Books and Articles by Stephen J. Spignesi

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.

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.

It must have been a real pleasure for Titanic passengers to wander around the recreation areas on the ship. The Titanic’s recreation areas included the Boat deck, Turkish baths, smoking rooms, and other points of interest. (Of course, passengers could access some of these areas only if they had a certain class of ticket or were a certain gender.

Passengers on the Titanic paid significantly different prices for different accommodations. The suites and cabins on the Titanic cost the passengers no small sum for the time. At approximately $100,000 a pop in today’s dollars, you can see why the world’s richest and most elite sailed on the Titanic — only they could afford the parlor suites.

No sooner had the Titanic sunk than myths began to spring up around her. Known history can debunk some of these Titanic myths, whether they’re about why she sank or some of her more peculiar passengers and cargo. A mummy on the Titanic? One Titanic myth said that a mummy was stowed on the ship and that’s why Titanic sank.

Far fewer passengers and non-passengers would have drowned during the Titanic’s sinking if the ship had carried enough lifeboats. The Titanic had the capacity to carry 48 lifeboats, which would have provided enough lifeboat seats for all her passengers. However, to cut costs and to keep the decks from being too crowded, the White Star Line decided to carry only 20 lifeboats on board.

Artifacts from the Titanic are fascinating relics. If you want to see some of the items that have been recovered from the Titanic's wreckage in person, you have many options, between the exhibitions and museums. Seeking out Titanic exhibitions If you want to see some great artifacts that have been collected from the Titanic, you can visit one of the traveling exhibitions, or you can head to the permanent exhibition in Nevada.

Before researchers found the wreck, the world knew far less about the Titanic and her sinking than it does now. Examining the wreck of the Titanic help solve mysteries and answer questions. The Titanic did break in two For years, historians and even survivors believed that the Titanic went down intact. Yet there were eyewitness reports as early as a month after the sinking that the ship broke in two in its final death throes.

For some passengers who survived, the traumatic memories of the Titanic disaster may have been too much to bear. Several Titanic survivors eventually committed suicide. Did they kill themselves because of the Titanic disaster? Some almost certainly did, but others ended their lives after seemingly less significant events.