Sunday, April 15, 2007

It was 95 years ago today that Titanic sank—"Woman and children first!"



95 years ago today, the RMS Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. You know the grim story (if you don't, go here). . .it was a tragedy of errors.




The Titanic's rudder and propellors



The "unsinkable" RMS Titanic would have escaped the tragedy if the crew had seen the iceberg ten seconds earlier, or ten seconds later. It was a night when everything went wrong. Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived. Most of the lifeboats left the Titanic half-full. No one really believed there was an emergency until the ship began listing, an hour and a quarter after initially striking the 'berg. From there is went down fast. The ship broke in two and each half sank.





The fatal iceberg


60% of the first class passengers were saved.
44% of the second passengers were saved.
25% of the third class passengers were saved.
24% of the crew were saved.
80% of the people who died were men.
50% of the children died




---o0o---

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