When did the Titanic Sink
The Titanic is by far the most famous ship that ever existed. Unfortunately it is not famous for its luxury or extravagance but, because it sank when it was supposed to be unsinkable. Not only did it sink, but it sank on its maiden voyage.
Titanic Measurements
The Titanic was constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast in 1909, and was intended to be the largest and most luxurious cruise ship belonging to the White Star Line. When completed the Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.1 m) in length and 92 feet 0 inches (28.0 m) wide. She weighed a massive 46,328 tones and was 59 feet (18 m) high. She had two huge triple-expansion steam engines allowing for a top speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph). The Titanic was able to carry a total of 3,547 passengers and crew. She had on board a total of 20 lifeboats that could carry 1,178 people. More were not added as it took up valuable deck space on a ship constructed to be unsinkable.
The Sinking Of the Titanic
The Titanic sailed out of Southampton, England for New York City (U.S) on the 10 April 1912. She was carrying a total of 2,227 passengers on board. Before she even sailed the Titanic had earned a reputation and was hailed as the most luxurious and safe cruise ship of the time. Many of the passengers on board were wealthy. Four days into her journey the Titanic struck an iceberg at approximately 11:40 pm. The collision caused buckling along the hull in several places and popped out rivets below the waterline over a length of 299 feet (90 m). Icy water began to flow through flooding the lower, forward sections of the ship. While the ship had been designed to stay afloat with four of the forward compartments full of water it became clear after an inspection that six were flooding. Just after midnight on April 15th the order was given to deploy the lifeboats. It quickly became apparent that there were not enough lifeboats to save all the passengers and crew so life jackets were handed out to every person on board. A distress call was sent out promptly and was received by up to 4 different ships but the only ship close enough to respond and provide help was the Carpathia which was 58 miles away and could arrive in just over 4 hours. The lifeboats were launched often not filled to capacity with one only having 12 passengers aboard when it could carry 40 people. The Titanic finally sunk at approximately 2:20 am on April 15th 1912.
The next morning, the liner Carpathia rescued 705 survivors from the lifeboats. One thousand five hundred and twenty-two passengers and crew were lost. Subsequent inquiries attributed the high loss of life to an insufficient number of lifeboats and inadequate training in their use.