24 Titanic Facts You Probably Didn't Know About + VIDEO

1. The richest passenger on board the Titanic was John Jacob Astor IV. His net worth was around $85 million (or $2 billion in today's terms). Astor perished with the Titanic. He was last seen smoking a cigarette on deck with American journalist and mystery writer Jacques Futrelle.

2. The opulent Turkish Bath was designated for first class passengers only. More than 700 third-class passengers had to share just two tubs.

3. Every engineer on Titanic perished with the ship. They stayed behind to keep the electricity running so others would have a chance of escape.

4. The first newspaper to write about the Titanic incident reported that there were no casualties. It was two days before an accurate report was released.

5. The remains of the Titanic remained lost for 73 years. In 1985, the wreck was found 3810 meters deep off the Newfoundland coast.

6. At the time of the Titanic's sinking the water temperature was -2°C.

7. After the impact with the iceberg 60 minutes passed before the first lifeboat was launched.

8. A passenger who survived a ship fire and sinking in 1871, faced his fears and boarded the Titanic in 1912. He sank with the ship.

9. A new rust-eating bacteria, Halomanas titanicae, will consume all that remains of the Titanic within 20 years.

10. First class facilities included a Parisian café, garden tea rooms, gym, library, writing and reading rooms, squash court, barber shop, pet shelter, lifts, smoking room, a heated swimming pool and more.

11. On the Titanic, there was a true love story.

Isidor Straus, co-owner of Macy's department store, and his wife Ida were first class passengers. They had been married for 41 years before they died in each other's arms on the sinking ship.

Isidor refused a seat next to his wife in one of the lifeboats, insisting that all the women and children be boarded first. Ida got off the boat refusing to leave without him. Witnesses reported seeing the couple head to the other end of the boat where they huddled together and waited quietly for the end.

12. The Titanic was 269.1 meters long. That's about two football pitches from stem to stern.

13. The 'unsinkable' Titanic had 15 bulkheads. What was the fatal flaw? Water could spill from one compartment to another, so the weight of the water pulled the ship down.

14. A lifeboat drill was scheduled for the day Titanic sank, but was cancelled by Captain Edward John Smith for unknown reasons.

15. Musicians played for 2 hours and 5 minutes as the ship sank.

16. 13 couples were on their honeymoon when the Titanic sank.

17. Fourteen years before the Titanic sank, Morgan Robertson wrote the novel The Wreck of the Titan (or Futility). It was a story about how the huge and unsinkable ship "Titan" crashes into an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Both the Titanic and the fictional Titan did not have enough lifeboats for the thousands of passengers on board.

18. Chief baker Charles Joughin swam for two hours in the icy waters until he was rescued. He attributed his survival to the generous amount of whisky he drank before the Titanic sank.

19. The Titanic was equipped to carry 64 lifeboats. It carried only 20, and most of them were not even filled to capacity.

20. After the massive iceberg struck, it took 2 hours and 40 minutes before the Titanic disappeared from the surface.

21. On 14 April 1912, Titanic's radio operators were warned six times about drifting ice in the North Atlantic.

22. More than 1500 passengers died when the Titanic sank. Only 306 bodies were found.

23. It really was "women and children first". The overall survival rate for men was only 20% and for women and children it was 74% and 52% respectively.

24. The SS Californian was less than 20 miles away when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Several distress signals were sent to her, but her radio operator had already gone to bed. The only ship to respond was the RMS Carpatheia, 93 km away. Even at full speed, it took four hours to reach the Titanic's surviving passengers.

Computer simulation of the Titanic sinking