The Titanic Disaster
The Titanic steaming across the Atlantic ocean
on her first and only voyage.
The Titanic sailed April 10th, 1912.
On the 14th, the Titanic passengers had a wonderful dinner inside the warm lounges. Around 9:30 P.M., the wireless room came into contact withe the steamship Mesaba told the Titanic about a huge ice field in the ship's path (right).
These messages were ignored. Up in the crow's nest,
Frederick Fleet was staring into the darkness. It was around 11:30 on a very odd calm
moonless night when he noticed a black object immediately in their path, he knew it was
ice!
Image Credit: Raven
Designs International
Frederick Fleet
On the bridge, First Officer Murdoch ordered "full speed
astern" and "hard a' starboard". Slowly the ship began to turn and it
looked as if it was going to clear the ice. When they heard a strange scraping noise,
Murdoch knew they had hit an iceberg, a seaman's worst nightmare. He then ordered the
watertight doors shut.
Knowing the ship was doomed, Captain Smith ordered evacuation of the Titanic. Their greatest problem was that the Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for about half of the 2,200 people on board. Outdated British Trade regulations required 16 lifeboats for any vessel over 10,000 tons. Meanwhile in the wireless room, the wireless operators were sending distress calls indicating the Titanic's position.
The Titanic sent up white flares (see picture), some of which were seen
by the steamer Californian, 
(right) trapped in ice several miles
away. The wireless room on the Californian, however, was off and the operator
asleep. It has been debated whether the Californian could have gotten free if it
had wanted too. Even so, it is doubtless that it could have prevented much loss of life if
it had gotten there.
At first, several lifeboats left with around 20 people, while there was capacity for about 64 on each. Most people just didn't want to leave the ship.
Photo Credit: Ken Marshall
The steamer Carpathia was one of the ships closest
to the Titanic racing to her rescue, but knew they would not make it on time. At
4:00 a.m., the members of the first lifeboat spotted the Carpathia's lights on
the horizon. She proceded to pick up 705 survivors. There were a few happy stories. A
baker on Titanic spent the last four hours of the ship's life drinking whisky.
After the sinking, he paddled around happily, insulated from the cold water by the huge
amount of alcohol he consumed. He was picked up 3 hours later by the Carpathia.
The Carpathia.
Image Credit: Ken Marshall
Copyright © 1998 by the Creators of Lost Liners.
