Titanic

"The Titanic has cast a spell on all who built and sailed in her. So muck so that, as the years go by, she grows even more fabulous." Walter Lord

So much has been written about the Titanic that all one can do is repeat the endless, if somewhat conflicting, accounts of the actual cause of the sinking, the terrible shortage of lifeboats and the mystery ship, so close by, that failed to answer the Titanic's distress calls.

even so, the tale is still incredible. Think of the large number of rich, newsworthy names on board, the fact that this was the largest, safest liner in the world, carrying 2,206 souls, steaming off into the north Atlantic to cheering crowds and playing bands, destined to sink alone in the middle of the ice.

Think of the new Queen Mary 2 launched just this year, 2004, the incredible size of her and the fanfare of publicity that surrounded her maiden voyage to Miami. Now imagine that she never made it, that she went down in minutes in this age of men on the moon and probes to Mars - incredible, unbelievable!

I hope to give here, from the many varied accounts available, the facts which led to the greatest sea disaster the world has ever known.

Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911 as the second of the Big 3 planned by Bruce Ismay. These were to be Olympic, Titanic and the Gigantic, although the latter never materialised. A year later, on Wednesday 10 April 1912, Titanic was at her berth in Southampton ready to set sail on her maiden voyage. She was 104 ft high and over 1,000 ft long with a registered tonnage of 96,325, almost 1,000 more than Olympic. She had a double hull to ensure against any occurrence, and watertight bulkheads along the length of her keel, forming buoyancy compartments - Titanic could float with up to four of these compartments flooded.

Ahead of her lay a short trip across the Channel to Cherbourg, a stop to pick up passengers at Queenstown in Ireland and then she would turn her bows nnw and head for America. Casting off in the crowded Southampton basin she slowly moved towards the open sea but as she passed the American Line steamer New York, the smaller vessel was torn from her moorings and dragged towards the Titanic. The huge liner stopped all engines and the New York was halted in the nick of time by powerful tugs. Such was the huge bow wave created that, further on, even the Teutonic was heeled over by the tremendous suction generated by Titanic's bulk. After Cherbourg and Queenstown she left land for the last time at 2.00 pm on Thursday April 11, and headed into the Atlantic.

Unknown to passengers on board was the fact that, from the moment the huge ship had left her berth in Southampton, fire had been raging in her stokeholds, and two men out of each shift had been detailed to control the flames.

(Could this possible be the reason for the urgency to get to New York? Although it was denied emphatically by the owners that there was any attempt at a record, surely she must reach the safety of the United States before the fire engulfed her fuel supply - so she could not therefore waste time taking the longer southern detour to avoid ice.)

In America reports had been received from inbound liners of pack-ice off Newfoundland. The Cunard liner Carmania had had to feel her way through the ice dead slow for 2 hours. Another ship, the French liner Niagara, was actually holed twice beneath the water line but was able to continue after patching up the damage.

The Arctic ice was breaking up earlier than usual, and was passing down the Labrador current so that it was now well south of the Met Office's "safe" northern limit.

On Friday April 12 Captain Smith, aboard Titanic, received a message from the Touraine reporting ice packs and large icebergs. The officers aboard Touraine later stated that they had been in constant touch with the Titanic up until 9.00 pm that night, and had warned her of and iceberg they had encountered. She was answered by Captain Smith, "sincerely thanking you for your information."

Mr Lightoller, Second Officer aboard Titanic, was not worried about ice, and did not consider it necessary to post extra lookouts. Sunday night came, and the temperature dropped, sending the after-dinner crowd below decks to the Smoke Rooms and Bars below decks. No icebergs had yet been sighted.

A steamer, believed to be the Amerika, reported large icebergs in the area 49* and 50* north, but no longtitude was recorded. Titanic received these messages and passed them on over the radio to any other shipping in the area, presumably she didn't need to heed her own warnings.

At 9.29 pm Captain Smith left Lightoller in command on the bridge and told him, "If you are in the slightest degree doubtful let me know."

