RMS Titanic or the Royal Mail Ship Titanic was a British luxury liner that was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. The Titanic was the largest ship in the world when she was launched and second of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line.
On April 2, 1912 when the Titanic was completed, she was the largest man-made object ever to be built. Nearly 14,000 men were employed to build her. Eight days later she set out on her doomed maiden voyage from Southampton, England, making two port calls in Cherbourg, France and Queensland, Ireland before heading west towards New York.
On April 14, the Titanic hit an iceberg at around 11:40 pm and sank two hours 40 mins later at 2:20 am on 15th April. The disaster left over 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew dead, making it the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.
Touted as “Unsinkable” it was believed that the Titanic could stay afloat even if 4 of her 16 compartments were breached. It was originally believed that the iceberg had caused a long gash in the hull, but it was later found that the collision with the iceberg had produced a series of thin gashes as well as brittle fracturing and separation of seams in the adjacent hull plates, allowing water to flood into the Titanic. It is believed today that low-quality steel or weak rivets may have led to the sinking.
The scale of the tragedy ensured that the Titanic would be remembered as one of the most shocking disasters in history. It has since been recreated multiple times on film and documentaries and several ocean Explorations were undertaken to locate and salvage part of the wreck.
Picture Credit : Google
