The Grave of the Titanic

1. Eventually Bob Ballard released the coordinates of the Titanic's location. He recorded her coordinates as, stern section sits on ocean floor at 41^o43'35" N, 49^o56'54" W, boilers at 41^o43'32" N, 49^o56'49" W, bow at 41^o43'57" N, 49^o56'49" W. Find these coordinates and trace the outline of the sunken pieces of the Titanic on a chart of the North Atlantic.

2. How far is it from its plotted course? At the time of the accident, the ship was reported to be at 41^o46' N, 50^o 14' W. (She was found 13½ miles southeast of the position given in her lastdistress call.)

3. Discuss the fact that satellite technology through GPS can pinpoint any position on Earth to within 30 feet. In 1912, navigation techniques of dead reckoning and celestial navigation could only give one an approximate location within several miles of one's true position.If the Titanic had had better navigational aids, could its passengers have all been saved? Could it even have avoided the iceberg?

4. Track the route she took from England to New York in April, 1912.

She started from Southampton, England, and stopped at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland to pick up passengers. Her destination was New York. She sank 1000 miles due east of Boston, Massachusetts, and 375 miles southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland.

Build an unsinkable boat. What would it be made of? How would it be shaped? How will you test your hypothesis? How much weight ("passengers") could it carry? How far can it tip to the side before it flips?

Draw a picture of the Titanic on that fateful night, using literature connection references. Information that should be incorporated into the work: It was night. There were icebergs. As the bow sank, the stern lifted farther and farther out of the water."Just before the ship disappeared entirely," according to Bob Ballard,"Many eyewitnesses agreed that the ship in fact broke in two, the bow plunging down while the stern briefly righted itself before turning almost vertical and sinking a few moments later."

Detail what it might have been like aboard the Titanic between 11:40PM (when the ship gently grazed the iceberg) to 2:18 AM when it disappeared below the sea.

Or draw an illustration of Jason finding the bow of the Titanic at the bottom of the sea at a depth of 12,460 ft. The ship was found in several pieces. Draw what the Titanic might look like after another 100 years on the ocean floor.

How many lifeboats were needed? TheTitanic was owned by the British White Star Line, flew the British flag,and thus was under the rules and regulations of the British government. Although she was originally designed to carry 42 lifeboats, the ship carried only 20 lifeboats (four more than were required at the time by British regulations) for the 2,228 passengers and crew. (That number could supposedly hold 1,178 people.) The original designer of theTitanic had proposed 50 lifeboats, but the British owners of the White Star Line had decided against it. (If it had been under US Government regulation at the time, 42 lifeboats, enough to accommodate 2,367 persons would have been required for a ship that size.)

Only 705 people were rescued; 1523 drowned or froze to death in the icy water. Ironically, most of those who drowned were Americans. Assuming that each lifeboat could hold 65 people, how many lifeboats did they need? Unfortunately, the 20 lifeboats on board were launched in panic before they were filled to capacity, so the number of people rescued was even fewer than could have been accommodated.

Only 705 of 2,227 people on board survived. What percentage is that?

Analyze these statistics. What do these figures tell you about the policy of saving women and children first, how social standing and wealth influenced who was rescued, and the tradition that the crew usually went down with the ship? Many of the poorest people were not aware of the seriousness of the damage to the Titanic until shortly before it sank.