In 1886 author William Thomas Stead published “How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid Atlantic, by a Survivor,” a cautionary short story about a tragedy at sea that could have been avoided if the sinking vessel had carried more lifeboats. In 1912 he was one of the passengers who perished when the Titanic sank.

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Did Anyone Really Think the Titanic was Unsinkable?

You probably know the story of the great irony of the Titanic. The ship hailed as “unsinkable” sank after it struck an iceberg on its very first trip across the Atlantic Ocean. In hindsight, it seems almost silly that anyone would assume that a ship weighing more than 50,000 tons (when fully laden)