TITANIC MAKING AND BREAKING THE SHIP OF DREAMS

Uncover the inherent flaws and misplaced confidence that allowed a catastrophe to unfold

- Kevin Brown

One of the most moving scenes in both James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic and the 1958 film A Night to Remember is of Thomas Andrews, the man who designed the ship, standing in despair at the fireplace in the Smoking Room of Titanic and adjusting a clock. He's taken off his life jacket and is resigned to his fate and the loss of his greatest achievement as a naval architect. Based on the testimony of a steward, who remarked that Andrews looked “stunned”, it's the iconic image of the only man who was present at the birth and the death of the ill-fated ship.

While the stillness of this portrayal of Andrews has almost quasi-religious overtones suitable for the quiet hero of Titanic, it does not reflect his actual indefatigable energy and reputation as the man everyone went to when there was a problem to be solved.

When Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, Andrews was 39 years old. He had worked his way up the ranks at Harland & Wolff, the Belfast firm of shipbuilders specialising in ocean liners, from premium apprentice to chief designer, naval architect and managing director. Being nephew of Lord Pirrie, owner of Harland & Wolff, may have helped his rise, but it was his own skills and attention to detail as a naval engineer that led to him overseeing work on the construction of two prestigious new ocean liners for the White Star Line: Olympic and Titanic.