What happened and why

On Sunday morning, April 14, Wireless Operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride picked up a wireless message from the Cunard liner, Caronia, reporting "bergs, growlers and field ice at 42° N from 49° to 51° W." The ship had previously picked up other ice warnings and would continue to receive more over the course of the day. Bride took the message to the bridge where it was most likely noted on the ship's chart by Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall. Ice, however, was quite common this time of year in the North Atlantic and the officers were confident that they would have no trouble seeing and avoiding an iceberg in time. The weather was cool but sunny and the sea calm. What danger could a few bits of ice pose to this magnificent ship?

More ice warnings were received that day. One received at 11:40 am from the Dutch liner Noordam reporting "much ice" in roughly the same area as the Caronia, apparently never reached the bridge. Out on the Promenade Deck Captain Smith handed J. Bruce Ismay, president of the White Star line, a wireless message from the Baltic reporting ice bergs and large quantities of field ice. Mr. Ismay casually put the message in his coat pocket and later showed it to two prominent passengers, Mrs. Arthur Ryerson and Mrs. John B. Thayer. The Titanic had covered 546 miles since noon Saturday and the following day they were planning to bring her to full speed for a short test to see what she was capable of. The ship was performing very well and even the fire that had been smoldering in the forward coal bunker of boiler room #5 had finally been extinguished. The Titanic continued to receive ice warnings throughout the day but the officers were still unconcerned.

That evening, first class passengers, Mr. and Mrs. George Widener, hosted a dinner party in honor of Captain Smith in the a la carte restaurant. Many of the more prominent and wealthy passengers on board attended. While this dinner party continued on, the wireless room remained busy. Captain Stanley Lord of the steamer Californian reported passing three large icebergs three miles to the south. This message never reached Captain Smith.

Around 9 pm, Smith excused himself from dinner and joined Second Officer Herbert Lightoller on the bridge. Lightoller was on duty from 6 to 10 pm. They discussed the changing weather conditions, namely that the drop in temperature meant they were approaching a region of ice. They were both aware that some ice was ahead and that bergs were more difficult to sea on clear, calm, moonless nights such as this with no wind or swell to cause surf. Smith retired for the night at 9:20 pm and told Lightoller, "If it becomes at all doubtful, let me know at once."

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Back in the Marconi shack, Harold Bride had retired to bed while Jack Phillips was busy wading through commercial traffic. Earlier in the day their equipment had broken down and they were now backed up on outgoing messages. Also they had now come into range of Cape Race, the nearest North American shore station on the southeastern tip of Newfoundland. As Phillips, busily worked the wireless apparatus, the Californian's sole wireless operator, Cyril Evans, broke in with the message that they were stopped and surrounded by ice. The ship was so close to the Titanic that the message nearly blasted poor Phillips' ears off! Irritated, Phillips replied, "Shut up, shut up. I am busy. I am working Cape Race." Shortly after, Evans turned off his equipment and retired for the night, after working 18 continuous hours. The day's seven ice warnings now indicated a huge field of ice about 78 miles long, directly in the path of the Titanic.

At 11:40 PM lookouts Fred Fleet and Reginald Lee were ready to call it a night as their shift ended in 20 minutes. The sea had been flat calm and the air bitterly cold. The two lookouts were without binoculars as they had been misplaced in Southampton. Fleet noticed something directly ahead of the ship and as it grew larger he realized what it was. An iceberg, which was nearly black and difficult to see from having flipped over at some point prior. He immediately rang the bridge and reported "Iceberg right ahead" to Sixth Officer Moody who had answered the phone. Murdoch quickly sprang into action; ordering the engines stopped and then reversed and telling Quartermaster Robert Hichens to turn the wheel "hard-a-starboard". Ships in that era where turned by turning the wheel in the opposite direction they were intending to turn. Thus "hard-a-starboard" meant turning the wheel to starboard, or right, which would turn the ship sharply to port, or left. Murdoch closed all the watertight compartments in the bottom of the ship as Hichens turned the wheel as far to the right as it would go. At the last moment the ship began to veer to the left. It seemed at first that they had made it. However, a grinding sound indicated that they had not been so lucky. The ship took a glancing blow along the starboard bow.

The Titanic's hull was divided into 15 transverse watertight bulkheads into 16 "watertight" compartments. She was designed to float with any two of these compartments flooded. She could float even with all four of the first compartments flooded. But not the first five. The ship was now taking on water in the mailroom. The critical compartment was boiler room No. 6. With the first 5 compartments breached, water would eventually fill them and overflow into each consecutive compartment and eventually pull the ship down by the head. Thomas Andrews, the ship's architect, knew her prognosis first. He estimated that she would go down in an hour, at most an hour and a half.

Captain Smith had no time to ponder what mistakes has led to the disaster. His concern now was the orderly evacuation of the ship and trying to keep her afloat as long as possible. In his long and remarkable career at sea, this was the first real crisis he had to deal with. Smith was faced with the reality that the ship only carried enough lifeboats for roughly half the estimated 2,200 on board. Actually, the Titanic carried more lifeboats than was required by the British Board of Trade regulations of the day.

