Titanic
Titanic. The largest passenger liner afloat, until the early morning of 15 April 1912, on its maiden transatlantic voyage, when it struck an iceberg and sank. Because its owners, the White Star Line, considered them an unnecessary extravagance, there were sufficient lifeboats to save no more than a minority of the passengers: 1,513 died altogether, out of a total complement of 2,224. Most of them were men, because the women were allowed into the lifeboats first (there were some compensations for not having the vote), and lower class, because they were in the most dangerous parts of the ship. The ship's band famously continued playing on the sloping deck as she sank, ending its selection with ‘Nearer, my God, to thee’. The Titanic became a national symbol for both hubris and courage.
Bernard Porter
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Titanic