Titanic: A Voyage Remembered
Two visitors, Alex and Sam, stand beside a model of the Titanic at a museum.
Alex: Look at the size of that ship! Even the model takes up half the room.
Sam: The real Titanic was about 882 feet long. That’s nearly as long as three football fields!
Alex: And it had four huge smokestacks. Was smoke coming out of all of them?
Sam: Only three carried smoke from the ship’s furnaces. The fourth was added partly to make the ship look impressive.
Alex: It worked! Where was the Titanic going?
Sam: It left Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. After stops in France and Ireland, it headed across the Atlantic Ocean toward New York City.
Alex: Was this its first trip?
Sam: Yes. Its first voyage was also its last.
Alex: More than 2,200 passengers and crew were on board, according to this sign. What was life like for them?
Sam: It depended on where they stayed. Some first-class passengers enjoyed elegant dining rooms and comfortable cabins. Many third-class passengers traveled in simpler spaces below deck.
Alex: Were they all going to New York for the same reason?
Sam: No. Some were traveling for pleasure or business. Others hoped to start new lives in North America.
- voyage:
- A journey, especially a long trip by sea.
- furnaces:
- Enclosed structures where fuel is burned to produce heat.
- crew:
- The people who work together to operate a ship.
- collision:
- An event in which one object crashes into another.
- distress:
- A condition of danger or serious trouble.
- survivors:
- People who remain alive after a dangerous event.
- disaster:
- An event that causes great harm or loss.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 11. How does the conversation show that the Titanic was an impressive ship?
- 22. How did the experiences of first-class and third-class passengers differ?
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About this reader's theater passage for Upper Elementary
“Titanic: A Voyage Remembered” is a reader's theater reading passage about Maritime History, written for Upper Elementary. It takes about 4 minutes to read (533 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.