It was a cold night on April 14, 1912, when the supposedly "unsinkable" RMS Titanic sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City, when it hit an iceberg and sank in the very early hours of April 15, and 1,500 people perished; thus, it proved the painfully sad lesson that no ship is unsinkable.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, various researchers and historians came together for the Titanic Memorial Cruise, which set sail on Sunday, April 8, and had various descendants of the survivors going on the same cruise, and the interior design of the ship they are sailing on recreates the feel of the experience aboard an early-1900s cruise ship. They will pause at the site of the sinking for a memorial service, and then later, if they don't hit an iceberg again (possibly due to global warming/climate change reducing the number of icebergs in the ocean), they will reach New York City on Friday, April 20, then sail back to Southampton, where it will return on April 29.
In addition, the 1997 Titanic film, which was directed by James Cameron and starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and also had the famous theme song of "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion, was remastered in 3DHD and re-released in theaters.
About 14 years prior to the sinking of the Titanic, in 1898, a novella named Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan, written by author Morgan Robertson, was released. The story describes a fictional ship known as the SS Titan, which sank on an April night in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg. It would be a tragic foreshadowing of the sinking of the Titanic.
The Titanic was the second of three ships built by the White Star Line, the first being the RMS Olympic, and the third being the HMHS Britannic. The former managed to have a long career, save for some relatively minor incidents involving collisions with other ships, before being scrapped in 1935, after an incredible 24 years of service, including a stint as a war transport ship during World War I, after which it became a passenger ship again until its retirement. The long career that this ship had earned it the nickname "Old Reliable." The latter, however, met its own demise in 1916 after hitting a mine in the Mediterranean Sea during World War I, and sank about three times faster than the Titanic did, with the loss of 30 lives.
Over the course of the last century, the story of the Titanic still intrigues and fascinates many. Since then, various exploration crews over the decades have visited and revisited the site of the wreckage, looking for more information and artifacts from the wreckage. Some of these artifacts have found shelter at various museums around the world, and has featured extensively in popular culture, including the aforementioned 1997 movie. Meanwhile, cruise ship lines have taken more more extensive safety measures and procedures in order to prevent such tragedies from ever happening again. Today, cruise ships very seldomly sink, and fewer lives are lost whenever a ship does sink.
All in all, after 100 years, the descendants of the survivors can find solace in that they are able to experience the full journey that their ancestors never had, and the story of the Titanic will continue to fascinate and inspire many more generations for centuries to come.
