In This Month: April

The Unsinkable Sinks
Only four days after she set sail on her maiden voyage, the "practically unsinkable" British luxury passenger liner Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history. Of the 2,207 people on board, only around 700 survived the tragedy, which took place during the night of April 14-15th, 1912.

Theories about why the loss of life were so high vary – the speed she was travelling at the time of the collision, the lack of lifeboats on board, delays in the time it took the crew to begin the evacuation, faults in the design and the construction. This image shows an advertisement for tickets on the Titanic, which was owned by the White Star Line.