It has now been lying at the bottom of the Atlantic for more than a hundred years. Nevertheless, the story of the "unsinkable" ship still captivates us. Here is a summary of the events surrounding the sinking of the legendary luxury liner.
Almost twenty years have passed since director James Cameron's film adaptation of the Titanic tragedy. Even though the hype surrounding the blockbuster has died down, the British luxury liner is still very much present in the media. The fact that it will probably disappear completely by 2030 makes the wreck and its history even more fascinating.
In the early 20th century, passenger shipping was a very profitable source of income. The two largest operators at the time were White Star and Cunard. In 1907, the Cunard shipping company appeared to be leading the race for market share. After all, it had presented two new luxury ships to the public: the Lusitania and the Mauretania.
To counter the rival shipping company, White Star board member J. Bruce Ismay teamed up with ship designer William Pirrie to plan the construction of three new ships. The Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic were to score points primarily in terms of comfort. The speed of the ocean giants was of secondary importance.
One of the largest ships of its time was built in Ireland.
The Titanic was built at the same time as its sister ship, the Olympic. Thomas Andrews from Harland and Wolff was responsible for the design. His main focus was on providing as many amenities as possible: a beautiful first-class dining room, four elevators, and a swimming pool were intended to delight passengers. Incidentally, a ticket in this category cost around £65 (just under €75). By comparison, the monthly wage of a boy in the crow's nest of the Titanic was five pounds (just under six euros). The amenities of the second-class accommodations were comparable to those of first class on other ships. The third class of the Titanic was also very comfortably equipped.
In addition to comfort, no expense was spared on safety measures. There were 16 intermediate decks, whose bulkheads could be closed from the bridge. According to the designers, four of these compartments could be completely submerged without posing any danger to the ship. This earned the Titanic a reputation for being unsinkable.
On May 31, 1911, the basic construction was completed at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Work began on equipping the engine room with modern, powerful engines. At the same time, extensive work began on the luxurious interior. The ship finally made its first contact with water in early April 1912. After a successful test run, it was declared seaworthy.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Some of the guests at the port must have been amazed when the ship was launched. The dimensions of the ship were extremely impressive: the Titanic was almost 30 meters wide and almost three times as long as a soccer field (almost 270 meters). Fully loaded, it weighed more than 52,000 tons. Edward J. Smith, also known as the "millionaire captain," was in command on board. He earned this nickname because of his popularity with wealthy passengers. And there were quite a few of them on the luxury ship's maiden voyage. The co-owner of the famous Macy's shopping temple, Isidor Straus, with his wife, Benjamin Guggenheim (American businessman), and English journalist William Thomas Stead were just as keen not to miss the trip as the Titanic's chief designer, Andrews. As with all his other ships, board member Bruce Ismay was also on board for this maiden voyage.
Things didn't go smoothly from the start.
There was almost a collision as soon as it set sail. The wake of the gigantic ship pulled the New York, which was moored in the harbor, toward the Titanic. After about an hour of maneuvering, the luxury liner was finally able to begin its journey to the New World.
On the evening of its first day at sea, the Titanic stopped in Cherbourg, France. More passengers were supposed to board there, but this proved difficult. The docking space was too small for the British colossus. So the passengers had to be transported to the luxury liner by ferry. With a stop in Queenstown, Ireland, the next morning, the ship left Europe behind. The Titanic set sail for America with around 2,200 people on board.
During the voyage, iceberg warnings repeatedly came in to the two radio operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. They forwarded these to the bridge and then returned to their main task: transmitting passenger messages. On the evening of April 14, the Titanic entered waters known for iceberg sightings. The captain therefore adjusted the ship's course to a more southerly one, but did not slow down. The Titanic was traveling at about 22 knots (approx. 40 km/h). When an iceberg warning was sent from the ship "Mesaba" shortly after half past nine in the evening, it never reached the bridge of the Titanic. A few minutes before 11 p.m., the nearby ship Californian reported that it had to stop because it was surrounded by ice floes. Philips reacted very irritably to this message. After all, it delayed his task of sending messages to the passengers as quickly as possible.
In the lookout - without binoculars
High up in the crow's nest, two men kept watch for icebergs in the bitter cold. The calm sea made the work very difficult for Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee. It was very hard for them to spot the life-threatening danger because there were no waves breaking on the ice. On top of that, they didn't have any binoculars. The key to the cabinet where they were kept was in the pocket of Officer David Blair. However, he had been stationed on another ship due to a last-minute restructuring.
