At 11.40 PM on Sunday April 14th, 1912 the Titanic, bound from
Southampton, England to New York, struck an iceberg just off the
coast of Newfoundland and became fully submerged within three
hours, before dropping to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at
2:20 AM on April 15, 1912. The sinking of the vessel, which
belonged to the White Star Line shipping company, caused the
death of 1,514 men, women and children, making it one of the
deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Passengers on
board the ship included some of the world's wealthiest people,
including millionaires such as John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin
Guggenheim and Isidor Straus, and thousands of immigrants
seeking a new life in America. There have been many stories over
the years recounting why the ship struck the iceberg and why
two-thirds of the passengers and crew lost their lives. Was it
from faulty construction or the lack of lifeboats? Was it from
the absence of binoculars in the crow's nest during night watch
or from the shortcomings of