Timeline of the sinking of the RMS Titanic
Encyclopedia
These are the detailed events of the night of Sunday 14 April 1912 and into the early hours of the following day, when the ocean liner
RMS
Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg
in one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history with 1517 lives (68% of those on board) lost.
Titanic was approximately two-thirds of the way through its maiden voyage
from Southampton
, England
, to New York City
via the Atlantic Ocean
, when it struck an iceberg
on 14 April at 23:40. Twenty minutes later, preparations for evacuation began. At about 2:20 Titanic sank entirely. It was not until 04:00 that the first rescue occurred, with the arrival of the Carpathia
.
later wrote, "the sea was like glass." There were six iceberg warnings for the area where the Titanic was heading, south off the Grand Banks
of Newfoundland; however the captain decided to ignore all six until he received the seventh one. It was just two days before new moon
and the sky was clear. Captain Edward Smith, perhaps in response to iceberg warnings received by wireless
over the previous few days, had altered the course around 10 miles (16.1 km) south of the normal shipping route. That Sunday at 13:45, a message from the steamer SS Amerika
warned that large icebergs lay south of the Titanic's path but the warning was addressed to the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office and was never relayed to the bridge
. Iceberg warnings were received throughout the day but were quite normal for the time of year. Later that evening at 21:30, another report of numerous large icebergs in the Titanics path was received by Jack Phillips and Harold Bride in the radio room, this time from the Mesaba, but this report also failed to reach the bridge. Although there were warnings, the captain found no operational or safety reasons to slow down or alter course further. Titanic had three teams of two lookouts high up in the crow's nest
who were rotated every two hours and, on any other night, it is almost certain they would have seen the iceberg in time. However, a combination of factors came into play, and with no moon, no wind, no binoculars
, and the dark side of the berg facing the ship, the lookouts were powerless. As Lightoller stated at the British inquiry, "Everything was against us."
At 23:40, by the wheelhouse clock, lookouts Frederick Fleet
and Reginald Lee
spotted a large iceberg
right ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge. Sixth Officer James Moody
answered. "Is there anyone there?!" shouted Fleet. "Yes, what do you see?" replied Moody. "Iceberg, right ahead!" cried Fleet. "Thank you" was Moody's reply before informing First Officer
William Murdoch
(the senior officer on duty on the bridge at the time) of the call.
all the way to the starboard (right side of the ship) in an attempt turn the ship to port (left). Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall also reported Murdoch to have set the ship's telegraphs
to "Full Astern" as he saw them at that setting when he entered the bridge some time during the accident. Boxhall’s testimony was contradicted by Greaser Frederick Scott, who stated that the engine-room telegraphs showed "Stop", and by Leading Stoker Frederick Barrett who stated that the stoking indicators went from “Full” to “Stop”.
During or right before the collision Murdoch may have also given an order (as heard by Quartermaster Alfred Olliver when he walked on to the bridge in the middle of the collision) of "Hard a'port", i. e. moving the tiller all the way to the port (left) side turning the ship to starboard (right), in what may have been an attempt to swing the remainder (aft
section) of the ship away from the berg in a common manoeuvre called a "port around" (this could explain Murdoch's comment to the captain "I intended to port around it"). The fact that such a manoeuvre was executed was supported by other crew members who testified that the stern of the ship never hit the berg. Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was at the helm, and Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, who may or may not have been on the bridge during the collision, both stated that the last command Murdoch gave Hichens was "Hard-a-starboard!".
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The ship made its fatal collision at an estimated 37 seconds after Fleet sighted the iceberg. The ship's starboard (right) side scraped the iceberg, buckling the hull in several places and causing rivet
s to pop out below the waterline, opening the first five compartments (the forward peak tank, the three forward holds and Boiler Room 6) to the sea. Although pumps in the sixth compartment (Boiler Room 5) were able to pump the water out as fast as it came in, the first five were riddled with small holes amounting to an area of about 12 square feet (1.1 m²). As the forward compartments filled, the watertight doors closed. Any sailors still in these compartments drowned quickly. Titanic could stay afloat with the first four compartments flooded, but it had already taken on water in five compartments, and a sixth was beginning to flood. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, ordered "all-stop" once he arrived on the bridge. Within ten minutes of the collision the five forward compartments were flooded to a depth of 14 feet (4.3 m). Following an inspection by the senior officers, the ship's carpenter J. Hutchinson and Titanics shipbuilder Thomas Andrews
, which included a survey of the half-flooded two-deck postal room, it was apparent that the Titanic would sink. Andrews estimated the ship had an hour to an hour and a half, and said that the pumps would only keep the Titanic afloat for a few extra minutes. The pumps could only cope with 2,000 tons of water per hour, but that quantity was flooding into the liner every five minutes. Before the clock hit midnight the forward third-class sections were beginning to flood. At 00:05, 25 minutes after the collision, Captain Smith ordered all the lifeboats uncovered; five minutes later, at 00:10, he ordered them to be swung out; then, at 00:25, he ordered them to be loaded with women and children and then lowered away. At 00:50, 4th Officer Joseph Boxhall fired the first white distress rocket.
A first-class passenger, Edith Louise Rosenbaum Russell, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the collision:
The sudden stopping of the Titanics engines, which had been running at full speed prior to the collision, meant that there was an an enormous build-up of excess steam pressure in the ship's boilers that needed to be released immediately in order to prevent a boiler explosion. Much of this excess steam was let off at high pressure through the whistles and valves on the ship's funnels, creating a tremendous amount of noise on the boat deck that deterred passengers from venturing outside and hampered communication among the crew as they tried to prepare the lifeboats.
Before his death, Charles Lightoller
, the Titanics second officer, gave an interview, describing his noisy encounter with Captain Smith, just before the first lifeboats were lowered:
Lifeboat #7 was lowered first, at around 00:45 on the starboard side, with only 28 people (26 of whom were first-class passengers) on board out of a maximum capacity of 65. Titanic was built to hold 32 life boats, but carried only 20: sixteen lifeboats, indicated by number, were in the davit
s; and four canvas
-sided collapsibles, indicated by letter, were stowed on the roof of the officers' quarters or on the forward Boat Deck to be launched from empty davits. Their total capacity was 1,178, only 53 % of the ship's total complement of passengers and crew of 2,222. However this was still more boats than required by the Board of Trade
. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross tonnage
, rather than its human capacity. The regulations concerning lifeboat capacity had last been updated in 1894, when the largest ships afloat weighed approximately 10,000 tons, while the Titanic had 46,328.
