Titanic at a glance: ten essential facts
- Titanic departed Southampton on April 10, 1912, on its maiden voyage to New York.
- The ship called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown, now Cobh, in Ireland.
- Titanic struck an iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14.
- The ship sank at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15, roughly two hours and forty minutes after the collision.
- Titanic carried 20 lifeboats with room for 1,178 people, far fewer than the number aboard.
- Several boats left before every available seat was filled.
- About 705 people survived, although historical lists use slightly different totals.
- More than 1,500 passengers and crew died.
- Carpathia rescued the lifeboat occupants and brought them to New York.
- A French-American expedition discovered Titanic’s wreck in 1985, about 12,500 feet below the North Atlantic.
Titanic by the numbers
These rounded figures give a quick overview before the detailed fact sections.
Ship length
About 269 metres from bow to stern.
People aboard
Accepted historical totals vary slightly by dataset.
Lifeboats
Their rated capacity was about 1,178 people.
Survivors
Most were rescued from the lifeboats by Carpathia.
Deaths
The precise total depends on the passenger and crew list used.
Wreck depth
Roughly 3,800 metres or 2.4 miles below the surface.
Wreck discovered
A joint French-American expedition located the debris field and hull.
Approximate labels are intentional where accepted historical datasets differ slightly.
Facts about the Titanic ship
These facts explain Titanic’s size, construction, machinery, name, and most famous onboard features.
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Titanic was built in Belfast.
Harland and Wolff built Titanic at its Queen’s Island shipyard in Belfast for the White Star Line. The ship was one of three closely related Olympic-class liners.
Explore the RMS Titanic ship -
The ship was launched on May 31, 1911.
Launching placed the unfinished hull in the water. Months of fitting out followed before Titanic was ready for sea trials and passenger service in 1912.
See the complete Titanic timeline -
Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches long.
That is about 269 metres from bow to stern. Titanic was one of the largest moving objects ever built when it entered service.
See more ship dimensions -
The ship was about 92 feet 6 inches wide.
Titanic’s broad beam helped provide room for machinery, cargo, crew spaces, and three passenger classes spread across the vessel.
Explore the ship’s design -
Only three of Titanic’s four funnels carried boiler smoke.
The fourth funnel helped ventilate working spaces and added to the liner’s balanced, powerful appearance. Calling it completely fake misses its practical ventilation role.
Learn how Titanic worked -
Titanic used three propellers.
Two large wing propellers were driven by reciprocating steam engines. Exhaust steam then powered a turbine connected to the centre propeller.
Read about the engines and propellers -
The ship had ten decks.
The decks contained passenger rooms, promenades, dining spaces, cargo areas, machinery, and crew quarters. Not every deck ran the full length of the ship.
Tour Titanic’s cabins and interiors -
Titanic carried a swimming pool, gymnasium, squash court, and Turkish baths.
These amenities helped White Star Line market comfort and luxury, especially to first-class passengers. Access depended heavily on class and ticket type.
Explore Titanic’s famous interiors -
RMS meant Royal Mail Ship.
Titanic carried mail under contract as well as passengers and cargo. Five postal clerks worked in the ship’s mail operation during the maiden voyage.
Learn about Titanic’s crew -
Titanic had two sister ships.
Olympic entered service first, while Britannic was completed later and served as a hospital ship during the First World War. The three vessels shared a broad design but were not identical.
Compare the Olympic-class ships
Facts about Titanic’s maiden voyage
Titanic’s first Atlantic crossing began as a normal scheduled voyage with several port calls before the ship headed west for New York.
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Titanic left Southampton on April 10, 1912.
The maiden voyage began from the English port of Southampton. A near collision with the liner New York briefly added drama before Titanic cleared the harbour.
Follow the maiden-voyage route -
The ship stopped at Cherbourg, France.
Titanic was too large to dock directly at Cherbourg’s existing facilities, so tenders carried passengers and luggage between shore and ship.
See every port on the route -
Titanic’s final port was Queenstown, now Cobh, Ireland.
More passengers boarded from tenders on April 11. Titanic then entered the open Atlantic and headed toward New York.
Read about the final port call -
The voyage was supposed to end in New York.
Titanic never reached its destination. Carpathia later carried the survivors to New York, arriving on the evening of April 18.
