This is the ill-fated White Star liner RMS Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most famous accidents of the 20th century -- click ahead for more pictures of the ship and its story.
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The once-great vessel now rests at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean, broken in half down the middle and surrounded by debris, slowly disintegrating in the ice-cold depths.
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The wreck of the Titanic was finally discovered in 1985; since that time, people have been recovering artifacts of all kinds. In this photo, RMS Titanic, Inc., general counsel Allan Carlin poses with a 20-ton piece of the Titanic's hull that has been hauled to the surface.
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Giant hunks of metal aren't the only artifacts that have been brought up from the ocean floor. This exhibit in London displays a ragged top hat from the wreck site.
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This exhibit, pictured at the California Science Center in 2003, shows dishes half-buried in the grainy sediment of the seabed, simulating the way that they were found.
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This photo, which should look familiar to you, was taken nearly 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) below the surface of the North Atlantic on Aug. 1, 1987. So how did a polished set of serving dishes wind up at the bottom of the ocean?
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The Titanic (left) and the Olympic (right) are shown here under construction in Harland and Wolff's shipyard, Belfast, Northern Ireland, sometime between 1909 and 1911. The White Star Line's Olympic-class ships, of which Titanic was the largest, boasted unparalleled size and luxury.
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The Titanic was a gargantuan achievement in shipbuilding, measuring 882.5 feet (269 meters) in length and accommodating more than 2,000 passengers.
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Shipbuilder Thomas Andrews designed the Titanic with the ability to seal watertight compartments in the ship's hull. Andrews predicted that even if a small number of compartments became flooded, the ship could close them off and remain afloat.
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This photo shows Lord Pirrie, chairman of the Harland and Wolff shipbuilders company, and Titanic Captain Edward J. Smith on the deck of the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship.
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This replica shows the luxurious interior design of the ship. Plush carpets and fancy lighting greeted those walking the halls in the first-class section of the Titanic.
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A replica of the grand staircase from the Titanic is displayed at the Metreon on June 6, 2006 in San Francisco, Calif. Click ahead to see a photo of the Titanic itself.
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The grand ocean liner is nearly ready for its first voyage in this photo, taken at Harland and Wolff's shipyard in Belfast in February 1912. Next, you'll see the Titanic put to sea.
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This photo, taken in 1912 at the beginning of the Titanic's doomed voyage, shows the vessel leaving Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland.
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Lifeboats line the deck of the ship. Unfortunately, the Titanic did not carry enough lifeboats to save all of the people aboard. In fact, there were only enough boats for about one-third of the passengers.
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The massive side of the ocean liner's hull was held together by riveted plates. Dr. Robert Ballard, who found the wreck of the Titanic, suggested that the leak that sunk the ship happened when an iceberg collision caused faulty rivets to pop out of place and allow the hull plates to separate.
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On April 10, 1912, the Titanic departed Southampton and entered the vast Atlantic Ocean for its first and only voyage.
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This elegantly illustrated page was taken from a hand-written book by Titanic passenger Laura Marie Cobb. The book related Cobb's account of the disaster.
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Since the Titanic was both a fabulous luxury liner and the largest ship ever to sail the seas, passengers were understandably excited about being aboard. These souvenir photos were taken on the ship as mementos of the journey.
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Here, crew members of the Titanic pose for a photograph in their life jackets. While these vests could prevent passengers and crew from sinking and drowning, they couldn't protect anyone from the freezing temperature of the water.
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A representative from Christie's, London, models one of the Titanic's original life vests in 2007. The vest was expected to fetch between £50,000 and £80,000 at auction. Next, you'll get a glimpse of the icy seas that sank the great ship.
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This photograph, taken by a different boat in mid-April 1912, shows the icy site where Titanic struck the killer iceberg. The crew of the Titanic received many warnings about dangerous ice along its path, but these messages were essentially ignored.
