Titanic tragedy: Ten strange facts that take time to sink in

After more than a century, the tragic maritime incident of what was said to be an unsinkable ship, Titanic, still haunts the world as the passenger liner sunk on its maiden trip in North Atlantic on April 14, 1912.

RMS Titanic was the then world's largest passenger ship — with at least 2,220 people onboard — in service and four days later when it started its journey, the maritime colossus collided with an iceberg and it was deep in the ocean in less than three hours.

It did not have sufficient lifeboats to save everyone therefore, over 1,500 people lost their lives in this mysterious accident — making it the most famous shipwreck in history.

The total number of survivors on the $7.5-million-ship was just over 700.

There were people from the US powerful and rich families on the passenger liner including John Jacob Astor IV, a financier, who put his pregnant wife into a lifeboat and later himself drowned.

Businessman Benjamin Guggenheim also died in the accident.

The liner was 882 feet long and weighed 46,328 tons with a maximum speed of 23 knots.

Among the survivors were famous US film stars like Dorothy Gibson who after returning to their homelands made the film Saved From the Titanic, and released it after a month. She wore similar clothes in the movie which we wore while the ship was sinking.

According to IMDb, Beesley was on the set of A Night to Remember, which is considered the most accurate of all Titanic films.

No access to binoculars

Two people who were responsible for ship lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, didn't have binoculars when the passenger behemoth’s voyage which did not allow them to see far.

When the ship’s second officer was replaced at the final moment, he forgot to hand over the locker key where the ship's binoculars were housed.

Deaths during construction

It is reported that when the Titanic was under construction, eight men died while building the ship, and the names of only five are yet known: Samuel Scott, John Kelly, William Clarke, James Dobbin, and Robert Murphy.

World’s richest man on Titanic

On the Titanic, there was a person who is said to be the world’s richest man at the time when he drowned, with an estimated net worth estimated $150 million, or $4.5 billion in current dollars value.

He was returning home with his wife after months of honeymoon. His body was among the few who were found in the Ocean and there was $2,440 in his pocket — today’s approximately $74,000.

Two-time surviving nurse

There was also a woman on the ship who you may be in a dilemma of deciding whether she was fortunate or unlucky. A stewardess and nurse Violet Jessop survived two shipwrecks — the Titanic and the Britannica.

Jessop survived the Titanic at the age of 25. Without fearing, she began working on the Britannica, until it was learned that a mine was planted by a German U-boat in 1916, it sank and Jessop escaped again. This time, however, she was seriously injured.

No help from nearby

It is reported that SS Californian had allegedly turned off its radio and did not help the sinking Titanic after it struck the iceberg.

People in the Titanic fired flares which awakened the SS Californian Captain but it ignored it considering it was fireworks and when they received an SOS message, it was too late.

The Californian itself was sunk after two years by a German submarine during WWI.

According to the reports, Charles Joughin secured two whiskey bottles as the ship sank.

Saved by whiskey

Ship's cook Joughin reported that he survived in the frigid North Atlantic for at least two hours as he was heavily drunk — most people died from hypothermia within 15 minutes.

Titanic: cost of ship and film

The Titanic film had around a budget of $200 million — today's $376 million today — whereas the ship itself was built for $7.5 million in 1912, which, according to the US Department of Labour's inflation calculator, would be around $231 million.

Shipwreck discovery

The Titanic's bow was first found in 1985, during a secret alleged Cold War Navy mission.

The last living survivor of the Titanic, who passed away in 2009, was saved during the accident when she was a mere 2 months old. She died at the age of 97.

Just Missed It Club

As the ship sank, several newspapers started to gather information about people who bought the ticket of the ship and did not get aboard — calling them the "Just Missed It Club".

Among them were Milton Hershey, who decided to embark early home to his wife, J Pierpont Morgan — founder of General Electric and US Steel — who did not board as he was in a spa and Guglielmo Marconi — an inventor — who also caught an earlier ship.