TITANIC

Titanic, British liner that sank on the night of Apr. 14-15, 1912, after crashing into an iceberg in the N Atlantic S of Newfoundland. More than 1,500 lives were lost. The Titanic, thought to be the fastest ship afloat and almost unsinkable, was on her maiden voyage and carried many notables among the more than 2,200 persons aboard. These circumstances made the loss seem the more appalling to the public in England and the United States. Official and other investigations revealed that messages of warning had been sent but had either not been received by the commanding officers or had been ignored by them. The ship had continued at full speed even after the warnings were sent. She did not carry sufficient lifeboats, and many of the lifeboats were launched with only a few of the seats occupied. Other vessels in the vicinity were unable to reach the Titanic before she sank; one, only 10 mi (16 km) away, did not respond because her wireless operator had retired for the evening. The disaster brought about measures to promote safety at sea, particularly the establishment of a patrol to make known the location of icebergs and of stringent regulations about the proper number and proper equipment of lifeboats to be carried by vessels. The catastrophe inspired a large literature. An expedition led by Robert D, discovered the wreck in 1985. The History Channel follows competition winners Rob Goldsmith and his father Danny to the very spot in the Mid Atlantic where the Titanic sank nearly 100 years ago. Rob has been obsessed with Titanic since the age of eight and this is his dream come true - to travel 12, 500 feet to the bottom of the ocean, bringing him face to face with the wreck of Titanic.
He is only one of a handful of people who have been fortunate enough to see the great liner, and this was made possible by the Akademik Keldysh, a Russian research ship that operates two of only five deep sea submersibles that can descend to such depths.
'Titanic: A Tale of Two Journeys' accounts the remarkable life of the ship and the people who survived and perished that cold April night, with brand new images from the wreck itself, never before seen on Television. Two emotional journeys with one thing in common: the Titanic.