35. The Titanic needed a power station bigger than most American cities to keep the lights on.
The Titanic was incredibly coal-hungry. The huge ship was fitted with three four-cylinder engines, each one of them driving a propeller. To keep them going, a team of around 200 firemen were required to work in hellish conditions shoveling up to 600 tonnes of coal into the furnaces. They also had to shovel 100 tons of ash overboard. And that was just to power the ship’s propellers. The Titanic also had its own on-board electrical plant, capable of producing more power than the average American power station of the time. For good reason, the men keeping the engines going and the lights on were paid more than most other crew members.
