Part 5 - Collision - Sinking - End
11.40pm, 14 April 1912 - 15 April 1912
11.40pm - The lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Robinson Lee, spot the iceberg ahead in Titanic’s path at about 500 yards away towering some 55 to 60 feet above water. They immediately thrash the warning bell with three rings and telephone down to the bridge with the warning “Iceberg right ahead”. Sixth Officer Moody acknowledges the message with a “thank you” and relays the message to First Officer William Murdoch who immediately calls to the helmsman “hard a-starboard” (sharp left turn) and orders the engine rooms to cease the engines and then full astern (put the engines in reverse). He pulls down a lever which seals the watertight doors below the water line. The helmsman pulls the wheel as far as it will go and after several precious seconds Titanic begins to veer port, Frederick Fleet has still hold of the telephone as Titanic begins to swerve. After just 37 seconds of it being spotted, the iceberg makes contact with the starboard bow and scrapes along her hull before passing into the night leaving ice fragments on the deck. Frederick Fleet and many other of the alert crew actually think the iceberg has been bumped but not enough for any damage to have been taken. The collision is not felt by all on board, mainly the crew down in the forward area of Titanic, many people are asleep and are totally oblivious to the impact. 11.50pm - Just ten minutes and water has filled Titanic 14 feet above the keel forward. The first five watertight compartments begin to take in water, Boiler Room Number 6, five feet above the keel is flooded in eight feet of water. 12.00am - The Mail Room, which is 24 feet above the keel is taking in enough water to float some of the mail bags. Captain Edward John Smith is now on the bridge and reports of the various damage Titanic has taken are being conveyed to the bridge. Water is now pouring into holds 1, 2 and 3 and into Boiler Room Number 6. Captain Edward John Smith and Thomas Andrews quickly do a tour of Titanic below decks to inspect the damage. Captain Edward John Smith asks Thomas Andrews of his opinion on the state of Titanic, his reply was not good as he calculates that Titanic will stay afloat for no more than a mere 1 to 1.5 hours. This calculation is based on the mathematical certainty that if more than four holds are flooded, once a compartment fills with water, the water will spill into the nest compartment, and the next, and so forth. Upon hearing that Titanic will sink, Captain Edward John Smith orders the CQD distress call to be issued over Titanic’s radios. Titanic’s position is estimated at being 41° 46’ North, 50° 14’ West. Boilers are shut down and relief pipes against the funnels blow off huge, loud clouds of steam. Tragically, Californian is still just a few miles away, she could have saved everyone on board by reaching her before she sank had the radio on board not been switched off 30 minutes prior. 15 April 1912 - 12.05am - Titanic’s squash court, situated 32 feet above the keel, is now awash with water. Orders are given to uncover the lifeboats and muster the crew and passengers, everyone is to be on deck with life-jackets on. The lifeboats have space for 1,178 persons (had the lifeboats been filled to capacity), there are an estimated 2,227 persons aboard… Women and children are to be loaded first, First Officer William McMaster Murdoch is in charge on the Starboard side, Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller on the port. 12.10am - 2.05am - Several crew members of Californian see the the lights of a steamer. A number of attempts to contact via Morse lamp fail. Rockets are later seen but are not taken to be distress calls so they are ignored. The crew of Californian are sure that the distance between the ships are increasing and then the steamer “disappears” (please refer to Californian’s page for more details). 12.15am - 2.17am - In the short time Titanic sinks below the Ocean, various ships hear her distress calls. Among them is her sister ship, Olympic which is some 500 miles away, Mount Temple (49 miles away), Frankfort (153 miles), Birma (70 miles), Baltic II (243 miles), Virginian (170 miles) and Carpathia (58 miles), they prepare to come to Titanic’s aid at various times. 12.15am - Titanic’s band start up some lively ragtime tunes to boost people’s spirits and keep them calm in the First Class Lounge on A Deck, the band later move up to the freezing Boat Deck near the port entrance to the Grand Staircase. 