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 the Port of Southampton (known as Hamwick, later Hamtun) across the river Itchen from the Roman site around 700 AD. The population reached about 5,000, making it a large town. The port traded with France, Greece and the Middle East, exporting wool and importing wines and fine pottery. Legend has it that while in Southampton (although Bosham, West Sussex makes a similar claim), Viking king Cnut the Great (also known as King Canute) sat on the shore on his throne and commanded the incoming tide to stop and not wet his robes. The tide ignored him. He was not trying to prove he was