Conceived in 1907, Titanic was two years in design and 37 months in construction at the great Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was the biggest ship the world had ever seen, and thought by many to be indestructible. But she sank, tragically, just five days into her maiden voyage, en route to New York in 1912. Some 1,500 people died.This book, for the first time, takes the story of the ship right back to the beginning, and the decision to build her in the first place. Then we go into the shipyard, where 4,000 tradesmen rivet by rivet and plate by plate turned the plans and blueprints into a towering hulk of an ocean liner. Once the outer shell was complete, the luxurious passenger accommodation was fitted out, which included dining rooms, a squash court, a gymnasium, libraries, smoking rooms and even Turkish baths. The men that built her knew every bolt and rivet, every dove-tail joint, every vibration of the engine. For them, Titanic would always be the world's greatest ship.This is an extraordinary story of modern engineering but also of human endeavour and, ultimately, fallibility.
Illustrated throughout with blueprints, cross-sections and haunting photographs of the Titanic in construction, "Building the Titanic" adds a new and fascinating dimension to the history of the world's most famous ship.