Exactly 113 years ago today, on April 15th, 1912, the Titanic sank below the waves after hitting an iceberg, resulting in the deaths of over 1,500 people. The ship hit that iceberg at 11:40 P.M. the previous evening and sank the following morning at 2:20 A.M., a mere two hours and forty minutes later. Since the ship was thought to be "unsinkable," many of the passengers did not believe it was in any danger, and so at first some of the lifeboats left half empty. And if fact, there were only enough lifeboats for 1,200 people, even though the ship carried over 2,200 passengers and crew members. Amazingly enough, much of life aboard the Titanic was recorded by amateur photographer and seminary student Frank Brown. His uncle gave him a first-class ticket on the Titanic from Southhampton, England to Cherbourg in France to Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland. Onboard the ship, he met an American couple who offered to pay his fare all the way to New York, but when he requested permission for this from his provincial in Dublin, he was told to "get off that ship." Which he did. And kept the telegram with that message in his wallet for the rest of his life. And by the way, the photograph above was taken of the Titanic in Southhampton just before it left for France. And no, I did NOT take it. I wasn't born until a few years later, after all.
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