The sinking of the RMS Titanic was one of the worst peacetime maritime isasters in history. On 14 April 1912, at 11:40 p.m., the ship struck an iceberg and sank in just under three hours with the loss of approximately 1,500 lives. There are many (sometimes conflicting) descriptions of the disaster by the surviving passengers and crew and the sinking has been the subject of numerous investigations from the time it sank up to the present day. (for a full description of the ship involved see: RMS Titanic)