The Titanic story has been told in varying dramatic styles but in general we all know the tragic history of the once legendary White Star Line liner . What has not been reported widely is the Belfast story . Where she was built , the men who built her and what she meant to the people of Belfast. We at White Star Momentos are keen to share the real story of the greatest liner in living history .
The men who were largely responsible for building the Titanic were poor , they lived in two up , two down terrace houses and all of them paid rent to the overbearing landlords . It was a hand to mouth time of living with any overtime being offered by the `Yard` being greatly accepted . Their different skills were paid on a varying wage scale , but it is fair to say that a common unskilled labourer , watchman or store man would earn up to £1 , 11 shillings and sixpence for a weeks wage . At the turn of the century it was fair to say that Harland and Wolff under the ownership of Lord William James Pirrie , was the largest shipyard in the world and at its peak was producing up to twelve ships per year .
Lord Pirrie ( left ) with Bruce Ismay of the White Star Line
It was a time of great advancement in both engineering and design in shipbuilding and this was clearly seen in the battle between the Cunard Line - who had built such great liners as the Mauritania and the Luisitania , and the White Star Line who were trying to catch their lead . After a meeting between Pirrie and Ismay at lord Pirrie`s Belgravia home in London , the idea was percieved to build three liners of the scale and elegance that had never been seen before . They were to be one and a half times the size of the Mauritania and have an interiors to rival any palace . After further discussion at Harland and Wolff Belfast , Ismay agreed to the design and costings produced by the Chief designers Alexander Carlisle and Thomas Andrews and proceeded to choose names for his three new super-liners . Pirrie suggested that they reminded him of the historic Greek giants and asked if the first liner should be named ” Olympic “ , Ismay agreed . Then Ismay thought of the Greeks ancient rivals , the Titans . So for the second ship he decided the name was to be ” Titanic ” . The third ship because of its shear size was simply to be called ” Gigantic ” . ( Later to be renamed Britannic )
Pirrie now had to look to his yard and decide how it would be possible to built such giants in the exisiting space he had . To achieve this he had three slipways levelled and cleared to build two in their place . The builders of the world famous Fourth rail bridge near Edinburgh in Scotland , Sir William Arrol and Co Ltd , were brought in to construct the huge brand new gantry that had been specially designed by the shipyards own staff . The total area of the gantry was 840 ft by 270 ft wide , 228 ft at its tallest point and the structure weighed over 6,000 tons .
The gantry was constructed of three rows of eleven towers . The distance between the rows was 121 ft , whilst the towers were spaced 80ft apart from each other . The gantrys equipment consisted of a central revolving crane and ten walking cranes , and six travelling frames , three over each slipway . Four lifts and numerous inclined walkways provided access to the ships and the gantry itself . This huge construction was just the beginning … the ships were to follow .
Construction on the first of the three liners , yard number 400 , ” RMS Olympic “ began on 16th December 1908 with the laying of her keel , Titanic`s keel , yard number 401 was laid on 31st March 1909 . The two ships sat side by side for nearly two years , rising from the ground to the skys . The workforce were poor and worked long hours to support their families . Terrible injuries were incurred on a daily basis and there were many deaths over the period these ships were built . A fifteen year old boy died on the very first day of Titanic`s construction , and his father died a few weeks later . A worker whose foot was badly crushed by a hoist falling on it , was transported home in a wheelbarrow , but he wouldn`t take his boot off because he knew his foot was badly damaged . Once out of the boot his foot would never go back in , and he needed to report to work the next morning . In Belfast in the early days of the 19th century people either worked or starved .
The RMS Olympic was painted white to aide the photographers to get the best shots and maximize the advertising potential for the White Star Line . She was launched on 20th October 1910 , leaving the Titanic on her own in the great gantry . Work progressed on Titanic and just six months later on 31st may 1911 she too was launched , into the river lagan , Belfast .
Titanic was completed on 31st March 1912 , and departed Belfast at 8.00am on 2nd April 1912 for Southampton . She had taken quite a few Irish lives during her construction but had also provided much needed work for thousands of poverty stricken Belfast men , and she was indeed a thing of ultimate beauty . Titanic sailed from Southamton at noon on 10th April 1912 and five days later she hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic , she sank two hours and forty-eight minutes later with the loss of 1517 lives . Only 706 passengers survived .
