HH's Titanic Geocoin Antique Gold RE

To stay with us and 'clock up mileage' by accompanying us on our geocaching exploits! To be 'discovered' by other cachers we may meet from time to time.

Journey began on 15th April, 2012 with a visit to ‘North Down Coastal Path - Seapark, Holywood' [GC2PZ2W] – on the 100th anniversary to the day of the sinking of the White Star liner, RMS Titanic, and within sight of where this great ship was built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff.

This is one of 7 geocoins of the same design, each with a slightly different specification, which we own. The others in the set are:

• TB50K6P HH's Titanic Geocoin Antique Copper XLE
• TB50KDD HH's Titanic Geocoin Antique Gold / Polished Silver XXLE
• TB50K4F HH's Titanic Geocoin Antique Silver RE
• TB50KFP HH's Titanic Geocoin Black Nickel XLE
• TB50K83 HH's Titanic Geocoin Polished Gold XLE
• TB50KCC HH's Titanic Geocoin Polished Silver XLE

About the TITANIC
Built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and completed in April 1912, RMS Titanic was the largest ship in the world at the time and the flagship of the White Star Line.

The sinking of the Titanic occurred on the night of 14 April through to the morning of 15 April 1912, in the North Atlantic, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday, 14 April 1912.

Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, which made it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Titanic had received several warnings of sea ice during 14 April but was travelling near her maximum speed when she sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen ‘watertight’ compartments to the sea.

Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four flooded compartments but not more, and the crew soon realised that the ship was going to sink. They used rocket flares and radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. However, although not unlawfully, the ship was carrying far too few lifeboats for everyone and many boats were not filled to their capacity due to a poorly managed evacuation.

The ship sank with over a thousand passengers and crew members still on board. Almost all those who jumped or fell into the water died from hypothermia within minutes.

RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and had rescued the last of the survivors in the lifeboats by 09:15 on 15 April, little more than 24 hours after Titanic's crew had received their first warnings of drifting ice.

The disaster caused widespread public outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax shipping regulations, and the unequal treatment of the different passenger classes aboard the ship. Inquiries set up in the wake of the disaster recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations. This led in 1914 to the establishment of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today.

The wreck of the Titanic lies at a depth of 12,414 feet (3,784 metres).

Titanic Belfast (www.titanicbelfast.com), opened in 2012 exactly 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic, is an iconic memorial to this great ship and the people who built her, and aims to give visitors an insight into its building and the tragedy of its loss.