Titanic: Building the World's Most Famous Ship - Hardcover

Gill, Anton; Transworld Publishers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0762778296 ISBN 13: 9780762778294

Publisher: Globe Pequot Press, 2011

Synopsis

When she set sail on her doomed maiden voyage in April 1912, RMS Titanic was the jewel in the crown of the White Star Line. A floating palace, she was the largest and most technologically advanced moving object in the world. It spent barely five days at sea, but a skilled workforce of thousands of men and women had spent years building the ship in a remarkable feat of design and engineering.

 

Here is the story of the riveters, who risked deafness from hammering millions of rivets that held together the enormous steel hull; the engineers, who had the gargantuan task of fitting engines to power the massive ship across the Atlantic at 23 knots; the electricians, who installed state-of-the-art communications systems and enormous steam-driven generators; and the carpenters, cabinetmakers, and artisans who labored over every last detail of the opulent state rooms.

 

From the engine room to the ballroom, this book—the companion volume to the five-part National Geographic documentary series Rebuilding Titanic (spring 2011)—is a testament to those who designed, built, and fitted the “ship of dreams.”

About this title

About the Author

Anton Gill is the author of more than twenty books, including Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim and Il Gigante: Michelangelo, Florence, and The David.

From the Back Cover

There had never before been ships quite like the Olympic-class liners built for the White Star Line by Harland & Wolff, and the story of the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic, the second and best known of the three liners of her class built, and her fateful encounter with an iceberg on the night of April 14-15, 1912, is well known. The greatest piece of man-made technology on Earth spent a bare five days at sea before she sank, taking with her the lives of two-thirds of the passengers aboard. . . . The accident has bred dozens of books and several films, and controversy still rages about precisely what could or should have been done to prevent it.

But there is another story: the story of how the ship was constructed, and the story of the men and women who built her and sailed her. This book tells that story.

from the Introduction

From the Inside Flap

A fascinating look at the making of the Titanic in vivid, colorful detail

When she set sail from Southampton on her doomed maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, the
RMS Titanic was the jewel in the crown of the White Star Line. A floating palace weighing nearly 50,000 tons, she was the largest and most technologically advanced moving object in the world. Titanic spent barely five days at sea, but a skilled workforce of thousands had toiled for years amid long, hard, and often dangerous conditions building the ship in a remarkable feat of design and engineering.

As Anton Gill shows in this lavishly illustrated book, the story of Titanic s construction is also the story of these dedicated men and women. Riveters risked deafness from hammering millions of rivets that held together the enormous steel hull; engineers had the gargantuan task of fitting engines to power the massive liner across the Atlantic at 23 knots; electricians installed state-of-the-art communications systems and enormous steam-driven generators; and carpenters, cabinetmakers, and artisans labored over every last detail of the opulent state rooms.

This book which features numerous archival photographs and illustrations alongside a host of informative and illuminating sidebars reveals that, contrary to popular opinion, no one at the White Star Line ever called the ship unsinkable. And it takes us as never before into the veritable city of surprising comforts aboard Titanic, which contained a darkroom, gym, hospital, squash court, swimming pool, Turkish bath, wireless telegraph office, barber shops that sold souvenirs, a printing department that issued a daily newspaper with news received by wireless telegraph, and even a mail room staffed by five postal workers, who went down with the ship, protecting the mail.

From the engine room to the ballroom, this companion to the Nat Geo documentary Rebuilding Titanic is a moving testament to those who designed, built, and fitted the ship of dreams.

Edition details

• Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0762778296
• ISBN 13: 9780762778294
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288