Follow the rescue and arrival -
Captain Edward Smith commanded Titanic.
Smith was White Star Line’s senior captain and had commanded Olympic. Titanic’s maiden voyage became his last voyage before his death in the sinking.
Read Captain Smith’s biography -
About 2,200 passengers and crew were aboard.
Historical totals differ slightly because lists classify a small number of people differently. Careful sources therefore explain which dataset they are using instead of pretending one total is uncontested.
See why totals vary -
Titanic carried first-, second-, and third-class passengers.
Class affected accommodation, deck location, routes through the ship, and access to information. It also had a major effect on the chances of survival.
See what life was like aboard Titanic -
Two Marconi operators handled Titanic’s wireless traffic.
Jack Phillips and Harold Bride sent passenger messages and received operational traffic, including ice reports. Their equipment also carried Titanic’s distress calls.
Read about the wireless room -
Titanic received several warnings about ice.
Messages came from ships including Caronia, Baltic, Amerika, Californian, and Mesaba. The warnings differed in wording, location, urgency, and how they reached the bridge.
See the warning-message timeline -
Titanic continued at roughly 22 knots before the collision.
The ship did not stop or greatly reduce speed after receiving ice reports. The inquiries examined this decision within the operating customs of North Atlantic liners in 1912.
Examine speed and responsibility
Facts about the sinking
The collision and sinking unfolded over about two hours and forty minutes, leaving time for evacuation but not enough time, boats, or shared understanding to save everyone.
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Titanic struck the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. on April 14.
The lookout sighting came only a short time before impact. The ship turned, but the starboard side scraped along the ice.
Follow the final-night timeline -
The collision damaged the starboard side.
Flooding began in several forward compartments. The damage was enough to defeat the ship’s watertight subdivision even though no single giant open gash ran along the hull.
See why the ship sank -
Titanic’s hull damage was spread across multiple areas.
The iceberg caused openings and separated seams along the hull. What mattered most was that water could enter too many compartments for the ship to remain afloat.
Understand the flooding pattern -
Watertight compartments could slow flooding, not guarantee survival.
Titanic could survive several flooding scenarios, but the actual damage reached too many forward compartments. Water then spilled from one compartment to the next as the bow sank lower.
Read about the watertight design -
Titanic sank at about 2:20 a.m. on April 15.
Approximately two hours and forty minutes passed between collision and disappearance. Awareness of the danger grew unevenly during that time.
See the full sequence -
The ship broke in two before reaching the seabed.
Many survivors reported a breakup, although some early official interpretations were cautious. The separated bow and stern at the wreck later confirmed that Titanic did not sink intact.
See what the wreck confirmed -
Titanic sent both CQD and SOS distress signals.
CQD was familiar to Marconi operators, while SOS was the newer international signal. Titanic was not the first ship ever to use SOS.
Read the distress-call record -
Titanic’s musicians played during the evacuation.
Survivor accounts agree that the band performed as the emergency developed. The exact final piece remains uncertain because recollections differed.
Meet the eight musicians -
The nearby Californian did not come to Titanic’s aid that night.
Californian’s wireless operator had gone off duty, while officers saw rockets but did not identify them as a disaster requiring immediate action. The ship’s exact distance remains debated.
Explore the Californian controversy -
The seawater was about 28°F, or -2°C.
Salt water can remain liquid below the normal freezing point of fresh water. Cold shock and rapid loss of movement made survival in the water extremely difficult.
Learn about the water temperature
Facts about lifeboats, rescue, and survival
Titanic’s boats, loading decisions, class patterns, and delayed rescue explain why survival was so uneven.
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Titanic carried 20 lifeboats.
The total included 14 standard wooden boats, two emergency cutters, and four collapsible boats. The boats were divided between the port and starboard sides.
Search all 20 lifeboats -
The lifeboats had room for 1,178 people.
That was far below the number aboard. It was also above the outdated legal minimum applied to a ship of Titanic’s size.
See how the rule failed -
Titanic legally complied with the lifeboat rules of the time.
Legal compliance did not mean adequate protection. The British Board of Trade scale had failed to keep pace with the enormous growth of passenger liners.
Compare legal and actual capacity -
Several lifeboats left with empty seats.
