1912 maritime disaster
RMS "Titanic" sank on 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, "Titanic" was four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, with an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at 23:40 (ship's time) on 14 April. She sank two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 ship's time (05:18 GMT) on 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.
"Titanic" received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling at a speed of roughly when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard side and opened six of her sixteen compartments to the sea. "Titanic" had been designed to stay afloat with up to four of her forward compartments flooded, and the crew used distress flares and radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. In accordance with existing practice, the "Titanic"'s lifeboat system was designed to ferry passengers to nearby rescue vessels, not to hold everyone on board simultaneously; therefore, with the ship sinking rapidly and help still hours away, there was no safe refuge for many of the passengers and crew with only twenty lifeboats, including four collapsible lifeboats. Poor preparation for and management of the evacuation meant many boats were launched before they were completely full.
"Titanic" sank with over a thousand passengers and crew still on board. Almost all of those who ended up in the water died within minutes due to the effects of cold shock and incapacitation. arrived about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued all of the 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April. The disaster shocked the world and caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, and the unequal treatment of third-class passengers during the evacuation. Subsequent inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations, leading to the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) which still governs maritime safety today.
Background.
At the time of her entry into service on 2 April 1912, the "Titanic" was the second of three , and was the largest ship in the world. She and the earlier were almost one and a half times the gross register tonnage of Cunard's and , the previous record holders, and were nearly longer. The "Titanic" could carry 3,547 people in speed and comfort, and was built on an unprecedented scale. Her reciprocating engines were the largest that had ever been built, standing high and with cylinders in diameter requiring the burning of of coal per day.
The passenger accommodation, especially the first class section, was said to be "of unrivalled extent and magnificence", indicated by the fares that first class accommodation commanded. The Parlour Suites (the most expensive and most luxurious suites on the ship) with private promenade cost over $4,350 (equivalent to $ today) for a one-way transatlantic passage. Even third class, though considerably less luxurious than second and first classes, was unusually comfortable by contemporary standards and was supplied with plentiful quantities of good food, providing her passengers with better conditions than many of them had experienced at home.
The "Titanic"'s maiden voyage began shortly after noon on 10 April 1912 when she left Southampton on the first leg of her journey to New York. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later, as the "Titanic" passed the moored liners of the American Line and "Oceanic" of the White Star Line, the latter of which would have been her running mate on the service from Southampton. Her huge displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and then dropped into a trough. "New York"'s mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging her around stern-first towards the "Titanic". A nearby tugboat, "Vulcan", came to the rescue by taking "New York" under tow, and "Titanic"'s 62-year-old Captain Edward Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, ordered her engines to be put "full astern". The two ships avoided a collision by a distance of about . The incident, as well as a subsequent stop to offload a few stragglers by tug, delayed the "Titanic"'s departure by at most three-quarters of an hour, while the drifting "New York" was brought under control.
A few hours later, the "Titanic" called at Cherbourg Harbour in north-western France, a journey of , where she took on passengers. Her next port of call was Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, which she reached around midday on 11 April. She left in the afternoon after taking on more passengers and stores.
By the time the "Titanic" departed westwards across the Atlantic, she was carrying 892 crew members and 1,320 passengers. This was only about half of her full passenger capacity of 2,435, as it was the low season and shipping from the UK had been disrupted by a coal miners' strike. Her passengers were a cross-section of Edwardian society, from millionaires such as John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, to poor emigrants from countries as disparate as Armenia, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Syria and Russia seeking a new life in the United States.
Captain Smith had four decades of seafaring experience and had served as captain of , from which he was transferred to command the "Titanic". The vast majority of the crew who served under him were not trained sailors, but were either engineers, firemen, or stokers, responsible for looking after the engines; or stewards and galley staff, responsible for the passengers. The six watch officers and 39 able seamen constituted only around five percent of the crew, with the majority having been taken on at Southampton, and as a result lacked the time to familiarise themselves with the ship.
The ice conditions were attributed to a mild winter that caused large numbers of icebergs to shift off the west coast of Greenland.
A fire had begun in one of the "Titanic"'s coal bins approximately 10 days before the ship's departure and continued to burn for several days into the voyage, but it was extinguished on 13 April. The weather improved significantly during the day, from brisk winds and moderate seas in the morning to a crystal-clear calm by evening, as the ship's path took her beneath an arctic high-pressure system.
14 April 1912.
Iceberg warnings.
