21. The youngest survivor

A nine-month-old girl became the Titanic’s youngest survivor. She was travelling along with her parents and her brother Bertram in the hopes of starting a new life in the USA. However, when the disaster struck, her father perished while she, Bertram and her mother escaped. The grieving family decided to move back to England, and on the voyage home, the baby girl – named Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean – was considered “the darling of the ship”.

22. No more survivors

Millvina became a British civil servant and cartographer. She passed away from pneumonia in 2009, at the age of 97, at which point she was the last living survivor of the wreck. She was cremated and her ashes were scattered at the same Southampton docks where the Titanic set out on its doomed voyage.

23. Fine dining

The Titanic had plenty of food choices, from dining saloons to cafes. But À la Carte was the most exclusive dining option on the Titanic. Situated on the B deck, it was reserved for first-class passengers only. The restaurant had 66 staff, including Italian owner Luigi Gatti. Only three of the staff survived, while Gatti perished in the wreck.

24. The Titanic imitated the Ritz

With its squash courts, swimming pool and famously majestic staircase, the Titanic was designed to cater to the wealthy passengers’ every whim. In fact, many aspects of its design were inspired by the Ritz, a luxury hotel in London. Lounges, smoking rooms and reading rooms further added to the sense of decadence onboard.

25. Uplifting music

Perhaps one of the most poignant parts of the 1997 movie is the orchestra, which plays on as the ship begins to sink. Eyewitness accounts confirm that the real orchestra onboard the Titanic played a series of happy music as the ship sank, in the hopes of reassuring the passengers. Their repertoire included ragtime and dance music. It was only when the ship appeared to be beyond salvation, that the conductor switched to hymns.

26. No space

Insufficient lifeboat space caused the deaths of countless Titanic passengers. The massive ship included only 20 emergency rafts, which would only be able to save around a third of the people onboard. The ship easily had space for a full contingent of 64 rafts – but the White Star Line managers felt that too many rafts would spoil the view of the ocean. They also speculated that the rafts would only be needed to transport passengers to a nearby rescue vessel. What’s more, the under-trained crew only had one drill with the rafts, meaning that they were slow to launch the emergency vehicles when the Titanic crashed.

27. Never recovered

After the tragedy, a total of eight ships were launched to recover dead bodies from the Atlantic. Only a third of the drowned victims were ever found, and many of the corpses weren’t identifiable. It took over a month to find some bodies, including those in collapsible boat A. Many received a burial at sea after identification.

28. The ship went down fast

Although the Titanic took around three hours in total to sink, once it disappeared under the surface, it plummeted to the sea floor in only 15 minutes. It crashed so hard at the bottom that it left a crater in the sea bed, and its decks collapsed on top of each other.

29. The hunt for the wreck took 73 years

The Titanic now lies at 12,500 feet below the Atlantic, around 370 nautical miles from Newfoundland. Its great depth, combined with a lack of accurate co-ordinate information at the time of the tragedy, meant that it proved particularly difficult to track down. In 1985, it was finally found by former Navy officer Robert Ballard of the Wood Holes Oceanic Institution.

30. You can still book a Titanic trip

Despite the immense depth of the Titanic wreck, tourists can technically visit it today. If you can afford a $59,000 ticket, a private company named Deep Ocean Expeditions will take you down to the ocean floor to view the fast-decomposing ship from a submersible.

31. There are plans for a Titanic II

With a scheduled launch date in 2022, the Titanic II may soon reach the ocean. The Australian millionaire and politician Clive Palmer dreamt up a perfect Titanic replica that would make its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Palmer is no stranger to extravagant schemes, having previously considered building a commercial Zeppelin company.

32. A Vanderbilt heir narrowly avoided the voyage

The grandson of the American business magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, George Washington Vanderbilt narrowly avoided travelling on the Titanic. He had booked his ticket and was days away from boarding the ship, when his sister-in-law voiced her concerns about journeying on a maiden voyage. At the last moment, Vanderbilt changed his mind, and instead send his servant and his luggage on the Titanic. The servant died, while Vanderbilt went on to become a prominent art collector.

33. Author Theodore Dreiser also avoided the trip

The American novelist Theodore Dreiser, who is best known for writing Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy, changed his mind about boarding the Titanic too. His publisher advised him to seek a cheaper route to the USA, and so he avoided the doomed voyage. He would later write, “To think of a ship as immense as the Titanic, new and bright, sinking in endless fathoms of water. And the two thousand passengers routed like rats from their berths only to float helplessly in miles of water, praying and crying!”

34. A steel tycoon missed the trip due to his wife’s injury

Another famous face that narrowly avoided the Titanic was Henry Clay Frick. Born in Pennsylvania, he was an American steel tycoon and founder of the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturer. He and his wife were booked onto the Titanic, but they had to change their plans after his wife sprained her ankle shortly before the ship set sail.

35. Paperwork saved a Nobel Prize winner from the voyage

Guglielmo Marconi first won fame by inventing the telegraph, which revolutionised communication in his century. This Nobel Prize winner was actually offered a free ticket on the Titanic – surely a tantalizing prospect. But the inventor turned down the opportunity because he had too much paperwork to complete. Instead, he travelled to the USA on the Lusitania.

36. A resilient drinker survived the tragedy

Among the struggling passengers was Charles Joughlin, the ship’s head baker. He drank copious amounts of whiskey as he realised that the ship was going down, before braving the water. He clung to the ship as it sank, and then swam through freezing waters for two hours before a lifeboat spotted him. You can see him depicted by Liam Tuohy in the 1997 movie.

37. The Titanic was very divided

The first class passengers on the Titanic were able to enjoy such luxuries as the Turkish Bath, which boasted steam rooms and massage tables. In contrast, down in the third class compartments, over 700 passengers were expected to share just two bathtubs during the voyage.

38. The engineers sacrificed their lives to help passengers

Among the greatest heroes of the Titanic tragedy were the engineers. These brave men stayed calm and remained below decks even as the ship was sinking, so that they could keep the power running and prolong the ship’s life. As others escaped, every single one of the Titanic engineers stayed and drowned. You can see a 1914 memorial to the engineers in Southampton.

39. The papers got it all wrong

Shockingly, the earliest newspaper accounts of the Titanic disaster reported that every single passenger had been rescued. It wasn’t until a few days later that the full scale of the tragedy – including 1,503 deaths – was reported to the general public.

40. Love in the air

Among the Titanic’s unfortunate passengers were 13 couples who were celebrating their honeymoons. Three of the unlucky couples were killed in the disaster, while six couples survived, and four of the newlyweds returned without their partners.