When it comes to history’s most famous ships, you’d be hard-pushed to find a more notorious one than RMS Titanic. The largest and most luxurious passenger liner of its time sank in the early hours of 15 April 1912 after hitting an iceberg, just four days into its maiden voyage. Of the 2,200 aboard, some 1,500 people perished in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

Immortalised in books, TV and films, much of what we think we know about the ship stems from James Cameron’s Oscar-winning romance Titanic, released in 1997. But what was life really like on board? And what are the myths that still surround the doomed vessel?

Read on to discover the lines separating fact and fiction in the story of the Titanic…

Titanic myths: what really happened on history’s most infamous ship