ze. So yeah, 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:17.000 there was another one. I had forgotten about this line, 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:19.520 but somebody else was basically saying the same thing that 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:22.560 you are about that movie, or James Cameron. James Cameron's 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:27.000 writing that when Leo was, you know, running with Kate 0:04:27.040 --> 0:04:31.680 Winslet through um first class and there's band. The band 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:34.720 is playing and he stops for a second and goes 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:39.400 music to drown two. Now I know I'm in first class. 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.200 So yeah, the whole thing is just rife with that 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.000 kind of stuff. But overall, I mean just the fact 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.080 that like they went to the extremes that they did 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.880 too to try to try to get it as accurate 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.320 as possible and overlaid like a you know, a romantic 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.159 love story on it like it was. I mean, it 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:57.599 was a good It was a good movie in a 0:04:57.600 --> 0:04:59.680 lot of ways, in so many more ways than it 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.360 was a add movie that it's just overall a really 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.280 good movie. Yeah. I think the most brilliant decision in 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.920 that movie was to have that beginning bit where it's 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:11.240 a little ham fisted, but the part where Bill Paxton 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:15.400 and the c Nerds go over exactly how it sank. 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.680 Uh that, Like, I don't think a lot of people 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.839 understood that, and understanding that as you're watching the movie 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:27.320 is pretty critical. So I think that was pretty smart. Yes, indeed, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:29.719 And one other thing about that movie. Will never mention 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.680 it again for the rest of these two episodes, I'm sure. Um, 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:37.920 but it costs about almost exactly half adjusted for inflation, 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:40.960 um to make the movie Titanic as it did to 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:45.880 make The Titanic. Oh wow, isn't that crazy? Yeah, And 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.840 we just did an episode of movie Crush basically there 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.520 there you go. That was a mini Crush. Although Nate 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:54.120 demo this was this was actually his pick our buddy, Nate, 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:59.120 He's Titanic. He did. That's awesome, Man, that doesn't surprise 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.920 me at all, Right, I mean he he would love 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.000 a movie like that that's set you know, like his 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.560 like really accurate historical fiction. That would totally be up 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:14.640 his his alley um. Okay, so we're talking believe it 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.359 or not, everybody. I don't know if you figured this 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:19.520 out yet, we're talking about the Titanic finally at long 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.960 last um and like we're saying, you know, we kind 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:26.160 of put this off because the movie had had just 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.200 become so widespread that we basically had to wait out 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:31.560 it's after effects. But I feel like we've kind of 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:36.320 finally kind of reached that um so, and like I've 0:06:36.320 --> 0:06:39.560 been interested in the Titanic since I was just a 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:45.080 young kid. Yeah, when they found the Titanic in like, 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.160 I was at just the right age to to really 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:53.359 get sucked into that um and the I think the 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.919 Titanic was probably the first thing that introduced me to 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:01.320 like the just the fascinating creepiness of looking at things 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:06.360 they aren't supposed to be underwater, but now it's just 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:09.279 perfect for that kind of thing. Yeah, and it's still 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.000 really cool. Like I was looking at pictures today of 0:07:13.040 --> 0:07:17.400 that stern sitting there underwater, and it's, uh, it's it's 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:20.400 still just like there's something about it that you can't 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:22.920 not look at it and just stare at it, I know, 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:27.160 And I'm like waiting for the day when things become uh, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.440 when technology reaches to the point where we can just 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.160 explore every square into the Titanic on the bottom, I'm 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.360 really looking forward to that. But so, I knew a 0:07:36.400 --> 0:07:39.400 lot about the Titanic to begin with, but just researching this, 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:42.040 it dawned on me, like, I mean, there's just so 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:45.080 much I didn't know that I found in in um 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.600 the time spent researching this. But it also dawned on 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:50.760 me that there is just so much more, Like some 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.720 people dedicate like this is their hobby, like learning and 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.480 talking and researching and reading and thinking about the Titanic. Yeah, 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.600 and you know this is this be a two part 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.960 episode and we're gonna do it stuff you should know 0:08:04.040 --> 0:08:07.440 style and probably about ninety minutes. But I'm quite sure 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.720 there are podcasts out there fully dedicated to the Titanic 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:16.720 where it's like you know, and now episode twenty the Cutlery, 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.120 where people know, like like you're saying, people are obsessed 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:22.840 with it and they know all the details. We're gonna, 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:25.200 I'm sure get some stuff kind of wrong because we're 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.680 not experts, but we're going to give it the old 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.200 stuff you should know treatment you know, Yeah for sure. 