Author: Robert D. Ballard

Discoverer of the Titanic

April 10th, 1912, the Titanic sailed from Southampton England with 2,200 passengers and crew. Four days later the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank.

The Titanic departed Southampton in southern England at 12:15, April 10, 1912 and was due to arrive in New York City on April 15. Along the way, stops were made in Cherbourg, France to collect continental passengers and Queenstown, (now Cobh) Ireland to pick up mail and additional passengers, mostly immigrants to the United States.

Newspaper Headline on Tuesday, April 16, 1912

Titanic’s Wreckage

The wreck of the Titanic is twelve thousand, five hundred feet deep.

RMS Titanic, Inc., general counsel Allan Carlin poses with a 20-ton piece of the Titanic's hull that the company recovered from the shipwreck site.

Various paper currencies recovered from the Titanic in an August 2008 file photo.       

flat markers that are engraved with words

plaques

Before we left the Titanic we placed two metal plaques on its decks.

Synonyms:signtablet

wrecked or ruined ship

shipwreck

I kept my eyes on the screen. But I thought about the people who survived the shipwreck. They told stories that will never be forgotten.

Synonyms:remainsruins

people who have stayed alive

survivors

The survivors tried to keep the boats together by calling out to one another in the dark.

impossible to sink

unsinkable

It seemed like a floating palace. Some people even said the ship was unsinkable.

voyage

For the first few days of the voyage the weather was clear and the ocean was calm.

a long journey to a distant land

Synonyms:expeditiontrip

the remains of something that has been destroyed

wreckage

Soon we saw pieces of railing and other wreckage. At last my dream was about to come true. The Titanic must lie nearby.

Synonyms:debrisrubbleshards

More Books About the Titanic

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words!

Draw! Draw! Draw!

plaques voyage unsinkable wreckage

survivors shipwreck

Free AssociationWrite as many words as you can think of that go with each

of the vocabulary words.For example: The word is school:

1. learning 2. Science 3. pencils 4. Reading 5. Math 6. teachers 7. P.E. 8. educationAnd on and on and on

1. survivors2. shipwrecks3. plaques4. voyage5. unsinkable6. distress

ClassifyingPlace the following words in categories:

survivors plaques unsinkable shipwreck voyage wreckage

• Decide the names of the categories.• Determine how many categories.• Determine which words go in which categories.• After classifying the words, write a paragraph explaining each of the categories and why certain words go in a particular category.

Synonym SearchMatch the vocabulary words on the left to the correct synonyms on the right. Some vocabulary words have more than one synonym. Ready, set, go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a. debris f. trip k. remains p.

b. sign g. Stays afloat

l. rubble q.

c. expedition h. wreckage m. tablet r.

d. ruins i. journey n. shards s.

e. Person who is alive

j. travel o. t.

plaques

voyage wreckage survivors unsinkable

shipwreck

3. After the earthquake, rescuers worked to dig out ____________.

4. At the front of the school there were _______ with the names of past students.

5. The trip from England to America was the maiden ________ of the Titanic.

6. The __________ from the crash was inspected by the detective.

2. The ____________ was discovered off the North Carolina coast.

1.

shipwreck; unsinkable; voyage; survivors; plaques; wreckage

Can You Find the Context Clues?Life jackets are suppose to be_______________.

Word Association Game

Word BankUnsinkable survivors plaques shipwreck voyage wreckage

1. Which word goes with 911? Why?

2. Which word goes with a sports banquet? Why?

3. Which word goes with buried treasure? Why?

4. Which word goes with a Disney Cruise Ship? Why?

Some words can be used more than once. Can you figure out which ones?

5. Which word goes with tragedy? Why?

6. Which word goes with floating on a liquid? Why?

1. Explain some causes of shipwrecks.

2. Plaques and monuments are similar because____________________ __________________________________________________________.

3. Explain why some objects sink and some are unsinkable.

4. Describe a perfect voyage.

5. Describe situations where there would be survivors.