Four facts you might not know about the sinking of the Titanic

On April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic hit the iceberg that would eventually bring the massive ship down. In memory of this terrible tragedy, here are some facts about the sinking of the Titanic you might not know.

  • Although most people probably remember the sight of the third class passengers being purposefully locked below deck in James Cameron’s movie Titanic, there’s no historical evidence that there was any intentional effort to do so. 
  • Many people say the ship was thought at the time to be unsinkable, but according to historians, no one really said that until after the ship had already sank.
  • The Titanic has a sister ship that sailed the same route with the same captain: the Olympic. Before the sinking of the Titanic, the Olympic was actually the more famous of the two boats. When the Titanic sank, some newsreels used altered footage of the Olympic, leading to conspiracy theories down the road.
  • The Titanic carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people. That was only one-third of the boat’s total capacity, but it was more than the legal minimum at the time.

Though the sinking of the Titanic occurred more than 100 years ago, it still holds a fascinating place in the public memory.