First and second-class passengers had easy access to the lifeboats with staircases that led right up to the boat deck, but third-class passengers found it much harder. Many found the corridors leading from the lower sections of the ship difficult to navigate and had trouble making their way up to the lifeboats. Some gates separating the third-class section of the ship from the other areas, like the one leading from the aft well deck to the second-class section, are known to have been locked. While the majority of first and second-class women and children survived the sinking, more third-class women and children were lost than saved. The locked third-class gates were the result of miscommunication between the boat deck and F-G decks. Lifeboats were supposed to be lowered with women and children from the boat deck and then subsequently to pick up F-G Deck women and children from open gangways. Unfortunately, with no boat drill or training for the seamen, the boats were simply lowered into the water without stopping. As a result of the segregation of third class, only one of the 29 children travelling in first and second-class (Lorraine Allison, a two year-old Canadian girl) perished in the disaster, compared to 53 of the 76 travelling in third.
Lifeboat #6
was lowered at 12:55, carrying only 23 people out of a capacity of 65. The only men on board were Quartermaster Robert Hichens, lookout Frederick Fleet and a stowaway from third class (Fahim Leeni). The lack of experienced sailors in the boat concerned Officer Lightoller, who requested that a passing yachtsman, Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
, join it. Peuchen grabbed one of the lowering ropes and shimmied down into the waiting boat which was already in the water. At 01:10, Lifeboat #8 departed the port side of the ship with only 28 occupants out of a possible 65. When Lifeboat #9 (with the same capacity as #6 and #8) evacuated the ship at 01:20, a mere ten minutes later, it carried 56.
The scene on the boat deck became increasingly chaotic. At 01:25, Lifeboat #11 was lowered down the starboard side overloaded with 70 passengers and crew. It was almost swamped as it reached the sea as it was lowered next to a discharge pipe where pumps were desperately trying to expel water from the ship and buy more time. Crewmen were able to use the oars to push the boat out of the way only seconds before touching the ocean. Ten minutes later Lifeboats #13 and #15 were lowered one after another, each at capacity. The water being spat out of the discharge pipe pushed #13 aft, directly below the rapidly descending #15. Crewmen frantically severed the ropes that had lowered #13 and were able to manoeuvre it out of the way with only seconds to spare. Around this time, Lifeboat #14 was lowered on the port side, with Fifth Officer Harold Lowe
in charge. As the boat began its descent Lowe was forced to fire three shots from his gun into the air along the side of the ship to deter passengers on the boat deck from jumping in. By 01:35, as Lifeboats #15 and #16 abandoned the ship, all of the boats in the second-class portion of the boat deck were gone. Six lifeboats remained on the ship, all in first-class, with a combined capacity of 293 for the estimated 1,800 people who remained on the ship. Lifeboats collapsible C and D were the last ones to leave the ship. Collapsible C left around 02:00, Collapsible D five minutes later. These boats were the closest to the ship as it foundered. Lifeboat #4 (the boat launched before Collapsible C) picked up those who were caught in the freezing ocean.
A major turning point came at 01:40, when the holes for the bow anchors dipped underwater. This allowed the frigid water to flood the rest of the bow which was until that time dry. Shortly afterwards the ship's bow suddenly lurched several feet downwards. This was most likely caused by the collapse of the watertight bulkhead between boiler rooms 6 and 5, which had been weakened by a smouldering coal bunker fire during the voyage. The sudden movement was noticeable to those on board and the increased angle of tilt further alerted them to the impending danger, leading to outbreaks of panic.
By 01:45, the ship's forecastle
and forward well decks were underwater and the forward A Deck promenade was barely ten feet above the surface. Around this time, passengers on the deck were greeted with the strange sight of dogs running up and down the deck, including John Jacob Astor
's beloved Airedale Terrier
, Kitty. The Titanic was equipped with a kennel, and a crewman had unlocked it, figuring there was no point in leaving all the dogs the passengers had brought on board to die locked up.
Wireless operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride
were busy sending out distress signals. The message was initially "CQD
-MGY, sinking, need immediate assistance," later interspersed with the newer "SOS
" at the suggestion of Bride (CQD was still a widely understood distress signal at the time, and MGY was the Titanics call sign
). Several ships responded, including the Mount Temple
, Frankfurt, and the Titanics sister ship, Olympic
, but none were close enough to make it in time. The Olympic was over 500 nautical miles (926 km) away. The closest ship to respond was the Cunard Line
's , and at 58 nautical miles (107 km) away it would arrive in about four hours, still too late to get to the Titanic in time. Two land–based locations received the distress call from the Titanic: the wireless
station at Cape Race
, Newfoundland
, and a Marconi telegraph station on top of the Wanamaker's
department store in New York City
. Shortly after the distress signal was sent, a radio drama ensued as the signals were transmitted from ship to ship, through Halifax
to New York, throughout the country. People began to show up at White Star Line offices in New York almost immediately.
and Quartermaster George Thomas Rowe attempted to signal the ship with a Morse lamp
, but the ship never appeared to respond. There has been much speculation about this unknown ship. At the public enquiries, Captain Moore of the and Captain Arthur Rostron
of the each gave independent evidence that they had sighted the lights of a vessel in the general vicinity during the hours of darkness. There is no certainty that they sighted the same vessel, but both of them judged the lights to be those of a sailing ship. Both Rostron and Moore also gave evidence that, later, when daylight came on 15 April, they saw a steamship in the vicinity which they identified as having two masts and one funnel. (The SS Californian had four masts.)
The was nearby but had stopped for the night because of ice, and its wireless was turned off because the wireless operator had gone to bed for the night. The Titanics wireless set had broken down earlier that day and Phillips and Bride had spent most of the day fixing it. As a result, they were extremely backlogged in their sending of messages. Finally, with the set fixed and a strong signal available from the Halifax station, Phillips was getting some work done. Just before he went to bed at around 23:00, the Californians radio operator Cyril Furmstone Evans
attempted to warn the Titanic that there was a large field of ice ahead, but he was cut off by Jack Phillips, who sent back, "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy! I am working Cape Race
!" (He was connecting with a Newfoundland station.)
Third Officer C.V. Groves of the Californian had observed a ship approaching at around 23:00; he thought it might be a passenger ship, but Captain Stanley Lord
disagreed because the ship did not appear to have the large number of lights which were characteristic of passenger vessels. Later, they observed that the ship appeared to stop. Then, after midnight, both Second Officer Herbert Stone and deck apprentice James Gibson observed rockets in the direction of the unidentified ship and informed Captain Lord. The rockets Titanic sent up had the colour of distress rockets for the White Star Line, but, because of a lack of uniformity in naval regulations at that time, Captain Lord was confused and did not know that they were distress rockets. He said, "Keep watching it" and went back to sleep. Even though there was discussion about the rockets and the unidentified ship, which the officers on duty thought to be moving away before finally disappearing, they did not take any decisive action to wake the Captain Lord or Chief Officer George Stewart or the wireless operator Evans until the change of watch at four in the morning.
