More than a century after the Titanic sank, another ocean search and rescue operation is underway in the immediate vicinity of the ship’s wreckage.
A submersible carrying five people went missing on Sunday during its mission to explore the wreckage of the Titanic, whose wreckage lies nearly 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
The sinking of the Titanic, along with the countless books, documentaries, and movies that followed, generated a seemingly insatiable fascination. In recent years, the box office record-breaking 1997 film “Titanic” has been re-released in 3D; the “Titanic. The Exhibition” opened in New York; and a modern replica of the Titanic was scheduled to set sail along the ill-fated ship’s path.
OceanGate Expeditions began offering tours of the wreck aboard a submersible called “Titan” for $250,000 per person, creating an underwater tourist attraction for the wealthy.
“You can dive to the bottom of the ocean to explore the Titanic,” it said on the OceanGate Expeditions website. “Dive with us to see the world’s most famous shipwreck with your own eyes.”
As the ship continues to maintain its grip on the public imagination, here are 10 questions about the Titanic, with answers based on information from History and britannica.
WHEN WAS THE TITANIC BUILT?
Construction of the Titanic began in March 1909 amid growing competition between rival shipping lines White Star and Cunard. The latter had released two ships that broke speed records while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. White Star Chairman J. Bruce Ismay met with William J. Pirrie, Chairman of the Belfast shipbuilding firm Harland and Wolff, and they agreed to build three luxury vessels that, at 882 feet in length, would become the greatest of its time.
One of those ships was the Titanic. Designed by Thomas Andrews, the ship’s hull was completed and launched on May 31, 1911. In June 1911, Titanic’s sister ship Olympic, which had been built alongside Titanic, set sail on her maiden voyage. Over the next year, work continued on the Titanic’s decks and interiors.
The maiden voyage of the Titanic began on April 10, 1912.
WHERE DID THE JOURNEY OF THE TITANIC BEGIN?
The Titanic left Southampton, England. She was captained by Edward J. Smith. In an ominous sign while leaving the dock in Southampton, the Titanic nearly collided with America Line’s SS New York.
The ship made stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland (now Cobh) before leaving for New York with approximately 2,200 people on board, including approximately 1,300 passengers.
The Titanic sank in 1912 in the Atlantic and measures 12,500 feet in length. The images were achieved by combining 7,000 visual captures. To see more from Telemundo, visit
HOW MUCH DID IT COST TO RIDE ON THE TITANIC IN 1912? … AND A TICKET TODAY?
The cost of a third-class ticket aboard the Titanic was 7 pounds, which translated to $35 at the time, according to Cruise Hive. Second class tickets were £12 or $60. First class berths started at 30 pounds, or $150. Those who bought a first-class suite paid 105,000 pounds, or more than $130,000.
Based on today’s prices, first-class berths would cost $4,591, second-class tickets would cost $1,834, and third-class tickets would cost $1,071.
WHY DID THE TITANIC SINK?
The Titanic’s starboard side struck an iceberg just before midnight on April 14, 1912, gouging gashes in the ship’s hull below the waterline.
Titanic was listed as a “virtually unsinkable” ship because it featured watertight bulkhead compartments with watertight doors that could be quickly opened or closed individually or simultaneously by the bridge if necessary. But the ship had a design flaw.
The bulkheads, separated by walls only a few feet above the waterline, were not designed to resist the ship’s heeling or pitching. When the ship did, the walls weren’t high enough to prevent water from spilling over the top into the neighboring compartment, which contributed to the sinking of the ship.
WHERE DID IT SUNK?
The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. The wreckage lies 12,500 feet, or nearly 2.5 miles, below the ocean’s surface.
The wreckage is about 13 nautical miles from the position indicated on the ship’s distress signals.
Some 1,600 people died in the tragedy.
THE LOST SUBMERSIBLE
The US Coast Guard is searching for a missing submersible, named Titan, which went missing on Sunday near the wreckage of the Titanic. They’re looking in an area about the size of Connecticut.
HOW FAR IS THE TITANIC FROM THE USA?
The wreckage of the Titanic lies 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED IN THE TRAGEDY?
More than 1,500 people died during the sinking of the Titanic. Of the more than 2,200 on board, 705 survivors were rescued from lifeboats by the ship Carpathia, which arrived an hour after the Titanic sank.
The Titanic had 16 lifeboats designed to hold 65 people and four Engelhardt “detachables”. Even if full, the lifeboats could hold 1,178 people, well below the Titanic’s 3,000-plus capacity.
WHEN WERE THE WRECKENS OF THE SHIP FOUND?
The remains of the Titanic were discovered in 1985 after decades of expeditions trying to find the ship. American oceanographer Robert Ballard, who worked with the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea, is credited with locating the wreckage.
The search for the Titanic was used as a means to test the Argo, a submersible with a remote-controlled camera capable of transmitting live images from the ocean floor to a monitor on board the research ship “Knorr” on the surface.
On September 1, 1985, the Argo captured the first underwater images of the Titanic, showing the ship’s boilers.
The recording was made in July 1986, when the remains of the ship that sank in April 1912 were first discovered. To see more from Telemundo, visit
ARE THE SURVIVORS OF THE TITANIC STILL ALIVE?
The last living survivor of the Titanic died in 2009. Millvina Dean, who was 2 months old when she was on board the ship, died aged 97 in Southampton.
Dean’s family was on board the Titanic to leave Southampton and start a new life in America. His two-year-old brother Bertram and his mother Georgette also survived thanks to what Dean said was quick action by his father, who was killed in the tragedy.
She said her father sensed the ship hit the iceberg and quickly dragged the family out of their third-class quarters and onto a lifeboat.
“That’s partly what saved us, because it was so fast,” Dean told the British Broadcasting Corp. in 1998. “Some people thought the ship was unsinkable.”
CAN THE TITANIC BE LIFTED OR PRESERVED?
Due to the depth of the water and the fragile state of the ship itself, the Titanic cannot be raised from the ocean floor for preservation.
The ship is succumbing to metal-eating bacteria called Halomones, with sections subject to collapse or disintegration.
The Associated Press reported in 2021 that the Titanic could be gone in a matter of decades.
“The ocean is taking this away and we need to document it before it disappears or becomes unrecognizable,” Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, said at the time.
Rush is one of five passengers aboard the submersible who went missing during a voyage to explore the Titanic’s wreckage.