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:33.679 So yeah, So as as like I knew a lot 0:08:33.679 --> 0:08:35.720 about the Titanic. There's plenty of people out there who 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:40.200 like dedicate themselves to it. Um. But just learning about this, 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.640 like it's just such a huge monumental thing. A lot 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.240 of people divide, like the nineteenth century the like the 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.240 old era um and the modern age upon the sinking 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:55.480 of the Titanic, Like that's how colossal a thing it's become. Um. 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:57.480 But at the time, I mean, it was actually not 0:08:58.520 --> 0:09:00.319 that big of a deal. Like it was a maiden 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.960 voyage of the Titanic, but it's sister ship, the Olympic, 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:06.120 had already sailed, and that was actually kind of a 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:09.520 big thing. The Titanic wasn't even sold out, um when 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.560 it underwent its voyage. Actually, in retrospect, that was a 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.000 very good thing. But there's a lot to learn from 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.880 the Titanic just just researching it, even if you do 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.360 feel like you already know basically everything about it. Yeah, 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.200 I mean I learned a ton of stuff. Yeah, and 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.640 I saw that movie a bunch so Um. Like I said, 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:31.120 the Titanic had a sister ship, the Olympic, and it 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:35.840 also had another sister ship, which was originally dubbed the Gigantic, 0:09:36.440 --> 0:09:38.960 but after the Titanic saying, they went back and renamed 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:42.400 the Gigantic the Britannic because I thought, I think maybe 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:44.800 they're they'd be like, well, we were we had enough 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:48.560 hubrists for to last a lifetime with the Titanic. But 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:51.840 these three ships came out of a dinner actually um 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.400 between a guy named j. Bruce is May, who was 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.640 the chairman of the White Star Line which owned those 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:01.720 three ships, and another guy what was his name, Peery, 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:06.200 Lord William Peery, and their their wives Florence who was 0:10:06.200 --> 0:10:11.760 married to Bruce, and Margaret Montgomery originally Carlisle and that 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.240 you know that name will come back in just a second, 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.719 so just put a pin in her. So the um 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.120 this dinner was basically about how to compete with the 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:27.120 Kenard lines. The Cunard people um were eating White Stars 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.560 lunch to a degree because they had just released the 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.040 Mauritania and the Lusitania, and I think the Mauritaneous at 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.560 the speed record. Um, these things could make it across 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.400 the Atlantic in five days, which was very very fast 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:43.520 at the time, and White Star couldn't keep up. So 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:46.920 they decided from this dinner what if instead of trying 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.880 to make faster and faster ships, we just kind of 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.720 go with our thing and make them bigger and more luxurious, 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:55.600 so people want to spend that extra day. It took 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.640 White Star six days to make it across. People want 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:00.840 to spend that extra day because a ship is so 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.520 ridiculously luxurious that they choose ours instead. And not only 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.840 was this the birth of the Titanic in the Olympic 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.600 and the Britannic, it was basically the birth of the 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.920 cruise industry as we understand it today, just basically making 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:20.439 these huge floating luxury hotels that that kind of became 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.200 born from this dinner as well. Yeah, and so they said, 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.400 you know, we want to make them about one and 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.800 a half times the size of anything that Kunard is 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.280 putting out there. And they started sketching around a little bit, 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.199 and they sketched up a couple of masts and for 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.640 smoke stacks, and I think by the time they got 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:41.680 to the engineering phase, they said, by the way, we 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:43.600 really only need three of these, and they said, no, 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:46.520 we must have four. We want it to look symmetrical, 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.480 and we'll figure out something to do with that fourth one, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.000 which they did became a ventilation system, which was pretty smart. 