The Basics [Background History]

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This is where you will find information on the ship itself, not the classes. The classes (and crew-ranking-stuff) will each have a separate thread of their own, so it doesn't become too muddled in here.
Don't know what the Titanic is/what happened to her on her maiden voyage? No problem! Here's Shinigami's brief, if not somewhat insensitive, history lesson:
A ship previously thought unsinkable hits an iceberg and sinks on April 15th, 1912, killing over half the people on board.

There! You are now educated.

;3

Right, so, I'll be stealing stuff from Wikipedia because I am extremely lazy it's what everyone else does, so I hope it helps.
Enjoy!

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Construction/Background

RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on 10 April 1912. Four days into the trip, on 14 April 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in the deaths of 1,517 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

An Olympic-class passenger liner, Titanic was owned by the White Star Line and constructed at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). She set sail for New York City with 2,223 people on board; the high casualty rate when the ship sank was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship carried lifeboats for only 1,178 people.

Shinigami's Note: The Titanic had two sister ships, Olympic and Britannic. The Britannic sunk after being torpedoed/hitting a mine (it is uncertain) during one of the World Wars.(end note)

For her maiden voyage, Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats of three different varieties.

Shinigami's Note: The original designer of the Titanic (yes, Thomas Andrews, we know) had originally called for more lifeboats (around 68 of them, I believe), but he was told the deck would look too "cluttered." He quit, and Thomas Andrews took over. (end note)

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The Maiden Voyage

The vessel began her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York on 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J. Smith in command. As Titanic left her berth, her wake caused the liner SS New York, which was docked nearby, to break away from her moorings, whereupon she was drawn dangerously close (about four feet) to Titanic before a tugboat towed New York away. The incident delayed departure for about half-an-hour. After crossing the English Channel, Titanic stopped at Cherbourg, France, to board additional passengers and stopped again the next day at Queenstown (known today as Cobh), Ireland. As harbour facilities at Queenstown were inadequate for a ship of her size, Titanic had to anchor off-shore, with small boats, known as tenders, ferrying the embarking passengers out to her. When she finally set out for New York, there were 2,240 people aboard.

Shinigami's Note: It is said that there were many bad omens before Titanic began her maiden voyage, resulting in people canceling their tickets or jumping ship at Cherbourg and Queenstown.

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The Sinking

On the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was calm. The moon was not visible (being two days before new moon), and the sky was clear.
(shortened by Shinigami): The two wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, were employed by the Marconi company. Because of this, they were too busy wiring messages from the passengers and sending them out to pay attention to the ice warnings.

At 23:40 (11:40 PM), while sailing about 400 miles south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!". First Officer Murdoch gave the order "hard-a-starboard", using the traditional tiller order for an abrupt turn to port (left), and adjusted the engines (he either ordered through the telegraph for "full reverse" or "stop" on the engines; survivor testimony on this conflicts). The iceberg brushed the ship's starboard side (right side), buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 299 feet (90 m). As seawater filled the forward compartments, the watertight doors shut. However, while the ship could stay afloat with four flooded compartments, five were filling with water. The five water-filled compartments weighed down the ship so that the tops of the forward watertight bulkheads fell below the ship's waterline, allowing water to pour into additional compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and ordered a full stop. Shortly after midnight on 15 April, following an inspection by the ship's officers and Thomas Andrews, the lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress call was sent out.

Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were busy sending out CQD, the international distress signal. Several ships responded, including Mount Temple, Frankfurt and Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, but none was close enough to make it in time. The closest ship to respond was Cunard Line's Carpathia 58 miles (93 km) away, which could arrive in an estimated four hours—too late to rescue all of Titanic's passengers. The only land–based location that received the distress call from Titanic was a wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland.

Shinigami's Note: Cunard Line were the shipping rivals of the White Star Line. It was because the Cunard Line had released three new ships earlier on that the Titanic and her sister ships were built in the first place.

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Women and Children First!

The first lifeboat launched was Lifeboat 7 on the starboard side with 28 people on board out of a capacity of 65. It was lowered at around 00:40 as believed by the British Inquiry. Lifeboat 6 and Lifeboat 5 were launched ten minutes later. Lifeboat 1 was the fifth lifeboat to be launched with 12 people. Lifeboat 11 was overloaded with 70 people. Collapsible D was the last lifeboat to be launched. Titanic carried 20 lifeboats with a total capacity of 1,178 people. While not enough to hold all of the passengers and crew, Titanic carried more boats than was required by the British Board of Trade Regulations. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross register tonnage, rather than her human capacity.

Titanic was given ample stability and sank with only a few degrees list, the design being such that there was very little risk of unequal flooding and possible capsize. Furthermore the electric power plant was operated by the ship's engineers until the end. Hence Titanic showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and passengers were reluctant to leave the apparent safety of the ship to board small lifeboats. Large numbers of Third Class passengers were unable to reach the lifeboat deck through unfamiliar parts of the ship and past barriers, although some stewards such as William Denton Cox successfully led some groups from Third Class to the lifeboats. As a result, most of the boats were launched partially empty; one boat meant to hold 40 people left Titanic with only 12 people on board. With "Women and children first" the imperative for loading lifeboats, Second Officer Lightoller, who was loading boats on the port side, allowed men to board only if oarsmen were needed, even if there was room. First Officer Murdoch, who was loading boats on the starboard side, let men on board if women were absent. As the ship's list increased people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving fully loaded. By 02:05, the entire bow was under water, and all the lifeboats, except for two, had been launched.

