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| It was the greatest ship the world had ever seen. And it
was more than that. The triple screw White Star Liner was the biggest moving object on the
face of the earth in the history of the world. From bow to stern, the Titanic was as long
as three football fields and the great ship stood as high as a 10-story building above the
water. More than 15,000 men toiled for three years to forge 39,380 tonnes of iron and
timber into a gargantuan ship capable of carrying 3,500 passengers and crew and 13,770
tonnes of cargo, fuel and supplies. |
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Endview of port main engine nearing
completion in Engine Works |
The power required to drive this
colossus was enormous and it was provided by three huge engines sited deep below the
decks. The Titanic’s engines were formidable monsters, generating 46,000 horsepower
between them, enough thrust to propel the ship through the north Atlantic waters at a rate
of 21 knots. The journey time across the Atlantic, in previously unequalled conditions
of comfort and luxury would be just five days.
The three engines were laid out in two separate compartments, divided by watertight
bulkheads, on the lowest of the Titanic’s nine decks far below the luxurious
staterooms and passenger promenade decks. |
| In one compartment were twin
reciprocating, four cylinder, four crank piston engines, each as tall as a four story
building, which drove the port and starboard propellers respectively. Each engine produced
15,000 horsepower low-pressure steam turbine, which drove the centre propeller. The great engines were built and tested at Harland & Wolf’s Belfast
works. A special floor, constructed of thousands of heavy and dense hardwood timber block,
helped to dampen vibration when the engines were run under test, and provided some
cushioning should small rigid and brittle engine components be dropped. |
Port view of RMS Titanic prior
to launch |
Detail of block floor in Engine Works |
The blocks for the floor,
which was laid in the late nineteenth century, were individually sawn and therefore all
vary slightly in size. Two grooves were cut in the base of each block so a timber batten
could be run through to hold a group of blocks together and thereby provide stability,
strength and absorption. After years of service, the blocks turned brown in colour,
stained by oil and paint. Some
carry small shards of metal embedded within. |
The Combination of the two engine
types - reciprocating piston and turbine was favoured by the White Star Line Owners. The
turbine was to extract more energy from the "spent" steam from the
"up-and-downers."
While the first class passengers enjoyed unprecedented levels of luxury and service, the
smaller engine rooms also meant more space was available for carrying second and third
class passengers and cargo. |
Fitting of the Starboard
propeller shaft |
| Passenger's
accommodation stretched to 2,500 people in all. Previous experience with two other White
Star ships, the Laurentic and the Megantic, convinced them that the combination engines
smaller size, coupled with lower running speeds and increased passenger and cargo
capacity, was economically the better option.
The two engine compartments on the Titanic accounted for about 440 feet of the ships total
length of 882 feet and 9 inches, or almost exactly half, whereas in the express liners of
the day, the engine machinery took up around 70 per cent of the ship's total length i.e.
Titanic was built for comfort not speed.
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Nonetheless, the reciprocating
engine room was the largest compartment on the ship, 69 feet in length, with the turbine
room, because the turbine needed a gearbox, only slightly smaller at 57 feet long. To
operate the engines required some 330 crew. |
Titanic
dropped below the water after the collision with the iceberg on that fateful night in
1912. As she sank the ship broke in half at the forward end of the reciprocating engine
compartment.The stern and bow sections of the Titanic were discovered on the ocean floor
in July 1986, lying 1970 feet apart.The rear portion of the ship was severely damaged. The
decks collapsed down on each other due to pressure built up.
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