The luxury liner Titanic, in this photo dated 1912, as she left Queenstown for New York, on her ill-fated last voyage.

Her passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, such as millionaires John Jacob Astor IV, Benjamin Guggenheim and Isidor Strauss, as well as over a thousand emigrants from Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere seeking a new life in America.

The disaster was greeted with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that had led to it. The inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic began within days of the sinking and led to major improvements in maritime safety.