Shinigami's Note: "Women and children first", otherwise known as the "Birkenhead drill," came from the heroic actions of the crew on the HMS Birkenhead when she sunk after striking an uncharted rock on February 26th, 1852.

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The Unsinkable Ship

Around 02:10, the stern rose out of the water exposing the propellers, and by 02:17 the waterline had reached the boat deck. The last two lifeboats floated off the deck, collapsible B upside down, collapsible A half-filled with water after the supports for its canvas sides were broken in the fall from the roof of the officers' quarters. Shortly afterwards, the forward funnel collapsed, crushing part of the bridge and people in the water. On deck, people were scrambling towards the stern or jumping overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat. The ship's stern slowly rose into the air, and everything unsecured crashed towards the water. While the stern rose, the electrical system finally failed and the lights went out. Shortly afterwards, the stress on the hull caused Titanic to break apart between the last two funnels, and the bow went completely under. The stern righted itself slightly and then rose vertically. After a few moments, at 02:20, this too sank into the ocean.

Only two of the 18 launched lifeboats rescued people after the ship sank. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up five people, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later, lifeboat 14 went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or being pulled down by the suction from the sinking the Titanic, though it turned out that there had been very little suction.

As the ship fell into the depths, the two sections behaved very differently. The streamlined bow planed off approximately 2,000 feet (609 m) below the surface and slowed somewhat, landing relatively gently. The stern plunged violently to the ocean floor, the hull being torn apart along the way from massive implosions caused by compression of the air still trapped inside. The stern smashed into the bottom at considerable speed, grinding the hull deep into the silt.

After steaming at 17.5 knots for just under four hours, RMS Carpathia arrived in the area and at 04:10 began rescuing survivors. By 08:30 she picked up the last lifeboat with survivors and left the area at 08:50 bound for New York.

Shinigami's Note: The RMS Carpathia was under the command of Arthur Henry Rostron. His nickname, "Electric Spark," referred to his ability to make quick (and effective) decisions.

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Voyage End

On 18 April, Carpathia docked at Pier 54 at Little West 12th Street in New York with the survivors. She arrived at night and was greeted by thousands of people. Titanic had been headed for 20th Street. Carpathia dropped off the empty Titanic lifeboats at Pier 59, as property of the White Star Line, before unloading the survivors at Pier 54. Both piers were part of the Chelsea Piers built to handle luxury liners of the day. As news of the disaster spread, many people were shocked that Titanic could sink with such great loss of life despite all of her technological advances. Newspapers were filled with stories and descriptions of the disaster and were eager to get the latest information. Many charities were set up to help the victims and their families, many of whom lost their sole breadwinner, or, in the case of third class survivors, lost everything they owned. On April 29 Opera stars Enrico Caruso and Mary Garden and members of the Metropolitan Opera raised $12,000 in benefits for victims of the disaster by giving special concerts in which versions of "Autumn" and "Nearer My God To Thee" were part of the program. The people of Southampton were deeply affected by the sinking. According to the Hampshire Chronicle on 20 April 1912, almost 1,000 local families were directly affected. Almost every street in the Chapel district of the town lost more than one resident and over 500 households lost a member.

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Statistics

Of a total of 2,223 people aboard Titanic only 706 survived the disaster and 1,517 perished. The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. At this water temperature, death could be expected in less than 15 minutes.

Men and members of the 2nd and 3rd class were less likely to survive. Of the male passengers in second class, 92 percent perished. Less than half of third-class passengers survived.

Six of the seven children in first class survived, all of the children in second class survived, whereas less than half were saved in third class. 96 percent of the women in first class survived, 86 percent of the women survived in second class and less than half survived in third class. Overall, only 20 percent of the men survived, compared to nearly 75 percent of the women. Men in first class were four times as likely to survive as men in second class, and twice as likely to survive as those in third.

Four of the eight officers survived. About 21 of the 29 able seamen survived and all of the 7 quartermasters and 8 lookouts survived. 3 of the 13 leading firemen survived, around 45 other firemen survived and around 20 of the 73 coal trimmers survived. 4 of the 33 greasers survived and 1 of the 6 mess hall stewards survived. Around 60 of the 322 stewards and 18 of the 23 stewardesses survived. 3 of the 68 restaurant staffs survived. All of the postal clerks, guarantee group and eight-member orchestra perished.

Another disparity is that a greater percentage of British passengers died than American passengers; some sources claim this could be because many Britons of the time were polite and queued, rather than forcing their way onto the lifeboats. The captain, Edward John Smith, shouted out: "Be British, boys, be British!" as the ocean liner went down, according to witnesses.

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Survival Statistics

First class: 199/329; 60.5 % saved and 39.5 % (130 people) lost.

Second class: 119/285; 41.7 % saved and 58.3 % (166 people) lost.

Third class: 174/710; 24.5 % saved and 75.5 % (536 people) lost.

Crew: 214/991; 23.8 % saved and 76.2 % (685 people) lost.

Total: 706/2,223; 31.8 % saved and 68.2 % (1,517) lost.

Shinigami's Note: When the lifeboats when back to pull people from the water, nine people were rescued. However, three of these people were so cold/hypothermic that they died anyway.