Thomas Andrews, an experienced shipwright and head of Harland & Wolff design was given the task as the man to oversee the design and construction of Titanic.

To build a safe ship 882.5 feet (268.8 meters) long and 92.5 feet (28.2 meters) wide with a gross weight of nearly 45,000 tons (40,824 metric tons), some innovative shipbuilding techniques and materials were required

The design submission for Olympic and Titanic was approved in Belfast on July 29 1908 by Bruce Ismay and other White Star directors. Andrew's drawings shows that Titanic incorporated a number of innovative naval design features, including the division of the hull into a series of virtually watertight compartments.

 

 

 

The innovative hull was divided up into 16 watertight compartments.  The ship was built to stay afloat even if two of the middle compartments, or four of the front compartments flooded.

 

 

 

 

These watertight compartments offered potential passengers a genuine sense of security in travelling the high seas and were seen as a brilliant marketing tool for White Star Lines to sell tickets. The Titanic was actively marketed as the world's first and last "Unsinkable Ship"

 

 

 

“Control your Irish passions, Thomas. Your uncle here tells me you proposed 64 lifeboats and he had to pull your arm to get you down to 32. Now, I will remind you just as I reminded him these are my ships. And, according to our contract, I have final say on the design. I’ll not have so many little boats, as you call them, cluttering up my decks and putting fear into my passengers.”

           

                                   — J. Bruce Ismay, Director of the White Star Line

 

 

 

Titanic infamously had too few lifeboats to evacuate all those on board; the 20 lifeboats that she carried could only take 1,178 people, even though she had about 2,223 on board at the time of her sinking and could carry up to about 3,300 people.

 

Unfortunately some elements of Thomas Andrews original design ideas were altered or removed as Titanic went over budget in construction.  This included removing some of the more extravagant luxury features such as extra swimming pools, more electric lifts and amazingly the completion of its sixteen watertight hulls.  This decision was obviously not well publicized at the time.