12.20am - The seaman’s quarters at 48 feet above Titanic’s keel on E Deck are now flooded. 12.25am - The lifeboats are now ready to be filled and the command of women and children first is strictly adhered to, people who could do their maths would know that over half of Titanic’s occupants will not have room for a chance of life in these lifeboats. At the South-east of Titanic, Carpathia hears Titanic’s distress calls and begins her 58 mile journey at top speed to help but she can only arrive in 4 hours, Captain Edward John Smith must now realise that there is not much hope for most of Titanic's passengers and crew. 12.30am - 12.45 - Lifeboat Number 4 begins loading. 12.45am - The first lifeboat off, Starboard Number 7, is safely lowered onto the freezing Atlantic Ocean, the tragedy of the lifeboats is further marked in that they were not filled to capacity. At this time on board Titanic, passengers were too afraid to leave to comfort of Titanic, people genuinely believed that rescue would come before she went down into the depths of the Ocean, some even would not believe that she would go down, when the belief was dashed it was too late for many to get into lifeboats as most of them had gone. Starboard Number 7 had space for 65 persons, only 28 people were aboard when she was lowered, a waste of 37 spaces and lives. The first distress rocket is now fired from the deck into the clear night sky. Eight rockets are fired altogether throughout the next couple of hours. Fourth Officer Joseph Groves Boxhall spots a vessel approach Titanic, but she disappears, despite trying to contact her using Morse lamp. 12.55am - The first port-side lifeboat, Number 6, is lowered with a total of 28 persons on board. Starboard Lifeboat Number 5 is lowered. Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe is forced to shout at Joseph Bruce Ismay to stop him from interfering with his commands. 1.00am - Starboard Lifeboat Number 3 is lowered with only 32 persons, this includes 11 crew. 1.10am - Starboard Lifeboat Number 1 is lowered, she has the capacity for 40 persons, there are just 12 people on board, including 7 crew, this is the boat which carried Sir Cosmo Edmund Duff-Gordon and his wife, Lady Lucy Christina Duff-Gordon, (scandal later emerges in regard to Duff-Gordon & a “pay off” to the crew to not go back and rescue more survivors). Port-side Number 8 is loaded and lowered carrying only 39 persons, it is steered in the water by the Countess of Rothes throughout the night. 1.15am - The sea reaches Titanic’s name on the bow and she now leans slightly to port (left). As the tilt grows steeper, lifeboats are now beginning to be more fully loaded as people realise the danger, and that help is not coming fast enough. 1.20am - Starboard Number 9 leaves with 56 persons on board. A tilt to starboard is more noticeable as Titanic slightly rocks back and forth as water gushes into and around her. 1.25am - Starboard Lifeboat Number 12 is lowered onto the sea with 40 women and children. Two seamen are put in charge of the lifeboat, Frederick Clench and John Thomas Poingdestre. After Titanic is lost, this lifeboat is tied with lifeboats 4, 10 and 14 and Collapsible D, the survivors are moved from Lifeboat Number 14 to the other lashed-together lifeboats by Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe, so that he can return to Titanic’s site and pick up any living souls who are floundering in the water. Lifeboat Number 12 is then overloaded with 70 passengers, many of them rescued from Collapsible D. 1.30am - Panic now spreads throughout Titanic as Lifeboat Number 14 is lowered onto the Ocean, there are 60 persons on board along with Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe, a group of passengers on Titanic appear to attempt to jump onto the full lifeboat and Lowe has to fire shots from his pistol into the air to deter them. Titanic’s distress call are now becoming desperate; “We are sinking fast” “Women and children on boats” “Cannot last much longer”. 1.35am - Port-side Lifeboat Number 16 is lowered with more than 50 persons aboard. Starboard Lifeboat Number 13 is also lowered at this time with 64 persons aboard, mostly Second and Third Class women and children. Starboard Lifeboat Number 15 is lowered just seconds later with 70 people aboard, she nearly crushes those in Lifeboat 13 who is below her, there is a scramble to cut the ropes of 13 to get her onto the water and out of the way, she gets away just in time. 1.40am - Most of the forward lifeboats are now gone from Titanic, people begin to move up to the stern as the bow inches closer and closer to the Ocean. The last Starboard Lifeboat Collapsible C is lowered with 39 persons including Joseph Bruce Ismay. The forward well deck is now awash. 