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Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from How Stuff Works.com.

Hello, welcome to the podcast. I'm editor Candace Gibson, joined by staff writer Jane McGrath.

Hey there.

Jane, I don't think that there's anything as big and posh and attention-catching in the annals of naval history as the Titanic.

That is true. I don't think many people would deny that.

I guess I should say marine history rather than naval history.

So it was a sea-going vessel.

Sure.

And it was almost like a hotel on the water.

And the idea behind it was precisely that J. Bruce Ismay and Lord Piri of Harlan and Wolf's shipbuilders, they were at dinner one night, and they were talking about the Cunard Line's newest liners, the Mauritania and Lusitania,

and they said to themselves, we can make one or three even with their plan.

They were going to have a triumvirate of ships that were even bigger and better, the Olympic, the gigantic, and the Titanic.

That's right, and they wanted to make these not only fast, like the Coonyard Line, but luxurious

and attractive for the, you know, the aristocratic passengers to spend, you know, a pretty penny

to go on. Exactly. The idea being that the more comfortable and luxurious the ship, the longer distance people would be willing to travel. And so they weren't just selling, you know, a couple dollars worth of tickets to people. We're talking about a first class ticket that in today's dollars is equivalent to about $43,000 to about $80,000, which is a ton of money.

I mean, I don't even know people who spend that on airfare, you know, flying halfway across the world.

That's a good point.

Maybe you do.

If you do, write me because I want to travel with you.

So then, what made the Titanic so special?

Well, it's interesting because it was so incredibly lush. And, you know, the first-class passengers, you know, they were used to being treated nicely, but not as nicely as on this ship.

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