The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th, 1912. She was
carrying 1, 316 passengers and a crew of 891. Even by modern standards, the 46, 000 ton
Titanic was a colossal ship. At that time, however, she was not only the largest ship that
had ever been built, but was regarded as unsinkable, for she had sixteen watertight
compartments. Even if two of these were flooded, she would still be able to float. The tragic
sinking of this great liner will always be remembered, for she went down on her first voyage
with heavy loss of life.
Four days after setting out, while the Titanic was sailing across the icy waters of the
North Atlantic, a huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a lookout. After the alarm had been
given, the great ship turned sharply to avoid a direct collision. The Titanic turned just
in time, narrowly missing the immense wall of ice which rose over 100 feet out of the water
beside her. Suddenly, there was a slight trembling sound from below, and the captain went
down to see what had happened. The noise had been so faint that no one thought that the ship
had been damaged. Below, the captain realized to his horror that the Titanic was sinking
rapidly, for five of her sixteen watertight compartments had already been flooded! The order to
abandon ship was given and hundreds of people plunged into the icy water. As there were not
enough lifeboats for everybody, 1, 500 lives were lost.