RMS Titanic was a transatlantic liner which was considered luxurious and unsinkable, but sank on its maiden voyage in April Some people died and survived. This page describes the sites associated with the ship, which has sailed into legend. It was at the time the world's worst maritime disaster, but in terms of lives lost, it now ranks about 80th β yes, eightieth β below more recent tragedies that have largely been forgotten.
Yet over a century later, it's the story of Titanic that still resonates. Titanic was built in Belfast. She struck an iceberg off Newfoundland and sank two hours later. After another two hours, survivors in lifeboats were picked up by Carpathia and brought to New York.
But only a privileged minority found room in the lifeboats and the rest either went down with the ship or quickly perished in an icy sea. The wreck lies in two pieces 12, ft 3, m ft deep, and miles km from Newfoundland. Nowadays, most people cross the Atlantic by air. But the first transatlantic flight was not until , and commercial flights only began in the late s, only to be interrupted by wartime shortly thereafter. These early flights combined the expense of first-class liners with the comfort of third-class, and right up into the s, most people crossed the Atlantic by ocean liner.
Then jet aircraft range, reliability and capacity made them the preferred method, and shipping companies withered until re-inventing themselves for the cruise business. In the late 19th and early 20th century, European shipping lines competed for the lucrative transatlantic trade.
There was urgent mail and freight, and there were passengers in all price brackets, especially the thousands upon thousands of westbound emigrants. These were driven both by the push of harsh homeland conditions, and the pull of the dynamic North American economies. The Irish were a major part of this story, but there were so many others: Carpathia was on its way back east for its next consignment of Hungarian emigrants when it diverted to rescue the Titanic survivors.
