From the Grand Staircase and first-class staterooms to the doomed passengers and half-empty lifeboats, see some of the most stunning photos of the Titanic in color.
The RMS Titanic was meant to be an “unsinkable” ship. It was the pride of the British White Star Line shipping company, the height of luxury for passengers who wanted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1912. Unfortunately, as we now know, the ship was anything but unsinkable.
Immortalized in James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, the story of the ill-fated vessel has been well-chronicled over the years. From its ambitious beginnings to its final moments, the Titanic now serves as a cautionary tale.
Now, we’ve put together a gallery of 55 colorized photos of the Titanic to highlight the true splendor of the ship — and its tragic destiny. These images of the Titanic in color help capture the doomed voyage as it really was.
The “Unsinkable” Titanic In Color
Frederick Fleet, the Titanic lookout who shouted, "Iceberg, right ahead!"Library of Congress The boat deck of the RMS Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The RMS Titanic's captain, Edward J. Smith.Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo The departure of the RMS Titanic in 1912. Wikimedia Commons Titanic passenger Molly Brown presenting Carpathia Captain Arthur Henry Rostron with an award for rescuing the Titanic survivors.Wikimedia Commons Charles Lightoller, the second officer on the Titanic — and the most senior officer to survive the ship's sinking.Wikimedia Commons The Grand Staircase of the RMS Olympic, the highly similar sister ship of the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic still unfinished in Belfast, Ireland.Wikimedia Commons A crew member aboard the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The launching of the RMS Titanic.Wikimedia Commons A group of workers creating the Titanic's massive anchor chain.Wikimedia Commons Harold Bride, one of the Titanic's radio operators, being carried off the Carpathia.Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo The Titanic leaving Southampton Docks.Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo Isidor Straus, a passenger onboard the Titanic who perished along with his wife Ida. The couple inspired a pair of doomed characters in James Cameron's 1997 film.Wikimedia Commons A lifeboat carrying survivors of the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons R. Norris Williams, a tennis player who boarded — and ultimately survived — the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons John Jacob Astor IV, who was perhaps the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic. He ultimately went down with the ship.Archive Pics/Alamy Stock Photo When the Titanic set sail in 1912, it was the biggest ship in the entire world.Wikimedia Commons The B-57 suite on the Titanic, one of the most elegant first-class rooms.Wikimedia Commons A passenger on the Titanic carrying an early model of a Kodak camera.Wikimedia Commons Cafe Parisien on the RMS Titanic.World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo Allegedly the last known photo of the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic weighed about 46,000 tons and measured 882 feet long and 92 feet wide.Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo Two young Titanic survivors reunited with their mother after the disaster.Wikimedia Commons Titanic Captain Edward J. Smith.Wikimedia Commons The RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic, sister ships pictured side by side.Ryan N/Alamy Stock Photo Passengers on the deck of the RMS Titanic.Magite Historic/Alamy Stock Photo The Titanic and the Olympic in Belfast.Wikimedia Commons Philip Albright Small Franklin, the man in charge of the White Star Line office in New York City at the time of the Titanic's sinking.Wikimedia Commons The Queen Anne-style stateroom, one of the fanciest first-class rooms.Ryan N/Alamy Stock Photo A group of spectators watching the Titanic leave Southampton.Wikimedia Commons Titanic survivor Stuart Collett.Wikimedia Commons A young newsie holding a paper announcing the tragic loss of the Titanic.World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo The A Deck promenade on the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic carried about 2,240 passengers and crew members on its first and only voyage, and just 706 survived the sinking.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic under construction.Wikimedia Commons The Marconi Wireless Radio Room on the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic nearly completed in Belfast.Historic Collection/Alamy Stock Photo Titanic's Lifeboat 6 approaching the Carpathia.Wikimedia Commons Titanic chief wireless telegraphist Jack Phillips, who went down with the ship.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic leaving Belfast.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic's poop deck.Wikimedia Commons A reading and writing room on the Olympic, the highly similar sister ship of the Titanic.Wikimedia Commons Though the Titanic's collision with an iceberg was key to its tragic downfall, many believe that the disaster would've been less deadly if the ship had more lifeboats.Wikimedia Commons Violet Jessop, a nurse and stewardess who survived the Titanic's sinking — and a number of other maritime disasters.Wikimedia Commons Officers of the Olympic. From left to right: First Officer William M. Murdoch, Chief Engineer Joseph Evans, Fourth Officer David Alexander, and Capt. Edward J. Smith. Murdoch and Smith would become key members of the Titanic's crew and ultimately perish in the ship's sinking.Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo The Titanic in Belfast harbor.Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo Two children who survived the Titanic's sinking, Michel and Edmond Navratil. Though they were originally thought to be orphans, as their father had perished in the disaster, they were eventually reunited with their mother.ThePhotoMender.com/Alamy Stock Photo One of the Titanic's last lifeboats, which was tragically never launched.Wikimedia Commons Once believed to be an "unsinkable" ship, the Titanic is now remembered as a heartbreaking cautionary tale.Wikimedia Commons A small radio station onboard an Atlantic liner, believed to be a recreation of the scene when the operators on the Carpathia received distress signals from the sinking Titanic.Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Over a century after its sinking, the Titanic catastrophe remains one of the most infamous maritime disasters in history.Wikimedia Commons Journalist William Thomas Stead, a passenger on the Titanic who died in the disaster.PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo Wikimedia Commons
55 Photos Of The Titanic In Color That Bring The Story Of This Ill-Fated Voyage To Life Like Never Before View GalleryThe RMS Titanic was constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, commissioned by the British shipping company White Star Line. It was a costly endeavor, the project's total being a whopping $7.5 million — over $200 million today, adjusted for inflation.
