Titanic

Titanic | History, Sinking, Survivors, Movies, Exploration, & Facts

By Sunday, April 14, the weather was perfect: a clear, cold sky, no moon, and a glass-calm sea. The lack of waves meant no breaking water at the base of the icebergs—making them nearly invisible.

The Titanic was moving at 22.5 knots—nearly full speed. A ship of that mass cannot turn quickly. For 37 seconds, the fatal dance unfolded. The bow swung left, but the submerged spur of the glacier scraped along the starboard side. Titanic

For 73 years, the Titanic lay lost in the black void. There were wild schemes to raise her using electromagnets, balloons, or even frozen ping-pong balls. All failed.

Ballard and his team had found her. The Titanic was split in two, bow buried in the mud, stern a chaotic tangle of metal, with a half-mile debris field between them. Personal effects littered the ocean floor: shoes, bottles, a child’s doll, and a safe. A ship of that mass cannot turn quickly

Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder, surveyed the damage. His conclusion was chilling. The Titanic could survive four flooded compartments. Five meant the bow would drag down. Six meant only one thing: the ship was doomed.

In 1912, 17-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater boards the Titanic with her wealthy, arrogant fiancé, Caledon "Cal" Hockley and her mother. Trapped in a loveless engagement, Rose is suicidal until a poor, free-spirited artist named Jack Dawson saves her. For 73 years, the Titanic lay lost in the black void

Then came the sound that haunted survivors: the screams of 1,500 people freezing to death in 28°F (-2°C) water.

Contrary to popular belief, the White Star Line never officially called the Titanic "unsinkable." However, The Shipbuilder magazine claimed that the design of the watertight compartment doors made her "practically unsinkable." The idea stuck. The belief in her invincibility was so pervasive that the ship carried only 20 lifeboats—enough for 1,178 people, just over half of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board. The designers thought lifeboats would be unnecessary for anything more than ferrying passengers to a rescue ship.

While the rich dined on ten-course meals, the majority of the passengers were in Third Class—immigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia, Syria, and Southern Europe seeking a new life in America. Though their accommodations were far simpler, the Titanic offered them amenities superior to many other ships of the time, including real beds instead of dormitory bunks and ample deck space.