109th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic (April 15)

Now this is a notable anniversary of a historical event, is it not?              

The Titanic sank in the northern Atlantic on this day over one century ago. 109 years, to be exact. 

As you guys likely will recall, the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. The ship appeared to be a technological marvel, a shining example of what humanity was capable of. It was the biggest and fanciest, most luxurious ship ever to that point in history. Everyone wanted to have a ticket for the maiden voyage. The people in charge knew it, and decided to capitalize on it even more. They would try and get it to cross the ocean in record time, racing to try and get even more news headlines.              

That was a mistake.              

As we all know, they should not have pushed that ship beyond what would have been safe. The northern Atlantic Ocean has floating icebergs, and obviously, the ship struck one of those, sustaining serious damage in the process. Now, there was a hole on the side of the ship, which allowed water into the ship. More and more water got in, which began to sink under the added weight, and which then allowed still more water, which sank it more, which added still more water, and on and on. As was mentioned in the famous 1997 movie about the incident, the sinking of the ship that had once been billed as indestructible was now a mathematical certainty. It was just a matter of time, mere hours after striking the iceberg, that the Titanic sank.              

Also, as was mentioned in the movie, they would indeed make headlines. Just not              

It was a tragedy of epic proportions. Not only did the sinking of the supposedly unsinkable engineering marvel cause shockwaves, but so did the human tragedy that resulted. As the movie illustrated, the wealthy were largely ushered into boats that were not packed too tightly, so as not to inconvenience these VIP’s. Meanwhile, the poorer, common folks were locked in the lower decks. They broke free, but many of them – most of them – were not saved.

We do not know the exact number of people who sailed on the Titanic, but it is estimated as 2,224. Of those, more than 1,500 died. Clearly, a vast majority. There were not enough lifeboats could have held about 1,178 people when full. Again, though, they were not full. Also, even in a best case scenario, there were not nearly enough lifeboats to save everyone on board. This was perhaps one of the main reasons why they began to regulate these things a bit more following this level of tragedy.

In any case, the Titanic sank on this day, 109 years ago.