Titanic: 100 Years Later

As midnight approached on April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic was steaming confidently toward New York Harbor on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, with 2,224 passengers and crew members aboard.

Less than three hours later, the massive luxury liner that had been heralded as unsinkable lay at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, more than 1,500 of its passengers dead or on their way to perishing from exposure. 

Among the casualties that night were some of the richest and most notable people of the times, including Astor fortune heir John Jacob Astor IV, pioneering newspaperman and mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, noted American painter, sculptor and writer Francis David Millet and Isidor Straus, a co-founder of Macy’s Department Store.

The sinking of the Titanic, still one of the largest peacetime maritime disasters in history, shocked a world just growing accustomed to thinking it could out-engineer nature. Its demise led to several immediate and dramatic measures, including the formation of the , headquartered in New London, Conn.

The loss of life — and, some would say, innocence — still reverberates. For decades, survivors of the sinking gave talks at local libraries and gathering places, recounting the horrific and sorrowful scene and how their lives had been affected. Dozens of books and movies and television specials memorialized or sensationalized the disaster, including James Cameron’s 1997 Hollywood blockbuster Titanic.

And so we remember that today, 100 years ago, one of the worst – and certainly the mos famous – maritime disasters in history occurred.

Did You Know ...

Medfield has a local connection to the Titanic tragedy of 1912. Click here to read about the passengers that have a local connection to Medfield and the Vine Lake Cemetery.