the sinking of the titanic

IF YOU HAVE WONDERED WHETHER SUNKEN SHIPS HAVE BECOME UNDERWATER MER MUSEUMS. THE ANSWER IS: Yes, and the Titanic is one of them.

Listen to the sad hymn while reading about the true occurrence.

One hundred years ago, the ship that couldn’t sink sank. It’s the centennial
anniversary of RMS Titanic’s ill-fated end on its debut transatlantic crossing. On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world’s wealthiest
basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage.

She was touted as the safest ship ever built, so safe that she carried only 20 lifeboats – enough to provide accommodation for only half her 2,200 passengers and crew. This discrepancy rested on the belief that since the ship’s construction made her “unsinkable,” her
lifeboats were necessary only to rescue survivors of other sinking ships. Additionally, lifeboats took up valuable deck space. At the time of her construction, the Titanic was the largest ship ever built. She was nearly 900
feet long, stood 25 stories high, and weighed an incredible 46,000 tons.

With turn-of-the century design and technology, including sixteen major watertight compartments in her lower section that could easily be sealed off in the event of a punctured hull, the Titanic was deemed an unsinkable ship. According to her builders, even in the worst possible accident at sea, two ships colliding, the Titanic would stay afloat for two to three days, which would provide enough time for nearby ships to help.

On April 14, 1912, however, the Titanic sideswiped a massive iceberg and sank in less than three hours. Damaging nearly 300 feet of the ship’s hull, the collision allowed water to flood six of her sixteen major watertight compartments.

She was on her maiden voyage to the United States, carrying more than 2200 passengers and crew, when she foundered. Only 705 of those aboard the Titanic ever reached their destination. After what seemed like a minor collision with an iceberg, the largest ship ever built sank in a fraction of the time estimated for her worst possible accident at sea. Continue reading