Titanic: The Rise, the Fall and the Birth of a Legend

(Images left and right in public domain)

While her days were numbered from the outset, Titanic was a legend during her own lifetime, and has become increasingly immortalised ever since.  In this article, we take a look at the famous liner’s origins, from the abandoned Drawing Office and slipways of Harland and Wolff to the murals of east Belfast and the awesome Titanic Quarter that is rising from the dereliction.

Building the Titanic

Image via Bain News Service

RMS Titanic was built alongside her sister ship Olympic (below) on two massive slipways amid this colossal framework.  Olympic is in the foreground (closer to the Drawing Office) with Titanic, not quite as complete at this stage, behind.  The yard appears literally alive with men constructing the future of ocean travel.  The images evoke the clanking sound of metal on metal, and it’s hard to imagine that this corner of the yard lies abandoned today; a wasteground of crumbling slipways and rusting cranes.

Images by trialsanderrors

The people in the picture help lend scale to these massive iron wonders.  This was shipbuilding on an unprecedented scale, helping to define an industry that would never be the same again.  (For more information about Harland and Wolff’s collaboration with White Star Line, check out our previous article: The World’s Most Famous Slipway.)

Ready to Sail

An elderly man looks on at the Titanic (author unknown)

The completed Titanic is seen here in dock, resplendent in fresh livery and ready to bring cutting edge technology and comfort to an A-rated guest list, while transporting thousands of others to a better life in the New World.

The Grand Staircase

Titanic's Grand Staircase, original on left; replica on right (image by cliff1066)

The first-class only Grand Staircase was one of the most ornate fixtures on the ship, and certainly one of the most famous.  With no expense spared, the finest craftsman in Ireland set to work on the magnificent fixture – two of them to be precise (one fore and one aft) – which plunged five storeys from the Boat Deck to E Deck.  The Grand Staircase still plays a part today – now a vast empty hole through which submersibles can gain easy access to the wreck.  But amazingly some of the fine details on the balustrades can still be seen.  The staircase on the right is a replica at the Titanic Experience in Orlando, Florida.

The Drawing Office at Harland & Wolff Shipyard

Images by craigfinlay

It’s ironic that while the Titanic’s wreck has received so much attention, the place where it was built remains largely forgotten by the outside world.  Abandoned but not deserted, there are some real treasures lurking behind these sturdy doors.  The old Drawing Office above and rusting steam cranes below tell the story of the yard’s glory days that gave rise to its most famous ship.

Rusting steam cranes (images by donnamarijne)

These cranes were operated by the men who built Titanic.  The Drawing Office, hauntingly empty, is where it was designed and project managed.  With its grand 19th century sinks and ornate styling, the Drawing Office is a microcosm of the Titanic’s story.  And what about the artifacts within?  How could the blueprints of the shipyard’s finest liners remain packed away in boxes in what amounts to a semi-abandoned warehouse?  Rumour has it that the scale set in James Cameron’s epic film was constructed from blueprints – long since thought lost – hidden away in the dusty storage rooms of the Drawing Office in Belfast.

The Titanic Quarter

Images via Google Earth and Archiseek

The image above (right) shows a scale model of what the £1.5 billion Titanic Quarter – which will create 20,000 jobs over a 15 year period – will look like.  The image on the left shows the land today.  The Drawing Office can clearly be seen, as can the two famous slipways and concrete ramps (Titanic’s is closest to the water).  The scale model demonstrates how both the slipways and the office – fully renovated – will be integrated into the final development, in an exciting waterfront development that blends modern architecture with Belfast’s maritime heritage.

Images via Archiseek

The icing on the cake will be the restored Nomadic, built as a tender to Olympic and Titanic, and the last remaining vessel still afloat of the White Star Line.  Pictures courtesy of Archiseek.

Titanic Murals on the Streets of Belfast

Image by KGGucwa

(Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

Belfast is a city famed for its striking murals, many of them depicting the sectarian strife that plagued the city for years.  But not all of them.  This one shows Captain Edward Smith emerging atop the Titanic with the famous Harland & Wolff shipyard forming the backdrop.  The captain is flanked by a yard employee to his left and an awe-struck father holding his son, and gazing at the mighty liner.  The caption reads “Nearer My God to Thee”.

Titanic in the News – For Better or Worse

Contempory ads and front page news

The Titanic was splashed all over the media from the moment it was envisioned to the moment it slipped beneath the waves.  Incredibly, almost a century later it may not be a regular on the front pages but its name remains at the forefront of public imagination.  The images above show a tiny selection of clamorous promotional material and sensational breaking news from the the rise and fall of the world’s most celebrated ocean liner.

Watery Grave

Today Titanic lies in two massive pieces on the ocean bed where it came to rest in 1912.  South south east of Newfoundland, the ship’s location is shown by the boat-styled marker at the bottom of the image, immediately to the left of the “Google” logo.  The survivors were rescued by RMS Carpathia (today also a wreck) and delivered to New York City.  The dead that were recovered, meanwhile, rest in various locations.  Some were returned to their families, others buried alongside fellow passengers in cemeteries close to where they were brought ashore.

Images by Lisa Stone

(Images reproduced with permission of Lisa Stone, mysteriousnovascotia.com)

One particular grave at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has even achieved a bizarre level of celebrity, since the name on the headstone reads “J. Dawson”.  It couldn’t possibly be Jack… could it?  Of course not, he was fictional!  The occupier is in fact one Joseph Dawson, a 23-year-old coal trimmer from Dublin who went to Southampton intent on working on the Titanic.  This was clearly a case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for.  Either way, it hasn’t stopped throngs of teenage girls flocking to his grave in some sort of unofficial pilgrimage.  James Cameron, the Nova Scotian tourist board thanks you!

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