The sinking of the RMS Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 of its 2,229 passengers and crew (official numbers vary slightly) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. The 712 survivors were taken aboard the RMS Carpathia. Few disasters have had such resonance and far-reaching effects on the fabric of society as the sinking of the Titanic. It affected attitudes toward social injustice, altered the way the North Atlantic passenger trade was conducted, changed the regulations for numbers of lifeboats carried aboard passenger vessels and created an International Ice Patrol (where commercial ships crossing the North Atlantic still, today, radio in their positions and ice sightings). The 1985 discovery of the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor marked a turning point for public awareness of the ocean and for the development of new areas of science and technology. April 15, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster. It has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory kept alive by numerous books, films, exhibits and memorials.
The British passenger liner RMS Titanic leaves from Southampton, England on her maiden voyage, April 10, 1912. Titanic called at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading westward toward New York. Four days into the crossing, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m., 375 miles south of Newfoundland. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean.(Frank O. Braynard Collection)
Two messages that were sent from America to insurers Lloyds of London in the mistaken belief that other ships, including the Virginian, were standing by to help when the Titanic sank. These two messages are among dramatic memorabilia set to go under the hammer at Christies in London, May, 2012. (AFP/ EPA/Press Association)
The luxury liner Titanic, in this photo dated 1912, as she left Queenstown for New York, on her ill-fated last voyage. Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, such as millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in America. The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. The inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic began within days of the sinking and led to major improvements in maritime safety.
A photograph released by Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho Auction House in Wiltshire, Britain, 18 April 2008, shows an extremely rare Titanic passenger ticket. They were the auctioneers handling the complete collection of the last American Titanic Survivor Miss Lillian Asplund. The collection was comprised of a number of significant items including a pocket watch, one of only a handful of remaining tickets for the Titanic's maiden voyage and the only example of a forward emigration order for the Titanic thought to exist. Lillian Asplund was a very private person and because of the terrible events she witnessed that cold April night in 1912 rarely spoke about the tragedy which claimed the lives of her father and three brothers.
An item bequeathed to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, by Walter Lord, shows a Marconi cable form. Miss Edith Russell (Titanic survivor and journalist) to Women's Wear Daily: 'Safe Carpathia, notify mother' Carpathia 18 April 1912 .
R.M.S. Titanic's bow in 1999. (P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology)
This Sept. 12, 2008 image shows one of the propellers of the RMS Titanic on the ocean floor during an expedition to the site of the tragedy. Five Thousand artifacts are scheduled to be auctioned as a single collection on April 11, 2012, 100 years after the sinking of the ship.
This Aug. 28, 2010 image, released by Premier Exhibitions, Inc.-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, shows the starboard side of the Titanic bow. (Premier Exhibitions, Inc.-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
This July 5, 2003 image shows the Titanic's crow's nest.
The Titanic's port bow rail, chains and an auxiliary anchor boom. Dr. Robert Ballard, the man who found the remains of the Titanic nearly two decades ago, returned to the site and lamented damage done by visitors and souvenir hunters. (Institute for Archaeological Oceanography & Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island Grad. School of Oceanography)
Two messages that were sent from America to insurers Lloyds of London in the mistaken belief that other ships, including the Virginian, were standing by to help when the Titanic sank. These two messages are among dramatic memorabilia set to go under the hammer at Christies in London, May, 2012. (AFP/ EPA/Press Association)
The luxury liner Titanic, in this photo dated 1912, as she left Queenstown for New York, on her ill-fated last voyage. Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, such as millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in America. The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. The inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic began within days of the sinking and led to major improvements in maritime safety.
A photograph released by Henry Aldridge & Son/Ho Auction House in Wiltshire, Britain, 18 April 2008, shows an extremely rare Titanic passenger ticket. They were the auctioneers handling the complete collection of the last American Titanic Survivor Miss Lillian Asplund. The collection was comprised of a number of significant items including a pocket watch, one of only a handful of remaining tickets for the Titanic's maiden voyage and the only example of a forward emigration order for the Titanic thought to exist. Lillian Asplund was a very private person and because of the terrible events she witnessed that cold April night in 1912 rarely spoke about the tragedy which claimed the lives of her father and three brothers.
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