Author(s): Geoff Tibballs

Marine Exploration

Just before midnight on 14 April 1912, the world's first 'unsinkable' ship, the Titanic, struck a huge iceberg just off the coast of Newfoundland. Two-and-a-half hours later the ship slipped out of view beneath the icy waters of the North Atlantic, taking with it 1,523 passengers. There appear to be many reasons for this disaster: the Titanic's design, the provision of only 1,176 lifeboat places despite a passenger and crew capacity of 3,295, the distress signal denoting the ship's position wrongly...the alarming list of mistakes and errors of judgement goes on. It was the greatest maritime disaster of all time. In Titanic Geoff Tibballs tells the story of the ship, from its inception to its sinking, and continuing the story to the present day detailing the glitter and glamour as well as the awful tragedy.