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RMS Titanic

4F

From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, many Europeans immigrated to the US, Canada and Australia. This led to the Golden Age of Ocean Liners. Undeniably, the Titanic is arguably the most famous ocean liner in history.

 

She was the first ocean liner in the world with a displacement of over 40,000-tons. Her maiden voyage on 10 April 1912 was from Southampton, England across the Atlantic Ocean to New York City, US.

 

On 14th April, she was sailing 570 kilometers southwest of Newfoundland, North America, and received alerts about an iceberg. In an attempt to set a trans-Atlantic record, the captain chose to neglect the warning and kept sailing on the original route. That very evening, the Titanic`s starboard side hit an iceberg and sank in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Since there was not enough life-saving equipment for all the people aboard, 1,522 people perished in the accident. People all over the world mourned and were shocked.

 

Of course, the tragedy triggered concerns about maritime safety and led to improved preventative measures. Later, the International Atlantic Iceberg Patrol was founded. It required sufficient life-saving equipment, regular drills for emergency evacuations and 24-hour radio communication.

 

On the right hand side of the model, there is a wooden board on which John Jacob Astor, one of the richest passengers aboard, wrote down his last words. Note the grammatical and spelling mistakes on it. It indicates how panicked and rushed he was at that time. It is impossible for us to go through what happened during the accident, but this legacy shows us how fearful the people on the Titanic were.

RMS Titanic / Ship model / 182 x 14 x 60 cm / Collection of the Evergreen Maritime Museum
RMS Titanic / Ship model / 182 x 14 x 60 cm / Collection of the Evergreen Maritime Museum