STAGE

Titanic
1 Tim Vicary Titanic Titanic

TITANIC Tim Vicary

On a quiet sea, the biggest ship in the
world is waiting. There is no noise from
T I M V I CA R Y
Introduction the engines. Up in the night sky there
are hundreds of stars. Behind the ship,
an iceberg – a great mountain of ice – goes slowly away
into the black night.

In the beautiful first-class rooms, rich passengers eat and

listen to music. Down in the third-class cabins, families
sleep. An exciting new life is waiting for them in America.

But for many of the people in this small ‘city on the sea’,
this is their last night alive . . . (Word count 5,529)

f
FACTFILES

Cover image courtesy of Ronald Grant Archive

(A Night to Remember film poster 1958)
STAGE 1 400 Headwords

Chapter summary 1 1 1

Chapter 1 (Under the sea). More than 70 years after

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the sinking, the Titanic is finally found 3,000

metres
below the sea on the sea bed. The photographs of the


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wreck quickly become famous around the world.

Chapter 2 (The biggest ship in the world). The
9780194236195 FF1 Titanic Cover.indd 1 13/11/08 15:34:26

story starts in the early 20th century. The Titanic,
completed in 1912, was massive, fast
technologically advanced. The hull was divided into 16
compartments with watertight doors between them
that could be closed in emergencies. The ship provided
luxurious accommodation and entertainment for its
first-class passengers. Lower down in the ship were
the second-class rooms and the more cramped third-
class cabins, many of which were occupied by working
people hoping to start a new life in America.
Chapter 3 (A city on the sea). The ship sets off
from Southampton, picking up further passengers in
France and Ireland. First-class passengers include the
Titanic’s designer Thomas Andrews and Joseph
Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star Line company
that owns the ship. Andrews mentions to a passenger
that while there are too few lifeboats, they are not
really necessary as the ship can never sink.
Chapter 4 (Iceberg!). Late at night, two sailors on
lookout duty suddenly see an iceberg straight ahead.
The order is given to turn, but the ship, travelling at 40
kilometres an hour, cannot turn quickly enough. The
iceberg scrapes along the right side of the ship. Water
starts coming into some of the third-class cabins.
Chapter 5 (CQD – emergency!). The ship stops,
and the watertight doors are closed. However, on
investigating the impact, Andrews is horrified to find
that water is coming into five of the compartments.
Nothing can be done to stop the ship from sinking. The
lifeboats are prepared, and the radio operator sends
out an emergency message.
Chapter 6 (Nobody is listening). The Californian
is only 16 kilometres away, but its one radio operator
is in bed. Its officers see rockets over the ship, but do
not know what they mean, and take no action. Finally
another ship, the Carpathia, makes radio contact with
the Titanic, and starts heading towards it at full speed.
Chapter 7 (Into the lifeboats). There is drama and
and chaos as passengers are urged, women and children
first, into the lifeboats. At first, many want to stay in
the warmth of the ship, but the water rises relentlessly.
Husbands and wives are separated, and family
members lose one another in the confusion. Some
third class passengers are trapped behind closed
doors, and rush angrily up to the boat deck. Some
lifeboats set out half empty, some overcrowded.
Chapter 8 (In the cold, dark sea). The musicians
stay on the ship and play, and some of the men,
resigned to their fate, take off their life jackets and
stand quietly. Eventually the ship breaks in two and
disappears under the sea, taking a thousand people
with it. Nobody can survive for long in the icy water,
and just a handful of people are rescued from the sea
and pulled into lifeboats.
Chapter 9 (The Carpathia and the Californian).
Despite the icebergs, the Carpathia races through the
night, arriving as the sun comes up. It finds only
lifeboats, and picks up the surviving passengers.
Finally, contact is made with the Californian, but it
arrives too late to help. Once the survivors are brought
to America, there is an inquiry into the tragedy.
Chapter 10 (Life after the Titanic). Later, hundreds
of bodies are pulled out of the sea and buried in
America and Canada. The survivors go their various
ways; some never recover completely. The youngest,
the nine-week-old Millvina Dean, is brought back to
England with her mother and brother.
Chapter 11 (Finding the Titanic). Seeing the
footage of the discovery of the wreck, James Cameron
decides to make a Hollywood film about the Titanic.
Although the central love story is fictional, many of the
details are accurate.

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 STAGE
Titanic
1 Tim Vicary

Pre-reading activity

1 Match the words with the definitions.

1 lifeboat a water that is frozen and hard
2 engine b one of the floors on a ship
3 passenger c a very young, small child
4 deck d a person who pays to travel on a ship
5 sink e not in danger
6 ice f a small room in a ship
7 cabin g a small boat on a ship that people can use if the ship is in danger
8 safe h to go down under water
9 message i words that one person sends to another
10 baby j this makes a ship, car or plane move

2 Do you think these sentences are true (T) or false (F)? Why?
1 ___ The Titanic was made in America.
2 ___ The Titanic was the biggest ship in the world.
3 ___ The Titanic went across the Atlantic three times.
4 ___ All the people on the Titanic were rich.
5 ___ Some passengers on the Titanic brought their dogs with them.
6 ___ There were about five hundred people on the Titanic.
7 ___ The Titanic went slowly because it was dark.
8 ___ The Titanic hit another ship and went under the sea.
9 ___ The radio operator on the Titanic tried to call for help.
10 ___ Another ship came to help the people on the Titanic.
11 ___ Everyone on the Titanic died.

