The tragic sinking of the Titanic is surely one of the most infamous naval stories. The ship, the largest afloat at the time, sank in the icy waters of the North Atlantic on April 15, 1912. To this day it remains the most deadly peacetimes inking of such an ocean liner. Richard Bluttal explains.
The Titanic leaving Belfast, Northern Ireland. Here the ship was guided by tugs as part of sea trials.
1:45 AM- April 15, 1912 Atlantic Ocean
Number 2, an emergency cutter, is launched under the command of Fourth Officer Boxhall. Aboard are some twenty people.
Number 11 is lowered with some 50 people aboard.
Number 4 is readied for launch. Madeleine Astor, some five months pregnant, is helped onto the boat by her husband, John Jacob Astor. When Astor asks if he may join her, Second Officer Lightoller—who has strictly followed the order of women and children first—refuses. Astor does not press the issue and steps away. His body will later be recovered.
The Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 required the largest-class ships, those weighing over 10,000 tons, to carry at least sixteen lifeboats. Even though the Titanic, which launched in 1911, weighed 45,000 tons, that minimum was the same. The Titanic carried twenty lifeboats, giving it enough capacity for roughly half of the people on board the night the ship sank. The prevailing thinking at that time was that the ship itself would serve as a gigantic lifeboat. Nearly everyone believed that even a heavily damaged vessel would remain afloat for many hours before sinking. That would allow plenty of time for the lifeboats to go back and forth several times, ferrying passengers to nearby ships.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage, traveling from Southampton, England, to New York City. Nicknamed the “Millionaire’s Special,” the ship was fittingly captained by Edward J. Smith, who was known as the “Millionaire’s Captain” because of his popularity with wealthy passengers. Indeed, onboard were a number of prominent people, including American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, British journalist William Thomas Stead, and Macy’s department store co-owner Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida. In addition, Ismay and Andrews were also traveling on the Titanic. Unsinkable, that is what most people thought. The actual title of “unsinkable” was bestowed on her by the press on both sides of the Atlantic, so impressed were they at the emphasis on safety evident in her design. Titanic was in fact built to the highest safety standards of her day. Every known possibility was considered, and that was just the problem. Titanic was well-protected against any of those possibilities (collisions and groundings, primarily), but no one ever thought that a huge liner might suffer fatal damage colliding with an object that was not a ship way out at sea where no rescue ships were nearby.
Iceberg
Titanic struck a North Atlantic iceberg at 11:40 PM in the evening of 14 April 1912 at a speed of 20.5 knots (23.6 MPH). The berg scraped along the starboard or right side of the hull below the waterline, slicing open the hull between five of the adjacent watertight compartments. If only one or two of the compartments had been opened, Titanic might have stayed afloat, but when so many were sliced open, the watertight integrity of the entire forward section of the hull was fatally breached. Titanic slipped below the waves at 2:20 AM on 15 April.
Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer, happened to be on board that night and was able to observe the rate at which the forward compartments were filling with water. Being intimately familiar with Titanic's design, he knew that she could not float with five watertight compartments breached, and so all he had to do was figure out roughly how long it would take for the fifth compartment to fill, because water would then spill over into the sixth, and so on.
His exact words to Captain Smith were "She's going to founder. It's a mathematical certainty. We have perhaps two hours. Not more."
The story of the Titanic tragedy is one of many questions but not necessarily answers that satisfy the facts we know. William Hazelgrove has taken what we know and added a new and important context: wireless radio, in his book One Hundred and Sixty Minutes The Race to save the RMS Titanic, the time It took from the collision with an iceberg to the final sinking of the Titanic. I will be examining the final 30 minutes and thanks to Mr. Hazelgrove be including portions of his amazing book.
This is what we know for the first 130 minutes of the collision.
11:40 PM
The starboard side of the Titanic scrapes along the iceberg.
Captain Smith arrives on deck and is told that the ship has struck an iceberg. Shortly thereafter he is informed that the mail room is filling with water. Other reports soon come in of water in at least five of the ship's compartments.
Designer Thomas Andrews surveys the damage. The Titanic was built to remain afloat with only four compartments flooded. Andrews predicts that the ship has only about one to two hours before sinking.
April 15, 1912
12:00 AM
The lifeboats begin to be readied for launch. An order is later given for women and children to board first, with crewmen to row and guide the boats.12:15 AM
Captain Smith orders Phillips and Harold Bride to send out a distress signal. The Frankfurt is among the first to respond, but the liner is some 170 nautical miles (315 km) away, to the south. Other ships also offer assistance—including the Titanic's sister ship the Olympic—but are too far away.12:20 AM
The Carpathia receives a distress signal from the Titanic: “Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man.” The Cunard liner immediately changes course to aid the stricken ship some 58 nautical miles (107 km) away. It will take the Carpathia more than three hours to arrive.
