Titanic 2012: April 11th, 1912

The Titanic continued it’s voyage (and I’ll continue a Wikipedia Steal):

“At 11.30 am on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour in southern Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day with a brisk wind. Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of her size, and tenders were used to bring passengers aboard. 113 Third Class and seven Second Class passengers came aboard, while seven passengers left. Among the departures was Father Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee, who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic, including the last-ever known photograph of the ship. A decidedly unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a native of Queenstown who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags being transported to shore. Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1.30 pm and departed on her westward journey across the Atlantic.

The route of Titanic‘s maiden voyage, with the coordinates of her sinking.

After leaving Queenstown Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock, a distance of some 55 nautical miles (63 mi; 102 km). From there she traveled 1,620 nautical miles (1,860 mi; 3,000 km) along a Great Circle route across the North Atlantic to reach a spot in the ocean known as “the corner” south-east of Newfoundland, where westbound steamers carried out a change of course. Titanic only sailed a few hours past the corner on a rhumb line leg of 1,023 nautical miles (1,177 mi; 1,895 km) to Nantucket Shoals Light when she made her fatal rendezvous with an iceberg. The final leg of the journey would have been 193 nautical miles (222 mi; 357 km) to Ambrose Light and finally to New York Harbor.

The first three days of the voyage from Queenstown passed without incident. From 11 April to local apparent noon the next day, Titanic covered 484 nautical miles (557 mi; 896 km); the following day, 519 nautical miles (597 mi; 961 km); and by noon on the final day of her voyage, 546 nautical miles (628 mi; 1,011 km). From then until the time of her sinking she traveled another 258 nautical miles (297 mi; 478 km), averaging about 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h). The weather cleared as she left Ireland under cloudy skies with a headwind. Temperatures remained fairly mild through Saturday 13 April, but the following day Titanic crossed a cold weather front with strong winds and waves of up to 8 feet (2.4 m). These died down as the day progressed until, by the evening of Sunday 14 April, it became clear, calm and very cold.

Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Nonetheless the ship continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time.It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels and Captain Smith himself had declared that he could not ‘imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.’” – Wikipedia

Don’t forget about the Titanic 2012 Reading Challenge