April 15th 1912 is a date that close to 100 years later still rings true as a painful memory for one of the biggest disasters of it’s time. In the early hours just past midnight after 2 hours of sinking the unsinkable ship Titanic was dragged into the watery depths of the Atlantic Ocean killing over 1000 people. ₁



There were many factors that played into the sinking of the unsinkable ship and blame for who was responsible is still in dispute. The very fact that an iceberg made it so far south and kept it’s mass was a shock, not all of the ice warnings were received by the captain thanks to a dispute between the two officers working on the Titanic to relay passenger messages and weather warnings and the officer working on the nearest ship 2 hours away, the front of the ship was built differently than the rest of the ship with a weaker form of iron, and there weren’t enough life boats for everyone aboard though the count met regulations. ₂



Timeline

At 13:45 on April 14th an iceberg warning was received. Icebergs were not uncommon at this time of year and growlers were the type to watch out for. Seeming incredibly small on top but being massive under the water- with waves as calm and still as what were being reported there was little hope of seeing such ice unless from the lapping of the waves.

At 23:39 despite hoping that by the time they saw anything big enough to hit the ship they’d have time to turn- Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted an iceberg dead ahead. Without the aide of binoculars (looking glasses) the boys didn’t see the ice until it was only 400m ahead. The call was made to alert First Officer William Murdoch

Murdoch obviously gave an order to avoid collision with the iceberg. The ship veered to port and the iceberg scraped the side of the front of Titanic. For the moment everyone believed they had avoided disaster but what they didn’t know was that the metal on the ship was the weakest at the point it was struck thanks to the low grade iron rivets. Though designed to withstand a blow head on Titanic was not designed to take a blow from the side and water came rushing in the lower levels filling up the compartments. Titanic could stay afloat with 3 compartments flooded but her 5 compartments flooded easily thanks to floodgates that were too low. Though equipped with pumps the water was rushing in faster than it could be sent out.

At 00:05 Captain Smith ordered all the lifeboats be uncovered. 5 minutes later they were swung out and 10 minutes later were starting to be boarded by women and children.

At 00:45 the first lifeboat was lowered with only 28 people onboard when the lifeboat could carry 65. The lifeboats could essentially accommodate 1178 of the ships total 2222 passengers. The boat deck grew more and more chaotic as the lifeboats were loaded and set off to the sea.

Between 00:30 and 04:30 the S.S. Mount Temple turned completely around having received the distress signals while it was 49 miles away. But Titanic had relayed the wrong coordinates in their distress call and the ship was met with a wall of ice where Titanic should have been. It’s thought that in reality Titanic was on the other side of the ice.

At 2:00 the ship began to tilt and passengers became more nervous. The lifeboats finally started leaving with more passengers as people began to believe the unsinkable ship would sink. The waterline reached the bottom of the bridge rail and at 2:05 the tilt was so strong the propellers were exposed. As the water engulfed the ship it’s believed that after relieving his crew the Captain stayed at the wheel and went down with the ship or was washed off to sea. The ship’s stern rose to 35 degrees and the electrical system failed. The sound funnel broke and crashed into the water killing hundreds.

At 2:20 Titanic took its final plunge. The ship broke into two large pieces and the bow section went completely under. The tug of war went back and forth until the pieces separated completely broken in half and sank.

At 3:00 the ship had gone down completely and only one lifeboat came back to the scene to rescue 14 survivors in the water. One other lingered on the edges. Some people were rescued from the water but many who were rescued died from exposure and hypothermia.

At 4:10 Carpathia arrived on the scene and picked up the first lifeboat.

Of those who survived 199 were First class (60%), 119 were Second class (43.8%), 174 were Third class (24.5%) and 212 were crew (23.6%) in total 705 people survived out of 2,222 passengers and crew. 1,517 people died, 68.1% of the total. ₃











Interesting Titanic Videos [link] [link]

References
₁ According to [link]
₂ According to “Who Sank the Titanic?” aired April 13th 2009 on Discover Chanel [link]
₃ According to [link]