[b:dfd005ad91]Several passengers on the Titanic had connections to Delaware County.[/b:dfd005ad91]

There was the Ryerson family of Haverford, headed by Arthur L. Ryerson, 61, a lawyer and steel magnate; his 48-year-old wife Emily; daughters Susan, 21, and Emily, 18; son Jack, 13; and maid Victorine Chaudanson, 36. They were rushing home after the death of another son in a Bryn Mawr auto accident; his funeral was scheduled for April 19. Instead, the family buried the son and his father, who was lost in the sinking.

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John B. Thayer, 49, a vice president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, also lived in Haverford. Traveling with him were his wife Marian, 39; son Jack, 17; and maid Margaret Fleming, 40. The father went down with the ship; his son jumped for it and survived on an overturned lifeboat. He was one of the few survivors who correctly described the ship breaking in half during its final plunge. Haunted by the sinking and the death of a son in World War II, he killed himself in 1945.

Charles Duane Williams, a 51-year-old coal heir and his 21-year-old son Richard Norris Williams, former Radnor residents, rode the stationary bicycles in the Titanic's gymnasium to stay warm as they waited to abandon ship. Mr. Williams died; his son survived and went on to win an Olympic gold medal for tennis.

Martha Stephenson, a 52-year-old widow who lived on the Newbury estate in Haverford, was familiar with disaster: She lived through the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. She survived the Titanic as well, saying later that she knew the situation was dire when she saw distress rockets being fired because the telegraph had been unable to summon help.

Titanic Facts

* Construction of the Titanic began on March 31, 1909, at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She was launched on May 31, 1911, and left Southampton on April 10, 1912. She struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14 and sank two hours and 40 minutes later.

* There are various figures on the exact number of casualties, but the most reliable account says 2,223 passengers and crew were on board, 706 survived, and 1,517 were lost.

* Titanic was the largest ship ever built at that time - 882 feet and 9 inches long, 92 feet and 6 inches wide and 11 stories high. She weighed 46,328 tons and could travel at a top speed of 24 knots, or about 28-29 mph.

* She cost $7.5 million to build. It's estimated that would equal $400 million today.

* A First Class ticket for a parlor suite cost $4,350 in 1912 dollars, or about $50,000 today. A ticket for a third-class bunk sold for $35, or about $620 today.

* Titanic's crew was modestly paid. Second Wireless Operator Harold Bride, for example, earned $20 a month. He would have to save all his salary for 18 years to make the crossing in style.

* Titanic had two sisters. The Olympic, launched in 1911, had a fabled career before being scrapped in 1935. The construction of the Britannic was halted after the Titanic disaster to make safety improvements, but it never carried a commercial passenger. Upon completion in 1914, it was converted into a World War I hospital ship and was sunk in the Aegean Sea on Nov. 21, 1916, after a mysterious explosion. Of the 1,100 people on board, 30 were lost.

* Titanic was known as "unsinkable" because it had 16 watertight compartments. The ship could float with any two of them flooded. Unfortunately the iceberg created a series of bumps and bruises that extended 249 feet of the steel hull, breaching six compartments.

* Today Titanic rests 2.5 miles beneath the surface, where the water pressure is 6,000 pounds per square inch. It takes submersibles more than 2302275 hours to reach her.

302251The Daily Times 2004

ooh, wow. what can i say?

Don't say too much..it wasn't written by them.. Key word on their post "302251The Daily Times 2004" ........meaning they cut copy and pasted it, not much effort required on that one.

.....not to mention, most Titanic fans would know MOST of what was copy and pasted. :)

i know about half the stuff listed but still the other half amazed me.

correction, i know all the facts listed about titanic, not the other half.

yeah it was interesting gbut not much was new