The lookout Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg directly in Titanic’s path and calls the bridge. First Officer Murdoch orders the ship turned “hard-a-starboard” and the engines reversed. He also closes the doors of the supposedly watertight compartments.
Captain Edward J. Smith gives the order to begin lowering lifeboats, women and children taking priority. Many brave passengers make incredibly selfless choices in the chaos.
The Ship’s Final Hours
Several hours after its collision with the iceberg titanic timeline slowly tilts into the water. The ship’s passengers remain mostly unaware of the catastrophe. Some believe the iceberg’s impact was a mere glancing blow. Others, including the lookout man, assume it was a normal part of the ship’s passage through the Atlantic.
The ship’s musicians begin to play music in the first-class lounge. They then move to the main deck, where they entertain passengers waiting for lifeboats to be lowered. In some accounts, they continue to perform until the moment Titanic sinks.
At 12:40 AM, the captain and sixth officer hear a bell ring. They determine that the iceberg has struck the starboard side of Titanic. Sixth officer Moody immediately calls down to the bridge to alert the helmsman, who responds with a call of “hard a-starboard.” Murdoch instinctively orders the helmsman to spin the wheel as hard as he can.
The last lifeboat is lowered, but is only half-filled. To prevent a rush, Lightoller waves (and possible fires) his pistol into the air and allows only women and children to board. Those who don’t board the boat will be left to die.
Several occupants of the lifeboats are rescued before it is even pulled away from the Titanic. Then the captain sends a distress signal using the radio. He requests rescue ships to come to the area as soon as possible.
A number of other ships travel to the area where the Titanic sank to search for survivors.
The Carpathia, which had heard the distress signal, is 58 miles from the site. It is the first of several ships to pick up survivors. April 15: The Carpathia leaves the area bound for New York with 705 survivors on board. May 2 to July 3: The British Board of Trade holds an inquiry into the disaster. It concludes that the final ice message was the only one that warned of an iceberg directly in the Titanic’s path. Had the captain heeded this message, the disaster could have been avoided. The Carpathia finally arrived in New York on April 18.
The Iceberg’s Impact
The collision between Titanic and the iceberg is one of the most important moments in the disaster’s timeline. The massive ice structure was actually much larger than the ship itself, and since 90% of an iceberg’s mass is submerged underwater, the collision would exert immense force upon both the surface of the water and the underside of the ship. This tremendous amount of destructive force would channel into the ship, causing catastrophic flooding in multiple compartments.
A lookout named Frederick Fleet spots the iceberg dead ahead and gives a signal for a change in course. The helmsman, First Officer Murdoch, turns the liner hard to port (left) in an attempt to fishtail the stern away from the berg. The maneuver works, but the iceberg scrapes the side of the ship.
At this point the Captain orders the crew to begin preparing the lifeboats and getting passengers on deck. He informs the crowd there will only be room in the boats for about half of the people on board, and that women and children will be put into the boats first.
Captain Smith learns that at least five of the ship’s sixteen watertight compartments have been breached. He also hears that the ship can stay afloat for only two hours, so he gives the order to start sending out distress calls over the radio.
Just as the final lifeboat is being lowered into the Atlantic, an iceberg appears on the radar screen. It is too late to avoid the collision, and the iceberg collides with the Titanic at a speed of about 22 knots, causing serious damage to the ship.
The damage from the iceberg causes the Titanic to take on water at an alarming rate, and within minutes the front of the ship disappears below the surface of the ocean, followed two minutes later by the back of the boat. The entire ship eventually sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic, where it still lies today. This is one of the world’s most famous shipwrecks and is frequently visited by divers and tourists.
The Ship’s Final Plunge
In the early hours of April 14, 1912, as the Titanic made her way across the Atlantic Ocean toward New York City, senior wireless operator Jack Phillips began receiving warnings of icebergs from other ships. The first was the Cunard liner Caronia reporting a number of “field icebergs” and growlers (smaller icebergs that were harder to see) in an area around a day’s sailing away from the Titanic at latitude 42o N and longitude 49o W. Phillips immediately sent this information to Captain Smith and the ship’s first officer, Lieutenant Commander William McMaster Murdoch.
A lookout in the crow’s nest spotted an iceberg coming straight at the ship. Murdoch ordered a hard starboard turn. The ship scraped the iceberg and turned away, but not before it had taken on some water.
At 2:16 AM, the Titanic’s stern was seen rising up out of the water and the ship began to make rumbling noises as it rose. Stress was beginning to build on the keel and the structures above, especially near the 3rd funnel base and the aft grand staircase.
Another lookout, Frederick Fleet, spotted an iceberg in the path of the Titanic at 11:40 PM. He called for a full alert in the bridge and instructed the first officer to veer sharply to the left. The ship barely avoided a collision by less than 37 seconds.
As the Titanic continued to rise, water entered many compartments and flooded the decks. Some of the lifeboats were readied, although it would be several hours before all of them could be launched.
At this point, the only thing keeping the Titanic afloat was her massive cargo of coal, which was burning to keep her moving in the warm gulf stream. The ship’s 35 engineers in the pump room, dynamo room, and stokehold heroically stayed at their posts and kept the electric lights running until the end. They were the only people on the entire ship who did not abandon their stations when it became clear that the Titanic was doomed. Their efforts saved the lives of hundreds of passengers.
The Search For Survivors
Those who make it into lifeboats find themselves adrift in the North Atlantic, watching all aboard the Titanic sink 12,000 feet to the ocean floor. The scene is a shocking one for the survivors, who struggle to reach others clinging to floating debris or trying to swim toward the half-empty boats. Despite the fact that it is almost daylight, a horrible stillness descends on the sea.
Aboard the ship, passengers and crew begin preparing for the worst. The captain orders the officers to start lowering the lifeboats, which can only hold about half of the more than 2,200 people on board. Women and children are to be given priority for the first spots.
In the meantime, the design engineer Thomas Andrews surveys the damage. He finds the first six watertight compartments are flooded, and predicts the Titanic will only remain afloat for about two hours. He also warns Captain Smith that it is unlikely any ships will be able to rescue her.
At 12:45 a.m., lifeboat Number 7 is lowered, carrying 27 people. It is followed by Number 6 a few minutes later, which contains Margaret “Molly” Brown and Frederick Fleet. As these boats enter the water, the ship’s bow begins to tilt forward.
Other boatloads follow, though none are loaded to capacity. By the time the last boat is lowered around 2 a.m., the Titanic is fully submerged, and its lights have been turned off.
The captain sends an emergency message to nearby ships on the radio, using the ship’s code, which is known as CQD (C for commotion and D for distress). Unfortunately, the closest ship, the Californian, had turned off its wireless earlier in the evening, and it is too far away to respond before the Titanic sinks.
John Jacob Astor IV and his wife, Madeleine Force, board the Titanic before its 8:10 p.m. departure, along with Astor’s manservant and the couple’s nursemaid. Astor, who is the richest American alive at the time, had been a guest aboard other Cunard cruise ships, including the Lusitania and Mauretania. He had just returned from a trip to Egypt and Paris with his wife.
Conclusion:
The Titanic’s ill-fated journey began on April 10, 1912, and tragically ended on April 15, 1912, when it struck an iceberg and sank, resulting in the loss of over 1,500 lives. The disaster highlighted the importance of safety regulations at sea and remains a haunting reminder of the consequences of human hubris and inadequate preparedness.
FAQs:
- What caused the sinking of the Titanic? The Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, which caused severe damage to its hull, leading to flooding in several compartments. As a result, the ship became structurally compromised and eventually sank in the early hours of April 15.
How many survivors were there? Out of approximately 2,224 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic, around 710 survived the disaster. The majority of the survivors were women and children, as they were given priority during the evacuation in accordance with the “women and children first” protocol.
