Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 March 2018
On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic, approximately 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland. Despite her double-bottom construction and series of water-tight compartments, the luxurious passenger liner, deemed ‘unsinkable’ by the popular press, sank in only two hours and 40 minutes, taking 1523 lives with her. As the largest man-made moving object of her time, the construction of the RMS Titanic was a technological feat, yet her sinking comprised one of the most famous disasters of the twentieth century. A colossal tragedy, the sinking has been shrouded in mystery ever since, and has led to unending speculation concerning the details of that fateful evening.