Titanic Sinks
The sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 is one of the best-known maritime disasters in history. The largest passenger ship in the world at the time struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic on her maiden voyage and sank in roughly two hours and forty minutes. Of the roughly 2,200 people aboard, only about 700 survived. The tragedy shocked the public on both sides of the Atlantic and led to lasting changes in how ships are made safe.
The Titanic was built in Belfast by the shipyard Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, which competed with rivals such as Cunard for the lucrative transatlantic trade. She was designed to be luxurious and strong, with a double bottom and watertight compartments that could be sealed off if the hull was damaged. Newspapers and advertising described her as practically unsinkable, though the company itself never made a formal claim that she was truly so. The ship left Southampton on 10 April, called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland, and set out for New York with passengers ranging from wealthy industrialists to emigrants hoping for a new life in America.
On the night of 14 April, the ship was sailing at high speed through waters where ice warnings had been received. Lookouts spotted an iceberg late, and attempts to turn away failed to avoid a glancing blow along the starboard side. The impact opened a series of seams and plates across several forward compartments. The ship was designed to stay afloat with four flooded, but more were damaged, and as the bow sank, water spilled over the tops of the bulkheads. Early on 15 April, the Titanic broke apart and went under.
The loss of life was made worse by a shortage of lifeboats. There was space for only about half of those aboard, and many boats left the ship partly empty in the confusion. Survivors were generally those who reached a boat, and women, children, and first-class passengers had markedly higher survival rates than men and third-class passengers. The liner Carpathia rescued the survivors from the lifeboats a few hours later.
Official inquiries in Britain and the United States examined the disaster. They led to the 1914 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which required enough lifeboat space for everyone aboard, continuous radio watches, and the creation of the International Ice Patrol. The wreck was found in 1985 by an expedition led by Robert Ballard, lying in two main sections on the ocean floor. The Titanic remains a powerful symbol of both human ambition and its limits, and she continues to inspire books, films, and research.