Another possibility that was raised in the 1960s was that the nearby "unknown" ship may have been a sealer called the Samson illegally catching seals on the night of 14 April 1912. However, this was rapidly debunked, as the Samson was too small to have been mistaken for a vessel the size of the Californian, its logbook mentioned Cape Hatteras and the crew's fear that they were in American territorial waters. Also, it was supposed to be travelling to the southwest, well away from the location of the sinking of the Titanic. Finally, the Samson was recorded as being in Iceland on April 6 and again on April 20. Because of the vessel's size and maximum speed of six knots, it was not physically possible for it to have been close to where the Titanic sank between these two dates.
, managing director of the White Star Line, left on Lifeboat Collapsible C and was criticised by both the American and British Inquiries for not going down with the ship. Other passengers, including Father Thomas Byles
and Margaret Brown
, helped the women and children into lifeboats. Brown was finally forced into a boat, and she survived. Byles did not.
As the ship's tilt became more apparent, people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving with more passengers. "Women and children first" remained the imperative (see origin of phrase
) for loading the boats. The order "women and children first" was given by Captain Smith. It was intended that women and children would be loaded into lifeboats first, and any remaining positions, if available, be allocated to men. In certain circumstances, particularly in the lifeboats overseen by Second Officer Lightoller, this order was translated as women and children only. It should also be noted that over half of the third-class women perished, even though nearly all of the women in first and second class survived.
At 02:05, the waterline reached the bottom of the bridge rail. All the lifeboats, save for the awkwardly located Collapsibles A and B, had been lowered. Collapsible B, with 3 seats to spare, was the last lifeboat to be lowered from the davits. The total number of vacancies was 466.
At this point, Titanics bronze
propellers began to rise above the water line in front of Lifeboat #2, which was just off the stern. Water was beginning to flood the forward boat deck by entering through the crew hatches on the bridge. At this time, Captain Smith released wireless operators Harold Bride and Jack Phillips from their duties, Smith then quietly wandered off into the bridge making no attempt to save himself. Bride went to their adjoining quarters to gather up their spare money, as Phillips continued working. When Bride returned, he found a fireman unfastening Phillips' life belt, attempting to steal it without Phillips noticing him. Bride grabbed the fireman, and then the three of them wrestled around in the small room for a few seconds. At one point, Bride grabbed the man by the waist, while Phillips punched him until he finally fell to the floor unconscious. Seeing water now entering the room, Phillips and Bride grabbed their caps and dashed out on deck, where Bride helped with Collapsible B and Phillips ran aft.
The last two lifeboats floated right off the deck as the icy Atlantic reached them: Collapsible A half-filled with water and Collapsible B upside down with at least 30 men clinging to it. Shortly afterwards the forward expansion joint
, located aft of the first funnel, was pulled apart by the weight of the rising stern. This placed unbearable strain on two of the funnel's cable stays which were anchored to the boat deck aft of the joint. The cables snapped and the funnel fell forward, crushing part of the starboard bridge wing. On deck, people scrambled towards the stern or jumped overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat.
Father Byles spent his final moments alive reciting the rosary
and other prayers, hearing confession
s, and giving absolution
s to the dozens of people who huddled around him. The ship's stern rose to about 15 to 35 degrees, until 02:18 when the electrical system failed and the lights, which had burned brightly throughout the whole time, went out permanently. The Titanic's second funnel then broke off and fell into the water. (Although the second funnel has often been presumed and depicted as staying on the ship until it goes underwater, this would be impossible because none of the funnels would have been able to stand the pressure the water had on the ship. At the breaking point, about a quarter of the second funnel was underwater with the other three quarters above the surface. The first funnel was in the same position at the time of its detaching.)
At approximately 02:18, a few seconds after all electrical power failed on the ship, the superstructure underneath the third funnel completely split, splitting Titanic in half and crushing hundreds of people. The split was between the third and fourth funnels near the aft expansion joint
, and the bow section went completely under. The third funnel collapsed shortly after the breakup as the bow sank, and the fourth funnel fell soon after as the stern sank. The stern section was pulled up again by the sinking bow and heavy engines. The stern reached a high angle and surfaced from the water. The stern was reported to have tipped far on its port side as it began to sink, even turning around on the spot. Some reported cries from lifeboats that the ship had returned (shouting, "Look! The men are saved!"). However, after a few moments, the stern section also slid under the icy waters of the North Atlantic, two hours and 40 minutes after the collision with the iceberg.
The White Star Line
attempted to persuade surviving crewmen not to state that the hull broke in half, believing that this information would cast doubts upon the integrity of the company's vessels. However, many believe the stresses inflicted on the hull when it was at 12 degrees to the sea line (bow down and stern in the air) were beyond the design limits of the structure, and 45 degrees proved to be the breaking point, and no legitimate engineer could have fairly criticised the work of the shipbuilders in that regard.
The bow and stern took only a few minutes to fall 3795 metres (12,450.8 ft) to land about 600 metres (1,968.5 ft) apart on a gently undulating area of the seabed. The streamlined bow section struck the seabed at a speed of about 25 miles per hour (11.2 m/s) – 30 miles per hour (13.4 m/s). It skidded along the bottom and gouged out a trench before coming to a halt abruptly, causing the bow to jack-knife and the decks at the rear end to collapse one atop another. Nonetheless, it remained relatively intact. The stern, by contrast, suffered catastrophic damage as it descended. The hull disintegrated as air escaped and bulkheads imploded. When the stern hit the seabed the decks collapsed on top of each other, causing the remainder of the hull to burst outwards, littering the seabed with huge slabs of crumpled steel. For several more hours, debris rained down on the seabed, dispersed over several square miles through the action of water currents.
Of a total of 2,222 people, only 711 survived the initial sinking, i. e. just under a third. One passenger, William F. Hoyt, died from exposure during the night in lifeboat 14 after being pulled from the water. Five others died aboard the Carpathia, leaving 706 total survivors. 1,589 passengers and crew perished. Of the first-class, 201 were saved (60%) and 123 died. Of the second-class, 118 (44%) were saved and 167 were lost. Of the third-class, 181 were saved (25%) and 527 perished. Of the crew, 212 were saved (24%) and 679 perished (Captain Smith, as per naval tradition, went down with his ship). First-class men were four times as likely to survive as second-class men, and twice as likely to survive as third-class men. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared to 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class.
Also notable is the fact that even third class women were significantly more likely to survive than first class men, with 46 percent of third class women saved compared to 33 percent of first class men, a result of the order to save women and children first.
Of particular note, the entire complement of the 35-member Engineering Staff (25 engineers, 6 electricians, two boilermakers, one plumber, and one writer/engineer's clerk) were lost. The entire ship's orchestra was also lost. Led by violin
ist Wallace Hartley
, they played music on the boat deck of the Titanic that night to calm the passengers. There is a widespread story that they selected as their last piece "Nearer, My God, to Thee
" while others say it was "Autumn." The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia
in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. It has been suggested that the fact that only 705 people survived when the lifeboats had a capacity of 1,178 people (54% of those on board) could largely be attributed to the women and children first policy, where the psychological effects and resulting loss of efficiency caused the number of people saved to be only 32% of those on board. Had the lifeboats been filled to capacity, all 534 women and children could have been saved, with enough room left over for an additional 644 men.
