Titanic

RMS Titanic, the second ship of the White Star Line's Olympic class steamships, was the fleet mate (more commonly know as "sister ship") to the Britannic and Olympic. Built by Harland and Wolff, it departed from Belfast, Ireland (where it was built) to Southampton, England on 2 April 1912 where a little less then half of the total 2,224 passengers were boarded. After picking up more passengers in Cherbourg, France and Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, the Titanic began heading west for New York, USA on 11 April, 1912.

Titanic received numerous warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area but Captain Edward Smith chose to ignore them and to continue at full speed. The first 3 days after departure from Queenstown went smoothly.

At 11:40 P.M. on 14 April, the lookouts spotted an iceberg ahead of Titanic. They alerted the bridge to the immediate danger ahead and rung the bell three times. First Officer William Murdoch ordered a "Hard to starboard" and the engines to be reversed, but it was too late. The impact caused the hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side. It flooded five of her sixteen watertight compartments; she was only meant to survive four. An unproportionate multitude of men were left aboard because of a "women and children first" protocol for loading lifeboats. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly loaded. At 2:20 am, she broke apart and sank with well over one a thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an estimated 710 survivors.