Talk: Michael Booth – RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in 1912 after it struck an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of modern history’s deadliest peacetime commercial marine disasters.

The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States.

Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, it only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board.

The wreck of Titanic was discovered in 1985 (more than 70 years after the disaster) and it remains on the seabed. Thousands of artefacts have been recovered and displayed at museums around the world. The final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97.