Only one lifeboat came back to the scene of the sinking to attempt to rescue survivors. Another boat, Lifeboat #4, did not return to the site but was close by and picked up eight crewmen, two of whom later died aboard the Carpathia. Nearly an hour after the whole of the ship went under, after tying four lifeboats together on the open sea (a difficult task), Lifeboat #14, under the command of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe
, went back looking for survivors and rescued four people, one of whom, first-class passenger William Hoyt, died later. Collapsible B floated upside-down all night and began with 30 people. By the time the Carpathia arrived the next morning, 27 remained. Included on this boat were the highest-ranking officer to survive, Charles Lightoller
, wireless operator Harold Bride and the chief baker, Charles Joughin
. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or being pulled down by the anticipated suction from the sinking ship, though this turned out not to be severe. Only 10 survivors were pulled from the water into lifeboats.
Almost two and a half hours after the Titanic sank, RMS Carpathia
, commanded by Captain Arthur Henry Rostron, arrived first on scene to find the area scattered with icebergs. They started to pick up Titanic's first lifeboat at 04:10. Over the next few hours, the remainder of the survivors were rescued. On board the Carpathia, a short prayer service for the rescued and a memorial for the people who lost their lives were held, and at 08:50, Carpathia left for New York, arriving on 18 April. Among the survivors were two dogs brought aboard in the hands of the first-class passengers.
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
RMS
Royal Mail Ship
Royal Mail Ship , usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, a designation which dates back to 1840, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract by Royal Mail...
Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
in one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history with 1517 lives (68% of those on board) lost.
Titanic was approximately two-thirds of the way through its maiden voyage
Maiden voyage
The maiden voyage of a ship, aircraft or other craft is the first journey made by the craft after shakedown. A number of traditions and superstitions are associated with it....
from Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
via the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, when it struck an iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
on 14 April at 23:40. Twenty minutes later, preparations for evacuation began. At about 2:20 Titanic sank entirely. It was not until 04:00 that the first rescue occurred, with the arrival of the Carpathia
RMS Carpathia
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
.
13:45 – Iceberg warnings
On the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was completely calm; Second Officer Charles LightollerCharles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
later wrote, "the sea was like glass." There were six iceberg warnings for the area where the Titanic was heading, south off the Grand Banks
Grand Banks
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here.The mixing of these waters...
of Newfoundland; however the captain decided to ignore all six until he received the seventh one. It was just two days before new moon
New moon
In astronomical terminology, the new moon is the lunar phase that occurs when the Moon, in its monthly orbital motion around Earth, lies between Earth and the Sun, and is therefore in conjunction with the Sun as seen from Earth...
and the sky was clear. Captain Edward Smith, perhaps in response to iceberg warnings received by wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
over the previous few days, had altered the course around 10 miles (16.1 km) south of the normal shipping route. That Sunday at 13:45, a message from the steamer SS Amerika
USS America (ID-3006)
USS America was a troop transport for the United States Navy during World War I. She was launched in 1905 as SS Amerika by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the Hamburg America Line of Germany. As a passenger liner, she sailed primarily between Hamburg and New York...
warned that large icebergs lay south of the Titanic's path but the warning was addressed to the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office and was never relayed to the bridge
Bridge (ship)
The bridge of a ship is the room or platform from which the ship can be commanded. When a ship is underway the bridge is manned by an OOW aided usually by an AB acting as lookout...
. Iceberg warnings were received throughout the day but were quite normal for the time of year. Later that evening at 21:30, another report of numerous large icebergs in the Titanics path was received by Jack Phillips and Harold Bride in the radio room, this time from the Mesaba, but this report also failed to reach the bridge. Although there were warnings, the captain found no operational or safety reasons to slow down or alter course further. Titanic had three teams of two lookouts high up in the crow's nest
Crow's nest
A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the mainmast of a ship or structure, that is used as a lookout point.This position ensured the best view of the approaching hazards, other ships or land. It was the best device for this purpose until the invention of radar.In early ships it was...
who were rotated every two hours and, on any other night, it is almost certain they would have seen the iceberg in time. However, a combination of factors came into play, and with no moon, no wind, no binoculars
Binoculars
Binoculars, field glasses or binocular telescopes are a pair of identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects...
, and the dark side of the berg facing the ship, the lookouts were powerless. As Lightoller stated at the British inquiry, "Everything was against us."
23:40 – "Iceberg, right ahead!"
Frederick Fleet
Frederick Fleet was a crewman and survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic after it struck an iceberg on 14 April 1912...
and Reginald Lee
Reginald Lee
Reginald Robinson Lee was a lookout stationed in the crow's nest of the RMS Titanic when the ship collided with an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912.-Biography:...
spotted a large iceberg
Iceberg
An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice...
right ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge. Sixth Officer James Moody
James Paul Moody
James Paul Moody was the Sixth Officer of the and the only junior officer of the ship to die in the disaster.-Early life:...
answered. "Is there anyone there?!" shouted Fleet. "Yes, what do you see?" replied Moody. "Iceberg, right ahead!" cried Fleet. "Thank you" was Moody's reply before informing First Officer
Chief Mate
A Chief Mate or Chief Officer, usually also synonymous with the First Mate or First Officer , is a licensed member and head of the deck department of a merchant ship...
William Murdoch
William McMaster Murdoch
Lieutenant William "Will" McMaster Murdoch RNR was a Scottish sailor who died on board the , where he was employed by the White Star Line, serving as First Officer...
(the senior officer on duty on the bridge at the time) of the call.
Murdoch's orders
There are varying accounts as to what orders First Officer Murdoch gave in order to avoid collision with the iceberg. It is generally agreed that he gave an order of "Hard a'starboard" which, through rotation of the ship's wheel, would work to move the ship's tillerTiller
A tiller or till is a lever attached to a rudder post or rudder stock of a boat that provides leverage for the helmsman to turn the rudder...
all the way to the starboard (right side of the ship) in an attempt turn the ship to port (left). Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall also reported Murdoch to have set the ship's telegraphs
Engine order telegraph
An engine order telegraph or E.O.T., often also chadburn, is a communications device used on a ship for the pilot on the bridge to order engineers in the engine room to power the vessel at a certain desired speed...
to "Full Astern" as he saw them at that setting when he entered the bridge some time during the accident. Boxhall’s testimony was contradicted by Greaser Frederick Scott, who stated that the engine-room telegraphs showed "Stop", and by Leading Stoker Frederick Barrett who stated that the stoking indicators went from “Full” to “Stop”.
