The Unsinkable Ship

The Titanic's reputation as "unsinkable" was not marketing hype — it was a serious engineering claim. The ship had 16 watertight compartments and could stay afloat with any four of them flooded. Architects considered this impossibly safe. The iceberg that struck at 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912 punctured six.

Because the compartment walls did not reach the upper decks, water in one eventually spilled into the next. The ship sank by the bow in 2 hours and 40 minutes, taking 1,517 lives with it. It carried only half the lifeboats it could have — the full number had been rejected as ruining the look of the promenade deck.