Titanic sinks

RMS Titanic was the largest ship ever built — a floating palace nearly 270 metres long, hailed as "practically unsinkable". On 10 April 1912 she left Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York, carrying around 2,220 people.

Scroll to set sail↓

On the fourth night at sea, the North Atlantic was glassy calm and freezing. Several iceberg warnings reached the wireless room, yet the ship held near full speed in the dark. The lookouts did not even have binoculars.

At 11:40 p.m. on 14 April the lookout cried "Iceberg, right ahead!". The ship turned, but too late — the berg tore open her starboard side below the waterline, and the sea began flooding compartment after compartment.

In under three hours the bow dipped, the lights flickered and died, and Titanic broke apart and slipped into the deep at 2:20 a.m. The lifeboats held only half of those aboard — and many were lowered half empty.

Around 1,500 people died in the freezing water. The Carpathia picked up about 705 survivors at dawn. The disaster shook the world — and led to the 1914 SOLAS convention, requiring lifeboats for all and round-the-clock radio watch.