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.
