THE TITANIC

The great ship, Titanic, sailed for New York from Southampton on April 10th, 1912. She was carrying 1316 passengers and a crew of 891. Even by modern standards the 66000 ton Titanic was a colossal ship. At that time however, she was not only the largest ship that had ever been built, but was regarded as unsinkable, for she had sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these were flooded she would still be able to float. The tragic sinking of this great liner will always be remembered, for she went down on her first voyage with heavy loss of life.
Four days after setting out, while the Titanic was sailing across the icy waters of the North Atlantic, a huge iceberg was suddenly spotted by a look out. After the alarm had been given the great ship turned sharply to avoid a direct collision. Suddenly there was a slight trembling sound from below and the captain went down to see what had happened.
The noise had been so faint that no one thought that the ship had been damaged. Below the captain realized to his horror that the Titanic was sinking rapidly for five of her sixteen watertight compartments had already been flooded! The order to abandon ship was given and hundreds of people plunged in to the icy water. As there were not enough life-boats for everybody, 1500 lives were lost.
It was a terrible disaster. But something good came out of the sinking of the sinking of the Titanic. In 1913 there was a committee of inquiry into the disaster. This committee drew up many new rules for shipping companies. Since then, every ship has had to provide lifeboats for each passenger and has had to organize lifeboat drill during each voyage. Every ship has had to carry enough radio operators so that there is always one of them on duty. Another important result of the sinking of the Titanic was the formation of an international ice patrol. This patrol warns ships about ice and icebergs in the north Atlantic.