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A woman examines the Titanic's crow's nest bell in an exhibition of recovered Titanic artifacts on Nov. 3, 2010, in London, England. When lookouts noticed an iceberg looming in the ship's path, they rang the crow's nest bell to warn the bridge of the impending collision.
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As the front compartments filled with water, the bow of the boat sank, lifting the massive stern into the air.
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This scene from James Cameron's Titanic (1997) shows the chaotic atmosphere as passengers scramble for lifeboats.
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This graphic was taken from the Illustrated London News, 1912. The passengers who have managed to get into lifeboats row away as the last part of the vessel's hull descends into the waves.
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Survivors of the Titanic disaster were rescued by a nearby ship -- the RMS Carpathia. Above, several lifeboats make their way toward the Carpathia after their brutal ordeal.
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Captain Arthur Rostron of the RMS Carpathia poses with his officers. At his feet lies the loving cup that he received as a gift of gratitude from the Titanic survivors. Next, you'll see how news of the disaster came to those on dry land.
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Relatives of the Titanic's drowned passengers leave the White Star Line offices, having just heard the dreadful news.
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News of the fatal disaster shocked the world.
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The front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 16, 1912, featured reports on the Titanic. The paper gives the death toll as 1,302 and survivor count at 868. Later figures were 1,517 dead and 706 survivors.
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Above, 167 surviving crew members arrive safely at Plymouth, England, on April 29, 1912. Fewer than half of the ship's passengers survived. But in the years following the wreck, many began to wonder, "What happened to the ship itself?"
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This Titanic Artifact Exhibition displays this mildew-covered 10-dollar bill, which was recovered from the wreckage.
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This is the bow railing of sunken RMS Titanic, silhouetted by the Mir 2 submersible, which sits up on the anchor crane of the foredeck of the ship. Since the discovery of the wreck, underwater explorers have brought several pieces of the ship's hull up to the surface.
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As of Aug. 26, 2008, this was the largest piece of the Titanic ever recovered. In the photo, workers are moving this hull fragment into the Luxor Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., for Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition. The object weighs 15 tons (13.6 metric tons).
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Through the first-class cabin porthole, you can see an ironworker preparing the hull fragment for presentation in Las Vegas.
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Here, the fragment from the First-Class C-Deck hull has finally found its way to the exhibit. Click ahead to see more artifacts recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic.
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These pieces of jewelry came from the wreckage. In the photo above, they're being held on display at the Metreon in San Francisco, Calif. Next, you'll see an artifact that was vital to the ship's operation.
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This is the Titanic's telegraph wheel, also on display in San Francisco. The telegraph wheel allowed the pilot to communicate with the ship's engine room, relaying commands such as "Full Ahead" and "Stop."
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A woman at the Metreon exhibit examines kitchen and dining items that were recovered from the lost ocean liner's debris field.
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These binoculars formed part of Titanic: The Artifact Exhibit, which opened in 2003 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
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This solid metal door was recovered from the wreck.
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These antique toiletries spent decades under the ocean.
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This replica of the Titanic's fourth funnel floats down the Thames River in 2010. The model was made to accompany an exhibition of actual Titanic artifacts in London.
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This gold wristwatch was one of the small personal items found at the wreck site.
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This corroded porthole once opened to the outside to let fresh air into the lower cabins of the ship. After years at the bottom of the sea, it has become covered in rust.
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This crew member uniform button proudly displays the White Star Line flag on its face. On the next page, you'll see one of the only letters ever mailed from the Titanic.
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This letter, housed in the Wall Street Rarities retail gallery, was written by someone named "Mrs. Cameron" and addressed to her sister.
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The United States issued this postage stamp in 2000 as part of its "Celebrate the Century" series, celebrating the success of James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which grossed more than $1.8 billion worldwide.
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This 1912 postcard commemorates the sinking of the Titanic, but the image displayed on its face helps us remember how the world saw the ship before the disaster: strong, sturdy and grand. Read more about the Titanic and related topics in the What Sank Titanic? Episode Guide.
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