The Titanic Will Disappear by 2030! 14 Facts About the Titanic You Didn’t Know

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"God himself cannot sink this ship"

Well, the people were wrong. The Titanic was a British passenger ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean on 15^th April, 1912. The ship was one of the most modern vessels to be constructed during that time and was considered to be unsinkable.

Is the Titanic real? Yes, it is and the story of Titanic is one of the most disastrous events to have occurred in the early 1900’s.

The Titanic left its dock in Southampton on 10^th April to reach its destination on 17^th April in New York City. An estimate of 2,224 passengers and crew were aboard the Titanic which consisted of people from all classes and statuses.

On its journey to New York City, on 15^th of April, the Titanic hit an iceberg near Newfoundland at approximately 11:40 p.m. The ship was to sink and there was little time to evacuate the thousands of passengers aboard.

One of the major loopholes of the Titanic was its safety gear. The lifeboats were enough only for 1,178 people which is half the number of people present on the ship. Most men were left to drown since the protocol was to bring women and children to safety first.

The protocol was strictly followed since out of the 2,224 people on board, only 4 women died. There are several facts that remain unknown to the world today. Here are a few that will leave you baffled:

1. The City of Southampton suffered a major loss on 15^th April. Most of the wealthy and rich families of Southampton were aboard the Titanic and it was reported that 120 out of 240 kids of a Northam School lost their fathers. 
2. One of the most cinematic lines in the Titanic movie is actually true. Benjamin Guggenheim, a rich businessman says, “We are dressed in our best and prepared to go down as gentlemen”. He asked a steward from the ship to convey the message to his wife that he had performed his duty.
3. Strangely one of the cooks present on the ship, Charles Joughin survived for a longer time in cold water than the other survivors. While most people died from hypothermia due to the frigid temperatures, Charles had chugged two bottles of whiskey that kept him alive for two hours!
4. As depicted in the 1997, Titanic movie, the musicians aboard played music for at least two hours after the ship hit the iceberg in order to calm the panicking passengers. Unfortunately, they all died but one of the members, Roger Bricoux was not declared dead until 2000.
5. Dorothy Gibson, an American actress, was one of 706 people to have survived the sinking ship. She is famous for releasing a film, ‘Saved from the Titanic’, a month after the tragedy. She wore the same clothes and shoes in the movie as what she had worn on the Titanic.
6. A tiny 2 month baby was lowered in a sack into the lifeboat on 15^th April, 1912. Millvina Dean was her name and she was one of the last surviving members of the Titanic. She died in 2009, aged 97.
7. Since the constructors of the Titanic were so optimistic about their modernised ship, it had gained the confidence of the people. Newly married couples had found a perfect way to spend their honeymoon. A minimum of 13 couples were on board celebrating their honeymoon. Sadly, most of them did not survive.
8. The people on board were so distressed that some of the men dressed up as women to get to a lifeboat. This caused one of the couples present on the ship to even divorce years after they survived the sinking ship.
9. A general protocol involves a lifeboat drill that takes place before a ship is set to sail. The drill is carried out for the safety of the passengers but for some unknown reason the captain of the ship had cancelled this drill. This remains a debatable fact till this day.
10. Out of the four women who died, one of them was a woman who jumped out of the lifeboat when her dog was left behind. She refused to get on the boat without her dog and there are speculations that a body whose arms were wrapped around a dog was found floating in the water.
11. On 15^th April, 1912, another ship called the SS Prinz Adalbert was sailing across the same course of the Titanic unknown to what happened the previous night. The captain noticed an unusual streak of red paint across an iceberg and photographed it. Some believe it is the iceberg that sunk the Titanic. 
12. Although the Titanic was one of the largest vessels to be built, the wreckage of the ship was not found until 1985. The Titanic’s bow was discovered by the army only after 73 years during a Secret Cold War Navy Mission.
13. After the wreckage was found, the survivors of the tragedy were proven right when they said that the ship had broken into two. This fact was not believed by many and was a matter of dispute for several years.
14. Although not much of the wreckage remains today, scientists are of the belief that the ship will be eaten by bacteria and disintegrate in the sea by 2030.

While there are several stories and mysteries that yet remain unanswered, the Titanic is a reminder of negligence and unfortunate incidents that can occur at sea. Although Jack and Rose from the Titanic movie are fictional characters, they give us an insight about the several love stories that sank with the mighty Titanic that fateful night.

Written by Jerusha Patel