Today in history: "Iceberg, right ahead!"

I’m sure that most people are aware of the significance of April 14th. It was on this day – 99 years ago – that the world’s most famous ocean liner struck an iceberg.

I have been a Titanic-lover since I was a little girl. Even before the movie was released in 1997, I wanted to learn everything possible about the disaster. I would watch every single documentary I could get my hands on, and take notes as I learned new facts. By the time I moved away from my Titanic addiction, I had filled three binders with information.

Below, I have included a few Titanic facts that I find interesting. They are from the collection of information I accumulated over the years*, and I hope you find them interesting…

• The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912.
• It took 2 hours and 40 minutes to completely sink.
• There were roughly 2,200 people on board the Titanic. Only 705 survived.
• One of the first boats to leave the Titanic carried only 28 people. They were designed to hold over 60.
• There were six iceberg warnings received by the Titanic on the day of the sinking.
• The ship could have stayed afloat if four of the watertight compartments flooded. Unfortunately, five flooded.
• The watertight compartments were actually not watertight at all. They were open at the top, which caused a wave to flood over each compartment as the ship sank.
• The cost to build the ship was $7.5 million and it took 3,000 men two years.

*The information included in the above statistics comes from many different sources.