Official Start of the Build

Construction of Titanic's sister ship Olympic had begun nearly three months earlier at Harland and Wolff's shipyard, and the sheer size of both ships kept the shipyard operating at 100% capacity.

Almost all the ship building equipment had to be custom built because Titanic and Olympic were the largest ships ever built at the shipyard, and very little of the existing construction equipment could be used.

Construction of the builds spread fast through out Belfast and surrounding areas, in part to over 15,000 of the local Belfast residents working at the shipyard on one or both of the ships.

A 200 ton floating crane was built in the Belfast harbour that could lift 150 tons, and was used for moving and installing the huge engines and multiple boilers. 

It took over two years for both ships to be built, and they were built side by side to allow labourers to move easily back and forth between the two ships.

Working shifts were 12 hours long and six days a week, and also often a half day on Sunday to ensure the ships were built as soon as possible to be put into service ahead of their competition.

To prevent confusion, the hulls of the two ships were painted different colours; Titanic's hull was painted black and Olympic's white.

A recorded 246 injuries occurred during the build, approximately one injury every three days.

Unfortunately eight workers were killed during the entire period of construction, from the initial keel laying to launch.

There was an unwritten expectation in shipyards at the time of ‘one death for every £100,000 spent’, so at a build cost of £1.5 million, Titanic’s toll was less than the 15 deaths that might have been expected.

Titanic's cost to build at £1.5 million in British Sterling would translate to $7.5 million in US dollars.

Today with modern exchange rates, the equivalent cost to build Titanic would be $166 million in US dollars, less than the $200 million it cost to make the 1997 movie Titanic.

While the two ships were being built, the White Star Line piers in the Hudson River in New York City were being extended over 100 feet to accommodate the future arrival of the two ships.

It took 26 months to build the RMS Titanic, from laying down the keel to the day of launch.

Titanic launched into the Victoria Channel at Belfast Lough from a slipway at the Queen's Yard at the Harland and Wolff's shipyard in the morning of May 31, 1911.