rms titanic survivors iceberg

Of a total of 2,223 people aboard the Titanic only 706 survived the disaster and 1,517 perished. The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia in the −2 °C (28 °F) water. Men and members of the lower classes were less likely to survive. 92 percent of the men perished in second class. Third class passengers fared very badly.
Six of the seven children in first class and all of the children in second class were saved, whereas only a 34 percent were saved in third class. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared with 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class. Over all, only 20 percent of the men survived. First-class men were four times as likely to survive as second-class men, and twice as likely to survive as third-class men.
Another disparity is that more British passengers died on the Titanic than Americans, presumably because Britons in that era acted "gentlemanly," making sure others reached lifeboats.
Photo of titanic memorial washington (c) by tonbabydc from flickr
In one case in the third class, a Swedish family lost the mother Alma Palsson and her four children all aged under 10. The father was waiting for them to arrive at the destination. "Palsson's grief was the most acute of any who visited the offices of the White Star, but his loss was the greatest. His whole family had been wiped out."
The sailors aboard the ship CS Mackay-Bennett which recovered bodies from Titanic, who were very upset by the discovery of the unknown boy's body, paid for a monument and he was buried on 4 May 1912 with a copper pendant placed in his coffin by the sailors that read "Our Babe. The unknown child was later positively identified as Sidney Goodwin.
One survivor, stewardess Violet Jessop, who had been on board the RMS Olympic when she collided with HMS HawkeTemplate:WP Ships HMS instances in 1911, went on to survive the sinking of HMHS Britannic in 1916.
Titanic survivors who have recently passed away include Lillian Asplund on 6 May 2006 and Barbara Dainton (née West) on 16 October 2007.
Millvina Dean, who was only two months old at the time of the sinking, is the only living survivor of the Titanic. Although she is over 95 years old, she has remained active in Titanic-related events and lives in Southampton, England.
There are many stories relating to dogs on the Titanic. Apparently, a passenger released the dogs just before the ship went down; they were seen running up and down the decks. At least two dogs survived.
Titanic Survivors: What They Saw (1)

The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, United Kingdom. For her time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.
On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, making it one of the most deadly peacetime maritime disasters in history. The high casualty rate was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard. The ship had a total lifeboat capacity of 1,178 persons even though her maximum capacity was 3,547 people. A disproportionate number of men died also, due to the women-and-children-first protocol that was followed.
Titanic Survivors: What They Saw (2)

The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was, after the sinking, popularly believed to have been described as “unsinkable”. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features and experienced crew, the Titanic sank. The frenzy on the part of the media about Titanic's famous victims, the legends about the sinking, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck have contributed to the interest in and fame of the Titanic that continues to this day.
Before the survivors even arrived in New York, investigations were being planned to discover what had happened, and what could be done to prevent a recurrence. The United States Senate initiated an inquiry into the disaster on 19 April, a day after Carpathia arrived in New York.
Meeting Millvina Dean - Last Titanic Survivor

The chairman of the inquiry, Senator William Alden Smith, wanted to gather accounts from passengers and crew while the events were still fresh in their minds. Smith also needed to subpoena the British citizens while they were still on American soil. This prevented all surviving passengers and crew from returning to England before the American inquiry, which lasted until 25 May.

Lord Mersey was appointed to head the British Board of Trade's inquiry into the disaster. The British inquiry took place between 2 May and 3 July. Each inquiry took testimony from both passengers and crew of the Titanic, crew members of Leyland Line's Californian, Captain Arthur Rostron of the Carpathia and other experts.

The investigations found that many safety rules were simply out of date, and new laws were recommended. Numerous safety improvements for ocean-going vessels were implemented, including improved hull and bulkhead design, access throughout the ship for egress of passengers, lifeboat requirements, improved life-vest design, the holding of safety drills, better passenger notification, radio communications laws, etc. The investigators also learned that the Titanic had sufficient lifeboat space for all first-class passengers, but not for the lower classes. In fact, most third-class, or steerage, passengers had no idea where the lifeboats were, much less any way of getting up to the higher decks where the lifeboats were stowed.
Contrary to popular mythology, the Titanic was never described as "unsinkable", without qualification, until after she sank. There are three trade publications (one of which was probably never published) that describe the Titanic as unsinkable, prior to its sinking, but they all qualify the claim, either with the word practically or with the phrase as far as possible. There is no evidence that the notion of the Titanic's unsinkability had entered public consciousness until after the sinking.

The first unqualified assertion of the Titanic's unsinkability appears the day after the tragedy (on 16 April, 1912), in the New York Times, which quotes Philip A. S. Franklin, vice president of the White Star Line as saying, when informed of the tragedy,

I thought her unsinkable and I based by opinion on the best expert advice available. I do not understand it.

This comment was seized upon by the press and the idea that the White Star Line had previously declared the Titanic to be unsinkable (without qualification) gained immediate and widespread currency.
An often-quoted story that has been blurred between fact and fiction states that the first person to receive news of the sinking was David Sarnoff, who would later found media giant RCA. In modified versions of this legend, Sarnoff was not the first to hear the news (though Sarnoff willingly promoted this notion), but he and others did staff the Marconi wireless station (telegraph) atop the Wanamaker Department Store in New York City, and for three days, relayed news of the disaster and names of survivors to people waiting outside. However, even this version lacks support in contemporary accounts. No newspapers of the time, for example, mention Sarnoff. Given the absence of primary evidence, the story of Sarnoff should be properly regarded as a legend.

Despite popular belief, the sinking of Titanic was not the first time the internationally recognised Morse code distress signal "SOS" was used. The SOS signal was first proposed at the International Conference on Wireless Communication at Sea in Berlin in 1906. It was ratified by the international community in 1908 and had been in widespread use since then. The SOS signal was, however, rarely used by British wireless operators, who preferred the older CQD code. First Wireless Operator Jack Phillips began transmitting CQD until Second Wireless Operator Harold Bride suggested half jokingly, "Send SOS; it's the new call, and this may be your last chance to send it." Phillips, who later died, then began to intersperse SOS with the traditional CQD call.
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