Titanic Tragedy

A LOOK INTO THE TITANIC TRAGEDY
Titanic: A timeline of events

14 April, 11:35 PM: Lookout spots an iceberg, rings the bell three times and calls the bridge.
First officer orders the Titanic “hard-a-starboard” (to the left) and the engines reversed. He also
closes the doors to the watertight compartments.
14 April, 11:40 PM: The starboard side of the Titanic hits the iceberg, Captain Smith arrives on
deck and is informed that at least five of the ship’s compartments are flooded. Designer Thomas
Andrews surveys the damage, predicting that the ship has only about one to two hours before
sinking.
15 April, 12:00 AM: Lifeboats begin to be readied for launch.
15 April, 12:15 AM: Distress signals are sent but most ships that respond are too far away.
15 April, 12:20 AM: The Carpathia receives the signal and immediately changes course to aid
the ship, but it will need more than three hours to arrive. Passengers’ embarkation on lifeboats is
underway.
15 April, 12:45 PM: The ship unsuccessfully fires the first of eight distress rockets. The first
lifeboat is launched well below capacity, partially because of the crewmen’s worry that the
davits would be unable to hold a fully loaded lifeboat.
15 April, 2:00 AM: The only lifeboats that remain on the Titanic are three of the collapsible
boats. The Titanic’s bow has sunk low enough that the stern’s propellers are now clearly visible
above the water. Captain Smith releases the crew, saying that “it’s every man for himself.” The
Captain is reportedly seen on the bridge for the last time. His body will never be recovered.
15 April, 2:17 AM: Wireless radio operator Jack Phillips sends a final distress signal. He
reportedly makes it to the overturned collapsible lifeboat B but succumbs to exposure. His body
will not be found.
15 April, 2:18 AM: The lights on the Titanic go out. The ship breaks in two between the third
and fourth funnels.
15 April, 2:20 AM: The stern disappears below the water, and the Titanic is gone.
15 April, 3:30 AM: The Carpathia arrives in the area, firing rockets.
15 April, 4:10 AM: The Carpathia begins picking up survivors from lifeboats.
15 April, 8:30 AM: The Californian arrives, searches the area for several hours but fails to find
any survivors.
15 April, 8:50 AM: The Carpathia, carrying the 705 Titanic survivors, heads to New York City,
where it will arrive on April 18.
Fatalities
All people who did not manage to get on lifeboats immersed in lethally cold water with a
temperature of −2 °C (28 °F) and almost all died of cardiac arrest or other bodily reactions to
freezing water, within 15–30 minutes. Only five of them were helped into the lifeboats, though
the lifeboats had room for almost 500 more people.
As a result, more than 1,500 people lost their lives, and about 705 were rescued, although
theories on the exact numbers vary due to confusion over the passenger list, which included
some names of people who canceled their trip at the last minute and some who were double
counted on the casualty lists.
Passengers traveling first class were significantly more likely to survive than other passengers,
while women and children were more likely to survive than men, due to a “women and children
first” protocol in lifeboats.
Probable causes
-Climate conditions: The immediate cause of the sinking was collision with an iceberg, which
reminds us that, in every tragedy, there is human error along with bad luck. In that time of that
year, warmer-than-usual waters in the region made Atlantic waters a fruitful ground for
corralling icebergs at the intersection of the Labrador Current and the Gulf Stream, while
unusually high tides in January 1912 possibly dislodged icebergs of Labrador Sea sending them
towards the Titanic route some months later. In addition, the two lookouts onboard, Frederick
Fleet and Reginald Lee, had a difficult job that night due to the fact that the ocean was unusually
calm that night: As there would be little water breaking at its base, an iceberg would be more
difficult to spot.
-Neglecting warnings: Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the
area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. One of the ships to warn Titanic was the Atlantic
Line’s Mesaba, a few hours before the tragedy, but the message was never relayed to the
Titanic’s bridge. Shortly after, the nearby Californian notified Titanic that it had stopped after
becoming surrounded by ice, but wireless operator Phillips, who was handling passenger
messages, scolded the Californian for interrupting him: “Shut up! Shut up! I am busy.”
-Reversed engines: As soon as the bridge was notified of the iceberg, First Officer William
Murdoch ordered a “hard-a-starboard”—a maneuver that would turn the ship to port (left)—and
the engines reversed. The Titanic began to turn, but it was too close to avoid a collision. By
reversing the engines, Murdoch actually caused the Titanic to turn slower than if it had been
moving at its original speed. Most experts believe the ship would have survived if it had hit the
iceberg head-on, according to Britannica. It has also been reported that, if the ship had stopped
where it was hit, seawater would not have pushed into one interior compartment after another,
and the ship might not have sunk as quickly.
-Timekeeping: Despite warnings on icebergs, the ship continued to steam at full speed, which
was standard practice at the time. Ice warnings were typically seen as advisories with reliance
placed upon lookouts and it was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels.
-There were too few lifeboats: This did not cause the sinking but contributed to the high death
toll. The 20 lifeboats onboard were enough for 1,178 people—about half the number onboard,
and one third of Titanic’s total capacity— which was still in excess of the 1,060-person capacity
under the maritime safety regulations of those days. Four of those boats were collapsible and
proved hard to launch during the sinking. Even worse, the lifeboats launched were eventually
only about half-filled, because crewmen worried that the davits would not be able to support the
weight of a fully loaded boat. It is worth noting that the Captain had canceled the ship’s
scheduled lifeboat drill earlier in the day of the sinking, and the crew was unaware that the davits
had been tested in Belfast.
-Poor practices onboard: Due to drill cancellation, the crew had not been trained adequately in
carrying out an evacuation. Those aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency in
accordance with accepted practices of the time, as ships were seen as largely unsinkable.
Furthermore, many passengers on the aftermath of the sinking testified to the general confusion
on the ship: A general warning was never sounded, causing a number of passengers and even
crew members to be unaware of the danger for some time.
Lessons learned
The extended media coverage and the subsequent worldwide shock, due to the huge death toll,
led to major improvements in maritime safety. The most prevalent one was the establishment of
the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) in 1914, which still governs
maritime safety.
The 1914 version was superseded by SOLAS 1929, SOLAS 1948, SOLAS 1960 (the first
adopted under the auspices of the IMO) and SOLAS 1974. SOLAS 1974 is still in force today,
but it has been amended and updated many times.
The first International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London in 1913,
drawing up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that
lifeboat drills be held for each voyage; and, because the Californian had not heard the distress
signals of the Titanic, that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch. In addition, the International Ice
Patrol was established to warn ships of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes and to break
up the ice.

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A LOOK INTO THE TITANIC TRAGEDY

Titanic: A timeline of events

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