1.45am - As Carpathia rushes headlong to Titanic, the crew hear a final message from her; “Engine Room full up to boilers…” Port-side Lifeboat Number 2 is lowered onto the Ocean with just 25 persons on board, she can carry 40, 15 spaces and lives wasted. 1.55am – Port-side Lifeboat Number 4 is being filled, among the passengers is Madeline Talmage Astor, the wife of John Jacob Astor, who is pregnant, he asks if he can get into the boat with her because of her condition, he is refused entry by Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller. Astor sees off his wife safely, along with 40 other women, children and crew, sadly, there was space for another 20 people, again more wasted space, more wasted lives. 2.00am – The ever-creeping water is now just 10 feet below the Promenade Deck. 2.05am - Not even half of Titanic’s occupants are safe as about 1,500 people are still on board. There is just one lifeboat left, Collapsible D, which could carry just 47 people. As panic and desperation take a hold of the passengers nearby, Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller fires his pistol into the air and the crew form a ring around the last boat, arms locked together as they load it with 44 women and children and a few crew, she leaves Titanic and the hopes of many are dashed. Titanic’s forecastle head now sinks underwater; the angle of her deck is growing steeper by the minute. 2.10 am – Captain Edward John Smith goes to the Marconi radio room to relieve the radio operators, John George Phillips and Harold Sydney Bride, from their duties; John George Phillips bravely stays at his post. 2.17am – John George Phillips continues to send radio messages as Captain Edward John Smith tells the crew, “It’s every man for himself,” he then goes to the bridge to await his end with Titanic. Thomas Andrews is seen alone in the First Class Smoking Room staring into space at the picture above the fireplace, he is not wearing his life-jacket despite insisting to everyone he seen to wear theirs earlier. Titanic’s bow slips into the Ocean; this enables Collapsible Lifeboat B, which had been struck on the top of the officer's room, to float away, however, she is upside-down, she later goes on to save the lives of around 30 people who cling to her throughout the night. Father Thomas Roussel Davids Byles hears confession and gives absolution to over one hundred passengers who have gathered at the aft of the boat deck. Wallace Hartley and the rest of Titanic’s band finally stop playing their soothing music, many witnesses say they start up "Nearer My God To Thee" as the ship goes down. Many people, out of fear of the inevitable, panic, desperation, realise they are left with no choice, jump into and give themselves to the freezing Atlantic Ocean, one can only imagine their state of mind at this point. Titanic’s forward funnel comes off the deck and topples onto the mass of bodies beneath her. Collapsible Lifeboat A floats free of Titanic the right way up, about 20 people hold onto her, their last chance of survival, but it is swamped as the scrambling, desperate people try to board her. Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe in Lifeboat Number 14 comes to their rescue as dawn breaks, but over half of the people have perished. 2.18am - As Titanic’s stern is lifted out of the water, her propellers in the air, heavy machinery and all objects within her begin to move down toward the aft, the sound is a huge roar, the lights blink and then go out completely. Titanic is wrenched in two; the bow sinks fast into the depths below. 2.20am - Titanic’s stern is still afloat, for a moment she stands there, then, as her bow breaks off completely, the stern is lowered back into the water for a short period, as she fills with more and more water her stern is raised again, propellers in the air as she sinks slowly bottom-up into the water. The poor souls in the freezing water are kept afloat by their life-jackets, exhausted, disorientated, mercifully unconsciousness will take away their suffering and after about 15 minutes hypothermia will set in and they will perish. |
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