What WERE YOUR chances? So, if you had been on board, would you have survived? It all depends on who you were... YOU were a woman or child Women and children were allowed to board the lifeboats first. However, some men did get a place when the first few lifeboats didn’t fill up. YOU When the Titanic sank, more than two thirds were rich First-class passengers were lucky – of its passengers met a watery end. Would they had cabins on the upper decks, closest to the lifeboats. Many poorer you have been one of the lucky survivors...? passengers, in ‘steerage’ class on the lower decks, didn’t reach the lifeboat deck in time. YOU obeyed orders If you had got into a lifeboat as soon as the crew told you to, you would probably have survived. Remember that, Did you know…? next time you’re on a ship! The Titanic’s on-board YOU were brave Many people were too scared to

jazz musicians played Claybourne. Anna Words: © GettyPictures: Images UK. cheery tunes on deck to leave the big ship for the tiny lifeboats. keep people’s spirits up, Others stayed on board because they until the liner finally didn’t want to lose sight of their friends sank into the and family. To survive, you needed the ocean courage to go for it. YOU were willing to push! In the final struggle for lifeboat places, those who pushed, won! YOU had stamina Some survivors were plucked from the icy water after hanging onto bits of floating wreckage for more than half an hour. They had hung on to life! On 15 April 1912, the Titanic slipped beneath the icy waters of the Atlantic

When the Titanic was would still have time to sail quickly enough. She scraped launched, she was the to safety. White Star were along the iceberg’s side, Into the icy ocean Finding the wreck biggest ship in the world. so sure the Titanic was tearing holes in at least four The first few lifeboats were launched half- In 1985, oceanographer A vast ocean liner, she was built to unsinkable, they didn’t put sections of the hull! empty, wasting precious spaces. When the (a sea scientist) Dr enough lifeboats on board. ship did start to go down, everyone rushed Robert Ballard carry passengers and cargo to and This would prove to for the last lifeboats. But it’s thought that only (right) used the fro across the Atlantic. be a BIG mistake… To the boats! about 705 of the 2,200-plus on board made it Argo, a robot Other ships may have been faster, Captain Edward John Smith to safety. Many jumped into the ocean to try submarine, to but the Titanic’s owners, White Star, and his crew knew that the to escape. But the water was a body-numbing find the wreck claimed she was the biggest, the All aboard! Titanic would sink in just 2°C, so most of those who went into the sea of the Titanic best, the most luxurious – and the On April 10, 1912, the a few hours, and so they died from the cold, not from drowning! lying on the Titanic set sail on her The captain’s call went ignored safest ship of all time... quickly tried to make ready seabed. Since maiden voyage, from by many of the passengers the few lifeboats they had. then, lots of Southampton to New York. However many of the Last survivor interesting At first, she made good progress, but just passengers were asleep, and most didn’t The last survivor from the Titanic was Millvina items have been The ship of dreams before midnight of day five, in the freezing- believe that anything bad was happening. Dean, who died 31 May 2009, aged 97. She salvaged from the To make sure the Titanic didn’t sink, her hull cold North Atlantic Ocean, an iceberg The ship was still afloat, and not tilting. was just a baby when she, her mother and sunken ship, such was made up of 16 separate sections. If two, loomed out of the darkness. The Titanic And, after all, the Titanic was unsinkable, two-year-old brother made it into one of the as tickets, letters and or even three, sections got holes, the ship was so big, she couldn’t change direction wasn’t it?! lifeboats - and so lived to tell the tragic tail. priceless jewellery. This photo shows the railing and bow of the Titanic seen through the 30 Natiol na Geo graphic Kids murky sea water at the bottom of the Atlantic - the ship’s final resting place