Sinking of the Titanic

RMS Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912. It was the largest ocean liner in service at the time. The ship was four days into her first voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York City, United States, with more than 2,200 people on board, when she struck an iceberg late on 14 April. She sank about two hours and forty minutes later. Around 1,500 people died, though estimates vary. It is one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Titanic's wireless operators had received seven warnings about sea ice on the night of 14 April. The ship was traveling at roughly 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph) when her lookouts spotted the iceberg. She could not turn quickly enough, and the iceberg scraped along her starboard side. The steel plates there buckled, and six of her sixteen compartments filled with water. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with up to four forward compartments flooded. The crew fired distress rockets and sent wireless messages to call for help as passengers were loaded into lifeboats.

The ship's lifeboats were not designed to hold everyone on board at once. Under the practice of the day, they were meant to carry passengers to nearby rescue ships. Titanic had only twenty lifeboats, including four collapsible ones. Because the ship was sinking quickly and help was still hours away, many people had no safe place to go. Preparation was poor, there was little time, and passengers were hard to get into the boats. Many lifeboats were lowered before they were full. Two boats were never lowered at all. They floated off the ship and became a refuge for survivors in the water.

When Titanic sank, around 1,500 passengers and crew were still on board. Nearly everyone who ended up in the water died within minutes from cold shock and hypothermia. Only about 40 were rescued by nearby lifeboats. RMS Carpathia arrived about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued all 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April. The disaster shocked the world and caused widespread outrage over the shortage of lifeboats and the lack of care given to the ice warnings. More anger was directed at SS Californian. It was the closest ship, but it missed Titanic's distress calls because it had only one wireless operator on board. Later inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime rules. These led to the creation of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which still governs maritime safety today.

For other uses, see Sinking of the Titanic (disambiguation).

Background

When the Titanic entered service on 2 April 1912, she was the second of three Olympic-class ocean liners and the largest ship in the world. She and the earlier RMS Olympic weighed almost one and a half times as much as Cunard's RMS Lusitania and RMS Mauretania, the previous record holders, and were nearly 100 feet (30 m) longer. The Titanic could carry 3,547 people in speed and comfort. Her reciprocating engines were the largest ever built, standing 40 feet (12 m) high, and they burned 600 long tons (610 t) of coal each day. Her first-class accommodation was said to be "of unrivalled extent and magnificence." Even third class was unusually comfortable for its time, with plenty of good food.

The Titanic's maiden voyage began shortly after noon on 10 April 1912, when she left Southampton. A few minutes later, she nearly collided with the moored liners SS City of New York of the American Line and Oceanic of the White Star Line. Her huge displacement lifted both smaller ships and then dropped them, which snapped New York's mooring cables. Captain Edward Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, ordered the engines put "full astern," and the two ships missed each other by about 4 feet (1.2 m). The Titanic then stopped at Cherbourg Harbour in France and at Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland, where she took on more passengers. Because of a national coal miners' strike, many crossings had been cancelled, so people booked on other liners were moved to the Titanic. Her passengers ranged from wealthy people such as John Jacob Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim to poor emigrants seeking new lives in the United States. Most of the crew were not trained sailors, and a fire in one of the ship's coal bins had burned for several days before it was put out on 13 April.

Ice warnings

The Titanic's wireless operators received seven messages from other ships warning of drifting ice. Ice conditions in the North Atlantic were the worst of any April in the previous 50 years, so the lookouts could not see a line of drifting ice several miles wide. A mild winter had caused many icebergs to drift off the west coast of Greenland. The first warning came on 12 April from the French liner SS La Touraine, and Captain Smith acknowledged it. Other warnings came from RMS Caronia, SS Noordam, RMS Baltic, and the German ship SS Amerika, which asked Titanic to pass its message on to the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C. The message was sent through the Cape Race wireless station in Newfoundland. A ship called the SS Californian reported "three large bergs," and junior wireless operator Harold Bride took that message to the bridge. The steamship SS Mesaba warned of "much heavy pack ice" and many large icebergs. It is unclear whether this message reached the bridge, because Jack Phillips, the radio operator on duty, did not survive. A final message came from Cyril Evans of Californian, who reported that his ship was stopped and surrounded by ice.

Captain Smith knew ice was nearby, but he did not slow the ship and kept going at 22 knots. Later, this speed was criticised as reckless, but it followed the common practice of the time. Many people believed ice posed little risk, and earlier collisions had not been disastrous. On 8 July 1907, the German liner SS Kronprinz Wilhelm struck an iceberg off the banks of Newfoundland and resumed its voyage fifteen minutes later. On 10 April 1912, the French liner SS Niagara struck an icefield not far from where Titanic would be a few days later, but it reached New York under its own power. North Atlantic liners put keeping to their schedules above all else and often ran at close to full speed.

14 April 1912

As the ship neared the collision, most passengers had gone to bed. Command of the bridge had passed from Second Officer Charles Lightoller to First Officer William Murdoch. Lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee watched from the crow's nest. The air was near freezing and the sea was perfectly calm, which was later understood to be a sign of nearby pack ice. Colonel Archibald Gracie, a survivor, wrote that the sea "was like glass." There was no moon, the lookouts had no binoculars because of a mix-up at Southampton, and nothing showed where the icebergs were. Lee said he saw a haze, but other witnesses said the sky was clear. Stanley Lord, captain of the nearby SS Californian, described a "soft horizon" where sky and sea blended together, which was likely what Fleet and Lee saw as the ship entered Iceberg Alley.