Early uncertainty, passenger reluctance, uneven loading practices, and fears about lowering heavily loaded boats all contributed. The reasons were not identical for every boat.
Compare boat capacity and occupancy -
“Women and children first” was applied differently on each side.
Second Officer Charles Lightoller generally treated the order more strictly on the port side. First Officer William Murdoch sometimes allowed men into starboard boats when women were not immediately available.
See how the order was applied -
About 705 people survived.
Different historical lists produce slightly different totals. The British inquiry’s passenger and crew tables remain one of the site’s main consistent datasets.
See the survivor totals -
More than 1,500 people died.
Published totals often range from about 1,496 to 1,517 depending on how names and categories are counted. The scale of loss is clear even where the exact total varies.
Understand the death-toll estimates -
Carpathia rescued the people in Titanic’s lifeboats.
Captain Arthur Rostron changed course after receiving Titanic’s distress call and drove Carpathia through an ice region. The rescue ship began picking up survivors in the early morning.
Read the Carpathia rescue story -
Passenger class strongly affected survival.
First-class passengers survived at a much higher rate than third-class passengers. Deck location, route complexity, information, family groups, gender, and evacuation timing all mattered.
Compare survival rates -
The survivors reached New York on April 18.
Carpathia arrived at Pier 54 after first landing Titanic’s lifeboats at the White Star Line pier. Families, reporters, and officials waited in heavy rain.
Follow the rescue to New York
Facts about Titanic’s passengers and crew
The disaster is best understood through the people aboard, from babies and emigrant families to engineers, postal workers, officers, and musicians.
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Millvina Dean was Titanic’s youngest survivor.
She was only about nine weeks old during the voyage. Her mother and brother also survived, while her father died.
Read Millvina Dean’s story -
Millvina Dean was also the last living Titanic survivor.
She died in 2009, ninety-seven years after the disaster. Her death closed the era of living survivor testimony.
Meet the last Titanic survivors -
John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger aboard.
Astor travelled in first class with his pregnant wife, Madeleine. She survived in Lifeboat 4, while he died in the sinking.
Read John Jacob Astor’s biography -
All eight members of Titanic’s band died.
The musicians became symbols of duty and calm because they continued performing during the evacuation. Their individual lives and exact final movements deserve more than the legend alone.
See every band member -
All five postal clerks died.
The postal team included two British and three American clerks. Accounts place them trying to protect registered mail as flooding entered the mail area.
Learn about crew work aboard Titanic
Facts about the Titanic wreck
The wreck added physical evidence to a history that had previously depended on testimony, ship plans, calculations, and recovered debris.
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The wreck was discovered on September 1, 1985.
The search team first recognized one of Titanic’s boilers in a debris trail. Following scattered wreckage proved more effective than looking only for one large hull shape.
Read how Titanic was found -
The successful discovery was a joint French-American effort.
IFREMER and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution worked through connected search phases using Le Suroit, Knorr, sonar, cameras, and the Argo system. Robert Ballard did not find Titanic alone.
Meet the discovery team -
Titanic lies about 12,500 feet below the surface.
The wreck is roughly 3,800 metres deep in the North Atlantic. The depth, darkness, pressure, and distance from land make exploration difficult and expensive.
See the wreck’s depth and location -
The bow and stern lie apart.
The bow is more recognizable, while the stern is heavily damaged and collapsed. A wide debris field lies between and around the main sections.
Explore the wreck layout -
Rusticles are changing the wreck.
Microbial communities help create hanging rust formations as iron deteriorates. Titanic is slowly changing, but no responsible source can name one exact year when every recognizable part will vanish.
See what remains today
Titanic myths: true, false, or uncertain?
