The largest passenger steamship in the world. After setting off on her maiden voyage from Southampton on April 10 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank just four days into the trip, on April 14 1912. The catastrophe resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
The world’s most famous passenger liner, Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She set sail for New York with 2,223 people on board; the high casualty rate when the ship sank was due partly to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship carried lifeboats for only 1,178 people. A disproportionate number of men died due to the ‘women and children first’ protocol that was followed by the crew.
Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers in the world and used some of the most advanced technologies available at the time. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, her maiden voyage ended in tragedy.
This special 100th anniversary book not only charts her fateful journey but also describes the media frenzy about her famous victims; the legends surrounding the sinking; the resulting changes to maritime law; and the discovery of the wreck that have contributed to the long-held fascination in the ocean liner
