You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

April 15 is the anniversary of the sinking of The Titanic

Only three of the four smoke stacks were actually functional. The extra one was just to make the ship look more impressive.

[Lee Stewart]

There were only 20 lifeboats.

The ship was equipped to hold 64. Many of the lifeboats were sent out before they were full. There were 28 people on the first boat and the capacity was 65.

[Lee Stewart]

Over 800 tons of coal were burned to power the ship every day.

[Lee Stewart]

John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on board. He was worth over $90 million. That's over two billion dollars by today's standards when taking inflation into account.

[Lee Stewart]

The youngest survivor died in 2009. Millvina Dean was two months old when she was on the Titanic. She lived to be 97.

[Lee Stewart]

The above is not what was originally printed about the Titanic:

[Lee Stewart]

The ship's remains are disappearing. There’s a rust-eating bacteria called Halomonas Titanicae that is slowly consuming the remains of the ship. It is expected to be completely gone by 2030.

[Lee Stewart]

Captain Edward John Smith cancelled a lifeboat drill planned on the day of the sinking. Nobody knows why he called it off.

[Lee Stewart]

The interior design was based on a London hotel. The Ritz in London's Piccadilly neighborhood loosely inspired the interior of the ship. The hotel opened in 1906 and is still operating today.

[Lee Stewart]

The ship had its own newspaper. The Atlantic Daily Bulletin was printed and posted every night in the First Class Smoking Room