The Unsinkable Titanic
April 15, 1912
1912 1912
45.00W50.00N
MISC

NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN
	The Titanic was the largest ship afloat in 1912, a wonder of modern technology with many safety features.  It was "the world's safest liner;" it was "unsinkable;" it was so safe that one deckhand even said, "God Himself couldn't sink this ship."
	The giant White Star luxury liner set sail from England April 10, 1912 for its first transatlantic voyage.  Despite iceberg warnings, captain E.T. Smith plunged ahead at 22 knots.  He wanted to set a new transatlantic speed record.
	Then, on the night of April 15, Seaman Frederick Fleet reported an iceberg ahead, but his warning was too late and the Titanic collided with it.  Though the passengers and crew just felt a slight bump and heard a scraping sound, the iceberg had ripped a 300-foot gash along the side of the ship.
	Then the watertight compartments failed and the ship began to settle.  Women and children were ordered into lifeboats.  But there had been no lifeboat training and some lifeboats left the ship half empty. In addition, there were only enough lifeboats for a third of the people.
	At 2:20 a.m., with its lights still ablaze and the remaining passengers singing a hymn, the Titanic's stern suddenly rose vertically in the clear, starry night and with a roar, everything movable plunged toward the submerged bow and the Titanic slid beneath the sea.
	Seven hundred and eleven people survived the disaster, but as many as 2,224 died.
	The disaster led to strict new standards for nautical safety.