Shortly after half past eleven at night, the men finally spotted an iceberg and immediately informed the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch ordered the "Hard-a-Starboard" maneuver. This involves turning the ship to the left and running the engines in reverse. However, due to the Titanic's large mass, it took too long for the helmsman's efforts to take effect. A collision with the iceberg could no longer be prevented. The hull of the Titanic scraped along the mountain, tearing open at least five of the intermediate compartments in the bow area.
After an initial assessment, Andrews explained on the bridge how the collision would affect his ship. The designer explained that with this damage, the forward compartments would fill with water. When they sank, the stern would rise into the air and push the bow even deeper into the water. Gradually, all compartments would fill with water and the fate of the Titanic would be sealed. Some experts now believe that if the ship had rammed the iceberg head-on, the damage would not have been so severe and it would probably not have sunk.
"S-O-S to all ships in the vicinity"
Captain Smith immediately ordered a distress signal to be sent. The Cunard Line'sCarpathiapicked it up at around 12:20 a.m. and immediately set course for the Titanic. Despite the icebergs, the ship's captain, Arthur Rostron, ordered full speed ahead to the reported position. To reach the Titanic in distress even faster, the ship's heating was turned off and the stokers worked to their limits.
Instead of the normal 14 knots (26 km/h), the rescue mission reached 17 knots (more than 31 km/h). The passengers helped with preparations for the imminent rescue of the shipwrecked passengers. However, at a distance of more than 100 kilometers, it took more than three hours for the Carpathia to reach the scene. TheCalifornian, a ship in the immediate vicinity (approx. 30 kilometers), could not be contacted because its radio system had been switched off.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of the Titanic was underway. The boats were being prepared by the crew members, with everyone lending a hand. Even Bruce Ismay helped prepare the lifeboats for use—in his pajamas and barefoot. Rumors circulated that there was not enough space in the lifeboats. This statement is not true. According to the laws at the time, there was even more space than required. The regulations did not refer to the number of passengers. The number of boats was determined by the classification of the ship. In the case of the Titanic, there should have been 16 boats for a total of 550 people. In fact, there were 16 larger lifeboats for 990 passengers and four folding boats for 188 people.
The band on board played on deck to reduce panic.
While the passengers waited to be assigned to lifeboats, the band in the first-class lounge on the deck of the sinking ship began to play. They wanted to calm the passengers down a little. The statements of those who were rescued differ as to how long the musicians played. Some speak of a few songs, while other sources report that they played until the bitter end. None of the musicians survived the tragedy.
The boats were loaded with women and children, but far below their capacity for fear that they might capsize. Ironically, an evacuation drill with the lifeboats was supposed to take place on the day of the sinking, but it was canceled. As a result, those in charge did not know that the maximum capacity had actually been tested in Belfast beforehand. The first boat to leave the Titanic (number seven) was carrying 27 people. However, it could have carried the weight of 65 passengers.
When water began flooding the E deck at 1 a.m., pure panic broke out on board. Some of the male passengers tried to force their way into lifeboat No. 14. Fifth Officer Harold Lowe was forced to fire his gun three times to stop them.
Meanwhile, the Titanic continued to sink and the stern began to rise out of the water. At two o'clock in the morning, the ship's propeller was sticking high out of the water. There were only three folding boats left on the ship for evacuation. Captain Smith dismissed the crew at that point, saying, "Now it's every man for himself." According to sources, he was last seen on the bridge of his ship. Smith's body was never found.
Total darkness
At 2:18 a.m., the lights on the Titanic went out. It broke in two under the pressure and sank. Witnesses reported that the rear part of the ship rose vertically after the front part had sunk into the depths of the Atlantic. The stern was pulled down slightly and then bounced back to the surface like a cork. It remained in a vertical position for a short time and then sank steadily. All this happened within a few minutes.
Here is an account from a surviving first-class passenger (George Archilles Harder, who lived in cabin E-50 and was rescued in lifeboat number five):
We moved away from the immediate vicinity of the Titanic as it began to list significantly and its bow slowly tilted—but all the while the lights burned brightly and the band played the American national anthem. [....] Five minutes before it disappeared from view, the lights went out. Then the bow dug deeper into the water until it was filled with water up to the middle of the ship, whereupon it suddenly plunged vertically downward, creating less suction than would have been the case with a normal sinking. Shortly before sinking, a terrible, blood-curdling scream pierced the air. It came from a handful of third-class female passengers [....]