During or right before the collision Murdoch may have also given an order (as heard by Quartermaster Alfred Olliver when he walked on to the bridge in the middle of the collision) of "Hard a'port", i. e. moving the tiller all the way to the port (left) side turning the ship to starboard (right), in what may have been an attempt to swing the remainder (aft
Stern
The stern is the rear or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite of the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Originally, the term only referred to the aft port section...
section) of the ship away from the berg in a common manoeuvre called a "port around" (this could explain Murdoch's comment to the captain "I intended to port around it"). The fact that such a manoeuvre was executed was supported by other crew members who testified that the stern of the ship never hit the berg. Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was at the helm, and Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, who may or may not have been on the bridge during the collision, both stated that the last command Murdoch gave Hichens was "Hard-a-starboard!".
The collision
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
s to pop out below the waterline, opening the first five compartments (the forward peak tank, the three forward holds and Boiler Room 6) to the sea. Although pumps in the sixth compartment (Boiler Room 5) were able to pump the water out as fast as it came in, the first five were riddled with small holes amounting to an area of about 12 square feet (1.1 m²). As the forward compartments filled, the watertight doors closed. Any sailors still in these compartments drowned quickly. Titanic could stay afloat with the first four compartments flooded, but it had already taken on water in five compartments, and a sixth was beginning to flood. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, ordered "all-stop" once he arrived on the bridge. Within ten minutes of the collision the five forward compartments were flooded to a depth of 14 feet (4.3 m). Following an inspection by the senior officers, the ship's carpenter J. Hutchinson and Titanics shipbuilder Thomas Andrews
Thomas Andrews (shipbuilder)
Thomas Andrews, Jr. was an Irish businessman and shipbuilder; managing director and head of the draughting department for the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. Andrews was the shipbuilder in charge of the plans for the ocean liner...
, which included a survey of the half-flooded two-deck postal room, it was apparent that the Titanic would sink. Andrews estimated the ship had an hour to an hour and a half, and said that the pumps would only keep the Titanic afloat for a few extra minutes. The pumps could only cope with 2,000 tons of water per hour, but that quantity was flooding into the liner every five minutes. Before the clock hit midnight the forward third-class sections were beginning to flood. At 00:05, 25 minutes after the collision, Captain Smith ordered all the lifeboats uncovered; five minutes later, at 00:10, he ordered them to be swung out; then, at 00:25, he ordered them to be loaded with women and children and then lowered away. At 00:50, 4th Officer Joseph Boxhall fired the first white distress rocket.
A first-class passenger, Edith Louise Rosenbaum Russell, witnessed the immediate aftermath of the collision:
00:45 – First lifeboat lowered
Before his death, Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
, the Titanics second officer, gave an interview, describing his noisy encounter with Captain Smith, just before the first lifeboats were lowered:
Lifeboat #7 was lowered first, at around 00:45 on the starboard side, with only 28 people (26 of whom were first-class passengers) on board out of a maximum capacity of 65. Titanic was built to hold 32 life boats, but carried only 20: sixteen lifeboats, indicated by number, were in the davit
Davit
A davit is a structure, usually made of steel, which is used to lower things over an edge of a long drop off such as lowering a maintenance trapeze down a building or launching a lifeboat over the side of a ship....
s; and four canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
-sided collapsibles, indicated by letter, were stowed on the roof of the officers' quarters or on the forward Boat Deck to be launched from empty davits. Their total capacity was 1,178, only 53 % of the ship's total complement of passengers and crew of 2,222. However this was still more boats than required by the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
. At the time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross tonnage
Gross tonnage
Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...
, rather than its human capacity. The regulations concerning lifeboat capacity had last been updated in 1894, when the largest ships afloat weighed approximately 10,000 tons, while the Titanic had 46,328.
First and second-class passengers had easy access to the lifeboats with staircases that led right up to the boat deck, but third-class passengers found it much harder. Many found the corridors leading from the lower sections of the ship difficult to navigate and had trouble making their way up to the lifeboats. Some gates separating the third-class section of the ship from the other areas, like the one leading from the aft well deck to the second-class section, are known to have been locked. While the majority of first and second-class women and children survived the sinking, more third-class women and children were lost than saved. The locked third-class gates were the result of miscommunication between the boat deck and F-G decks. Lifeboats were supposed to be lowered with women and children from the boat deck and then subsequently to pick up F-G Deck women and children from open gangways. Unfortunately, with no boat drill or training for the seamen, the boats were simply lowered into the water without stopping. As a result of the segregation of third class, only one of the 29 children travelling in first and second-class (Lorraine Allison, a two year-old Canadian girl) perished in the disaster, compared to 53 of the 76 travelling in third.
Lifeboat #6
Titanic Lifeboat No. 6
Titanic Lifeboat No. 6 was the third lifeboat to be launched during the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic. Well-known for being the lifeboat that carried "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", No...
was lowered at 12:55, carrying only 23 people out of a capacity of 65. The only men on board were Quartermaster Robert Hichens, lookout Frederick Fleet and a stowaway from third class (Fahim Leeni). The lack of experienced sailors in the boat concerned Officer Lightoller, who requested that a passing yachtsman, Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
Arthur Godfrey Peuchen
Arthur Godfrey Peuchen was a Canadian businessman and RMS Titanic survivor.-Early life:Born in Montreal, Quebec, Peuchen was the son of a railroad contractor; his grandfather managed the London, Brighton and Midlands Railway. He was educated in private schools...
, join it. Peuchen grabbed one of the lowering ropes and shimmied down into the waiting boat which was already in the water. At 01:10, Lifeboat #8 departed the port side of the ship with only 28 occupants out of a possible 65. When Lifeboat #9 (with the same capacity as #6 and #8) evacuated the ship at 01:20, a mere ten minutes later, it carried 56.
Harold Lowe
Commander Harold Godfrey Lowe RD RNR was the Fifth Officer of the .-Early years:Harold Lowe was born in Eglwys Rhos, Caernarfonshire, North Wales on 21 November 1882, the third of eight children, born to George and Harriet Lowe...
in charge. As the boat began its descent Lowe was forced to fire three shots from his gun into the air along the side of the ship to deter passengers on the boat deck from jumping in. By 01:35, as Lifeboats #15 and #16 abandoned the ship, all of the boats in the second-class portion of the boat deck were gone. Six lifeboats remained on the ship, all in first-class, with a combined capacity of 293 for the estimated 1,800 people who remained on the ship. Lifeboats collapsible C and D were the last ones to leave the ship. Collapsible C left around 02:00, Collapsible D five minutes later. These boats were the closest to the ship as it foundered. Lifeboat #4 (the boat launched before Collapsible C) picked up those who were caught in the freezing ocean.
A major turning point came at 01:40, when the holes for the bow anchors dipped underwater. This allowed the frigid water to flood the rest of the bow which was until that time dry. Shortly afterwards the ship's bow suddenly lurched several feet downwards. This was most likely caused by the collapse of the watertight bulkhead between boiler rooms 6 and 5, which had been weakened by a smouldering coal bunker fire during the voyage. The sudden movement was noticeable to those on board and the increased angle of tilt further alerted them to the impending danger, leading to outbreaks of panic.
