Titanic Creepy Facts
1. The Musicians Played As The Ship Sank
When the Titanic struck the iceberg, the captain ordered for passengers to be boarded onto lifeboats; to keep the passengers calm, he asked the band to play; when things got very hectic, the band broke up and said their goodbyes, they were going to stop playing to try and save themselves, but changed their minds entirely, they played all the way until the ship went underwater.
Survivors have referred to them as heroes since then; the band members were: Theodore Braley, Roger Brico, Jean Clark, Wallace Hartley, John Law Hume, George Kerns, Percy Taylor, and John Woodward.
That night all the men died; some of their bodies were never found.
2. It Took Longer Than You Think For The Titanic To Sink
Despite having personnel to watch out for icebergs, the Titanic sideswiped a large iceberg; the ship did not sink right away; it took a full 2 hours and 40 minutes for the whole ship to sink beneath the ocean's surface.
Though there were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board, this allowed the crew plenty of time to get passengers on lifeboats.
3. There Weren't Enough Lifeboats
Though the ship was deemed to be unsinkable, the builders decided it would be better to just have 20 lifeboats so as to not take up space because the Titanic was huge enough to carry 64 lifeboats to save passengers if the ship were to sink.
Many people died that night when they plunged into the water and drowned; it was a major reason why most lifeboats were not filled to capacity; each boat could carry between 40 and 65 passengers but the crew only allowed 20 people per boat.
4. Honeymooners On The Titanic
A few couples were on their honeymoon aboard the Titanic when it sank. On their honeymoon, Viktor and Maria Peñasco y Castellana opted to finish the journey in New York with a cruise on the most opulent ocean liner available.
Having inherited a fortune from his father and grandfather, Viktor was a rather wealthy man; when the ship hit the iceberg he went to see what had happened; after that he went to tell Maria to get dressed; he placed Maria and her maid on lifeboat 8.
Victor never got on a lifeboat; he died that night and his body was never recovered.
Twenty years apart from John and Nella Schinder, who survived, another couple was on the Titanic.
While some of the crew members let newlyweds onto the lifeboats with women and children, they both got on a lifeboat and survived; John died at 71 years old and Maria died at 93.
5. The Ships Chief Baker Had To Swim To Be Rescued
When Chief Baker Charles Joughin discovered they would be boarding the lifeboats after the ship struck the iceberg, he gathered his staff to bring food up to the deck she would put into each lifeboat four loaves of bread per boat.
Intended to be the captain of lifeboat number 10, he stayed on the ship as long as feasible, drank a lot of whiskey, and people were already performing that work. He also threw deckchairs overboard so that those in the water might utilize them as floating devices.
He survived in the frigid water for two hours after the ship sank; then he noticed an overturned lifeboat with around 25 men standing on the side. He had to sit with his feet and leg in the water because there wasn't enough room; then he swam to another lifeboat and remained there until he boarded the RMS Carpathia. All he had were swollen feet despite hours of sitting in icy water.
6. The Lifeboat Drill Was Canceled
Many reports of ice in the water from other passing vessels existed on the night the Titanic sank; notwithstanding this, the lifeboat drill was called off. Lifeboat drills were rather frequent on ocean liners.
Captain Edward John Smith canceled the lifeboat drill planned for the day the Titanic sank for unknown reasons.
7. The “Unsinkable” Ship Had A Design Flaw, Making It Sinkable
The Titanic's construction led to claims of unsinkable status because its bulkheads were each watertight, but one issue arose when the ship scraped against the iceberg: water from one compartment would spill into the other and this kept going until eventually the ship was lifted up on one side and sank into the ocean .
8. It Was A While Before The First Lifeboat Was Released
After the Titanic struck the iceberg, the captain and the ships designer met to figure out the extent of the damage, as soon as it was discovered that the water in the watertight bulkheads had spilled from over from compartment to compartment, they knew the ship would definitely sink, they started getting people ready to board the lifeboats, the first lifeboat was released a whole hour later after the collision.
9. The Water Was Extremely Cold
The night the Titanic sank, the water was rather extremely cold, the wind did not help and when the ship fully sank, the water was just 28 degrees, 4 degrees below freezing.
The freezing temperatures of the water were the main reason why so many people either drowned, or froze to death.
10. Many Bodies Were Never Found
This is one of the scariest facts about the Titanic, when the ship sank, it took 1500 lives with it, while only around 700 lived, of the 1500 who died on that night in 1912, only 306 of their bodies were ever recovered.
The richest man on the Titanic was named John Jacob Astor, at the time he was worth $87M which equals about $2.16B today, he was divorced and quickly remarried to an 18 year old girl, there was a huge scandal after he remarried to someone so young, so he decided to get away.
He took his new wife, Madeleine, traveling through Egypt and Europe, during their trip Madeleine got pregnant, she wanted to have the baby in the United States, so they boarded the Titanic.
Madeleine, her nurse and her maids survived, unfortunately John did not, he was last seen about a half hour before the ship went down, smoking a cigarette with an American journalist named Jacques Fewtrell.
According to several reports, he could have gotten on a lifeboat, but he gave up his seat to a woman and her daughter, other reports say he gave up his seat to his two terrified little girls.
Bonus: The Titanic Was Huge
While not a creepy fact: it is an interesting one:
The length of the Titanic from bow to stern was 882 feet 9 inches, that is the size of two whole football fields, it weighed 53,310 tons, at the time, it was the largest ocean liner ever built.
Bonus: The Titanic Was A Passengers Second Boat Sinking
On December 24, 1871, Ramon Artagaveytia, a passenger on the Titanic, was traveling aboard America when the boiler became excessively pressurized and caused a fire onboard the vessel as it was approaching another ship into Montevideo harbor.
Among the 164 people on board, 65 lived.
Ramon was among these individuals.
Many of the survivors were quite badly burned; Ramon was just scarred emotionally.
He lived by diving into the sea and swimming for his life.
Ramon resolved to confront his anxieties and purchase a ticket in 1912, but sadly he did not survive when the Titanic sank.
Bonus: The First Reporting Of The Sinking Was Inaccurate
On April 16, the Daily Mail was the first newspaper to report the sinking of the Titanic; they had reported that the ship had sunk and no lives were lost. Clearly, this was a major blunder; in the modern world, without the technology we have, it was simple for stories to get mixed up. However, the Washington Post got it right since they got their information from the RMS Olympic; the front page read: "one thousand eight hundred souls lost."
Credit: The Washington Post
Bonus: Third Class Passengers Had To Share A Bathtub
Things were not quite so good for the third class passengers; the Turkish bath was set aside for first-class passengers. Each first-class cabin had a structure in the parlor's suite.
Only two bathtubs were available; more than 700 passengers shared these two.
Bonus: The White Star Line’s Director Urged a Faster Voyage
Under the command of British Naval Officer Edward John Smith, the Titanic embarked on its fateful voyage, unknowingly heading toward disaster.
Bruce J. Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, was said to have encouraged Captain Smith to increase the ship's speed, hoping to reach New York ahead of schedule and generate positive publicity. However, when the moment of decision came, it was Smith who ultimately chose to push forward—unaware that this would leave the Titanic unable to slow down in time for the looming iceberg.
Ismay’s ambitions never came to fruition. Instead of triumphantly arriving in New York, the Titanic plunged into the depths of the Atlantic.