1,500 people died that night. Most of the victims were third-class passengers on the ship. Of the 710 people rescued, only 174 were from this category of the ship. Unfortunately, the captain failed to sound a general alarm on board after the disaster. As a result, many passengers did not realize the seriousness of the situation. In addition, third class was very cramped, so some people from there only made it to the upper deck after most of the lifeboats had already left.
According to the testimony of one of the first-class passengers, there was some confusion after the collision. When James Robert McGough went up to the upper deck after the collision, the second steward told him that there was no longer any danger and that he could go back to bed. McGough remained unconvinced and took refuge in lifeboat number seven with 33 other passengers. Although there was still room for more people in the boat, they rowed away from the sinking Titanic. The occupants feared that the lifeboat could be capsized by desperate drowning people.
The first ship arrived more than an hour after the sinking.
At half past three in the morning, the Carpathia finally reached the scene of the accident. They took on board the passengers from the 15 lifeboats. In daylight, the crew saw more than 20 icebergs in the immediate vicinity of the accident site. At around eight o'clock in the morning, the Californian also arrived, having only heard about the collision three hours earlier. The Carpathia finished picking up survivors at half past eight and set off for New York with them. As the ship passed the spot where the Titanic must have sunk, they saw debris and a dead man floating in the sea wearing a life jacket. The captain decided against recovering the body to avoid causing additional stress to the shipwrecked passengers. After all, some of them had had to spend more than an hour in the lifeboat with three dead bodies. One of the survivors died the next day on board the Carpathia as a result of hypothermia. The four dead were given a burial at sea on the afternoon of the following day. On April 18, 1912, the Carpathia finally arrived in New York to great cheers.
It was not only crew members and third-class passengers who lost their lives on the ship. Isidor and Ida Strauss and John Jacob Astor also did not survive the voyage. Ismay had secured a place in one of the lifeboats and was heavily criticized for this. However, the public also celebrated the heroes of the disaster, such as Molly Brown, who helped organize the lifeboats, and above all Captain Arthur Henry Rostron of the Carpathia.
After the disaster, attempts were made to clarify the situation.
The investigation into the disaster lasted until the end of May 1912. More than 80 people were interviewed. The Californian's crew came in for the most criticism during the hearings. They were less than 40 kilometers away when the Titanic got into distress. The crew stated that they thought the ship was moving and that their attempts to contact it using Morse code lamps had been unsuccessful. After the crew spotted flares from the other ship in the distance, they informed Captain Stanley Lord. He had already retired for the night. But instead of having the radio turned back on, Lord instructed the men to continue trying with Morse code. According to their statement, the nearby ship is said to have continued on its way at around two o'clock in the morning.
The future held nothing good for the Carpathia, which had saved hundreds of lives. Six years after delivering the survivors of the Titanic safely to New York, it was sunk by a German submarine during a battle in World War I on July 17, 1918 .
Just like the Carpathia, the Titanic lies at the bottom of the sea and is being continuously destroyed. Microorganisms underwater are decomposing the ship's metal, and entire sections have already disappeared. But even if the British luxury liner disappears one day, the legend surrounding the Titanic will live on.
After so much information, how about a little suspense and goosebumps? More than twenty short stories that will make the hairs on your arms stand on end: treat yourself to the finest in mental cinema.
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References:
https://www.titanic-research.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Die-Anzahl-der-Rettungsboote.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Titanic/Aftermath-and-investigation
https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq01Rostron02.php
https://www.n-tv.de/der_tag/Titanic-wird-bald-endgueltig-verschwinden-article26002360.html
Photos (all in the public domain):
Image of Titanic underwater (railing): NOAA at unsplash.com
RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912 by Francis Godolphin Osborne
Headline of the New York American from April 16, 1912
The construction of the Titanic by Robert John Welch (1859-1936), official photographer for Harland & Wolff
The Titanic's radio room, photographed by Francis Browne
Bedroom on the Titanic, photo by Robert John Welch (1859-1936)
Restaurant – White Star Line – "White Line Triple Screw Steamers" booklet
One of the last photos of the Titanic, taken by Francis Browne in Queenstown
Second-class deck, photographed on April 11, 1912, taken by Thomas Barker
Picture of one of the folding boats shortly before the passengers were picked up by the Carpathia. The picture was taken by a passenger on the Carpathia.
J.W. Barker. Named in The Sphere (London, May 4, 1912), p. 91.
Captain Edward John Smith, born in 1850. The photo appeared in the New York Times a few days after the disaster.
Illustration of the sinking of the Titanic by Willy Stöwer for Die Gartenlaube
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