Sudden End to Maiden Voyage - Hundreds Died

April 14th, 1912.
The British passenger ship "Titanic" went on its first trip on April 14th. The ship owned by the White Star Line got an unexpected and sudden end to its maiden voyage.

The ship Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic - caused by the water flooded through the bow, and 2.5 hours later the ship broke into two pieces, and sank. Titanic was the biggest and most luxurious ship that had ever been built. It was 269 meters long and had a weight of 53,000 tonnes. Generally, it was believed that the ship was unsinkable. The ship was travelling at 21 knots when the iceberg was discovered by the captain. According to him, it was already too late to stop at that time.

Injuries and deaths
The total amount of people on board, included both passengers and crew, were 2200. There were only lifeboats for half of them. A British passenger liner called "The Carpathia" reached the accident 4 o'clock in the morning on April 15th, just a couple of hours the ship had sunk. The liner managed to rescue 705 people, most consisting of children and women. However, the remaining number of people on board fell in the water and froze to death. The temperature in the water was -2 °C.

1.517 people died in the disaster of Titanic.