Many popular claims contain a piece of truth but become misleading when repeated without context. These verdicts separate documented evidence from later simplification.
| Popular claim | Verdict | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|---|
| Titanic was officially advertised as completely unsinkable. | Misleading | Some technical and promotional language described the Olympic-class design as practically or virtually unsinkable. The absolute claim became much more famous after the disaster. |
| Titanic had no binoculars aboard. | False | Binoculars were aboard, but the lookouts in the crow’s nest did not have access to a pair during the final watch. |
| Binoculars would certainly have prevented the collision. | Unsupported | The effect cannot be proved. Darkness, a calm sea, haze, speed, the iceberg’s appearance, and the short warning time all mattered. |
| Third-class passengers were deliberately locked below as a class. | Not proven | Class-separation barriers existed, and Daniel Buckley described one locked gate. The evidence does not establish a ship-wide order to imprison third class during the sinking. |
| J. Bruce Ismay ordered Captain Smith to race for a speed record. | Unsupported | No reliable evidence proves a direct order to set a record. Ismay’s position, conversations, survival, and company responsibility still deserved inquiry. |
| Titanic was the first ship to use SOS. | False | Titanic sent both CQD and SOS, but other ships had used SOS before April 1912. |
| Everyone agreed the band’s last song was “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” | Uncertain | Survivors remembered different music, and no single final selection can be established with confidence. |
| Titanic sank in one intact piece. | False | Survivor testimony included breakup accounts, and the 1985 wreck discovery confirmed that the bow and stern were separated. |
| Robert Ballard found Titanic by himself. | False | The successful discovery came from a joint French-American project involving IFREMER, WHOI, Jean-Louis Michel, Ballard, two research vessels, and a wider team. |
| Scientists know the exact year Titanic will disappear. | Unsupported | The wreck is deteriorating, but different structures decay at different rates. No reliable source can provide one exact disappearance date. |
Verdicts describe the strength of the evidence, not whether a story is emotionally powerful or widely repeated.
Why some Titanic facts use approximate numbers
Titanic records are unusually detailed, but a few totals still vary. Researchers may classify passengers, crew members, guarantee-group workers, people who cancelled, and uncertain identities in different ways. Survivor and victim lists can also change when records are corrected.
That is why this page uses phrases such as “about 705 survivors,” “about 2,200 aboard,” and “more than 1,500 deaths.” The uncertainty is small compared with the scale of the disaster, but naming it is more accurate than hiding it.
Use the facts as starting points, not stopping points
A one-paragraph fact can answer a quick question, but Titanic rarely becomes clearer through trivia alone. Boat occupancy needs launch context. Class statistics need gender and age breakdowns. A wreck fact needs the difference between the bow, stern, and debris field.
The links throughout this page lead to detailed guides, biographies, inquiry findings, and source notes. That structure keeps the facts useful for a quick visit while making the deeper evidence easy to reach.
Sources used to check these Titanic facts
The page draws on official inquiry material and established maritime institutions. Individual linked guides contain additional primary and specialist sources.
- Royal Museums Greenwich: RMS Titanic facts Ship dimensions, decks, machinery, voyage background, and general fact checking.
- Titanic Inquiry Project Searchable American and British inquiry testimony and reports.
- British inquiry report: numbers saved Contemporary passenger and crew totals used for consistent class comparisons.
- United States Senate: Titanic disaster hearings Official overview of the American investigation and its 82 witnesses.
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: history of RMS Titanic Ship scale, funnels, wreck history, and deep-ocean exploration.
- WHOI: 1985 discovery of RMS Titanic Discovery team, debris-trail method, technology, and first confirmed wreckage.
- International Maritime Organization: history of SOLAS The international safety response adopted after the disaster.
- NOAA Ocean Today: Titanic wreck site Wreck deterioration, rusticles, scientific study, and memorial context.
- TitanicSurvivors.com sources and research guide How this site handles conflicting totals, survivor memory, and uncertain claims.
Continue exploring Titanic history
Frequently asked questions
How many people were on Titanic?
About 2,200 passengers and crew were aboard. Exact totals vary slightly among accepted historical lists because a small number of people are classified differently.
How many people survived Titanic?
About 705 people survived and were rescued by Carpathia. Some carefully researched lists use a slightly different total.
How many people died on Titanic?
More than 1,500 people died. Published totals commonly range from about 1,496 to 1,517 depending on the dataset.
How long did Titanic take to sink?
Titanic struck the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. and sank at about 2:20 a.m., a period of roughly two hours and forty minutes.
Was Titanic really unsinkable?
Titanic was not literally unsinkable. Its watertight subdivision could survive several flooding scenarios, but the iceberg damage opened too many forward compartments.
Where is Titanic now?
The wreck lies about 12,500 feet, or 3,800 metres, below the North Atlantic. The bow and stern rest apart with a debris field between and around them.