Unsinkable.

On 10 April 1912 one of the largest and most luxurious ocean liners ever built sailed for New York from England. Full of prominent people whose pictures filled the newspapers in stories of this maiden voyage, the Titanic represented all the arrogance of technology and wealth. The captain, believing his ship impervious to the dangers of nature, sped through an ice field, an ice field through which other ships would have proceeded with extreme caution. On 15 April the Titanic struck an iceberg and began taking on water.

Distress Signals.

Jack Phillips, one of the wireless operators on the Titanic, immediately began broadcasting distress signals and the ship's position. Tragically, most ships, including those closest to the Titanic, employed only one operator; when that man was away from his station, no one monitored the wireless. By sheer coincidence, Harold Cottam, the operator...