April 15 is not only the day when taxes are traditionally due (they are due on April 17 this year since the 15 falls on a Sunday), but it also marks the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The ship’s fateful night marks its 100th anniversary this year, but new information about the ship is regularly discovered. Here are some little known facts about “The Unsinkable Ship.”
- The ship’s 2,223 passengers went through 14,000 gallons of water in every 24-hour period and 40,000 fresh eggs were in the ship’s provisions.
- The Titanic took 3 years and $7.5 million to build (in 1912 dollars). Compare that to how much Titanic the movie cost to make: over $200 million (in 1997 dollars).
- The ship actually received 6 warnings about the impending iceberg. After the collision, it took the Titanic 160 minutes to sink. A total of 1,517 passengers died, mainly due to hypothermia from the freezing water, and 706 passengers survived. If only these passengers would have had a customized Wisconsin life insurance policy!
- Many lifeboats were not filled to capacity. If they were, it is estimated that 1,178 people would have survived.
- In 1898, 14 years before the Titanic’s voyage, a merchant by the name of Morgan Robertson wrote a book titled “Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.” The fictional book details the account of the Titan, a supposedly unsinkable ship which strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. The book has been noted for its many similarities to the sinking of the Titanic.
-Sam