It was the 14th of April, 1912, 11:40 p.m., the bell from the crow’s nest suddenly rings three times followed by the crow’s nest telephone on the bridge. The telephone is answered by the sixth officer Moody, who hears, "Lookout Fredrick Fleet’s urgent warning, iceberg, right ahead!" First officer Murdoch, who was on watch on the bridge, demands the engines stopped and then orders full astern and also orders the helmsman, Quarter master Hitchens, to turn the helm hard starboard.
They waited for 37 seconds. When it seemed they would hit the iceberg head-on, the ship finally started to turn towards the left, but it had turned too late. A spur of ice that was hidden beneath the water, scraped and bumped the starboard (right) side of the ship for 248 feet. This caused a series of smaller holes, not a continuos gash like someone would expect, it also buckled hull plates that affected the first four compartments and two feet into the fifth compartment. Now the total area that was open to the sea was a mere 12 square feet of the ship.
The captain (Smith) was in his cabin at the time and rushed to the bridge at once. When he learned about the collision they had had with the iceberg, he ordered the fourth officer Boxhall to organize an inspection of the ship.
When Mr.Boxhall returned from the
inspection he said that he had not found any damage at all. However, within
minutes the reports to the contrary began to come in, the boiler room 6
is up to 8 feet in water, the mail room is flooding, the squash quart was
awash 25 minutes after the collision, the seaman’s quarters on E deck forward,
above the keel 48 feet, began taking on water.Edward Wilding, a naval architech
at Harland and Wolff who's Main job had been the design of the Titanic,
estimated at the British Inquiry that 16,000 cubic ft. of water had
entered the hull in the first 40 min. after the collision.the Titanic was
doomed!
