Ice

Sinking of Titanic - April 14, 1912

For most of its short life, Titanic was the pride of the White Star Line steamship company. When it steamed out of Southampton, England on its maiden voyage, on April 10, 1912, Titanic was the largest ship in the world. In fact, it was the largest moving object ever built. It was 264.6 metres (882 feet) long and weighed 52,728.5 metric tons (52,310 tons) at the waterline. The ship had room for 2,566 passengers in addition to its 892 crew; completely full, Titanic's 20 lifeboats could hold 1,178 people.

The difference between Titanic's lifeboat capacity and the number of people on board the ship (2,227) became a matter of deadly importance on the evening of April 14, 1912. That night, despite numerous warnings, Titanic sailed into a massive field of icebergs about 590 kilometres (364 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland.

At 10:35 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, a distress call was received by the men on duty at the Marconi Company wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland. It was from Titanic, and included a simple, chilling statement: "have struck iceberg." A flurry of calls between Titanic and other ships in the area followed, until all contact with the ship -- which had been called "unsinkable" -- was lost at 12:27 a.m..

It was the Carpathia, a ship owned by the Cunard fleet (a rival of the White Star Line), that first arrived on the scene. The Carpathia picked up 705 survivors from the lifeboats. Nobody else would be found alive.