Sinking of the RMS Titanic April 1912 when she left Southampton on the first leg of her journey to New York. A few hours later she called at Cherbourg in northern France, a journey of , where she took on passengers. Her next port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, which she reached around midday on 11 April. She left in the afternoon after taking on more passengers and stores. By the time she departed westwards across the Atlantic she was carrying 892 crew members and 1,320 passengers. This was only about half of her full passenger capacity of 2,435, as it was
History of Southampton King Edward VI School, Southampton. The port was the original point of departure for the Pilgrim Fathers aboard the "Mayflower" in 1620. A memorial can be found on Town Quay. Since that time it has been the last port of call for millions of emigrants who left the Old World to start a new life in the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Barbados and other parts of the world. In 1642, during the English Civil War, a Parliamentary garrison moved into Southampton, initially to defend against seaborne attack from Royalist ships. A Royalist army advanced as far as