The largest and most luxurious ocean liner ever built, Titanic, departs on her maiden voyage. On her second day at sea, the ship hits an iceberg and sinks.
Lookout Frederick Fleet spies an iceberg dead ahead and signals the bridge. First Officer Murdoch orders a hard starboard turn, but the Titanic’s right side scrapes the iceberg.
The Ship
The titanic timeline sets sail from Southampton for its fateful voyage across the Atlantic to New York. The ship is carrying some 2,200 passengers and 1,178 crew members on its maiden voyage.
At 11:40 pm, lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee begin their shift in the crow’s nest. The night is unusually calm, making it harder to spot icebergs than usual. In addition, the crow’s nest’s binoculars have been misplaced. Eventually, Fleet spots an iceberg in the distance. He calls the bridge, but the message does not reach the captain until almost midnight.
Despite the warning, the Titanic continues on its course. Later that evening, several other ships report icebergs to the ship’s wireless operator in the radio room. These messages are not passed on to the bridge until after the Titanic has already struck the iceberg.
First Officer William Murdoch reports that the ship has struck an iceberg. He orders Second Officer Charles Lightoller to send out a “Stop” signal and “Full Astern”. The order is ignored, but the ship slows down.
Meanwhile, passengers in the forward compartments rush to their lifeboats. However, because of outdated British Board of Trade regulations, the 20 lifeboats on Titanic are only capable of handling two or three boats at a time. In addition, many of the boat’s davits have been damaged by collisions with icebergs in previous trips.
At about 11:30, the stern section of Titanic sinks below the surface of the ocean. The bow section then rises up out of the water, causing great stress on the midsection of the ship. Ultimately, it breaks apart in half between the third and fourth funnels.
A few minutes later, the back half of the Titanic sinks to join the front on the bottom of the Atlantic. The wreck still sits on the floor of the ocean today. Over the years, the disaster has inspired countless books, movies, and plays. The Titanic’s sinking also led to the creation of international agreements designed to prevent similar disasters. As a result, the Titanic is one of the most famous ships in history.
The Night Of The Great Storm
The night of the Titanic’s collision with the iceberg is a particularly dangerous and chaotic one. Several of the liner’s passengers have already been evacuated to the nearby Cunard ship Carpathia. The remaining 2,200 people aboard the Titanic must now wait to see if they will be able to escape from the sinking ship.
At 11:40 pm the lookout Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg ahead of the Titanic. It is much larger than the ship and towers some 55-60 feet above the water. He calls up Sixth Officer Moody, who immediately sounds the alarm bell with its three sharp rings and telephones down to the bridge. “Iceberg right ahead! Full speed astern!”
Captain Smith is informed of the iceberg by the crow’s nest and orders the engines put into reverse. He also asks First Officer Murdoch to call up a wireless message to the nearest ship within range. However, the Californian has turned off her wireless because she received Captain Phillips’ curt response earlier that evening.
As the Titanic collides with the iceberg, water begins to fill a number of compartments. This causes the bow to sink and the stern to rise up to an almost vertical position. The collision also ruptures the ship’s hull and fills it with water.
Water quickly reaches the bow and begins to fill the scuttle holes. It is obvious that the Titanic will soon break apart and sink.
As the stern sinks further into the ocean, it places immense strain on the midsection of the ship. It is eventually forced into a vertical position, where it remains as the ship takes its final plunge into the depths of the Atlantic.
The last wireless distress signal is sent by the Titanic. It is a CQD (although SOS had become the standard distress signal several years earlier). The lifeboats are begun to be readied for launch, with the women and children going into them first. However, the 20 boats have only enough space for 1,178 people. The crewmen are told that they have two to three hours before the Titanic sinks.
The Loading Of The Lifeboats
After leaving the docks in Belfast, the Titanic began its fateful maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Designed to be huge, luxurious and safe, the ship was touted as virtually unsinkable due to her number of watertight doors and compartments. However, a series of oversights and human errors led to the disaster that would see 1,500 people die.
April 14, 1912: Throughout the day, seven iceberg warnings are received by the ship. However, only one of the warnings is passed on to the bridge by wireless operator Jack Phillips. Captain Smith alters the ship’s course slightly, but he doesn’t slow the ship down or order the lifeboats to be lowered.
11:40 PM: A lookout spots an iceberg approaching the Titanic. First officer Murdoch orders a hard starboard turn. However, the ship scrapes against the iceberg and begins taking on water.
The ship’s band begins to play lively ragtime music on the A Deck lounge. At the same time, order is given to begin loading the lifeboats. The priority was women and children, followed by men and then others. The order was ignored as the boat rush took hold. In the confusion, 20 places were left empty in port-side boat No. 10.
As the Titanic sank, her lifeboats were lowered to the surface. The Carpathia, which was on a rescue mission, spotted them and began to pick up survivors. At one point, the water reached Promenade Deck. As the bow sank, it ripped open, and a huge roar could be heard.
The Final Plunge
Despite Captain Smith’s pleas, most people remain calm and assume the ship can continue without major damage. Many have even finished breakfast. The lookout on the crow’s nest reports a large, convex, iceberg heading straight for the Titanic. The iceberg smashes the bow and then curves to the stern, striking it at about 12:45 am. The stern begins to rise above the water, but the bow sinks rapidly.
The first lifeboat, number 7 on the starboard side, is lowered into the water with only 28 people aboard instead of its capacity of 65. Then the first of eight emergency distress rockets is fired.
About a quarter of the way down, the ship begins to groan and buck like a horse. At 1:30 am, the hull ruptures in two places and begins to take on water. Water pours into and over the forecastle and well deck, then engulfs A-deck just five minutes later. It takes less than two hours for the entire boat deck to be flooded (as depicted in Part-Time Historian’s On A Sea of Glass animation and Titanic Animations’ own simulation).
The radio room loses power as the ship sinks, but Harold Bride and Phillips are still able to send out a CQD signal on the Marconi wireless. Although the official international distress call was now SOS, the crew is still using the old standard of CQD because they think it will reach more ships.
As the Titanic continues to sink, water is up to her name plate on the bow and over the bridge. It’s now just a matter of time before she goes down for the last time.
News of the disaster reaches the world. People throng the docks of New York City, hoping to find loved ones on board the sinking ship. The Cunard liner Carpathia arrives in New York. It outruns hordes of newspaper reporters in boats rushing to get the latest details. Carpathia steams to the White Star pier where it will lower the Titanic’s lifeboats. Then, it departs for Fiume, Austria-Hungary. An inquiry into the disaster is underway.
Conclusion
The Titanic’s timeline is a poignant journey that began with great promise and ended in tragedy. From its construction to its ill-fated maiden voyage and eventual discovery, the ship’s story remains a powerful reminder of the human cost of hubris and the importance of learning from history to prevent future disasters.
FAQs:
- What caused the sinking of the Titanic? The Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, which caused a series of breaches in its hull. The ship was not equipped with enough lifeboats for all passengers, exacerbating the loss of life. The disaster highlighted the need for improved safety regulations and iceberg warnings.
- When was the Titanic discovered? The wreckage of the Titanic was discovered on September 1, 1985, by a joint American-French expedition led by Robert Ballard. The ship’s remains were found approximately 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, resting at a depth of about 12,500 feet on the ocean floor.
