Thursday 18 April 1912
(A poem said to have been written on board the RMS Olympic, April 18, 1912, following the disaster to her sister ship)

He slams his door in the face of the world
If he thinks the world too bold:
He will even curse; but he opens his purse
To the poor, and the sick, and the old.

He is slow in giving to woman the vote
And slow to pick up her fan;
But he gives her room in an hour of doom
And dies – like an Englishman!

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919)

On this day in 1912 the luxury liner Titanic sank at 2:27 AM after hitting an iceberg just before midnight the night before (the 14th). 2227 persons were on board the Titanic; only 705 were rescued from the icy waters near the site of the sunken vessel. Most of the survivors were women and children.

Some fiction books featuring the Titanic:
Tonight on the Titanic (Magic Treehouse Series, No. 17) by Mary Pope Osborne
Titanic Crossing by Barbara Williams
SOS Titanic by Eve Bunting I read this one while I was sick a few days ago. It’s OK, typical teen romance-type novel with good historical detail. There’s a steward who foresees the disaster because of his supernatural “gift.” And there’s an underlying theme of class war and class distinctions just as there was in the movie, Titanic.