The HMS Titanic had one job: cross the Atlantic in luxury. It started in Southampton, England. It headed for New York. The trip should have taken just six days.
Something titanic has great size or strength. The RMS Titanic had both. It also had a gymnasium, libraries, and restaurants.
Other attractions aboard Titanic:
- courts for squash—a game played with rackets and a rubber ball in a four-walled room
- a Turkish bath—a public steam room where people relaxed
- a barber shop
- a swimming pool—one of the first onboard a ship
What Went Wrong?
Disaster struck on day four. An iceberg lay ahead. By the time crew members saw it, it was too late to slow down or turn away. The iceberg gashed the ship. Water flooded the vessel. People had claimed the ship was “practically unsinkable.” It may actually have contained low-quality steel parts and weak fasteners. That made it quite sinkable indeed.
Around 2,200 people were on the ship. It had only 20 lifeboats. That was enough for only half the people onboard. And many people did not make it to the lifeboats.
Titanic broke apart and sank less than three hours later. Just over 700 people were rescued. Millvina Dean was the youngest passenger aboard. She was just two months old when Titanic sank. She was also the last survivor. She died in 2009 at age 97.
After the tragedy, people started to think differently. Maybe technology didn’t deserve their faith after all. It couldn’t always keep its promises. Things could go terribly wrong instead. In time, they started to see another lesson too: “Pride goes before destruction.” (Proverbs 16:18)
