THE LINKS
On Thursday, April 11, Titanic arrived at Queenstown, Ireland.
It was from there that her final passengers were boarded. The
last known photograph of Titanic was taken here.
Titanic sailed into the Northern Atlantic and enjoyed three days of
smooth sailing. Her passengers spent their days strolling the decks,
playing deck games, and taking tea. Evenings were filled with lively
dinners and free flowing champagne and wine for the first and second
class passengers, ale and stout for the third class.
The Marconi set, which suffered a break down on Saturday, April 13,
was repaired early Sunday morning. It was at this time that the first ice
warnings were received. The first came from the Caronia. It was given
to Second Officer Charles Lightoller and immediately posted. The second
ice warning, reporting icebergs and large quantities of field ice, came
from the Baltic and was given to Captain Edward J. Smith. Captain Smith
then handed the warning to J. Bruce Ismay. It was not posted until
Sunday night.
When Titanic came in contact with Cape Race, Newfoundland about
9:30p.m., Marconi operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride were kept
busy sending passenger's messages to friends, family, and business
associates.
Captain Smith, who retired for the evening at 9:20, left behind Second
Officer Lightoller in charge of the watch. Lightoller, whose shift ended at
10:00p.m., turned the watch over to First Officer William Murdoch. At this
time, Reginald Lee and Fredrick Fleet took up their positons in the crow's
nest.
As wireless operator Phillips was busy with passenger's messages, a warning from the Californian came in. It read, "Say, old man, we are
stopped and surrounded by ice."
Up in the crow's nest, Fleet and Lee peered into the moonless night.
Visibility was at a minimum, and they were not provided with binoculars.
They had been misplaced in Southampton. Approximately 11:40, Fleet
spied a large object directly in Titanic's path, an iceberg
500
feet away, and they were headed straight into it. Fleet grabbed the
crow's nest phone and immediately dialed the bridge shouting, "Is anyone
there?"
Officer Murdoch ordered "full speed astern" and "hard a-starboard"
hoping to avoid a collision with the berg. Thirty-seven seconds passed
from the time Fleet first spotted the iceberg and the time of collision.
Officer Murdoch ordered the sixteen watertight compartments sealed. Of
those sixteen, five had already flooded.
Captain Smith, emerging on deck, gave the order to investigate the
damage Titanic had sustained from the collison. Mr. Thomas Andrews,
the ship's designer, reported to Captain Smith at midnight and informed
him that the damage was too great to be repaired. Titanic would flounder
within ninety minutes.
Captain Smith then gave the order to begin filling the lifeboats, women
and children first, for he was well aware that his ship did not carry
aboard her enough lifeboats for the 2200 onboard.
Jack Phillips and Harold Bride began to send out a distress call.
"CQD MGY 41.46N 50.14W We have struck a berg. Require
assistance. Putting the women off in the boats."
The Californian, a ship whose lights were spotted in the distance, had
turned its wireless sytem off at 11:30 and therefore, did not respond.
Hoping to alert her of their distress, Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall began
to signal the Californian by morse lamp. Quartermaster Lowe began to
send off distress flares. The Californian, however, did not respond.
The ship's band took up a position on deck and began to play. Their
intent was to calm the nervous passengers with music, but many mistook
the music for gaiety and did not understand the gravity of Titanic's
situation. Some refused to enter the lifeboats, and some, uncomfortable
in the freezing temperature, gathered in the first class dining room or
other inerior parts of the ship. Perhaps this contributed to several
lifeboats being launched without being filled to capacity.
Captain Smith, convinced that the lights he saw off the port bow were
those of a ship, ordered one of the lifeboats to row toward her.
Between midnight and 1:30, officers worked feverishly to load
passengers into the lifeboats, Titanic sinking with each passing moment.
Many passengers, their will to survive too strong, became unruly and
riotous. It is believed by some that a series of gunshots were fired to
prevent those passengers from boarding full lifeboats as they were
being lauched.
The band continued to play, even as water began to pour over the
forward deck well.
As the last of the lifeboats were lowered, J. Bruce Ismay, managing
director of the White Star Line, took a seat in one of them, leaving over
1500 people aboard the sinking ship.
When Captain Smith released the Marconi operators from duty, Harold
Bride tried one last time to contact another ship, but his task was made
difficult as the electricity began to fail.
As water poured over the bow, the stern of the ship rose higher and
higher from the surface of the sea. When the deck became too steep,
bandleader Wallace Hartley dismissed his band members, and as they
walked away, he began to play a simple hymn ,"Nearer My God To
Thee". Hearing these lonely notes, the members of the band returned to
join him, one by one.
The Titanic's electrical system then failed and the 1500 passengers left onboard were plunged into darkness. The bridge and boat deck were completely under water, and the remaining passengers scrambled to the stern, which was hoisted high into the air. The foward funnel broke away and came crashing down, killing dozens of people. The ship
began to split between the third and fourth funnels, and the bow,
completely flooded, dropped straight down into the sea. The stern, filled
with people fighting to stay onboard as long as possible, fell back level,
onto the water. It then rolled over on its side and began to rise almost
perfectly straight up into the air. It remained that way for several
moments. As the 700 people in the lifeboats looked on, the stern began a
straight downward plunge into the Atlantic.
At 2:20a.m. on Monday, April 15, 1912, the last of Titanic slipped below the surface of the sea.
The RMS Titanic departed Southampton for her maiden voyage
at noon on Wednesday, April 10, 1912. After a near collision with the New Yorker, a British Royal Naval vessel, she churned toward
Cherbourg, France. Because she was so vast, Titanic was unable to pull into port in Cherbourg, and passengers were brought to the ship by
tender ships.
Phillips replied, "Shut up! Shut up! I am busy. I am working Cape Race!"
Sixth Officer Bryan Moody replied, "What do you see?"
Fleet answered, "Iceberg, right ahead!"
Carpathia, the closest ship to reply, was four hours away. Titanic did
not have four hours.