By 01:45, the ship's forecastle
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
and forward well decks were underwater and the forward A Deck promenade was barely ten feet above the surface. Around this time, passengers on the deck were greeted with the strange sight of dogs running up and down the deck, including John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
's beloved Airedale Terrier
Airedale Terrier
The Airedale Terrier is a breed of the terrier type that originated in Airedale, a geographic area in Yorkshire, England. It is traditionally called the "King of Terriers" because it is the largest of the terrier breeds...
, Kitty. The Titanic was equipped with a kennel, and a crewman had unlocked it, figuring there was no point in leaving all the dogs the passengers had brought on board to die locked up.
Harold Sydney Bride
Harold Sydney Bride became the junior wireless officer on board the maiden voyage of the ocean liner RMS Titanic. The Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm 14 April 1912 and sank two hours and forty minutes later. Working with Jack Phillips, Bride helped inform Titanics Captain Smith about the...
were busy sending out distress signals. The message was initially "CQD
CQD
CQD, transmitted in Morse code as — · — · — — · — — · · is one of the first distress signals adopted for radio use...
-MGY, sinking, need immediate assistance," later interspersed with the newer "SOS
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
" at the suggestion of Bride (CQD was still a widely understood distress signal at the time, and MGY was the Titanics call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
). Several ships responded, including the Mount Temple
SS Mount Temple
The SS Mount Temple was a Canadian Pacific Lines cargo ship that was sunk during the First World War by the German commerce raider SMS Möwe.Originally a Beaver Line ship, it was purchased by Canadian Pacific in 1903....
, Frankfurt, and the Titanics sister ship, Olympic
RMS Olympic
RMS Olympic was the lead ship of the Olympic-class ocean liners built for the White Star Line, which also included Titanic and Britannic...
, but none were close enough to make it in time. The Olympic was over 500 nautical miles (926 km) away. The closest ship to respond was the Cunard Line
Cunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
's , and at 58 nautical miles (107 km) away it would arrive in about four hours, still too late to get to the Titanic in time. Two land–based locations received the distress call from the Titanic: the wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
station at Cape Race
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", or "bare"...
, Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada. Situated in the country's Atlantic region, it incorporates the island of Newfoundland and mainland Labrador with a combined area of . As of April 2011, the province's estimated population is 508,400...
, and a Marconi telegraph station on top of the Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's
Wanamaker's department store was the first department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the first department stores in the United States. At its zenith in the early 20th century, there were two major Wanamaker department stores, one in Philadelphia and one in New York City at Broadway...
department store in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Shortly after the distress signal was sent, a radio drama ensued as the signals were transmitted from ship to ship, through Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
to New York, throughout the country. People began to show up at White Star Line offices in New York almost immediately.
00:30–04:30 – Thwarted rescue attempt by Mount Temple
The actions of the SS Mount Temple are frequently underplayed in written accounts. It received the first distress signal at 00:30 when it was an estimated 49 miles away; Captain Moore immediately turned his ship around and proceeded at the ship's maximum possible speed (11.5 knots) with the stokers working flat out, to the location given by the Titanic, but on arrival at the given position at 04:30 found no ship and was facing an impenetrable wall of ice; it was subsequently shown that the position given by the Titanic was eight miles out, and probably on the other side of that ice floe. Messages from the Titanic were received by the Mount Temple radio operator John Oscar Durrant (1892–c. 1962); these were relayed to Halifax, and Durrant appeared at the subsequent inquiry in Halifax to give evidence.The nearby "unknown" ship and others that failed to respond
From the bridge, the lights of a ship could be seen off the starboard side approximately 10–15 miles away. Since it was not responding to wireless, nor to the distress rockets being launched every 15 min or so, Fourth Officer Joseph BoxhallJoseph Boxhall
Commander Joseph Groves Boxhall RD RNR was the Fourth Officer on the , and later served as a naval officer in World War I.-Early life:...
and Quartermaster George Thomas Rowe attempted to signal the ship with a Morse lamp
Signal lamp
A signal lamp is a visual signaling device for optical communication . Modern signal lamps are a focused lamp which can produce a pulse of light...
, but the ship never appeared to respond. There has been much speculation about this unknown ship. At the public enquiries, Captain Moore of the and Captain Arthur Rostron
Arthur Rostron
Sir Arthur Henry Rostron, KBE, RD, RNR was a Captain for the Cunard Line and was the master of the ocean liner RMS Carpathia when it rescued the survivors of the RMS Titanic which sank on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg.Captain Rostron won wide praise for his energetic efforts to reach the...
of the each gave independent evidence that they had sighted the lights of a vessel in the general vicinity during the hours of darkness. There is no certainty that they sighted the same vessel, but both of them judged the lights to be those of a sailing ship. Both Rostron and Moore also gave evidence that, later, when daylight came on 15 April, they saw a steamship in the vicinity which they identified as having two masts and one funnel. (The SS Californian had four masts.)
The was nearby but had stopped for the night because of ice, and its wireless was turned off because the wireless operator had gone to bed for the night. The Titanics wireless set had broken down earlier that day and Phillips and Bride had spent most of the day fixing it. As a result, they were extremely backlogged in their sending of messages. Finally, with the set fixed and a strong signal available from the Halifax station, Phillips was getting some work done. Just before he went to bed at around 23:00, the Californians radio operator Cyril Furmstone Evans
Cyril Furmstone Evans
Cyril Furmstone Evans was a 20th century wireless telegraphist notable for his involvement in the Titanic tragedy. Cyril Evans was 20 years old in April, 1912 when Titanic embarked on her doomed maiden voyage and was the sole Wireless Operator on the SS Californian which was also crossing the...
attempted to warn the Titanic that there was a large field of ice ahead, but he was cut off by Jack Phillips, who sent back, "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy! I am working Cape Race
Cape Race
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese name for this cape, "Raso", or "bare"...
!" (He was connecting with a Newfoundland station.)
Third Officer C.V. Groves of the Californian had observed a ship approaching at around 23:00; he thought it might be a passenger ship, but Captain Stanley Lord
Stanley Lord
Stanley Lord was captain of the SS Californian, a ship that was in the vicinity of the RMS Titanic the night it sank on 15 April 1912.- Early life :...
disagreed because the ship did not appear to have the large number of lights which were characteristic of passenger vessels. Later, they observed that the ship appeared to stop. Then, after midnight, both Second Officer Herbert Stone and deck apprentice James Gibson observed rockets in the direction of the unidentified ship and informed Captain Lord. The rockets Titanic sent up had the colour of distress rockets for the White Star Line, but, because of a lack of uniformity in naval regulations at that time, Captain Lord was confused and did not know that they were distress rockets. He said, "Keep watching it" and went back to sleep. Even though there was discussion about the rockets and the unidentified ship, which the officers on duty thought to be moving away before finally disappearing, they did not take any decisive action to wake the Captain Lord or Chief Officer George Stewart or the wireless operator Evans until the change of watch at four in the morning.
