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
Wreck of the RMS Titanic warning which never reached the bridge, a restaurant menu and a sample square of carpet from a First Class stateroom. RMS Titanic Inc. organizes large-scale exhibitions around the world of artifacts retrieved from the wreck site. After minor exhibitions were held in Paris and Scandinavia, the first major exhibition of recovered artifacts was held at the National Maritime Museum in 1994–95. It was hugely popular, drawing an average of 21,000 visitors a week during the year-long exhibition. Since then, RMS Titanic Inc. has established a large-scale permanent exhibition of "Titanic" artifacts at the Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas,