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"Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning, after collision with iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life. Full particulars later." This was the message sent to the White Star Lines New York office from the Carpathia, as she started to New York with the survivors of the Titanic Shipwreck.
The story of the Titanic starts berth 44, in Southampton, England.
After four
days of hiring crew members, loading supplies and making the
final inspections, passengers started boarding on the morning of April 10.
By noon, tugs pull the Titanic into open water for the start of her maiden
voyage. She proceeds to Cherbourg, France and then to Queenstown, Ireland
to pick up additional passengers.
April 11, 1912 started with an emergency rehearsal with alarm bells and a gradual descent of the watertight doors. With the final passengers on board, the anchor is raised at 1:30 pm and the Titanic heads to sea with 2,227 passengers and crew.
The ship performs beautifully, found to be extremely stable. Congratulations pour in by radio from other ships, often with warnings of icebergs ahead.
For the next three days the weather is beautiful and the sea calm. Ice warnings continue to come in on the radio. At 6 pm on April 14, the course of the Titanic is shifted slightly south, and the speed continues to increase. All through the evening ice warnings come in on the radio, but many are not relayed to the Captain.
At 10 pm the Californian is stopped in heavy ice and sends out warnings. The radioman on the Titanic tells the Californian wireless officer to "Keep Out! Shut Up! You’re jamming my signal." and so the Californian shuts down its radio for the night.
At 11:30 pm lookouts see a slight haze ahead, and ten minutes later
signal the bridge: "large iceberg dead ahead". The First Officer
orders "Hard-a-starboard". All engines are stopped and then
ordered full reverse. The watertight doors are also ordered closed.
Titanic veers to port, but too late. An underwater spar rips a 300-foot hole, opening five forward compartments to the sea. A quick inspection reveals the unthinkable: Titanic is sinking. The distress call is sent out.
Shortly after midnight, the lifeboats are ordered uncovered, but there is only room for 1178 people if the boats are filled to capacity. Signal rockets are fired.
Several ships hear the distress call and change course to help. The closest, the Carpathian, is 58 miles away. The Californian is actually within sight of the signal rockets, but with the radio off for the night assumes the ship in the distance is a tramp steamer and continues on.
Wallace Hartley and his band play lively ragtime tunes in the first class lounge almost to the very end. They were last heard to be playing "Nearer, My God, To Thee", a song Hartley had always said he would choose for his own funeral.
At 12:25 AM, the order is given to start loading the lifeboats, women and children first. The boats were filled and lowered, sometimes with less than half their rated capacity. The last boat was launched by 2:05 AM, as the Titanics tilt becomes much steeper.
At 2:17 AM the stern began to lift clear of the water. One minute later
a huge roar was heard, and everything crashed toward the bow of the ship.
The lights blinked once and went out. At 2:20 AM the Titanic silently slid
to the ocean
floor 13,000 feet below.
Two hours later the Carpathian picked up the first lifeboat. At 5:30 AM the Californian finally hears of the disaster and moves to help, but arrives just as the last boat is pulled form the water.
At 8:50 AM the Carpathia sets sail for New York with 705 survivors, leaving the search for additional survivors to the other ships.
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