[Livia]

There are lots of other disasters at sea that never get a mention. The liner Lusitania was torpedoed by the Germans in 1915 and 1200 people died... for instance. I suppose because the Titanic was described as 'unsinkable' it was all the more shocking.

When I lived in London I found a gravestone in my local churchyard in memory of two local men who had died on the Titanic. Obviously, coming from Newham they weren't going to have been first class passengers... I researched them and found they had gone to school together, signed up together - one as a storeman and one a waiter - and ultimately died together. Such a fascinating mixture of stories.