Anniversary of the Titanic sinking - 15th April

RMS Titanic was a passenger liner that, at the time of construction, was the largest ship ever built. It was on her maiden voyage sailing from Southampton, UK to New York City, USA, when she sank after colliding with an iceberg. Commemorations and ceremonies are held on the 15th April, the anniversary of the sinking, to pay respects to those who lost their lives.

RMS Titanic was four days into its maiden voyage when she struck an iceberg and sank. The largest passenger liner at the time, she was considered unsinkable and although the crew were alerted to icebergs in the area, these were ignored and action was taken too late. RMS Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 on Sunday, 14th April 1912, damaging the ship and destroying part of the liner that was meant to keep her afloat. Her sinking took two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 on Monday, 15th April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the worst marine disasters in history.

There were many factors that had an impact on the sinking of the RMS Titanic, including the missed warnings, poor management of lifeboats, and the weather conditions at the time. The disaster led to the introduction of new safety measures, including ensuring that vessels have enough lifeboats, that lifeboat drills are properly carried out, and that someone be on the ship's radio at all times.

Purple Mash activities

There are several activities that you could use on Purple Mash for children to find out more about the sinking of the Titanic. Children could research the sinking of the Titanic and use this template to write up their findings. They could also write a newspaper report about the sinking of RMS Titanic focussing on the 5 w's of report writing. There are also activities where they can put themselves in the shoes of those onboard by writing a postcard home to describe the excitement of sailing on the largest ship on its maiden voyage. Pupils can also write about the accommodation that was available on the Titanic and suggest any changes they would have made. And after all that research, why not put children's knowledge to the test with this Titanic quiz. Head to the Titanic area of Purple Mash to explore the full range of resources on the topic.

Project Pack activities

These activities have been started. Can you complete them?

After the sinking of RMS Titanic, there were talks of salvaging the ship. However, this has never been possible due to a range of both practical and technological difficulties. There have been many attempts to find the wreck of RMS Titanic in order to find out more about how she sunk, but the wreck was only discovered in 1985 by a joint French and American expedition. Their expedition found that the ship had split in half and the wreck had been deteriorating slowly ever since. However, several artefacts have been recovered from the Titanic and are on display in a number of museums around the world. The story of the sinking of the Titanic continues to captivate people and has been the setting for many TV series and films.

If you do use the activities listed above then please share your work via Twitter or our Facebook page.