Passengers waiting to enter lifeboats are entertained by the Titanic's musicians, who initially play in the first-class lounge before eventually moving to the ship's deck. Sources will differ on how long they perform—until shortly before the ship sinks, according to some.12:45 AM
Number 7 on the starboard side is the first lifeboat lowered. It carries some 27 people even though it has room for 65. Many of the first lifeboats will be launched well below capacity, partially because of the crewmen's worry that the davits would be unable to hold a fully loaded lifeboat. In addition. The Titanic fires the first of eight distress rockets. A ship has been sighted less than 10 nautical miles (18.5 km) away, but the crew is unable to contact it through telegraph or Morse lamp. The rockets also prove unsuccessful.
Crewmen aboard the Californian see the rockets but fail to determine their source.12:55 AM
Number 5 is the second lifeboat to leave the Titanic. As it is being lowered, two male passengers jump into the boat, injuring one of the female occupants.
Number 6 is launched, containing passenger Molly Brown and lookout Fleet. The lifeboat is commanded by Quartermaster Robert Hichens, who was at the wheel when the Titanic struck the iceberg.1:00 AM
Number 3 is lowered. It carries approximately 39 people, 12 of whom are part of the ship's crew.
Water is seen at the base (E deck) of the Grand Staircase.
Number 1 is launched with only 12 people; it can hold 40.1:10 AM
Number 8 is among the first lifeboats lowered on the port side. It is launched with only 28 people, including first-class passenger Lucy Noël Martha, countess of Rothes, who will later man the tiller. Isidor and Ida Straus are offered seats in the boat1:20 AM
Number 10 is launched. Among the occupants is nine-week-old Millvina Dean, who will become the last living survivor of the disaster; she will die in 2009 at the age of 97.
Number 9 on the stern starboard side is lowered. With some 56 people on board, it was nearly full. One of the occupants is American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim's alleged mistress.1:25 AM
Possibly not understanding the direness of the situation, the Olympic radios: “Are you steering southerly to meet us?” The Titanic responds: “We are putting the women off in the boats.” While still hours away, the Olympic will be informed by the Carpathia of the Titanic's sinking.
Number 12 is lowered with about half of its seats empty. However, it will eventually carry more than 70 people.1:30 AM
Amid the growing panic, several male passengers try to board number 14, causing Fifth Officer Harold Lowe to fire his gun three times. He is later placed in command of the boat. After the sinking of the Titanic, Lowe will transfer people into lifeboats 4, 10, 12, and collapsible D so he can return to look for survivors in the water. Phillips continues to send out distress calls with growing desperation: “Women and children in boats. Cannot last much longer.”
Number 13 is launched and is soon followed by number 15, which holds many third-class passengers. As it is being lowered, number 15 nearly lands on number 13, which has drifted under it. However, the crewmen in number 13 are able to cut the launch ropes and row to safety.1:35 AM
Number 16 is launched.1:40 AM
Collapsible C is lowered. Among its occupants is White Star chairman J. Bruce Ismay. Although he will later claim that no women or children were in the area when he boarded the lifeboat, others will refute that assertion. His not to go down with the ship will result in many branding him a coward.
FINAL 30 MINUTES 1:50AM
On Sunday night, wireless operator Joseph Cannon was Listening to the news from Cape Race to put into Monday’s onboard newspaper on the Russian East Asiatic Company vessel Birma. Cannon was twenty-four and had just married before taking his position as junior wireless officer on the 4,859-ton Birma. The static filled his headphones and then cleared. “CQD-SOS from MGY. We have struck an iceberg sinking fast come to our assistance. Position Lat 41 46 N. Cannon wrote down the message, recording the corrected position the Titanic was sending out. He didn’t know the call letters of the ship but woke up Ward, who immediately sent back. “MGY, what is the matter with you? SBA.” 2 Phillips tapped back. “Ok. We have struck iceberg and sinking, please tell captain to come. Joseph Cannon read the words, not believing what he saw. “MGY is the new White Star Liner Titanic—Titanic-OM DFT.”6 The ship started to vibrate beneath the two men, and they understood then they were going to attempt to rescue the largest ship in the world.
What Jack Phillips and Harold Bride didn’t know as they tapped out the last wisps of electric current with the water rising all around them and the wireless room inverting like a rocket about to be launched was that the Parisian was only fifty miles away, but her wireless operator, Donald Sutherland, had gone to bed after spending all day trying to get assistance for the steamer Deutschland, which was disabled. Captain Haines had ordered Sutherland to bed at 10 p.m. The two wireless operators didn’t know the closest ship was the Californian with its sleeping Captain Lord and two officers on the bridge watching the Titanic sink. They didn’t know the Mount Temple was nosing around the far side of the ice field with crew and passengers watching the Titanic blast off her rockets while her captain refused to enter the ice.
