Titanic size comparison: how the ship measures up to today’s giants

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How big was the Titanic? Length, width and height

The Titanic was 882.6 ft (269 m) long and 92.6 ft (28.2 m) wide, according to the report of the US Senate inquiry into the sinking. Height Studio uses that overall length.

You will also see 852.5 ft (259.85 m). That is the registered length in the British Wreck Commissioner’s report, a formal measure for the ship’s registration, not its length from end to end. Many websites give 882 ft 9 in, which differs from the Senate figure by less than 2 inches and changes none of the comparisons below.

Height is harder. The US report says the boat deck and the bridge were 70 ft (21.3 m) above the waterline. A keel-to-funnel height of 175 ft is widely repeated, but Height Studio could not confirm it in a primary source, so the tool compares the Titanic by length only.

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Titanic size comparison to modern cruise ships

A modern mega cruise ship is more than a third longer than the Titanic and much wider. Icon of the Seas measures 1,198 ft (365 m), according to its builder Meyer Turku: 315 ft (96 m) more than the Titanic, or 1.36 times its length.

The width gap is even bigger. Meyer Turku gives Icon’s hull width as 159 ft (48.5 m) at the waterline and 216 ft (65.8 m) at the bridge, against the Titanic’s 92.6 ft (28.2 m). At the waterline alone, Icon is 1.7 times as wide.

Not every modern passenger ship dwarfs the Titanic. Color Line’s car ferry Color Fantasy, built in 2004, is 735 ft (224 m) long, about 148 ft (45 m) shorter than the Titanic.

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Aircraft carrier vs the Titanic and a cruise ship

A modern US aircraft carrier sits between the two. USS Gerald R. Ford, lead ship of its class, is 1,106 ft (337.1 m) long, according to the US Navy’s Naval Air Force Atlantic. That is 223 ft (68 m) longer than the Titanic and 92 ft (28 m) shorter than Icon of the Seas.

The carrier’s flight deck is 256 ft (78 m) wide, almost three times the Titanic’s width. If you see 1,092 ft for the Ford elsewhere, that is the length of the flight deck, not of the whole ship.

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Titanic size comparison chart: famous ships by length

These ships from Height Studio’s library are sorted by overall length, longest first, with the ratio to the Titanic:

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Titanic size comparison to buildings, landmarks and a soccer field

Stood on its end, the Titanic would reach about four fifths of the way up the Eiffel Tower, which its operator gives as 1,083 ft (330 m) with its antenna. The Empire State Building’s roof is at 1,250 ft (381 m) according to CTBUH, so the Titanic would reach about 70 percent of it, while Icon of the Seas would end just 52 ft (16 m) below the roof. USS Gerald R. Ford is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall.

Closer to the ground, the comparisons look like this:

• Statue of Liberty: 305 ft 1 in (92.99 m) from the ground to the torch, pedestal included (National Park Service), so it would fit along the Titanic almost three times.
• Soccer field: FIFA recommends 344 ft (105 m), so the Titanic covered about two and a half fields.
• Airbus A380: 238 ft 7 in (72.73 m) according to Lufthansa, 3.7 of them along the hull.
• City bus: a Mercedes-Benz Citaro is 39 ft 10 in (12.135 m), so the Titanic equals about 22 buses nose to tail.
• Blue whale: about ten typical adults at 85 ft (26 m) each; our blue whale guide has more comparisons for the whale.

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Make your own ship size comparison

1. Open the ship size comparison

   It opens with a person next to ships from a canoe up to Seawise Giant, with the Titanic, the aircraft carrier and Icon of the Seas in between.

2. Line them up by length

   Set “Compare by” to “Length” so every ship starts from the same line.

3. Measure against the Titanic

   Tap the Titanic to see how many times longer or shorter each of the other ships is.

4. Save or share

   Use “Share link” to send the exact line-up, or “Save PNG” for a picture. Everything stays on your device.