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The creaking woodwork, the distant rhythm of the engines, the steady rattle of the glass dome over the A Deck foyer—all the familiar shipboard sounds vanished as the Titanic glided to a stop.
With the restless curiosity that afflicts everyone on board ship, some of the Titanic’s passengers began exploring for an answer.
“We’ve struck an iceberg—a big one—but there’s no danger. An officer told me so!”
By 11:50—ten minutes after the collision—strange things could be seen and heard in the first six of the Titanic’s 16 watertight compartments. Lamp Trimmer Samuel Hemming, lying off duty in his bunk, heard a curious hissing sound coming from the forepeak, the compartment closest to the bow. He jumped up, went as far forward as he could, and discovered that it was air escaping from the forepeak locker where the anchor chains were stowed. Far below, water was pouring in so fast that the air rushed out under tremendous pressure.
Leading Fireman Charles Hendrickson was also aroused by a curious sound. But here it was not air—it was water. When he looked down the spiral staircase that led to the passageway connecting the firemen’s quarters with the stokeholds, he saw green seawater swirling around the foot of the grated, cast-iron steps.
Five postal clerks working in the fourth compartment were much wetter. The Titanic’s post office took up two deck levels—the mail was stacked, along with First Class luggage, on the Orlop Deck and was sorted just above on G Deck. The two levels were connected by a wide iron companionway, which continued up to F Deck and the rest of the ship. Within five minutes water was sloshing around the knees of the postal clerks, as they dragged 200 sacks of registered mail up the companionway to the drier sorting room.
Captain Smith broke the news about the iceberg. Ismay then asked, “Do you think the ship is seriously damaged?” A pause, and the Captain slowly answered, “I’m afraid she is.”
In C-51 a young governess named Elizabeth Shutes sat with her charge, 19-year-old Margaret Graham. Seeing an officer pass the cabin door, Miss Shutes asked him if there was any danger. He cheerfully said no, but then she overheard him further down the hall say, “We can keep the water out for a while.”
The Titanic could float with any two of her 16 watertight compartments flooded. She could float with any three of her first five compartments flooded. She could even float with all of her first four compartments gone. But no matter how they sliced it, she could not float with all of her first five compartments full.
After all, the Titanic was considered unsinkable. And not just in the travel brochures. The highly technical magazine Shipbuilder described her compartment system in a special edition in 1911, pointing out, “The Captain may, by simply moving an electric switch, instantly close the doors throughout and make the vessel practically unsinkable.” Now all the switches were pulled, and Andrews said it made no difference.
At 12:05 A.M.—25 minutes after that bumping, grinding jar—Captain Smith ordered Chief Officer Wilde to uncover the boats
The things people took with them showed how they felt. Adolf Dyker handed his wife a small satchel containing two gold watches, two diamond rings, a sapphire necklace, and 200 Swedish crowns. Miss Edith Russell carried a musical toy pig (it played the Maxixe). Stewart Collett, a young theological student traveling Second Class, took the Bible he promised his brother he’d always carry until they met again. Lawrence Beesley stuffed the pockets of his Norfolk jacket with the books he had been reading in bed. Norman Campbell Chambers pocketed a revolver and compass. Steward Johnson, by now
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Up the stairs they trooped—a hushed crowd in jumbled array. Under his overcoat Jack Thayer now sported a greenish tweed suit and vest, with another mohair vest underneath. Mr. Robert Daniel, the Philadelphia banker, had on only woolen pajamas. Mrs. Turrell Cavendish wore a wrapper and Mr. Cavendish’s overcoat … Mrs. John C. Hogeboom a fur coat over her nightgown … Mrs. Ada Clark just a nightgown. Mrs. Washington Dodge didn’t bother to put on stockings under her high-button shoes, which flopped open because she didn’t stop to button them. Mrs. Astor looked right out of a bandbox in an
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People were so scrambled that they just threw on whatever warm clothes they had.
poop deck
All the boats together could carry 1,178 people. On this Sunday night there were 2,207 people on board the Titanic.
“Yes, put the women and children in and lower away.”
It was 12:25 when Phillips tapped back an answer that brushed aside the Carpathia’s courteous gesture: “Come at once. We have struck a berg. It’s a CQD, old man. Position 41.46 N 50.14 W.”
A moment of appalled silence … then Cottam asked whether to tell his Captain. Phillips: “Yes, quick.” Another five minutes and welcome news—the Carpathia was only 58 miles away and “coming hard.”
The clock in the wireless shack said 12:45 A.M. when the Titanic sent the first SOS call in history.
Stronger measures were necessary. As soon as Quartermaster Rowe reached the bridge, Captain Smith asked if he brought the rockets. Rowe produced them, and the Captain ordered, “Fire one, and fire one every five or six minutes.”
“Mr. Andrews tells me,” Smith answered quietly, “that he gives her from an hour to an hour and a half.”
but the slant of the deck was steeper and there was an ugly list to port. About 1:40, Chief Officer Wilde shouted, “Everyone on the starboard side to straighten her up!” Passengers and crew trooped over, and the Titanic swung sluggishly back on an even keel. The work on the boats resumed.
