It was the beginning of the twentieth century, a time of optimism and progress. Technology had produced such wonders as the automobile, airplane, skyscraper, cinema, and telegraph. The world was on the move and the transatlantic transport of passengers, cargo, and mail was brisk and competitive. Ocean liners, the predecessors of our modern day jumbo jets, became ever faster, larger, and more luxurious to accommodate this traffic.

Over dinner one July evening in 1907,  J.  Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, and Lord James Pirrie, chairman of the venerable Belfast shipbuilding company, Harland & Wolff, conceived the idea of building two lavish vessels to compete in this lucrative run. They would come to be the Titanic, the Olympic, and later, the Britannic--the largest moving objects created by man. 

For the ultimate in safety, a double bottom and sixteen watertight compartments were incorporated into the design. According to The Shipbuilder, a 1911 trade publication: “The watertight subdivision of the Olympic and Titanic is very complete, and is so arranged that any two main compartments may be flooded without in any way involving the safety of the ship.”