It's 104 years since Titanic sank: Some interesting facts

April 14 is a tragic day in the world's maritime history for it was on this day 104 years ago that the mighty ship RMS Titanic had sunk in the North Atlantic Ocean after hitting an iceberg in its very first voyage. The disaster saw the death of 1,500 passengers and crew members and is considered one of the biggest peacetime maritime accidents.

The ship was on its way from Southampton in the UK to New York City in the US. In 1997, a film was made on the disaster which stiched with the event a tragic love affair between two individuals separated by class distinctions. That film, which was the most expensive one made at that time, went on to become one of the highest-grossing film of all time and bagged 11 Oscars.

Here are some interesting facts about the sinking of the Titanic, which could not finish even one journey in its life:

• The crew members of the Titanic had less than 40 seconds to react before the ship hit an iceberg.
  
• The RMS Titanic had its newspaper called "The Atlantic Daily Bulletin". The newspaper, which was published everyday, consisted of all sorts of news items.
  
• The SS Californian lied very close to the Titanic when the disaster struck. But the ship did not respond despite the latter sending it disaster signals. The Californian was sunk by German submarine U-35 in the Eastern Mediterranean during the First World War.
  
• The film Titanic won 11 Oscars but none of them was for acting.
  
• While Titanic could see the daylight for just five days (it entered into service on April 10 and sank on April 14-15), her elder sister RMS Olympic enjoyed an illustrious career of 24 years (1911-1935). Their third sister HMHS Britannic also had a short life of less than a year as she sank in the Aegean Sea following an explosion in November 1916.
  
• Bodies of 119 ill-fated passengers of the Titanic were too damaged to pulled out from the Atlantica and were given a water burial.
  
• The Titanic had four smokestacks but the fourth was a show while the three others worked.
  
• Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean, the last of the survivor of the Titanic tragedy, passed away in May 2009 at the age of 97. She was a two-month-old passenger in the ship when it met the disaster.