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Titanic Ship Life Rivals Cruise Life Today

As I sit here watching them cast off the bow lines of the RMS Titanic I was struck by the immense size of this tragic vessel who met her end April 15, 1912. She was 882 feet, 9 inches in length and 92 feet, 6 inches in breath. She tipped the scales at 46,328 tons. Top Speed - 24 knots at 75 RPM.

Sitting here watching Rose hang off the stern takes me back a month ago to a voyage aboard the Pride of America and looking down from the stern rail (no I wasn’t preparing to jump, I was enraptured by the power generated by her four engines as they chopped up the wake.

GrandStaircases Separated by 96 years and 1,200 feet of Atlantic Ocean Water

Pride’s length is 921 feet, beam 106 feet and a draft of 26 feet weighing in at 92,000 tons. Maximum Speed: 21 knots.

But there is no question about it, the Titanic was much more grand than the Pride of America. The ornate carved woodwork of the Titanic’s main staircase makes the Pride’s Grand Stairway look a little less classy.

The Titanic had 10 decks, there are 15 aboard the Pride of America which has 10 dining rooms while the Titanic had five.

The dining experience varied between the two ships (one I watched on the screen, the other I thoroughly enjoyed in four of the ten dining rooms.

As Jack and Rose were running through the corridors in First Class I was struck by the narrowness as compared to the corridors on board the Pride.

Watching the confused evacuation of the Titanic after learning they only had half enough lifeboats brought back memories of mandatory lifeboat drills aboard the Pride. Though we didn’t get packed into lifeboats, it was comforting to realize the crew members who did went through this drill every week.

In the movie, when the Captain realized the unsinkable was going to go down he sought the bridge to go down with the ship.

The bridge contained all the usual equipment for a ship in 1912. Three polished ships telegraphs which showed direction and speed and sent orders to the engine room.

A lot ofhistory and hardware separate these two command stations

I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the bridge on the Pride of America and learned ship operations today are much more sophisticated.

The bridge staff relies on multiple computers, radar, satellites and GPS systems to track the ship's position and monitor storm activity. There is even a bow cam.

Boarding a cruise liner in this era was a real adventure after watching "The Titanic" a couple times. I have a lot better understanding of what it must have been like in 1912. After watching the film I had a much greater appreciation for the improvements in cruise liners, their technology and safety requirements.