A great ocean liner's dark silhouette beside an iceberg under a star-lit night sky

Home / Events / Titanic Timeline

Titanic Timeline: The Sinking and Full History of RMS Titanic's Fatal Maiden Voyage

How the White Star Line's 'unsinkable' flagship struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage, and the safety rules the disaster forced into being.

Interactive timeline — click any point

1909 Keel laid in Belfast 1911-05-31 Titanic launched 1912-04-10 Departs Southampton 1912-04-14 Strikes an iceberg 1912-04-15 Titanic sinks 1912-04-15 Carpathia rescues survivors 1912 British and US inquiries open 1914 First SOLAS treaty adopted

1909 Keel laid at Harland & Wolff

Construction begins on RMS Titanic at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast, built for the White Star Line.

1911-05-31 Titanic is launched at Belfast

The hull is launched into the River Lagan before fitting-out continues; the ship enters service the following year.

1912-04-10 Titanic departs on her maiden voyage

Titanic leaves Southampton bound for New York, with stops at Cherbourg and Queenstown, carrying more than 2,200 passengers and crew.

1912-04-14 Titanic strikes an iceberg

At 11:40 p.m. in the North Atlantic, lookouts spot an iceberg too late to avoid a glancing collision that buckles the hull below the waterline.

1912-04-15 Titanic sinks in the early hours

The ship breaks apart and sinks at approximately 2:20 a.m.; widely cited estimates put the death toll at more than 1,500.

1912-04-15 RMS Carpathia rescues survivors

The Cunard liner Carpathia arrives roughly an hour after the sinking and rescues the approximately 700 survivors from the lifeboats.

1912 British and American inquiries begin

A British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry and a United States Senate inquiry both examine the disaster's causes within weeks.

1914 The first SOLAS convention is adopted

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea mandates lifeboats for all aboard, continuous wireless watch, and an ice patrol.

Last updated: August 2026

History Timelines. (August 2026). Titanic Timeline: The Sinking and History of RMS Titanic. Retrieved from https://history-timelines.org.uk/events/titanic/

This Titanic timeline of events traces RMS Titanic from her construction at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast through her fatal 1912 maiden voyage, tracking the key dates behind one of the most studied maritime disasters in history. As a titanic sinking timeline, it follows the White Star Line’s reputation for an “unsinkable” ship into the North Atlantic ice field where that reputation was tested and failed. Read as history of the titanic timeline, it also covers the inquiries and regulatory changes the disaster forced onto the shipping industry.

Titanic Timeline: Construction and the Sinking of RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line, laid down in 1909 and launched on May 31, 1911. At roughly 46,000 gross tons, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time, and her sixteen watertight compartments led to a popular, though never formally guaranteed, reputation as practically unsinkable. Titanic departed Southampton on her maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, bound for New York with stops at Cherbourg and Queenstown. Despite receiving multiple iceberg warnings from other ships in the days before, Titanic was travelling at close to full speed through the North Atlantic ice field on the night of April 14. At 11:40 p.m., lookouts spotted an iceberg too late to avoid a glancing collision along the starboard side, buckling hull plates and opening several compartments to the sea, more than the ship’s watertight design could survive. Any titanic sinking timeline has to note that the ship carried lifeboats for barely half of those aboard, a shortfall that met outdated Board of Trade regulations tied to a vessel’s tonnage rather than the number of passengers it carried.

An empty lifebelt and a ship's brass porthole resting on dark timber

The Collision and the Ship’s Final Hours

Titanic’s wireless operators sent distress calls as the crew began loading lifeboats, but confusion, a shortage of trained crew, and the ship’s list slowed the process, and several boats left the davits far from full. The ship broke apart and sank at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, roughly two hours and forty minutes after the sinking began with the iceberg strike. Widely cited estimates put the death toll at more than 1,500 of the roughly 2,200 people aboard, making it one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings in maritime history. The Cunard liner Carpathia, responding to distress signals, arrived a little over an hour after Titanic went down and rescued the roughly 700 survivors from the ship’s lifeboats.

Inquiry, Regulation, and Titanic’s Place in History

Both the British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry, led by Lord Mersey, and a United States Senate inquiry chaired by Senator William Alden Smith opened within weeks of the sinking, taking testimony on the ship’s speed, its unheeded ice warnings, and its inadequate lifeboat capacity. Their findings fed directly into the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), adopted in 1914, which mandated lifeboat space for every person aboard, continuous wireless watch, and the international ice patrol that still monitors North Atlantic icebergs today. Any complete history of the titanic timeline has to credit this regulatory legacy: SOLAS, revised many times since, remains the foundation of international maritime safety law. More than a century later, the Titanic timeline of events is still taught as the moment ocean travel was forced to reckon with the gap between its confidence and its safety record, a turning point that reshaped maritime history.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this Titanic timeline cover?

This Titanic timeline of events covers the ship's construction, its April 1912 maiden voyage, the sinking after striking an iceberg, and the inquiries and safety reforms that followed.

Why was the Titanic called unsinkable?

Titanic's sixteen watertight compartments gave it a reputation, widely repeated in the press at the time, for being effectively unsinkable, though White Star Line never issued that as a formal guarantee.

How many people died when the Titanic sank?

Widely cited estimates put the death toll at more than 1,500 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew aboard, making the sinking one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters on record.

What changed after the Titanic disaster?

The sinking led directly to the first SOLAS convention in 1914, which required lifeboat space for everyone aboard a ship, continuous wireless radio watch, and the International Ice Patrol that still tracks North Atlantic icebergs.