video transcript

ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION STORY: Descendants of some of the 1,500 people killed on the Titanic gathered at Southampton docks on Tuesday (April 10) to hold a service commemorating the departure of the ship a 100 years ago. A commemoration service for some 650 relatives was held near the berth from where the Titanic sailed and a minute's silence held. The English port city lost 549 people in the 1912 disaster when the White Star line ship hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic on April 15, 1912 on her first voyage to New York. At noon local time (1100gmt) a recording of the Titanic's whistle was sounded around the docks. Barbara Corben, who's great uncle Ernest Theodore Corben died on the Titanic, paid tribute to the service. "I just found the whole experience very moving, very touching and I am just so pleased that I have been able to share in it," she said. Dignitaries and descendants threw wreaths and single roses into the docks, just before the Titanic's departure was re-enacted by the tig tender, the Calshot, which was built in the same era as the Titanic to help move around great ocean liners. The Titanic was considered unsinkable but foundered in frigid Atlantic waters off Newfoundland on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg. Around 700 people were rescued but there were too few lifeboats to save the rest. The world's most famous maritime disaster has fascinated people ever since, explaining why passengers from 28 countries were prepared to pay up to 8,000 pounds each to be a passenger on the memorial cruise organised by a British travel firm.