El Centro Jr./Sr. High School, YDF Library

Titanic 360

⚠️ Before you move on, please note that this lesson describes a great tragedy involving the death of many people, including children. Discretion is advised.

What is it About the Titanic?

💬 There is something about the Titanic that continues to fascinate people, even over 100 years later. So much so, that even today people are risking their lives to learn about this legendary ship.

But what do WE get out of learning about the Titanic? Well, the answer is not as complicated as many would think. We study a fascinating historical tragedy to learn about:

Engineering
Science
History
Biography
Civics and Class Division
Economy

We also learn something about empathy when we put ourselves in the shoes of those who were lost and even listen to the words of those who survived.

🎬 Watch this intro video before proceeding with the lesson.

A Short Review of the Titanic

The Ship of Dreams

💬 The Titanic was the largest ship of its kind every built and cost 7.5 million dollars to create.

The White Star Line had three nearly-identical ships, The Olympic (Old Reliable) which survived a colision, The Britannic, which was hit by a torpedo during WWI, and, of course, The Titanic herself.

💬 Nurse Violet Jessup is the only person to have survived working aboard ALL THREE ships

The Sinking and Recovery

💬 It took only 2 hours and 40 minutes for the Titanic to sink

💬Timeline of Events

11.40pm - Titanic hits iceberg

Within minutes of hitting the iceberg the boat begins to take on thousands of ton of sea water through holes in its hull. The man that designed the ship, Thomas Andrews, is on board and goes to look at the damage. He tells the captain that the ship is going to sink.

12.30am, (15 April 1912) - Lifeboats are lowered

The captain, Edward J Smith, orders the lifeboats to be lowered. After ten minutes passengers start leaving the ship, with women and children taking the first spots. There are enough spaces for 1000 passengers, but some of the boats are sent off half-full.

2.10am - Ship's lights go out

The Titanic's bow, the front of the boat, is now completely underwater causing the back of the boat to lift up. 18 out of 20 of the lifeboats have been lowered and all the lights on board finally go out.

2.17am - Titanic breaks in two

The back of the boat gets pushed further out of the water. The ship's hull isn't strong enough to withstand the pressure and snaps in two.

2.19am - Bow begins to sink

The front of the boat disappears beneath the surface of the ocean, the back half of the Titanic soon following afterwards.

2.24am - Titanic reaches the bottom of the ocean

The front half of the ship reaches the bottom first. Two minutes later, the back half of the Titanic joins it on the floor of the Atlantic. The wreck of the ship is still there today.

3.30 am - the Carpathia came to the rescue of the survivors in the lifeboats.

It would take several hours for the ship to pick up all of the survivors.

By 8:30 a.m., the final person from Titanic's lifeboats had boarded the Carpathia.

💬 340 bodies were recovered through lifeboat expeditions over the next few days, many were unidentifiable.

No survivors were found in the water as it would be impossible to survive water that cold. Those without a life vest sunk in the ocean. The remaining 1,160 bodies never to be seen again.

Causes of Death for those on the titanic would have been:

Drowning - inside or outside the ship
Hypothermia - no more than +-15 minutes, typically 2-5 minutes before one freezes to death.
Injury - The life vests were the number 1 cause of injury. Few, if any, of the passengers knew the proper way to drop into the water with a life belt on; one must cross one’s arms across the breast with the hands on the opposing shoulders. Improper water entry while wearing a life belt would have had the effect of snapping the head back, potentially resulting in broken ribs, sternum, collarbones, or even neck. Probably many people died of broken necks as they hit the water.
Crushing- from the ship itself. Many people also, died while inside the ship.

Titanic Past and Present

💬 The Titanic sank in 1912.

The Titanic wreck site(s) was discovered in 1985.

Less than 180 people have been down to the wreck site, more people have been to outer space. James Cameron has been 33 times.

Successful Titanic recovery trips have brought back numerous artifacts, and automated dives have shown hours and hours of footage from the wreck.

Recently, a 3D scan has been taken in order to keep archival footage of the wreck, which is slowly decaying.

With every movie or development, the Titanic becomes active in the people's imagination. It is creepy, tragic, morbidly fascinating, historically and scientifically hypnotic. It carries a sense of mystery.

Titanic, Then and Now

The 3D Titanic Scan

What About the Remains?

💬 Anyone who was not immediately in a lifeboat perished. After a few days, the bodies would gently sink to the bottom of the sea.

Skeletons disolve after time in the water. Shoes and clothes, however, do not because they are treated with chemicals. Here are all that is left of a mother and daughter together who perished in a Second Class cabin.

Robert Ballard calls this the most startling of all the discoveries during his dives.

💬In other cases, clothing found has led to the identification. These shoes belonged to 19 month old Sidney Goodwin, a victim who was found in the water by lifeboats and given to the coroner, but not identified.

In 2011, using modern DNA and forensic practices allowed the Titanic's "Unknown Child" to finally be named and put to rest.

The Big Piece

💬 The fifteen ton section of Titanic’s starboard side now known as the “Big Piece” dangles near the surface of the sea on the second, ultimately successful attempt to raise it during the late summer of 1998. A failure in calculation of the lifting ability of hired recovery vessel Jim Kilabuk (among other factors) led to the loss of this artifact several miles from the wreck site two years earlier, where it remained on the seabed until its eventual recovery.

Examination of this large hull piece on retrieval revealed a number of fine details, including the remains of wood paneling, wiring and horsehair plaster on the interior side, patches of original paint still adhering, and even a First Class pattern dish in place within the D Deck galley section which was originally attached to the lower end of the artifact. Following conservation and a tour of North America during 1999 and 2000, today the piece remains on permanent display at the Titanic museum at Luxor, Las Vegas.

Photo credit Premiere Exhibitions/RMSTI

The Titan Submersible, 2023

If you want to learn more than what is on this lesson, check out this video!

💬 Despite the number of successful dives by other professionals, on June 18, 2023 the OceanGate Expeditions' "Titan" bubmersible went missing. After an internationally supported search, it was found that the submersible had imploded, killing all passengers aboard instantly. The passengers were tourists, not scientists, and had paid $250,000 each to dive on that expedition.

The company was heavily criticizing for cutting corners with the design of the sub and skirting safety protocols and industry standards put in place by diving and marine professionals. They have since suspended all further expeditions.

Misinformation, Ghost Stories, and Conspiracy Theories

💬 Which one of these is True and Which has been proven false? Can you tell?

💬 One of the things that keeps the Titanic so firmly in the legends of our imaginations are the videos people post about it to their social media feeds.

In recent months, the Titanic has become the subject of many false claims or conspiracy videos on Tik Tok, which has given it new life. Since the Titan sub expedition, the Titanic has had over 2 MILLION Google search hits!

Titanic Exhibitions and Virtual Tours

✏️🖨️ Print the activity packet below to accompany your virtual tour of the Artifact Exhibition.

Titanic - The Virtual Experience

Permanent Exhibit, Las Vegas (Pay Per Tour)