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:58.720 And initially Alexander Montgomery Carlisle was the head designer, who 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:04.040 was uh, Margaret Lord William Peary's wife's brother, so it 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:06.520 was his brother in law that was the initial designer, 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:10.160 and then that was eventually handed over to Peery's nephew, 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.079 Thomas Andrews And he was the guy played by Victor 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:17.440 Garber in the movie The Dude from Alias. The Dad 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.200 from Alias? Is it? Yeah? I mean I never saw Alias, 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:22.400 but I know that when you're on TV, that's what 0:12:22.440 --> 0:12:26.520 you're most famous for. Yeah, isn't that weird? Yeah? Except 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:35.400 in our case? Right, so um so yeah. So Thomas 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.880 Andrews um would become the chief designer of the ship, 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:41.400 and he had an amazing job of it. But the 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.720 ship itself, the Titanic, was something like eight hundred and 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:48.880 eighty two ft long, which is a little longer than 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.360 the Transamerican Pyramid in San Francisco. Is the building in 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:58.920 San Francisco is tall? Imagine tipping that into the ocean. Yeah, 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.480 and then you have like and the Titanic was slightly 0:13:01.520 --> 0:13:04.440 longer than that. It was also ninety two ft wide, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.680 and it had a gross weight of forty five thousand tons. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:10.960 It was just by far the biggest ship that had 0:13:11.000 --> 0:13:13.920 ever been built. And so like the idea of bigness 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:19.080 and uh indestructibility kind of was was part of the 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:23.640 Titanics whole jam, like from the outset. Yeah, and there 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.640 was one sort of fateful mistake. And you know, Titanic 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:29.160 is one of those things where a lot of people 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.840 have in hindsight said, well, there was of course the iceberg, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.160 but there were also this in this, in this that 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.199 happened that could have led to, you know, it's ultimate demise. 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:43.840 And one of those things was the rivets on the Titanic. 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:48.280 There were three million wrought iron rivets that apparently, upon 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:52.080 further examination, contained about three times the amount of slag 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.200 residue as was allowable. And I think the result of 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.520 that was when they're exposed to cold, they become more brittle. 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:02.199 And so some people have posited that those you know, 0:14:02.240 --> 0:14:04.600 it was a well built ship for the most part, 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.920 but those rivets could have been weaker than they should 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.760 have been when push came to shove. Yeah, And I mean, 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.199 if your rivets are the weak link in the chain, 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.000 that's trouble right there. But yeah, not all of them 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:20.880 were wrought iron, but enough of them were. And I 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.240 also saw that they were double riveted, and they probably 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.560 should have been triple riveted from what from what I 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:30.360 saw in some engineering blog rivet exactly. Everybody knows that, 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:36.760 sure so um So. They also had two engines on 0:14:36.880 --> 0:14:40.640 board UM that were just enormous. Each one was about 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.880 three thirty ft tall, and they were capable of producing 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:49.320 thirty thousand horsepower, which is about the same energy produced 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.680 by ten diesel locomotives. Just these two engines UM, and 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.040 they could push the ship pretty fast, something like um 0:14:57.080 --> 0:14:59.680 I think twenty two knots was the top speed it 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:02.600 hit it. And like I said, the Mauritania had set 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:07.080 the speed record at something like twenty three point nine 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.160 I think, as far as the record goes, and it 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:16.160 lasted until so the Titanic wasn't setting speed records or 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.560 anything like that, but it was still going awfully fast, 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.480 especially considering the size it was. But it was thanks 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.800 to those huge engines, and they're the enormous propellers that 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:29.160 they outfitted the ship with two oh man, those like 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.840 if you're at home and you can access photographs safely, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.600 I strongly encourage you to look up some of these pictures. 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:40.120 Just the pictures of the propellers are amazing. There are 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.040 two three blade propellers that were about twenty three and 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:46.560 a half feet in diameter, and then one four blade 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:51.160 propeller that was about seventeen feet in diameter, And just 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:56.320 seeing a photograph of these things is unbelievable to behold, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:59.360 Like how big these things are. Yeah, again, just bigness. 