At 23:39 Fleet spotted an iceberg ahead and telephoned the bridge, reaching Sixth Officer James Moody, and called out "Iceberg, right ahead!" Murdoch ordered Quartermaster Robert Hichens to turn the ship. The tiller was moved toward starboard to turn the ship toward port. It was long reported that Murdoch rang "full astern" on the ship's telegraphs, but there is evidence that he only ordered the engines stopped. Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall later said Murdoch had tried to steer around the iceberg. The ship turned just in time to avoid a head-on crash, but its side scraped against an underwater spur of ice for about six seconds, and chunks of ice fell onto the forecastle. About five minutes later the engines were stopped, and the ship drifted south in the Labrador Current. The damage was once thought to be a huge opening in the hull, but Harland & Wolff naval architect Edward Wilding estimated it was much smaller, and modern ultrasound surveys of the wreck found several narrow openings. Water flooded in faster than the pumps could remove it. Thomas Andrews, one of the ship's chief architects, told the captain that the ship was doomed and could stay afloat for only about two hours. By 02:20 the ship had sunk.

15 April 1912

Further information: Lifeboats of the Titanic

Shortly after midnight, Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats uncovered and the passengers mustered. Radio operators Phillips and Bride sent distress calls, but they gave a position that was not quite correct. Water poured into the lower parts of the ship, and stewards went door to door to wake people and tell them to go up to the boat deck. The ship had 20 lifeboats, but they could hold only about half the people on board. Many passengers did not want to leave the warm ship, and some did not believe there was danger. Officers including Harold Lowe and James Moody lowered the boats, and John Jacob Astor said, "We are safer here than in that little boat." Few seamen were available to row, so Arthur Peuchen of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club climbed into a boat to help. The engineers and firemen worked to keep the lights and pumps running, and Lawrence Beesley described the loud noise of escaping steam. Rockets were fired, and the radio operators kept sending the distress calls. The nearest ship was RMS Carpathia, about 58 miles away. Another ship, SS Californian, was closer, but its radio operator, Cyril Evans, had shut his set down for the night before the iceberg was struck.

As the ship sank lower, the lifeboats were filled and lowered with fewer people than they could hold. Some people, including Benjamin Guggenheim and Ida Straus, chose to stay together on the ship. Third-class passengers had a long way to reach the lifeboats, and many did not speak English. Some Violet Jessop later survived the sinking of the sister ship Britannic in the First World War. J. Bruce Ismay escaped in a collapsible boat. Near the end, the ship's bands played, and Thomas Byles heard confessions near the stern. The ship broke in two and sank at 02:20. Many people in the freezing water died within 15 to 30 minutes, and some of those who survived clung to collapsible B. Survivors in the lifeboats heard the cries from the water, and Harold Lowe later returned to search for swimmers. At about 04:00, RMS Carpathia, under Arthur Rostron, rescued the survivors, and SS Mount Temple and SS Californian arrived later, but there were no more survivors to save. Carpathia then turned back toward New York.

Aftermath

When Carpathia reached New York on 18 April, about 40,000 people were waiting on the docks, having learned of the disaster from newspapers. Four ships hired by the White Star Line recovered 328 bodies. Of these, 119 were buried at sea, and 209 were brought to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Memorials were raised in many places, including Belfast and Lichfield. Most of the victims' bodies were never found. People felt shock and anger. They asked why there were so few lifeboats and why ice warnings had been ignored. Survivors wrote a letter to The Times calling for safer ocean travel. Southampton, Belfast and Liverpool felt the loss especially deeply.

Public inquiries were held in the United Kingdom and the United States. The US inquiry, led by Senator William Alden Smith, began on 19 April. The British inquiry, led by Lord Mersey, began on 2 May 1912. Both found that lifeboat rules were out of date, that ice warnings had not been properly heeded, and that the ship had entered a danger area at too high a speed. Neither blamed the International Mercantile Marine Company or the White Star Line. The disaster led to new rules, such as more lifeboats, radio equipment manned at all times, and the Q code for clearer messages. An International Ice Patrol was set up to watch for icebergs. The ship's sinking has also inspired artists and filmmakers for many years. In 1985, Robert Ballard found the wreck of Titanic. The film by James Cameron became very popular in 1997. The wreck is slowly decaying, and its capstans and other fittings may be all that remain on the seabed.

Casualties and survivors

Further information: Passengers of the Titanic and Crew of the Titanic

The number of people who died has changed over time for several reasons. The passenger list was confusing, because it included some people who cancelled their trip at the last minute. Several passengers also travelled under other names, so they were counted twice. In his book A Night to Remember, historian Walter Lord noted that different sources gave different totals, from 1,490 to 1,635. Modern Titanic historians have found that 1,496 people died and 712 survived. Of the 2,208 people aboard when the ship left Queenstown on 11 April 1912, about one-third survived. The table below shows figures from Encyclopedia Titanica.

Some survivors who were pulled from the water died soon after because of their injuries and the cold. The numbers show big differences in survival between men and women, and between the classes on the ship. Less than 10 per cent of first- and second-class women died, but 54 per cent of third-class women died. Five of the six first-class children and all the second-class children survived, while 52 of the 79 third-class children died. The only first-class child who died was Loraine Allison, who was two years old. Second-class men had the highest share of deaths, at 92 per cent. Of the pets brought aboard, three survived.