To the teacher
Aim: To introduce key vocabulary and ask students to predict some of the main events.
Time: 15–20 minutes.
Organization: These activities can be done together or separately. Ask students to read the information on the
cover and the introduction to give them some idea of the facts. Give one copy of the worksheet to each student.
Ask them to work on their own for five minutes for each activity and then compare their answers with a partner. If
they are not sure of any of the words they could use a dictionary to check. Go through the answers with the whole
class. For activity 1, ask students how they think the words might be used in the story. For activity 2, where
students think that a sentence is false, ask them to explain why.
Key: Activity 1: 1g, 2j, 3d, 4b, 5h, 6a, 7f, 8e, 9i, 10c. Activity 2: 1F (it was made in Northern Ireland), 2T, 3F (it sank
on its first crossing), 4F (most of the passengers were working people with third-class tickets), 5T, 6F (there were
more than two thousand people), 7F (it didn’t slow down), 8F (it hit an iceberg), 9T, 10T, 11F (about a third of the
people survived).

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 STAGE
Titanic
1 Tim Vicary

While reading activity

These reports were written by Captain Smith of the Titanic and Captain Lord of the
Californian. There are six mistakes in each report. Correct the mistakes. The first one has been
done for you.
From Captain Smith, Titanic:
It was late at night. I heard a loud noise, so I got into out of bed. My First Officer said ’We hit an
iceberg, sir. I’m starting the engines.’ I went down into the ship with some of my officers. Thomas
Andrews, the ship’s radio operator, said ‘We’re going to sink in about two minutes.’ There was water
in three compartments, and the ship wasn’t safe. So we gave the passengers their life jackets and got
the lifeboats ready. Later, the radio operator on a ship called the Californian spoke to us. He had a
message for one of our passengers. ‘Come at once,’ we told him. ‘This is an emergency!’
From Captain Lord, Californian:
We stopped at 10.30 that morning because there were a lot of ships in the sea. Later we saw a big ship
near us. We tried to send a message using a gun, but there was no answer. We didn’t know the ship’s
name. We couldn’t listen to messages on the radio because our radio operator was in the restaurant.
Later the ship sent white smoke into the air. Why? We didn’t know. Second Officer Stone watched the
ship, but I went to bed because I was ill.

To the teacher
Where: At the end of chapter 6.
Aim: To revise some key events in the book so far.
Time: 10–15 minutes.
Organization: Give each student, or pair of students, a copy of the worksheet and ask them to write in their
corrections. When they have finished, go through the answers with the class, encouraging students to give more
detail about the relevant people and events.
Students could also be asked to write a further summary from another character’s point of view (for example First
Officer Murdoch, Daniel Buckley or Anna Turja).
Key: First report: into – out of, starting – stopping, radio operator – designer, minutes – hours, three – five,
Californian – Carpathia. Second report: morning – night, ships – icebergs, gun – light, the restaurant – bed,
smoke – rockets, ill – tired.

To the teacher

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 STAGE
Titanic
1 Tim Vicary

After reading activity

QUOTATION WHO? WHO TO? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

1 ‘We don’t really need the The Titanic is crossing the
lifeboats, because the Titanic Atlantic.
can never sink.’
2 ‘Turn left, quickly.’ Robert
Hitchens
3 ‘This is an emergency . . . Ask Captain
for help.’ Smith
4 ‘I’m going to be OK. We can
meet in New York.’
5 ‘I’m a man. I’m staying here, Charles
with the men.’ Lightoller
6 ‘The ship is going down. You sailors on the
can do no more.’ Titanic
7 ‘We’re going very fast, sir. It isn’t a sailor on
safe.’ the
Carpathia
8 ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s not an officer on
important.’ the
Californian
9 ‘I was only a passenger.’ J. Bruce
Ismay
10 ‘Those people with the film
cameras . . . why didn’t they
help all the people in the water?’

To the teacher
Aim: To revise key characters and events.
Time: 15–20 minutes.
Organization: Give each student, or group of students, a copy of the worksheet. Ask them to try to complete the
table, using the book if necessary. Afterwards, go through the answers as a class and generate discussion about
the relevant people, events and situations.
Key: 1 designer Thomas Andrews to Mrs Astor, while crossing the Atlantic; 2 First Officer Murdoch to Robert
Hitchens, when they are going towards the iceberg; 3 Captain Smith to radio operator Jack Phillips, when the ship
is sinking; 4 Mr Astor to his wife, when she is getting into a lifeboat; 5 Mr Straus to Charles Lightoller, refusing his
offer of a place on a lifeboat; 6 Captain Smith to the sailors, when the ship is going under water; 7 a sailor on the
Carpathia to Captain Rostron, when they are racing through the ice to the Titanic; 8 Captain Lord of the Californian
to an officer, when there are rockets in the sky; 9 J. Bruce Ismay to Senator Smith, at an inquiry after the sinking;
10 Anna Turja to her son, when they are watching a film about the Titanic.

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