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.160 It was just a common theme, you know. UM. One 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.520 of the other things that the Titanic had that was 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:09.520 pretty innovative was that so underwater in the hole, what 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:14.280 would be beneath the sea surface, UM, as far as 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.120 the boat was concerned. UM, where sixteen bulkhead compartments that 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.920 had all sorts of things like one held the coal 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:23.760 or I think multiple won't tell all the coal that 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:27.600 the Titanic consumed something like six hundred tons a day 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:31.040 to get that thing to move, um. And then there 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.720 were just all sorts of other just just like rooms 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.720 that were beneath sea level. And each of these rooms 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.200 had an automatic door UM that would shut it off 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.400 its seal. It They were water tight, so if any 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.000 of these compartments caught water, started taking on water, it 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.640 could fill up and as long as that door was shut, um, 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.480 the Titanic would just be able to keep on keeping 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.520 on basically. So that was a real, um, a real 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:01.640 innovation that combined with its big us and and um 0:17:01.680 --> 0:17:04.280 just the amount of steel that was put into it 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.440 combined to kind of create this idea that the Titanic 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.960 was unsinkable. That's where that comes from, largely from those compartments. Yeah. 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:15.440 I think they said two of the four could flood, 0:17:16.119 --> 0:17:19.000 and they said, really, up to four of these could flood, 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.320 but no more than four. Yeah, put a put a 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.560 pin in that one. Uh. And on that coal, there 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:29.679 were twenty nine steam boilers. And if you're thinking like 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:32.640 how much coal, you said, six pounds or I'm sorry, 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.920 six hundred tons a day a day. That was a 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:39.440 hundred and sixty two furnaces of two hundred men shoveling 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:44.240 coal basically NonStop. Yeah. There was actually a fire um 0:17:44.280 --> 0:17:47.560 aboard the Titanic, Like the Titanic was on fire when 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:51.359 it was taking on passengers right, um. And it was 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.480 because those those coal deposits, one of them had caught fire. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.560 And when you have coal that's on fire in that situation. Basically, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:17:59.879 the only way to put it out is to you 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:03.040 is that coal that's on fire. So not only were they, 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.960 you know, shoveling like under routine conditions, they were shoveling 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:11.760 even more coal than normal to keep the fire from spreading. Yeah, 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.199 and that's another one of those things that people have 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.560 Now some people experts have gone back and said the fire, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.840 uh could have started up to three weeks before they 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.880 even set sale, and that it could have weakened um 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:29.680 some of those holds they found evidence of, like some 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.720 some burn marks and stuff like that where they said 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.399 it could have weakened some of that metal. And uh, 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:38.600 you know, it sounds very strange to have a fire 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.080 going for three weeks and say here we go, everybody 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:43.840 right exactly, but that was the deal. Plus it also 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.720 just gets across how enormous Titanic was that it could 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.520 have a fire and just be like whatever, it's all good, 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.520 We're we're the Titanic. But yeah, they discovered a picture 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:58.160 that shows some sort of like kind of stripe across 0:18:58.400 --> 0:19:01.399 the whole of the ship that is about where the 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:03.439 iceberg hid it. And they said that's from that that 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:07.679 coal fire, we think, which is surprising still after all 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.080 this time. I think that's another reason why the Titanic 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.640 story is so engrossing is there's there's just so much 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:16.159 still that people are learning about it, even a hundred 0:19:16.160 --> 0:19:19.600 and nine years on. Oh totally. Uh. You also have 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:22.840 to remember, when you build something this big, you also 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.200 have to build the things that help you build this thing, 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.200 because they didn't exist. So they had to get a 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:30.679 boat slip that could accommodate it. So they built the 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:34.280 this enormous white Star dock, and then something called the 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.199 Great Gantry, which was it sort of looks like a 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:39.960 big it's sort of like a skeleton of a big 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.160 airplane hangar. You should look at these pictures too, it's 0:19:43.160 --> 0:19:46.160 pretty remarkable. But it was a series of tin cranes 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.840 basically that held this boat in place while it was 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:51.640 being built, to could lift the people up to work 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:54.280 on it, lift materials up to wherever they needed to go. 