Titanic left Southampton for Cherbourg, France on April 10th but her departure was not without incident. As the huge liner set sail, it was involved in a near miss with the liner New York, whose moorings broke as Titanic passed. The New York came within four feet of striking the liner before it was pulled to safety by a nearby tug boat.
Captain Smith Orders Course Change
The Titanic was making good progress towards New York, even though all the boilers on the ship were apparently not yet lit. However, in an alleged conversation, it is suggested that Ismay wanted the boilers lit so they could arrive in New York early and allow Captain Smith to retire in glory. It was soon after this conversation that Smith supposedly ordered all the boilers to be lit. Because of a number of ice warnings, the captain ordered Titanic to alter course by moving south in order to avoid the ice field. Smith was due to alter their course again at around 1730 but delayed his order by twenty minutes to ensure the ice field had been cleared. Unbeknown to Smith and the crew, they were now on a direct collision course with the iceberg.
Rare Phenomenon Hits Gulf Stream
In April 1912, by sheer coincidence a rare phenomenon occurred in the Atlantic which allowed icebergs to travel further south than was believed possible at the time. The cold water of the Labrador Current pushes itself into the Gulf Stream but it only moves as far south as the Gulf Stream permits it. In 1912, the Gulf Stream was moving further south, which allowed the Labrador Current’s cold barrier to allow the iceberg to survive longer in the Atlantic.
Titanic Hits The Iceberg
The night of April 14th was dark. On a moonless night, lookouts generally spot icebergs by the wind breaking at their base forming ripples across the sea. That night was calm and without binoculars, the lookouts were virtually blind. At 2340, the iceberg was spotted. First Officer Murdoch ordered the ship to steer around it to the left but the iceberg brushed along the starboard side. As it hit, the iron rivets that held the hull together snapped and allowed water to enter the ship. Murdoch ordered the watertight doors to be shut, trapping workers inside the compartments. Titanic was built to stay afloat even if four compartments were flooded. Five were breached which weighed the front of the ship down. It was clear Titanic was sinking.
Lifeboats Are Launched As Titanic Starts To Sink
There were no apparent signs of the danger Titanic’s passengers were in and some lifeboats were not at capacity when they were launched. However, as the ship’s list became apparent, nervous passengers scrambled for places on the lifeboats, which were now leaving fully loaded. By 0205, all but two of the lifeboats had been launched. By this time, the entire bow of the ship was under water. Five minutes later, the stern of the ship began to rise from the water, exposing the propellers. Some who remained on the ship were jumping into the water in the hope of reaching a lifeboat as the stern rose higher. The pressure on the hull caused the ship to break up and the bow began its decent to the seabed. The stern crashed back into the water, before rising vertically. At 0220, this too sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. The biggest maritime disaster during peacetime had claimed the lives of 1517 passengers and crew.
Source:
National Geographic documentary: The Unsinkable Titanic broadcast Channel 4 November 2008
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