Passengers of the RMS Titanic April 1912 at around 11:40 pm, while the RMS "Titanic" was sailing about south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink. Shortly before midnight, Captain Edward Smith ordered the ship's lifeboats to be readied and a distress call was sent out. The closest ship to respond was Cunard Line's away, which would arrive in an estimated four hours—too late to rescue all of "Titanic" passengers. Forty-five minutes after the ship hit the iceberg, Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be loaded and lowered under the orders women and children first. The first
Olympic-class ocean liner saved. Thirty men lost their lives in the disaster. One survivor, nurse Violet Jessop was notable as having also survived the sinking of RMS "Titanic" in 1912, and had also been on board RMS "Olympic", when it collided with HMS "Hawke" in 1911. "Britannic" was the largest ship lost during World War I, but her sinking did not receive the same attention as the sinking of her sister, "Titanic", or the sinking of the Cunard superliner , when she was sunk by a torpedo in the Irish Sea. When "Titanic" sank in 1912 and "Britannic" sank in 1916, their sinkings