—Definition of “titanic,” Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Until an icy night a hundred years ago, the word “titanic” suggested good things. Godlike Titans ruled a golden age of Greek mythology. “Titanic” meant big, powerful, extraordinary. That changed on April 14-15, 1912, as the Royal Mail Ship Titanic, the world’s largest and most opulent oceangoing vessel, steamed westward on its maiden voyage. About 1,000 miles east of Boston, it struck an iceberg and disappeared in 2 hours and 40 minutes. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died, including some of the grandest celebrities of the day. A rescue ship, Carpathia, plucked 706 survivors from lifeboats. Their stories of the tragedy seemed impossible. Sink? How could it? At 882.5 feet from prow to stern rail, and 175 feet from keel to funnel tops, Titanic stretched as long as four city blocks and as high as a nine-story building. Fifteen steel bulkheads divided its interior into compartments advertised as watertight.