At 12:05 am the squash court, 32 feet above the keel, was filling with water. Chief Officer Wilde was ordered by the Captain to uncover the lifeboats. Fourth Officer Boxhall was sent to wake Second Officer Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe. Smith then walked the 20 yards to the wireless room to personally give instructions to Phillips and Bride to send out a call for assistance, the CQD distress call. Later on, Bride would suggest that they send out the signal, SOS, as "it may be their last chance to use it". SOS was now being adopted, not because it stood for "Save Our Souls" or "Save our Ship" as is commonly thought, but because it was more easily understood by all passing ships in any language. The Titanic was one of the first ships to use the new signal. Boxhall worked out her position as being 41° 46'N, 50° 14'W.

Not far away, the Leland liner, Californian, sat close enough to lend assistance, but the sole wireless operator, Cyril Evans had settled down for some much needed sleep, having shut off his equipment after getting rebuked by Phillips earlier. Third Officer Groves stopped by the room to fiddle with the machinery. He was a novice operator, trying to practice his morse. Earlier he had spotted what appeared to be a large passenger ship and was hoping to contact it. Unable to get the equipment to work, he gave up and headed to his cabin. Several minutes later the Titanic's first distress call was sent out.

Fourth Officer Boxhall on board the Titanic noticed the lights of a steamer about 5 miles away and pointed it out to Captain Smith, who directed him to send up distress signals. Boxhall ordered Quartermaster George Rowe to begin firing rockets at five minute intervals until they were all gone. In the wireless room, Phillips and Bride sent out distress call after distress call. Although their signal was picked up and replied to by numerous vessels, the only one close enough to lend assistance was the Cunard liner, Carpathia, which was about 58 miles away. The ship's captain, Arthur Roston, although still not completely convinced the ship could possibly be in imminent danger; nonetheless turned his ship around, and headed full speed toward the Titanic's position.

On board the nearby ship, Californian, Second Officer Stone had observed white rockets bursting over the strange ship to the south. Attempts were made to contact it by Morse lamp but these were in vain. Eventually Captain Stanley Lord was awoken and notified. He went down to the chart room but asked to informed only if the ship appeared to move closer. Stone and Apprentice Gibson continued to watch as more rockets were fired over this strange ship. At 2 am the ship appeared to be sailing away to the southwest and 20 minutes later is disappeared completely.

An hour after the collision on the Titanic, the majority of the passengers still did not appreciate just how much danger they were in. Lifeboats began to be filled around 12:30 am with the instructions for women and children first. Most of the first class passengers were on the boat deck wearing their white lifebelts but most were reluctant to enter the boats. As a result many of the first boats were lowered away less than half full. The ship's band gathered just inside the entrance to the Grand Staircase from the Boat Deck and began to play a medley of lively tunes to keep the passengers from panicking. Down in the steerage section of the ship, there was much confusion and alarm. Many of the passengers did not speak English and could not understand the instructions they were given. Many failed to get abovedecks; others managed to reach the Poop deck, third class space or were in the forward Well Deck. Those lucky enough to reach the Boat Deck had made it there by somehow maneuvering around the barriers between third and first class or by simply breaking them down. White Star Line later denied that any attempts were made to keep third class from entering the lifeboats but statistics told an entirely different story.

The band continued to play on, even as the bow dipped lower and lower. With the firing of rockets, passengers now began to realize just how much trouble the Titanic was in. As the ship tilted more and more, boats were now being lowered away more filled to capacity, but seldom full. Down in the engine room, Chief Engineer William Bell and a few crewmen kept the steam up in the boiler rooms to keep the lights on and to power the pumps. By 1:30 am, the steep tilt of the ship was causing many people left on the decks difficulty in keeping their balance. More signs of panic began to appear. First Office Murdoch in charge of the starboard side was more liberal about letting men enter boats when there were no more women around. On the port side, however, Second Officer Lightoller was much more by the book and was strictly enforcing the "women and children" only rule. As port-side boat 14 was being lowered, a group of passengers rushed to the rails and threatened to jump in. The boat was loaded with 40 people already. Fifth Officer Lowe inside the boat, fired two shots to warn the crowd on deck away.

Wireless operators, Phillips and Bride, meanwhile continued to send the calls for assistance, with Bride occasionally updating the Captain on what ships had answered. As time progressed, Phillips calls became more and more desperate and eventually stopped altogether around 2:15 am. Around 2:18, the Titanic had risen almost completely vertically until she began to split between the 3rd and 4th funnels, from the heavy weight upon her. Funnels were falling and crushing swimming passengers in the water. The first half of the ship split apart and began it's long descent to the bottom of the sea, two miles below. The stern section lowered herself almost to an even keel but then slowly began to rise back up into the air again. The Poop Deck was a mass of humanity, clutching to whatever they could get their hands on, hoping for a miracle that would save them all. A miracle that never came. Slowly the stern section twisted slightly and began its fall the ocean bottom below.