National Geographic: Secrets of the Titanic

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It began here in ireiand at the

Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.

Three thousand men would labor here

for more than 2 years.

They were building a monster

the largest ship the world

had ever seen.

In the spring of 1909

a mountain of steel began to

rise against the sky.

The ship would weigh 66,000 tons

her hull would span 4 city blocks,

each of her colossal steam engines

was the size of a 3-story house.

The huge scale of these things was

a source of delight.

It was a scene out of

Gulliver's Travels when

the ship's anchor

through the streets of Belfast.

Some few observers found

this giant threatening

and wrote of her nightmare scale.

But their forebodings fell short of

the event,

for the fate of this ship still

fascinates the world

and her name is a synonym for tragedy.

In 1910 the huge ship taking shape

in Belfast was a supreme wonder

in world accustomed to miracles.

Every day it seemed something bigger

or better was invented.

Never had so many people been so

prosperous,

never had they taken such delight

in showing off

so this was called, "The Gildde Age."

This was a time when horses

still got most people around.

But things were rapidly changing

thanks to the machines of a new age

everything from rubber bands

to radios

from lightbuibs

to automobiles.

Progress and prosperity

money and machines,

almost anything seemed possible

and often it was.

May 31st, 1911,

the Roual Mail Ship Titanic,

slipped gracefully into Belfast harbor.

It was the largest moving object

ever made by man.

The Titanic was designed for

the rich passenger trade

on the North Atlantic.

It was not only the biggest ocean liner

it was by far the most luxurious.

Aboard Titanic it was hard to

remember that this was indeed a ship.

Advertising the delights it offered

the White Star Line called Titanic,

"a floating palace."

So confident were Titanic's builders

that her trial vouage

lasted just 8 hours.

Almost as an afterthought

she was said to be, "unsinkable."

On April 10th, 1912,

Titanic's maiden vouage began.

With their maids

valets and chauffeurs

their mountains of baggage the rich

traveled in a style almost unknown today.

In an age that worshipped wealth

the 325 first class passengers

were an awesome assembly.

Titanic was like a time capsule laden

with the splendors of the gilded Age.

In 1912 these films were shown in

theaters to a public eager

for any glimpse of Titanic

in fact, this is actually Titanic's

smaller sister ship the Olympic.

But the excitement and spectacle

were true to the event

and many people couldn't

tell the difference.

Titanic sailed from

Southampton at noon,

she was expected to reach New York

just 7days,

with 2,228 people aboard her.

There are a few authentic pictures

taken aboard Titanic

on her first and last voyage.

A vacationing priest

Father Francis Brown,

caught these poignant snapshots

of his fellow passengers.

Most of them on a voyage to eternity.

The next day Titanic made her last stop

pausing off the coast at

Queenstown, Ireland.

Here tenders brought out the

last passengers,

mostly Irish immigrants headed for

new homes in America,

and here the lucky Father Brown

disembarked,

taking these pictures on his way.

Father Brown caught Captain Smith

peering down from Titanic's bridge

poised on the brink of destiny.

Then Titanic sailed into the

twilight zone of legend

she would not be photographed again

for 73 years,

vanished in all but human memory.

The event of Titanic's last hours

have not faded with the passage of time.

The tragedy

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