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The History - Disaster
At Sea
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 At
11:40 p.m., lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee were up in the
crow's nest, and Fleet was alarmed by a haze he saw on the horizon.
Suddenly, he rang the warning bell three times and telephoned the
bridge, warning, "Iceberg, right ahead!" As the Titanic
steamed directly toward a huge black mass of ice, First Officer William
Murdoch ordered the engines stopped and turned hard to port and the
15 watertight doors secured. Despite these efforts, the Titanic
scraped against the iceberg for 10 seconds on her starboard side.
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After the impact, Captain Smith rushed into the chart room, and officers
sent for Thomas Andrews. Fourth Officer Boxhall made an initial inspection
of the forward areas and reported that he saw no damage.  Captain
Smith and Andrews then inspected the ship for themselves and found
that the iceberg had damaged the ship's plates in five or six of her
watertight compartments. They quickly realized that the ship would
sink, since it could not remain afloat with more than four compartments
flooded. Sea water had already risen 14 feet above the keel, and water
was bursting in from the forepeak to boiler room 5 as the ship began
sinking by the bow. Many of the passengers, however, had no idea that
the ship was in grave danger. After the collision, many gathered in
the corridors half-dressed. |
"Everyone seemed confident that the ship was all right,"
recalled first-class passenger Henry Sleeper Harper. At last, however,
the call came for all passengers to come up on deck wearing their
life belts, and soon after midnight, Captain Smith directed crew members
to ready the 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsible boats. The noise
on deck was horrendous as steam was released to ease pressure on the
Titanic's boilers. Over the din, Lightoller shouted to the
Captain for permission to begin loading the boats, and the Captain
nodded his agreement. |
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On the port side. only women and children were, for the most part,
permitted in the life boats, while on the starboard side, men were
allowed to get into the boats if no women were in sight. Still, many
women were reluctant to leave their husbands and the apparent safety
of the huge ship for a 70-foot drop down to the dark ocean in the
tiny wooden boats. Some had to be forcefully picked up and dropped
into the lifeboats by crew members. Very few of the boats were loaded
to their capacity with passengers. |
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12:45, Quartermaster George Rowe fired distress rockets as lifeboat
7 was lowered with only 28 people aboard, even though it could have
carried 65. Realizing the danger of their situation, many third-class
passengers gathered in prayer, and five men jumped into lifeboat 5
as it descended, seriously injuring a woman passenger. By 1:15, the
Titanic's bow had plunged beneath the surface. Even as water
was rising in the ship, the band continued to play and the gymnasium
instructor was assisting passengers on the mechanical exercise equipment.
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 At
2:05 a.m., after the last wooden lifeboats and two of the collapsible
boats had gone, Captain Smith told the crew to look to their own safety.
A group of men on deck struggled to release one of the two remaining
collapsibles, which was lashed to the top of the deckhouse. Hundreds
of other passengers were praying, crying, and jumping from the ship.
At 2:10, the bow dropped further, sending water up the deck as passengers
struggled toward the stern. At 2:17, the stern rose almost vertically
into the sky, stopped and pivoted. The Titanic's light flickered
and finally went out, as the ship at last eased down into the water
and sank below the surface of the sea. |
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