The Titanic was a passenger ship and was the largest ship at the time when it sank. It was considered unsinkable, but after sailing into an iceberg at high speed on April 14th, 1912, only 705 of 2,224 passengers survived.

The ship was designed to hold 2,200 passengers and had a double bottom with 16 watertight compartments divided by transverse bulkheads. The vessel was equipped with electric cranes on the B-Deck to help load luggage, but these were never used on any other ship, and so it took an extra 3 hours to evacuate everyone from the sinking Titanic.

The ship was owned by the White Star Line and was built in Belfast, Ireland. It was 882 feet long (269 meters) and 52 feet wide (16 meters). Its gross tonnage was 46,329 tons. The ship used two reciprocating four-cylinder steam engines connected to one set of triple-blade side-mounted paddle wheels. The ship had two funnels, and the fuel capacity was 4,000 tons of coal.

Possible debris has been found in 37°4′S/ 49°0′W (off the coast of Newfoundland) on September 1st, 1985; however, it has not yet been confirmed if this is the Titanic. A television program called ‘The Curse of The Titanic’ proposed that the ship had been cursed by an Egyptian psychic and responsible for its sinking.

However, on September 1st, 2003, the ship was positively identified on the ocean bottom by Dr. Robert Ballard, who had funded his expedition to find the Titanic. The main wreck is split into two pieces.

The bow hit an outcrop of rocks which ripped it open before crashing into the sea bed. It has been proposed that there are about 1,500 to 2,000 tons of debris and is probably covered in a ‘rusticle’ forest which could include anyone who died during the sinking.

The ship’s final resting place is 37°46′N/49°24′W (about 380 miles east of Halifax, Canada) at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 meters). The Titanic has been the subject of many books and movies including ‘A Night to Remember’ (1958), which was based on the book by Walter Lord; ‘Titanic’ (1996) starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet, and James Cameron’s ‘Titanic’ (1997) which was the first movie to gross more than $1 billion. The Titanic effect is defined as people being more willing to pay higher prices for an item due to tragic events.