Titanic was now making over 20 knots as First Officer Murdoch joined Lightoller on the bridge. Just after 11.00 pm the crow's nest telephoned and reported that they thought they could see the glimmer of icebergs on the horizon ahead.

At 11.37 pm the bridge telephone rang again, but there was a delay of 2 or 3 minutes before it was answered. The message that Murdoch received when he did eventually answer was, "Iceberg, dead ahead!" Murdoch reached for the engine room telegraph but, even as his hand hit the lever, the crash came. All along the starboard side of the ship, below the waterline and with a tremendous groaning sound, the ice ripped a gaping hole. Watertight doors were closed immediately but it was too late, five compartments were already breached and starting to fill with icy cold water, one compartment too many.

Captain Smith, woken by the collision, appeared on the bridge and, without faltering, decisively went about the business of trying to save his ship and her passengers. The carpenters were ordered to sound the ship, but the carpenters didn't answer, their quarters were already beneath the water.

Titanic was settling rapidly at the bows and listing slightly to starboard. The order was given, "All passengers on deck, with lifebelts on!" Captain Smith had already realised that the damage to his ship was serious, and she was filling rapidly. The wireless operator, Jack Philips, was in the radio room and began sending distress signals to any ships that might hear him. The message, sent by Morse Code, was CQD, then the international call for assistance and Philips continued to send for around 10 mins after which he began to send SOS, now internationally recognised as "Save Our Souls" the first time this distress message had ever been used.

First ship to answer was the Frankfurt, which immediately turned towards the scene, then carpathia heard and turned right around to head back towards the floundering Titanic. Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, was nearing New York when she picked up the distress calls, swinging around she headed back to help, covering 400 miles at 28 knots, the highest speed she ever reached.

Titanic was, by now, stationery in the water with a 5* list to starboard and rapidly settling at the bows. At 12.25 am the order was given, "Women and children first!" Only then did the passengers, who had been initially amused by all the fuss, realise what was happening and rush to the lifeboats. It was at this moment also when, with horror, it became apparent that there weren't enough lifeboats for all the passengers. As the last boat puled away, left on board were 1,600 people face to face with a terrible death.

She was now even lower by the bows, but on deck there was no sound, people simply stood by the rails watching the lifeboats pull away in case they should be sucked under when the ship finally sank.

In the wireless cabin Philips was still sending the new SOS call, although the wireless was now becoming weaker as water seeped into the dynamo room down in the bowels of the ship. Olympic was raised and told of the desperate situation, the boat deck was now awash and the stern was rearing out of the eerily dead calm Atlantic waters, her lights still blazing as she stood higher and higher. With the band playing the hymn Nearer My God, to Thee, there was a series of great explosions as water reached the boilers, and then the sound of tons of massive engines breaking free from their mountings and crashing down through the bulkheads of the ship. The Titanic sank at a point 41.46* N, 50.14* west, 270 miles south east of the nearest land at Cape Race.

Perhaps the most curious incident of the sinking is that the ship which was seen just 20 miles away as Titanic foundered could not be raised by wireless or distress flares. This ship was believed to be the Californian, but at a subsequent enquiry the ship's officers stated that they what they saw they believed to be a firework display (very popular on transatlantic liners at this time), and that the ship then turned away and disappeared. A more substantial explanation, given some years later in an attempt to clear the good name of the Californian's Captain, was that the ship seen from Titanic was, in fact, a Norwegian sealing ship, the Samson, whose officers, seeing the flares, believed them to belong to an American Revenue ship that was chasing them for illegal fishing.

Nevertheless, the hard facts remain; of the 2,206 people aboard only 703 were saved, 1,503 souls perished during the 2 hours and 45 mins which she took to sink.

Most of the survivors were picked up by the Carpathia, first ship to appear on the scene, and as other ships arrived and began to search the water in the dead black of night, the huge death toll was slowly realised. Carpathia then turned around and headed back to New York to land the survivors of the greatest sea tragedy there has ever been.

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