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.280 And it's it's actually something to behold in itself, like 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:02.359 seeing the Titanic sus ended like above the ground like that. Yeah, 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.520 And it took eleven thousand people to build this ship. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.680 Eleven thousand people and they built it. They built the 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:13.240 actual ship itself, uh, and was launched into the water. 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.560 I think, although it was basically always in the water 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.000 because it was basically impossible to dry dock. Um. Well 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:20.680 that when it was in the hangar, I was sitting 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.000 up there. Okay, you're right, sorry, But it was actually 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.840 launching in the water then on May thirty one, nineteen eleven. 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:29.520 But it didn't have any interior, it didn't have its 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:33.720 engines yet. It was fully completed March thirty first, nineteen twelve, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.399 and it began its maiden voyage and started taking on 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.680 passengers on April tenth, nineteen twelve. And I proposed, Chuck 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.480 that before we take on passengers, we take a break. 0:20:44.200 --> 0:21:17.840 Let's do it all right? So um. One thing I 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:20.320 didn't realize about the Titanic was it's It had three 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:23.840 little stops before it left the UK for New York. 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:29.320 It started out in Southampton, uh, in England, moved on 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:34.840 to Cherbourg, France, and then went on to Queenstown, Ireland 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:39.000 before leaving for New York. Did you know that? I 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:45.240 didn't know that. That's right, it wasn't so. Um. The 0:21:45.280 --> 0:21:48.280 Titanic costs about four hundred million dollars in two thousand 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.560 nineteen dollars to make, which to that's that's actually less 0:21:52.560 --> 0:21:56.400 than Carnival Cruise Lines Splendor, which was launched in two 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.359 thousand and eight for like four hundred and fifty fifty million. 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:02.719 It's actually for For as luxurious as it was, it 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:06.639 was a pretty pretty good bargain, to tell you the truth. Yeah, 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:10.080 And here's my deal with cruises. I think we've talked 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.560 about cruise ships before. I'm not a fan. I've been 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:16.680 on exactly one cruise and uh, just not a fan. 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:18.880 And a lot of it has to do with the decor, 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:24.639 like shopping mall carpet and bowling alley carpet and you know, 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:30.480 gold railings and things like that, but not like cool looking. Uh. 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:32.560 I think if they took a note from the and 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:35.119 maybe they are building cruise ships like this now, but 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:37.720 if they took a note from the Titanic and other 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.280 ships of the day today and had that really nice 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:45.000 wicker furniture and some you know, if not iron, some 0:22:45.040 --> 0:22:48.400 stuff painted to look like iron, and not so much 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:54.119 of that shiny gold shopping mall garbage. Look, I think 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.800 I would be more into it, a little more classy, 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.560 refined thing. And I think it could go a long 0:23:00.600 --> 0:23:03.000 way towards getting people like me on cruise ships. There's 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:05.359 some that are like that, like kind of some throwback 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.680 ones are there. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, but I get 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.159 what you mean that whole You know, all you had 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:13.000 to say was shopping mall. You kind of nailed it 0:23:13.080 --> 0:23:15.840 right there. Like when you look at the Titanic, it 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:19.840 looks like something the Kellogg Brothers would have been keen on. Well, 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:21.879 it's funny you say that because we mentioned this in 0:23:21.960 --> 0:23:25.320 the Kellogg Brothers episode, but they had equipment on board 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:29.000 the Titanic ins gym, and the gym happened to be 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:31.400 located on the boat deck, which was the same place 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:34.560 where the captain's bridge was. F y I in case 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.360 about the various decks, Yeah, I think we should. There 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.399 are a number of them actually, and they they lettered 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.320 them by letter appropriately enough. That's right. So there's that 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:49.119 boat deck, like you said, where the bridge, the gym, 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:52.560 and I think just sort of that nice lovely pine 0:23:52.640 --> 0:23:56.000 open deck is. You had the promenade deck, which is 0:23:56.080 --> 0:24:00.240