RMS TITANIC COMMEMORATIVE COLOR COIN PROOF LUCKY MONEY VALUE $139
On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic - the largest ship afloat - left Southampton, England, on her maiden voyage to New York City.
White Star Line, builders of the massive ocean liner, had spared no expense in assuring her luxury.
A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world's
She was touted as the safest ship ever built - so safe that she carried only 20 lifeboats, enough to accommodate fewer than half of her 2,223 passengers and crew.
Considered "unsinkable, it was assumed the lifeboats would only be necessary to rescue survivors of other sinking ships.
Confidently, Captain Edward Smith pushed the ship at top speed through the icy waters in an attempt to tow in the coveted Blue Riband, a prestigious award given to the fastest passenger liner to cross the Atlantic.
Four days into her journey, on the clear, crisp night of April 14, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 P.M.
Originally thought to be a minor collision with little effect on
An SOS was sent out to neighboring ships. Forty miles away, the Carpathian picked up the ship's distress call and made way at full speed through the ice-filled Northern Sea.
It would be too late, however.
By the time the Carpathians arrived, all that remained of the Titanic was a
it is the memory of the more than 1,500 souls lost that has made its legend a cautionary tale about the perils of human pride and its fragility.