Another possibility that was raised in the 1960s was that the nearby "unknown" ship may have been a sealer called the Samson illegally catching seals on the night of 14 April 1912. However, this was rapidly debunked, as the Samson was too small to have been mistaken for a vessel the size of the Californian, its logbook mentioned Cape Hatteras and the crew's fear that they were in American territorial waters. Also, it was supposed to be travelling to the southwest, well away from the location of the sinking of the Titanic. Finally, the Samson was recorded as being in Iceland on April 6 and again on April 20. Because of the vessel's size and maximum speed of six knots, it was not physically possible for it to have been close to where the Titanic sank between these two dates.
02:00 – Waterline reaches forward boat deck
At first, passengers were reluctant to leave the warm, well-lit and ostensibly safe Titanic, which showed no outward signs of being in imminent danger, and board small, unlit, open lifeboats. This was one of the reasons most of the boats were launched partially empty: it was perhaps hoped that many people would jump into the water and swim to the boats. Also important was an uncertainty regarding the boats' structural integrity; it was also feared that the boats might collapse if they were fully loaded before being set in the water, despite being tested with a weight of 70 men. Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats be lowered half empty in the hope the boats would come back to save people in the water, and some boats were given orders to do just that. The boat #1, meant to hold 40 people, left the Titanic with only 12 people on board. It was rumored that Sir Cosmo and Lady Duff Gordon bribed the two able seamen and five firemen to take them and their three companions off the ship. This rumor was later proven false. J. Bruce IsmayJ. Bruce Ismay
Joseph Bruce Ismay was an English businessman who served as chairman and managing director of the White Star Line of steamships. He came to international attention as the highest-ranking White Star official among the 706 survivors Joseph Bruce Ismay (12 December 1862 – 17 October 1937) was...
, managing director of the White Star Line, left on Lifeboat Collapsible C and was criticised by both the American and British Inquiries for not going down with the ship. Other passengers, including Father Thomas Byles
Thomas Byles
Father Thomas Roussel Davids Byles was a Catholic priest who famously remained on board the RMS Titanic as she was sinking after colliding with an iceberg, hearing confessions and giving absolution....
and Margaret Brown
Margaret Brown
Margaret Brown was an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist who became famous due to her involvement with the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, after exhorting the crew of lifeboat 6 to return to look for survivors. It is unclear whether any survivors were found after life boat 6...
, helped the women and children into lifeboats. Brown was finally forced into a boat, and she survived. Byles did not.
As the ship's tilt became more apparent, people started to become nervous, and some lifeboats began leaving with more passengers. "Women and children first" remained the imperative (see origin of phrase
HMS Birkenhead (1845)
HMS Birkenhead, also referred to as HM Troopship Birkenhead or steam frigate Birkenhead, was one of the first iron-hulled ships built for the Royal Navy...
) for loading the boats. The order "women and children first" was given by Captain Smith. It was intended that women and children would be loaded into lifeboats first, and any remaining positions, if available, be allocated to men. In certain circumstances, particularly in the lifeboats overseen by Second Officer Lightoller, this order was translated as women and children only. It should also be noted that over half of the third-class women perished, even though nearly all of the women in first and second class survived.
At 02:05, the waterline reached the bottom of the bridge rail. All the lifeboats, save for the awkwardly located Collapsibles A and B, had been lowered. Collapsible B, with 3 seats to spare, was the last lifeboat to be lowered from the davits. The total number of vacancies was 466.
02:05 – Propellers exposed
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...
propellers began to rise above the water line in front of Lifeboat #2, which was just off the stern. Water was beginning to flood the forward boat deck by entering through the crew hatches on the bridge. At this time, Captain Smith released wireless operators Harold Bride and Jack Phillips from their duties, Smith then quietly wandered off into the bridge making no attempt to save himself. Bride went to their adjoining quarters to gather up their spare money, as Phillips continued working. When Bride returned, he found a fireman unfastening Phillips' life belt, attempting to steal it without Phillips noticing him. Bride grabbed the fireman, and then the three of them wrestled around in the small room for a few seconds. At one point, Bride grabbed the man by the waist, while Phillips punched him until he finally fell to the floor unconscious. Seeing water now entering the room, Phillips and Bride grabbed their caps and dashed out on deck, where Bride helped with Collapsible B and Phillips ran aft.
The last two lifeboats floated right off the deck as the icy Atlantic reached them: Collapsible A half-filled with water and Collapsible B upside down with at least 30 men clinging to it. Shortly afterwards the forward expansion joint
Expansion joint
An expansion joint or movement joint is an assembly designed to safely absorb the heat-induced expansion and contraction of various construction materials, to absorb vibration, to hold certain parts together, or to allow movement due to ground settlement or earthquakes...
, located aft of the first funnel, was pulled apart by the weight of the rising stern. This placed unbearable strain on two of the funnel's cable stays which were anchored to the boat deck aft of the joint. The cables snapped and the funnel fell forward, crushing part of the starboard bridge wing. On deck, people scrambled towards the stern or jumped overboard in hopes of reaching a lifeboat.
Father Byles spent his final moments alive reciting the rosary
Rosary
The rosary or "garland of roses" is a traditional Catholic devotion. The term denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up the rosary...
and other prayers, hearing confession
Confession
This article is for the religious practice of confessing one's sins.Confession is the acknowledgment of sin or wrongs...
s, and giving absolution
Absolution
Absolution is a traditional theological term for the forgiveness experienced in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This concept is found in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Eastern Orthodox churches, the Anglican churches, and most Lutheran churches....
s to the dozens of people who huddled around him. The ship's stern rose to about 15 to 35 degrees, until 02:18 when the electrical system failed and the lights, which had burned brightly throughout the whole time, went out permanently. The Titanic's second funnel then broke off and fell into the water. (Although the second funnel has often been presumed and depicted as staying on the ship until it goes underwater, this would be impossible because none of the funnels would have been able to stand the pressure the water had on the ship. At the breaking point, about a quarter of the second funnel was underwater with the other three quarters above the surface. The first funnel was in the same position at the time of its detaching.)
02:20 – Titanics final plunge
Expansion joint
An expansion joint or movement joint is an assembly designed to safely absorb the heat-induced expansion and contraction of various construction materials, to absorb vibration, to hold certain parts together, or to allow movement due to ground settlement or earthquakes...
