When the great ship Titanic sailed for New York from Southhampton, it went down on
her first voyage with heavy loss of lives. At that time, the Titanic was not only the
largest ship that had ever been built, but was regarded as unsinkable, for she had
sixteen watertight compartments. Even if two of these were flooded, she would still be
able to float. However, while the Titanic was sailing across the icy waters of the North
Atlantic, the ship turned sharply to avoid a huge iceberg suddenly spotted by a lookout and therefore had been badly damaged. As five of her sixteen watertight compartments had already been flooded, the captain of the Titanic had to order passagers to abandon ship. As there were not enough lifeboats, 1,500 lives were lost.
