I. On that fatal night in 1912, the world's largest moving object disappeared beneath the waters of the North Atlantic in less than three hours.
II. Why was the ship sailing through waters known to be a 'mass of floating ice'? Why were there too few lifeboats, so that 1,522 people were left to perish at sea? Why were a third of the survivors members of the crew?
III. I assumed most of you are familiar with the Titanic through the movie Titanic and I'm going to tell about the disaster of the Titanic for those of you know very little about it with. A. The construction of the Titanic, how the ship sank into sea, and its popularity are three main points for my speech today.
The construction of the Titanic was successful but it became a disaster.
I. People called the Titanic as a unsinkable ship but it wasn't. A. The RMS TItanic was built under the authority of the British shipping company, the White Star Line. 1. RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship. 2. The White Star Line was one of the most prominent and highly successful shipping companies in Britain. 3. The construction task was undertaken by the Harold and Wolff shipyard in Ireland. B. Director of the White Star Line and Harold and Wolff had discussions with regard to building a giant four-funneled phunuld ship that would be the largest ever to float on water. 1. The Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches in length, stood 104 feet tall and weighed 52,310 tons. (Buzzle) 2. The Titanic had 10 decks, 3 engines, 29 boilers, and 159 furnaces. C. The construction of the Titanic took about 26 months and was launched on May 31, 1911 at 12:15 pm. 1. The Titanic was built keeping in mind that the world ought to speak of its comfort and luxury. 2. It could accommodate 739 passengers in the first Class, 674 in the second class, and 1,026 in the third class. a. Website called Buzzle stated that "The ship had the capacity to accommodate 3,330 people, including 900 crew members" (Buzzle). 3. The Titanic offered a variety of facilities, such as a swimming pool, squash court, an electric bath, a gymnasium, a cafe, etc.
This monster ship now lies in the depth of the Atlantic Ocean.
II. Titanic sank at 2:20 am on April 15, 1912. A. The first 3 days of the journey since the Titanic started her voyage were pretty smooth without any disturbances. 1. However, on April 14, 1912, the night when the Titanic met with the iceberg, the sky was clear, the ocean was as calm as it could be, and the water was extremely cold. 2. The North Atlantic had the worst ice conditions that year, as compared to the past 50 years. B. There were various warnings, but two of which were acknowledged by the captain. 1. The mechanism of the ship was powered by steam, which means that it would have taken about 30 seconds to turn the ship and reverse the engines. 2. However, the starboard side of the ship scraped with the underwater portion of the iceberg for 7 seconds. C. More than 1,500 people downed or froze to death that morning in the flat calm water of the North Atlantic.( If you want to know what really happened the incredible night the Titanic sank, you need to ask the people who were there.) 1. A survivor from this night who is Lawrence Beesley said, "At the foot of the stairway were a number of men passengers, and I now for the first time discovered that others were aroused as well as myself, I first learned that an iceberg had struck us. My friend opened his hand and showed me some ice, flat like my watch, coolly suggesting that I might take it home for a souvenir. All of us will remember the way he had of cracking a joke without a smile. While we stood there, the story of the collision came to us" (33). 2. Finally, the ship sank in twenty minutes after almost all the women and children were gotten off in the few lifeboats.(As we watched in the movie, the band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee" to the end.
