This is the famous iceberg that sank the Titanic !

April 14, 1912 - 8:20 p.m. : The liner "Titanic" - nicknamed "the unsinkable" collides head-on with an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean, nearly 600 kilometers south of Newfoundland in Canada.

A terrible shipwreck then began which caused the death of 1,522 passengers (out of the 2,200 people on board); a real trauma which will remain engraved in the collective American memory, but also worldwide, in particular thanks to the famous film by James Cameron (released in 1997).

At the center of all attention, the famous block of ice - him - has been immortalized on film, by a sailor named W. Wood.

In black and white, the photo was taken two days before the sinking, as another passenger ship ("the Etonian") was sailing the same route.

After making the photographic capture of the iceberg - while indicating its geographic coordinates - Captain Wood allegedly had the photo developed once he arrived in New York.

It was in a letter accompanying a copy of the photo - sent to his grandfather - that the sailor wrote that he found himself "in front of the iceberg that sank the Titanic".

Having become true collector's items, this photo and this letter were - in 2020 - the subject of an auction, in particular supervised by the auctioneer Andrew Aldridge, for an amount estimated at £ 12,000 (i.e., approximately, the sum of $ 15,000).

If this shot is worth so much today, it's simply because there have never been any photos of the iceberg taken aboard the Titanic.

From the day of the shipwreck, only a few sketches drawn by Frederick Fleet and Joseph Scarrott remain.

Importantly, in all likelihood the designs like the photo feature the same distinctive shape on top.

Thus, there is no real doubt: the photo of Captain Wood is - to date - the only one which depicts the famous iceberg that sank the Titanic.

There was a sinking more tragic than the Titanic, but no one paid attention to it because of the First World War !

Just two years after the sinking of the Titanic, the RMS Empress of Ireland sank in the St. Lawrence River in eastern North America after colliding with a Norwegian collier in 1914. There were nearly 1500 people aboard this transatlantic liner and only 400 people survived this sinking, which makes the latter worse than that of the Titanic.

Although this disaster is more tragic than that of the Titanic, it was thrown into oblivion, and this because of the First World War, in fact, the latter officially began in July, and the liner sank in May.

People were so terrified of war that they had very little interest in RMS Empress of Ireland and so history forgot one of the greatest shipwrecks ever.

Titanic survivor refused to have doctors amputate both of his legs

Richard Norris Williams was considered one of the best tennis players in the world. But the Titanic could have changed the life of this sportsman.

Indeed, Richard survived the sinking of the Titanic by clinging to a lifeboat, he was in freezing water up to his waist, which caused the freezing of his two legs.

Once saved, the doctors recommended that he amputate both of his legs in an operation without wasting any more time, but he refused, and with great strength and willpower he regained full use of his legs.

Two years later, he won the US Open in singles, Wimbledon in doubles and an Olympic gold medal.