Sinking of Titanic (Ship) (1912 to 1912)

The Titanic was very luxuriously equipped and intended to attract the rich and beautiful. The second class was also built above the standard of that time. Even in the third class, passengers could enjoy bathrooms and toilets. Passengers in first class travelled for fun for business reasons. In third class were mainly emigrants who wanted to begin a new life in America free from poverty and oppression.

On 10 April 1912, the Titanic set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton in southern England. In France and Ireland passengers were still rising. On 11 April, the ship set off across the Atlantic towards New York. On board were over 1300 passengers and almost 900 crew members. 

When the ship arrived in the North Atlantic, the crew received repeated ice warnings by radio. For that reason, the captain swerved a little to the south. On 14 April at 23.40 hrs, the watchman saw an iceberg directly in front of the bow. An officer ordered engines to stop and reverse. However, 37 seconds after the warning, the Titanic struck the iceberg.

The ship had sprung a leak in 6 places and hit 5 bulkheads. If only 4 bulkheads had been affected, Titanic would have been able to stay afloat. The sea was very calm and first the passengers did not realise that catasprophy was coming up.

25 minutes after the collision the rescue operation with the lifeboats began and radio calls for help were sent. There were only 20 lifeboats on Titanic. The first few boats were not completely filled with passengers. The last ones were overloaded and threatened to capsize. Altogether 18 lifeboats were used. Two got lost or were damaged. Most of the rescued were from the first and second class. Passengers in third class, who were quartered below, did not reach the deck as quickly and were partly still prevented from coming up.

At 02.15 the Titanic sank and broke in two. Almost 1500 people died, including Captain Smith. According to the reports of the survivors, the cries of the doomed were very loud and frightening. They could not be helped and the first rescued, who were in half-empty boats, did not return to the rescue. They feared to be torn down by the desperate people in the freezing cold water.

The next ship, the Carpathia, was 93 km away at the time of the sinking. The ship reached the scene of the accident at about 4 o'clock and recovered just over 700 survivors. On the evening of April 18, 1912, the Carpathia arrived in New York Harbor, expected by thousands of people in Battery Park and at Cunard Pier. For quite some time, the crew members of the Carpathia were celebrated as heroes in all ports the ship sailed to.

There was a total of 18 days of official investigation. The subcommittee's report was presented to the United States Senate on May 28, 1912. Its recommendations, along with those of the British inquiry that concluded a few months later, led to changes in safety practices following the disaster.

The wreck of the RMS Titanic lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet (3.8 km; 2.37 mi), about 370 miles (600 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. A debris field around the wreck contains thousands of items spilled from the ship as she sank.

In 1985, the wreck was finally located by a joint French–American expedition led by Jean-Louis Michel of IFREMER and Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The wreck has been the focus of intense interest and has been visited by numerous expeditions. Controversial salvage operations have recovered thousands of items, which have been conserved and put on public display.

A "Titanic" version has become firmly etched in the cultural memory of mankind: James Cameron's "Titanic" epic starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as tragic lovers. Almost 15 years after its premiere, the $250 million film was once again released in 3-D.

It was a gigantic undertaking when the perfectionist Cameron got involved in the most detailed filming of the ship disaster possible.

The director dived several times into the depths of the North Atlantic to study the wreck. He then had the Titanic replicated in Mexico. The shooting took months and the costs got out of hand.