The Loss the Titanic

The great ship Titanic, sailed for New york from Southampton on April 10th 1912. It was crarrying 1316npassengers and a crew of 861. Even by modem standard, the 46,000 ton titanic was a colossal ship. At that time, however, it was only the largest ship that had been ever built, but was regarded as unsinkable, for it had sixteen water tight compartments. Even if two of these were flooded, it would still be able to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner will always be remembered, for it went down on its first voyage with heavy loss of line.

Four days after setting out, while the Titanic was sailing across the icy water of the North Atlantic, a huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a look-out. After the alarm had been given, the grreat 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 it. Suddenly There was a slight trembling sound of bellow, and the captain went down to see what had been damaged.

Below, captain realized to this horror that the Titanic was sinking rapidly, for five of sixteen its water compartments had been flood! The order to abandon ship was given and hundreds of people plunged into the icy water. As there were not enough life-boats for everybody, 1500 lives were lost.