FINAL 20 MINUTES 2 AM
On the Californian, the closest ship to the Titanic, Captain Lord was stretched out in the chart room with his arms crossed. There was no way that Captain Lord was going to take his ship into the ice.
The only lifeboats that remain on the Titanic are three of the collapsible boats. The Titanic's bow has sunk low enough that the stern's propellers are now clearly visible above the water.
Crewmen lower collapsible lifeboat D from the roof of the officers' quarters. More than 20 people are in the boat.
As the Titanic's bow goes under, collapsible A is washed from the deck. Some 20 people managed to get into the boat, which is partly filled with water. By the time Lowe in number 14 comes to their aid, only 12 are alive. Three bodies are left in the boat, which will be discovered a month later by the Oceanic.
As crewmen try to release collapsible B, it falls, and, before it can be righted, it is swept off the Titanic. Some 30 men find safety on the still-overturned lifeboat, including wireless operator Bride and Second Officer Lightoller. The men will later be taken aboard numbers 4 and 12.
Captain Smith releases the crew, saying that “it's every man for himself.” Smith is reportedly last seen on the bridge. His body will never be recovered.
FINAL 10 MINUTES 2:10AM
Between 2:10 and 2:15 Bride had gone one final inspection of the ship to access his and Phillips chances of finding a lifeboat. Water was seeping in the wireless room with Phillips still working and his ankles were covered with the water. Phillips continued squeezing every bit of electricity out of his wireless set.
Third class passengers were like ants rising as far as they could go topside. “the crystal chandeliers of the a la carte restaurant hung at a crazy angle, but they still burned brightly, lighting the fawn panels of French walnut and the rose-coverewd carpet. Now the only real music heard was that of the smashing dishes and tables sliding across room.”
Bride draped his life jacket over his friend’s shoulders. Both men dashed out of the wireless room. They found the lasts collapsible boat (B) on the boat deck. Bride would tell a reporter later that “Phllips ran aft, and that was the last time I saw him alive.” A large wave came off the deck and carried Bride into the boat which was upside down when it hit the water, if he was to stay alive in the this upside boat he had to halt his breathing for he was under water.
FINAL TWO MINUTES
The lights on the Titanic go out, plunging the ship into darkness.
As the Titanic's bow continues to sink, the stern rises higher out of the water, placing great strain on the midsection, and the ship breaks in two between the third and fourth funnels. Reports would later speculate that it took some six minutes for the bow section, likely traveling at approximately 30 miles (48 km) per hour, to reach the ocean bottom.
The stern momentarily settles back in the water before rising again, eventually becoming vertical. It briefly remains in that position before beginning its final plunge.
The oarsmen lay on their oars and all in the lifeboat were motionless…. And then as we gazed awe struck, she tilted up slowly, revolving apparently about a center of gravity just astern of the midships, until she attained a vertically upright position, and there she remained—motionless! As she swung up, her lights, which had shone without a flicker all night, went out suddenly, came on again with a single flash, then went out altogether. And as they did so, there came a noise… partly a roar, partly a groan, partly a rattle, and partly a smash…. It went on successively for some seconds, possibly fifteen to twenty, as the heavy machinery dropped down to the bows of the ship.
The stern disappears into the ocean, and the Titanic is gone.
Water pressure allegedly causes the stern, which still has air inside, to implode as it sinks. The stern lands some 2,000 feet (610 meters) from the bow.
Hundreds of people are in the freezing water. Although there is room in most of the lifeboats, crewmen are fearful that the boats will be swamped. Several boats eventually return, but too late. A few people are pulled to safety, but most die of exposure.
Over the next several hours, numerous ships try in vain to contact the Titanic. At one point, the Birma's wireless operator, believing that he has heard the liner, sends a message: “Steaming full speed to you; shall arrive you 6 in morning. Hope you are safe.”
Titanic sank with over 1,500 passengers and crew still on board. Almost all of those who jumped or fell into the sea drowned or died within minutes due to the effects of cold shock and incapacitation. RMS Carpathia arrived about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued all of the 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April, some nine and a half hours after the collision. The disaster shocked the world and caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, and the unequal treatment of third-class passengers during the evacuation. Subsequent inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations, leading to the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea.
What do you think of the sinking of the Titanic? Let us know below.
Now read Richard’s piece on the history of slavery in New York here.