, and the bow section went completely under. The third funnel collapsed shortly after the breakup as the bow sank, and the fourth funnel fell soon after as the stern sank. The stern section was pulled up again by the sinking bow and heavy engines. The stern reached a high angle and surfaced from the water. The stern was reported to have tipped far on its port side as it began to sink, even turning around on the spot. Some reported cries from lifeboats that the ship had returned (shouting, "Look! The men are saved!"). However, after a few moments, the stern section also slid under the icy waters of the North Atlantic, two hours and 40 minutes after the collision with the iceberg.
The White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
attempted to persuade surviving crewmen not to state that the hull broke in half, believing that this information would cast doubts upon the integrity of the company's vessels. However, many believe the stresses inflicted on the hull when it was at 12 degrees to the sea line (bow down and stern in the air) were beyond the design limits of the structure, and 45 degrees proved to be the breaking point, and no legitimate engineer could have fairly criticised the work of the shipbuilders in that regard.
The bow and stern took only a few minutes to fall 3795 metres (12,450.8 ft) to land about 600 metres (1,968.5 ft) apart on a gently undulating area of the seabed. The streamlined bow section struck the seabed at a speed of about 25 miles per hour (11.2 m/s) – 30 miles per hour (13.4 m/s). It skidded along the bottom and gouged out a trench before coming to a halt abruptly, causing the bow to jack-knife and the decks at the rear end to collapse one atop another. Nonetheless, it remained relatively intact. The stern, by contrast, suffered catastrophic damage as it descended. The hull disintegrated as air escaped and bulkheads imploded. When the stern hit the seabed the decks collapsed on top of each other, causing the remainder of the hull to burst outwards, littering the seabed with huge slabs of crumpled steel. For several more hours, debris rained down on the seabed, dispersed over several square miles through the action of water currents.
| Passenger Category | Number Aboard | Percentage Saved | Percentage Lost | Number Saved | Number Lost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Children, First Class | 6 | 83% | 17% | 5 | 1 |
| Children, Second Class | 24 | 100% | 0% | 24 | 0 |
| Children, Third Class | 79 | 34% | 66% | 27 | 52 |
| Women, First Class | 144 | 97% | 3% | 140 | 4 |
| Women, Second Class | 93 | 86% | 14% | 80 | 13 |
| Women, Third Class | 165 | 46% | 54% | 76 | 89 |
| Women, Crew | 23 | 87% | 13% | 20 | 3 |
| Men, First Class | 175 | 33% | 67% | 57 | 118 |
| Men, Second Class | 168 | 8% | 92% | 14 | 154 |
| Men, Third Class | 462 | 16% | 84% | 75 | 387 |
| Men, Crew | 885 | 22% | 78% | 192 | 693 |
| Total | 2224 | 32% | 68% | 710 | 1514 |
Of a total of 2,222 people, only 711 survived the initial sinking, i. e. just under a third. One passenger, William F. Hoyt, died from exposure during the night in lifeboat 14 after being pulled from the water. Five others died aboard the Carpathia, leaving 706 total survivors. 1,589 passengers and crew perished. Of the first-class, 201 were saved (60%) and 123 died. Of the second-class, 118 (44%) were saved and 167 were lost. Of the third-class, 181 were saved (25%) and 527 perished. Of the crew, 212 were saved (24%) and 679 perished (Captain Smith, as per naval tradition, went down with his ship). First-class men were four times as likely to survive as second-class men, and twice as likely to survive as third-class men. Nearly every first-class woman survived, compared to 86 percent of those in second class and less than half of those in third class.
Also notable is the fact that even third class women were significantly more likely to survive than first class men, with 46 percent of third class women saved compared to 33 percent of first class men, a result of the order to save women and children first.
Of particular note, the entire complement of the 35-member Engineering Staff (25 engineers, 6 electricians, two boilermakers, one plumber, and one writer/engineer's clerk) were lost. The entire ship's orchestra was also lost. Led by violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist Wallace Hartley
Wallace Hartley
Wallace Henry Hartley was an English violinist and bandleader on the on its maiden voyage. He became famous for leading the eight member band as the ship sank on 15 April 1912. He died in the sinking.-Life and career:...
, they played music on the boat deck of the Titanic that night to calm the passengers. There is a widespread story that they selected as their last piece "Nearer, My God, to Thee
Nearer, My God, to Thee
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" is a 19th century Christian hymn by Sarah Flower Adams, based loosely on Genesis 28:11–19, the story of Jacob's dream. Genesis 28:11–12 can be translated as follows: "So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the...
" while others say it was "Autumn." The majority of deaths were caused by hypothermia
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. It has been suggested that the fact that only 705 people survived when the lifeboats had a capacity of 1,178 people (54% of those on board) could largely be attributed to the women and children first policy, where the psychological effects and resulting loss of efficiency caused the number of people saved to be only 32% of those on board. Had the lifeboats been filled to capacity, all 534 women and children could have been saved, with enough room left over for an additional 644 men.
03:00 – Lifeboat rescues
Harold Lowe
Commander Harold Godfrey Lowe RD RNR was the Fifth Officer of the .-Early years:Harold Lowe was born in Eglwys Rhos, Caernarfonshire, North Wales on 21 November 1882, the third of eight children, born to George and Harriet Lowe...
, went back looking for survivors and rescued four people, one of whom, first-class passenger William Hoyt, died later. Collapsible B floated upside-down all night and began with 30 people. By the time the Carpathia arrived the next morning, 27 remained. Included on this boat were the highest-ranking officer to survive, Charles Lightoller
Charles Lightoller
Commander Charles Herbert Lightoller DSC & Bar, RD, RNR was the second mate on board the , and the most senior officer to survive the disaster...
, wireless operator Harold Bride and the chief baker, Charles Joughin
Charles Joughin
Charles John Joughin was the chief baker on the RMS Titanic. Joughin was born in Birkenhead, Wirral, England on 3 August 1878. He survived in the freezing water for an exceptionally long time. After hours in the water, he was found by Collapsible B and pulled onto the overturned boat...
. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or being pulled down by the anticipated suction from the sinking ship, though this turned out not to be severe. Only 10 survivors were pulled from the water into lifeboats.
04:10 – Carpathia picks up first lifeboat
RMS Carpathia
RMS Carpathia was a Cunard Line transatlantic passenger steamship built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson. Carpathia made her maiden voyage in 1903 and became famous for rescuing the survivors of after the latter ship hit an iceberg and sank on 15 April 1912...
, commanded by Captain Arthur Henry Rostron, arrived first on scene to find the area scattered with icebergs. They started to pick up Titanic's first lifeboat at 04:10. Over the next few hours, the remainder of the survivors were rescued. On board the Carpathia, a short prayer service for the rescued and a memorial for the people who lost their lives were held, and at 08:50, Carpathia left for New York, arriving on 18 April. Among the survivors were two dogs brought aboard in the hands of the first-class passengers.
See also
- Passengers of the RMS Titanic
- List of crew members on board RMS Titanic
Further reading
- Lord, Walter. A Night to Remember
- Ruffman, Alan. Titanic Remembered