Titanic : 100 Years Past

A hundred years ago today, the RMS Titanic disappeared beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

Who was to know that the Titanic's maiden voyage would be its last?

The Titanic left Southampton England on 10 April 1912, a Wednesday. It was headed for New York. It is said that there were more than 2,200 people on board the Titanic. There were over 880 crew members and over 1,300 passenger. Of the passengers, there were about 330 in first class, over 280 in second class and over 700 in third class.

At 11:40 PM on the night of 14 April 1912, the Royal Mail Ship Titanic struck an iceberg. It sank less than three hours after, at around 2:20 AM on the morning of 15 April.

Of the 2,200 or so people on board, only about 710 people survived.

There was a documentary on TV the other night which featured letters written by Titanic survivors about their experience. They had descendants of these survivors to read out the letters some of which described what they recalled about the ship itself, and the experience before, during and after the tragedy.

Reportedly, the Titanic had the capacity to carry 64 life boats but there were only sixteen wooden life boats and four collapsible ones. Legally, however, this was four more than the number required for the ship (based on its design, the sixteen watertight compartments, etc.). The Titanic was a passenger line, a luxury ship, and it seems they had stuck to having a lesser number of life boats because the additional life boats were deemed an eyesore on the ship's deck. They had thought the Titanic was unsinkable. I suppose they didn't think they would really need the life boats.

In the documentary, they had quoted the cost one of the first class passengers paid for his ticket at £35 (in comparison, second class and third class tickets were quoted at about £15 and £8, respectively).

It struck me that death is truly the great equalizer. The man who had paid for a first class ticket was in the same sinking ship as the man who was at third class.

Are we not all like Titanic passengers in this life?

We never know when an "iceberg" will come and change our lives.

We sometimes ignore warnings that our sent our way.

Our decisions in times of crisis determine whether we will survive or not.

We know not the time and day when our maker will call us.

When the time comes, it will not matter if we are rich or poor.

In the end, we will leave everything we physically own behind.