Titanic Amberley Histories

Published for the anniversary of the sinking, this is a short primer for fans of the Titanic wanting a short, color introduction to the story of the ship and her tragic loss.



On the night of 14/15 April 1912, the Titanic, on her maiden voyage, sailed into history. Ramming an iceberg at speed, many of those aboard drowned or froze to death when she sank, with only a mere 700 passengers and crew rescued by the Cunard liner Carpathia. Fifteen hundred died in one of the worst peacetime maritime accidents in a collision that was totally avoidable. Too few lifeboats had been provided, the ship was steaming hard into an area of icebergs and few of the passengers and crew believed that she could sink. From the moment she hit the iceberg, Titanic was doomed and many of her crew knew it. Within three hours she was gone, all that remained was the detritus of disaster and the tortured souls of those who survived. However, the legacy of the world's largest ship sinking on her maiden voyage has endured and numerous films and hundreds of books have kept the memory of this fateful ship alive. Titanic was the second of a trio of vessels and the writer of a White Star brochure introducing the ships stated that 'As far as it is possible to do so, these two wonderful vessels [Olympic and Titanic] are designed to be unsinkable.' How those words would haunt him. From her building to her death, the story of the Titanic is a fascinating one. Read on and find out about the 'unsinkable' ship and how she met her end four days into her maiden voyage.