On 14 April 1912, "Titanic"'s radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on "Titanic" had begun to notice during the afternoon. The ice conditions in the North Atlantic were the worst of any April in the previous 50 years (which was the reason why the lookouts were unaware that they were about to steam into a line of drifting ice several miles wide and many miles long). The radio operators did not relay all of these messages; at the time, all wireless operators on ocean liners were employees of the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company and not members of their ship's crew. As such, their primary responsibility was to send messages for the passengers, with weather reports as a secondary concern.
The first warning came at 09:00 from reporting "bergs, growlers and field ice". Captain Smith acknowledged receipt of the message. At 13:42, relayed a report from the Greek ship "Athenia" that she had been "passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice". Smith also acknowledged this report, and showed it to White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, aboard "Titanic" for her maiden voyage. Smith ordered a new course to be set, which would take the ship further south.
At 13:45, the German ship , which was a short distance to the south, reported she had "passed two large icebergs". This message never reached Captain Smith or the other officers on "Titanic"'s bridge. The reason is unclear, but it may have not reached the ship because the Marconi wireless equipment had broken down and needed to be repaired overnight by the two radio operators.
 reported "three large bergs" at 19:30, and at 21:40, the steamer "Mesaba" reported: "Saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs. Also field ice." This message, too, never left the "Titanic"'s radio room. The radio operator, Jack Phillips was preoccupied with transmitting messages for passengers via the relay station at Cape Race, Newfoundland; as the radio set had broken down the day before, there was a backlog of messages that Phillips was trying to clear. A final message was received at 22:30 from operator Cyril Evans of "Californian" who signalled that the ship had halted for the night in an ice field some miles away. Phillips cut it off and signalled back to Evans to stop transmitting as the ship's stronger signal was interferring with the fainter one from Cape Race.
Although the crew was aware of ice in the vicinity, they did not reduce the ship's speed, and continued to steam at , only short of her maximum speed. "Titanic"'s high speed in waters where ice had been reported was later criticised as reckless, but it reflected standard maritime practice at the time. According to Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the custom was "to go ahead and depend upon the lookouts in the crow's nest and the watch on the bridge to pick up the ice in time to avoid hitting it".
The North Atlantic liners prioritised time-keeping above all other considerations, sticking rigidly to a schedule that would guarantee their arrival at an advertised time. They were frequently operated at close to their full speed, treating hazard warnings as advisories rather than calls to action. It was widely believed that ice posed little risk; close calls were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, , a German liner, had rammed an iceberg and suffered a crushed bow, but was still able to complete her voyage. That same year, "Titanic"'s future captain, Edward Smith, declared in an interview that he could not "imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."
"Iceberg, right ahead!".
"Titanic" enters Iceberg Alley.
As "Titanic" approached her fatal collision, most passengers had gone to bed, and command of the bridge had passed from Second Officer Charles Lightoller to First Officer William Murdoch. Lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee were in the crow's nest, above the deck. The air temperature had fallen to near freezing, and the ocean was completely calm. Colonel Archibald Gracie, one of the survivors of the disaster, later wrote that "the sea was like glass, so smooth that the stars were clearly reflected." It is now known that such exceptionally calm water is a sign of nearby pack ice.
Although the air was clear, there was no moon, and with the sea so calm, there was nothing to give away the position of the nearby icebergs; had the sea been rougher, waves breaking against the icebergs would have made them more visible. Because of a mix-up at Southampton, the lookouts had no binoculars; however, binoculars reportedly would not have been effective in the darkness, which was total except for starlight and the ship's own lights. The lookouts were nonetheless well aware of the ice hazard, as Lightoller had ordered them and other crew members to "keep a sharp look-out for ice, particularly small ice and growlers".
At 23:30, Fleet and Lee noticed a slight haze on the horizon ahead of them, but did not make anything of it. Some experts now believe that this haze was actually a mirage caused by cold waters meeting warm air – similar to a mirage in the desert – when "Titanic" entered Iceberg Alley. This would have resulted in a raised horizon, blinding the lookouts from spotting anything far away.
Collision.
Nine minutes later, at 23:39, Fleet spotted an iceberg in "Titanic"'s path. He rang the lookout bell three times and telephoned the bridge to inform Sixth Officer James Moody. Fleet asked, "Is there anyone there?" Moody replied, "Yes, what do you see?" Fleet replied, "Iceberg, right ahead!" After thanking Fleet, Moody relayed the message to Murdoch, who ordered Quartermaster Robert Hichens to change the ship's course. Murdoch is generally believed to have given the order "hard a-starboard", which would result in the