It's been 105 years since the most famous cruise ship of all time, the RMS Titanic, sank. The construction of the ocean liner was ordered by the White Star Line company, and it was built by the Harlan-Wolf shipyard in Belfast. At the time, it was the largest and most luxurious passenger ship in the world and the first ocean liner to have a swimming pool on board. The Titanic sank on the night of April 14-15, 1912, after hitting an iceberg. The sinking of an unsinkable ship at the time is today one of the greatest maritime disasters in human history. Here are 20 fascinating facts about the Titanic.
1. The RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic was the largest passenger ship at the time, measuring 269 meters in length, 28 meters in width and 53.3 meters in height. Today, the largest passenger ship is Harmony of the Seas, which measures 362.12 meters in length.
2. The Titanic burned as many as 600 tons of coal every day, which 176 people manually shoveled into the furnace every day. Almost 100 tons of ash were 'smoked' into the air and sea every 24 hours.
3. The ship's interior was loosely modeled after that of London's Ritz Hotel. It included a gymnasium, swimming pool, Turkish bath, first-class dog kennels and a squash court. They even had their own newspaper on board - the Atlantic Daily Bulletin.
4. On board were 20,000 bottles of beer, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars - all of which were intended for first-class passengers.
5. The grand staircase ascended through seven stories, paneled in oak, and adorned with bronze angels and paintings. A replica can be seen at the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri.
6. There were only 16 wooden lifeboats and 4 collapsible boats on the Titanic, which was supposed to be enough for 1178 people. This was only a third of all the passengers who traveled on the Titanic.
7. Two people died and 246 people were injured during the construction of a cruise ship in Belfast.
8. 20 horses were needed to carry the main anchor.
9. They coated the ship with 22 tons of soap and tallow so that it could sail unhindered into the Lagan River.
10. Of the 885 crew members, only 23 were women.
READ MORE: What was served on the Titanic? We reveal the original menus!
11. The richest passenger on the ship was John Jacob Astor IV, who at the time had US$85 million (which is US$2 billion today) under his thumb. He did not survive the flood. Legend has it that when he collided with an iceberg, he said to the waiter: "I asked for ice, but this is already ridiculous."
13. American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim was also a victim of the sinking. When he realized that the ship was going to sink, he and his servant Victor Giglio dressed in their best clothes and remarked: "We are dressed in our best clothes and ready to sink like gentlemen." People last noticed them drinking cognac and smoking cigars on a deckchair.
14. They also rescued two of the nine dogs – a Pomeranian and a Pekingese.
15. The iceberg was spotted by observer Frederick Fleet at 20 minutes to midnight on April 14, 1912. Frederic survived the sinking and was an observer on the RMS Oceanic in the twenties. Pranksters placed binoculars on his grave in 2012 and added: "We're sorry we're a hundred years too late."
16. The iceberg was more than 30 meters high and was part of a glacier in Greenland.
17. Only 37 seconds elapsed between the impact and the moment when the iceberg was first spotted.
18. The lifeboat exercise was scheduled for April 14, but was canceled for unknown reasons.
19. The musicians played for two hours and five minutes while the ship sank.
20. The ship broke in half on April 15 around 2:20 a.m. and sank. The ocean temperature was -2 degrees Celsius. Only a few survived more than 15 minutes in the water, and one in five passengers died of cold shock within two minutes.
