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RMS( Royal Mail Ship) Titanic ....Was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,514 people in one of the deadlies peacetime maritime disasters in history. She was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage. One of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, she was built between 1909–11 by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. She carried 2,223 people.
After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading westwards towards New York . On 14 April 1912, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 pm (ship's time; GMT−3). The glancing collision caused Titanic's hull plates to buckle inwards in a number of locations on her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea. Over the next two and a half hours, the ship gradually filled with water and sank. Passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partly filled. A disproportionate number of men – over 90% of those in Second Class – were left aboard due to a "women and children first" protocol followed by the officers loading the lifeboats. Just before 2:20 am Titanic broke up and sank bow-first with over a thousand people still on board. Those in the water died within minutes from hypothermia caused by immersion in the freezing ocean. The 710 survivors were taken aboard from the lifeboats by RMS Carpathia a few hours later.
Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean (2 February 1912 – 31 May 2009) was the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, which occurred on 15 April 1912. At nine weeks old, she was also the youngest passenger on board the ship
Robert Duane Ballard (born June 30, 1942) is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology: maritime archaeology and archaeology of shipwrecks. He is most famous for the discovery of the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985,
Quite a day to remember with so many families losing loved ones all those years ago, and for many survivors, some harrowing memories to live with during their lives.
Millvina was one of the lucky ones being so young at the time. I had the pleasure of meeting her at Autographica Northampton, May 19th 2001, and later had a ttm reply from her in 2008. Meeting her was more for my brother who was interested in the Titanic, but I found her to be a remarkable lady, and a great person to meet, so treasured the experience. Here's a couple of pics showing my brother and I with Millvina and her. The pic with me also shows Millvina's partner Bruno Nordmanis who was quite a character in his own right, and also fascinating to meet and talk to.
