Sometime prior to midnight on April 14, 1912 the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg. Five of the ship's sixteen compartments were ruptured and the ocean liner began to fill with water. A few short hours later (sometime around 2:30 a.m) the Titanic sank to the bottom of the icy Atlantic.
Due to a shortage of life boats most of the passengers and crew drowned. 1,500 people lost their lives as the world's first "unsinkable ship" sank.
Many passengers displayed unfaltering bravery as they forsook their own lives in order to save others. The captain, as captain's should, "went down with his ship". The band bravely played until they too drowned. Mr. and Mrs. Earnest Courtenay Carter famously refused to board lifeboats saying, "let the others go first," and the childless couple bravely died together. Miss Edith Corse Evans let another woman, Mrs. John Murray Brown, take the last remaining spot aboard lifeboat D, saying, "You go first, you have children waiting at home." Miss Evans never found space aboard another lifeboat and drowned when the Titanic sank. Many of the 700 survivors were "given" their seats aboard lifeboats by brave individuals who opted to stay aboard and help others to safety.
Then of course there is the famous "Unsinkable Molly Brown" who forced her lifeboat to turn around and help pull other survivors from the icy Atlantic. Miss Brown is credited with saving several lives and with keeping spirits up when all else failed.
These remarkable stories of heroism and bravery resonate with us today and keep the memory of the Titanic alive.
