At 11:40 pm ship’s time on 14 April 1912, the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg. Just two hours and forty minutes later, the hull broke, taking the luxury liner and over one thousand people still aboard into the sea. It remains one of the greatest disasters in maritime history.
In Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town, John Welshman gathered 25 pictures of this ill-fated voyage together and we’d like to share a few with you.
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The scale
Titanic propeller with shipyard workers before launch. Courtesy of George Grantham Bain collection/Library of Congress.
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Families torn apart
Titanic passenger, 3rd class, Frank Goldsmith (left) and his family at 22 Hone Street, Strood, Kent. Courtesy of George Grantham Bain collection/Library of Congress.
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Survivors on deck
Unidentified Titanic survivors aboard the Carpathia rescue ship. Courtesy of George Grantham Bain collection/Library of Congress.
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A welcome rescue
Arthur Rostron, Captain of the Carpathia, being presented with a silver “loving cup” by survivor Molly Brown. Courtesy of George Grantham Bain collection/Library of Congress.
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Victims at any age
Photograph of the “Hoffman orphans” before they had been identified as the Navratil children. Courtesy of George Grantham Bain collection/Library of Congress.
Author John Welshman offers a minute-by-minute account of the doomed liner’s last hours, based on a representative cross-section of those who sailed in her: men and women, old and young, passengers and crew, wealthy and poor. Drawing on published autobiographical accounts, diaries, private papers, archival materials, and a wide array of other sources, Titanic: The Last Night of a Small Town offers a unique account of one of the most memorable disasters in modern history.
[…] it was utterly eclipsed by a much larger catastrophe. He died quietly at home only five days after the R. M. S. Titanic hit an iceberg and sank with the loss of 1500 lives. The papers were as yet crammed with the breathless accounts of […]