Stephen J. Spignesi

On the night of April 14–15, 1912, the unthinkable happened: On its maiden voyage, the Titanic, the largest passenger ship ever built at that time, hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank. More than 1,500 of the 2,200-plus people on board were killed, including some of the wealthiest and most well-known people in the world.

From the very beginning, even before she was launched, the Titanic was an object of fascination. At the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast where she was built, workers marveled at the size of the ship. In Southampton, England, the first stop on her maiden voyage, thousands of people came to the docks to see the largest moving object ever constructed by man.

If you were aboard the Titanic when the ship sank, what would be your chances of surviving? The exact number of survivors and passengers who died when the Titanic sank is difficult to reckon. Thus, the numbers in this table should be looked at as illustrative — not definitive. If you were a passenger, your chances of surviving depended greatly on the type of ticket you bought — a first-class, second-class, or third-class ticket.

The story of the Titanic’s demise is achingly dramatic and keeps audiences and readers spellbound even a century later. The Titanic disaster wasn’t the greatest maritime disaster in history, but it’s by far the most famous. Following are some reasons that the story still resonates: The first-class passengers included some of the richest people in the world.

The events surrounding the construction, voyage, and sinking of the Titanic — and the people involved in those events — have been a source of fascination for a century. Here are some of the key dates in the Titanic story, starting before its conception and ending with centennial celebrations in 2012. 1898 Morgan Robertson publishes a seemingly prophetic novella called Futility (later renamed The Wreck of the Titan).

The famous flocked to the Titanic. With ocean travel the only way to get from continent to continent, the wealthy were drawn to the Titanic, the ship touted as the single most luxurious and greatest steamship ever built. Colonel John Jacob Astor IV Colonel John Jacob Astor IV, a real estate millionaire, sailed on the Titanic with his pregnant 18-year-old wife (he was 48).

The history of the birth of the Titanic — how she was constructed and outfitted — provides a glimpse into the history of shipbuilding, as well as the construction that ultimately failed the Titanic: March 31, 1909: Workers for Harland and Wolff (the shipbuilding company that constructed many ships for the White Star Line) lay down the keel of the Titanic in Yard 401.

What happened the night of April 14–15, 1912, when the Titanic sank? From the initial iceberg warnings to the wreck of the Titanic sinking to the bottom of the ocean, the night was a horrible ordeal. Heeding iceberg warnings Captain Edward J. Smith and the officers on the Titanic were well aware that they might encounter icebergs in the North Atlantic.

Dining as a first-class passenger on the Titanic was a lavish affair. First-class passengers on the Titanic willing to pay extra could dine in the elegant À la Carte restaurant or the Café Parisien, even though breakfast, lunch, and dinner were included in the price of a first-class ticket. Titanic's first-class dining saloon The enormous first-class dining saloon was located on the Saloon (D) deck next to the Reception Room (where diners sometimes paused for an aperitif before dinner).