If all you know about the Titanic is that it was the ship where Jack and Rose met and fell in love, then you need to keep reading. It's been 95 years since the tragic sinking of the Titanic, but her memory still lives on in our minds.
Titanic - A Luxury Liner
The Titanic was the grandest ship of her time. She was majestic, lavishly decorated and considered unsinkable because four of her 16 watertight compartments could be flooded without endangering the ship. The Titanic was divided into social classes according to background, wealth and education. The bottom two layers were for manual workers and third-class passengers who were hoping to start a new life in America. The second-class layer included teachers, merchants and professionals. The top layer was reserved for the rich and aristocratic.
Titanic - Her Tragic Ending
Although it took five years to build, the Titanic had a very short career. She set off on April 10, 1912 from Southampton, England, but never made it to her destination of New York City - she struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland shortly before midnight on April 14, 1912. As the ship began to fill with water, people scrambled to get in the lifeboats, but crew members decided that women and children would board first. Although each lifeboard could carry 65 passengers, some of them carried as little as 12. By the time the last lifeboat left, there were more than 1,500 passengers still on board the sinking ship. At 2:20AM on April 15th, people in the lifeboats watched in horror as the "unsinkable" Titanic went down, killing 1,523 passengers. The Carpathia, which had picked up the Titanic's distress signals, reached the site at 3:30AM to rescue 705 survivors.
Titanic - Did U Know?
- The Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. She stretched to 882 feet and weighed 21,831 tonnes.
- The Titanic cost a reported $7.5 million to build.
- Although the Titanic had a passenger capacity of 3,547, she was only carrying 1,343 passengers and 885 crew members.
- The Titanic was one of three sister ships - the Olympic, which had a successful career as a liner until she was broken up in 1935, and the Brittanic, which tragically sank on November 21, 1916 when she was either torpedoed or the victim of a mine explosion.
- On September 1, 1985, a joint French-American expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard discovered the wreck of the Titanic. It was found lying upright in two pieces on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet.
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