It took somewhere in the ballpark of 3,000 workers to build the ship. In the end, it weighed 46,000 tons and measured 882 feet long and 92 feet wide. A staggering 3 million rivets were used to hold the ship together.
At the time, the Titanic, and its sister ship the RMS Olympic, were intended to outclass every other ship sailing the seas. And at first, it seemed like the White Star Line's investment was going to be well worth it.
Wikimedia CommonsA group of workers installing the propeller shaft of the RMS Titanic.
Along with sleeping and dining areas, the Titanic boasted many luxurious amenities for its passengers, especially those in first class, including a swimming pool, a gymnasium, and Turkish baths. (Some of the Titanic's most impressive amenities can be seen in striking color in the gallery above.)
Designed to transport up to 3,300 people across the Atlantic Ocean, the Titanic's maiden voyage carried around 2,240 people out into the open sea. Tragically, this was also where most of them would die.
For all its opulent perks, the Titanic lacked something important that it desperately needed: enough lifeboats for every passenger.
The Tragic Sinking Of The Titanic
The Titanic's maiden — and final — voyage began on April 10, 1912. Setting sail from Southampton, England, and stopping in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown (today, Cobh), Ireland to pick up more passengers, the vessel's final destination was supposed to be New York City.
But just four days into its voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. A combination of low visibility and the crew being inadequately equipped with binoculars made it nearly impossible to see the iceberg. Though the ship's lookout, Frederick Fleet, shouted, "Iceberg, right ahead!" as soon as he saw it, the vessel was unable to avoid the crash.
The Titanic did not sink immediately, but it would slip beneath the waves of the North Atlantic Ocean in less than three hours. The crew soon realized how dire the situation was and began to evacuate passengers — starting with the women and children first — as the vessel slowly sank.
Unfortunately, the ship only carried 20 lifeboats, which was far too few to accommodate the 2,240 people onboard. (It was later found that the vessel could've carried more, but officials allegedly declined the addition of the "extra" lifeboats to cut costs and to improve the vessel's aesthetics.)
It soon became very clear that the crew wouldn't be able to save everyone on board. But while the night was filled with tragedy and chaos, it was also filled with moments of bravery and heroism.
Wikimedia CommonsCollapsible Boat B, a lifeboat that wasn't launched properly and was discovered upside down after the sinking.
Before Captain Edward Smith went down with the ship, he allegedly told his crew, "Well boys, you've done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you. You know the rule of the sea. It's every man for himself now, and God bless you." But most crew members were determined to help as many people as possible, even if it meant dying in the process.
And even after the ship sank at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, some survivors were determined to find other people they could save. One example is passenger Molly Brown, who demanded that the crewman in her lifeboat turn back to rescue anyone who was left in the water.
In all, just 706 people managed to survive the sinking of the Titanic, and about 1,500 died. Nearly half of them were the ship's crew members, though some, such as Charles Lightoller, the ship's second officer, survived in circumstances that could be described as nothing short of miraculous.
The 706 who made it onto the Titanic's limited number of lifeboats were eventually rescued, about two hours later, by the RMS Carpathia, which transported the survivors the rest of the way to New York City.
News of the ship's sinking made shockwaves across the world, leaving many stunned that the vessel had met such a tragic end. As the world mourned the lives lost on that fateful day, the Titanic itself rested on the floor of the North Atlantic Ocean — where it remains to this day.
The Enduring Fascination With The Titanic
Even if we ignore the success of James Cameron's Titanic, the story of the doomed ship has long occupied a prominent place in the public zeitgeist.
As with any big tragedy, museums have been established to pay tribute to the Titanic's victims and display artifacts from the wreckage.
In fact, the discovery of the Titanic's wreckage is itself an odyssey worthy of being put to film. It was 73 years before the Titanic was rediscovered 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic Ocean by oceanographer Robert Ballard and scientist Jean-Louis Michel in 1985.
Shawshots/Alamy Stock PhotoThe Titanic remains a point of fascination today, and images of the Titanic in color help bring the doomed vessel to life.
Since then, over 5,000 artifacts have been recovered from the wreckage, including jewelry, musical instruments, and pieces of the ship itself.
These artifacts likewise tell the stories of the people on board. For instance, the musical instruments help represent the bravery of the ship's band, which famously played on even as the vessel sank.
It's not difficult to see why even today, more than 100 years after the Titanic's sinking, people are still drawn to its story. And the breathtaking photos of the Titanic in color in the gallery above help bring that story to life.
After looking through these stunning photos of the Titanic in color, check out our gallery of colorized World War I photos. Then, see these 44 colorized portraits of famous historical figures.
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