Some think that the Titanic was torpedoed by a German U-boat. This theory doesn't seem all that far-fetched considering that three years later in 1915, a German U-boat did sink a passenger ship, the Lusitania. However, it's possible that torpedo theorists are confusing the Titanic with the Lusitania.
The mystery has been solved thanks to a new expedition conducted by OceanGate Expeditions this summer to the remains of the luxury liner. Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, after a collision with an iceberg, and what's left of it lies on the seafloor around 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
Both courts of inquiry ultimately determined the 'Titanic Mystery Ship' was the SS Californian, which had reported seeing rockets fired into the night sky – the standard signal of a vessel in distress. The Californian was near the edge of a dangerous and considerably large ice field.
The average lifespan of an iceberg in the North Atlantic typically is two to three years from calving to melting. This means the iceberg that sank the Titanic "likely broke off from Greenland in 1910 or 1911, and was gone forever by the end of 1912 or sometime in 1913."
The sea's surface shone like glass, making it hard to spot icebergs, common to the North Atlantic in spring. Nevertheless, Captain Smith kept the ship at full speed. He believed the crew could react in time if any were sighted. (Related: go on the trail of Titanic in the UK.)
While we cannot know for sure how he spent his final moments, it is known that Captain Edward Smith perished in the North Atlantic along with 1517 others on April 15, 1912. His body was never recovered.
The iceberg wasn't spotted until 11.40 PM. It's estimated that with modern radar technology the iceberg could have been spotted 80 miles away. Many people imagine that when the Titanic hit the iceberg that the passengers felt a large crash. That wasn't the case, some passengers didn't notice at all.
After the Titanic sank, searchers recovered 340 bodies. Thus, of the roughly 1,500 people killed in the disaster, about 1,160 bodies remain lost.
A water temperature of a seemingly warm 79 degrees (F) can lead to death after prolonged exposure, a water temperature of 50 degrees can lead to death in around an hour, and a water temperature of 32 degrees – like the ocean water on the night the Titanic sank – can lead to death in as few as 15 minutes.
Titanic - Halifax Connection
Three ships were dispatched from Halifax, Mackay-Bennett, Minia and Montmagny (along with Algerine from Saint John's, Newfoundland) found almost all of the Titanic victims. Other passing steamships in the North Atlantic found a handful of other bodies, which were immediately buried at sea.
The musicians of the Titanic all perished when the ship sank in 1912. They played music, intending to calm the passengers, for as long as they possibly could, and all went down with the ship.
These actions include: 1) alternating the thrust of the ship's wing screws and advancing the centerline screw to increase the turning response of the ship; 2) allowing the ship to ram the iceberg head- on; 3) counter-flood the aft end of the stricken ship to reduced the rate of water intake by 4.5 hours; 4) employing ...
"Unfortunately, because Titanic is 2.3 miles (3.7 km) down, it is very difficult or impossible to preserve. It is film which will preserve it for history now," says Mann. "It has already lasted for 100 years, but eventually there will be nothing left but a rust stain on the bottom of the Atlantic...
The debris trail led to the wreck. Just after 1:00 a.m. on September 1, 1985, under more than 12,400 feet of water, one of the Titanic's boilers was identified, confirming the wreck had been found.
It was her sister, Edna Kearney Murray who survived the sinking of the Titanic but it wasn't in an overloaded lifeboat. “My great aunt Edna was in England at the time and had purchased a ticket for return passage to America on the Titanic,” Chris said.
Almost all of those who jumped or fell into the sea drowned or died within minutes due to the effects of cold shock and incapacitation. RMS Carpathia arrived about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued all of the 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April, some nine and a half hours after the collision.
Oceanographers have pointed out that the hostile sea environment has wreaked havoc on the ship's remains after more than a century beneath the surface. Saltwater acidity has been dissolving the vessel, compromising its integrity to the point where much of it would crumble if tampered with.
'Yes, like all things, eventually, Titanic will vanish entirely. It will take a long time before the ship completely disappears, but the decomposition of the wreck is to be expected and is a natural process,' Patrick Lahey, president and co-founder of Triton Submarines, told Business Insider.
It's unlikely the shipwreck of the Titanic will ever be raised.
Since no one owns the Titanic, people are free to recover items from the ship if they are able. The United States granted “salvor-in-possession” status to RMST giving them the legal and exclusive rights to retrieve items from the wreck.
While Captain Smith was responsible for the decisions he made when navigating the dangerous conditions on the night of the disaster, Beesley asserted that it could have been any other liner to strike an iceberg as the Titanic did because many other captains would have likely done the same in Smith's position.
What would have happened if the Titanic sank in warm water? Had the Titanic sank in warm water, most of those in the water would have survived. Almost all had life jackets on, and the lifeboat passengers were rescued only a couple of hours after the ship sank.
The ship wasn't nimble enough to avoid an iceberg that lookouts spotted (the only way to detect icebergs at the time) at the last minute in the darkness. As the ice bumped along its starboard side, it punched holes in the ship's steel plates, flooding six compartments.
If a ship is sinking, maritime tradition dictates that the captain ensures the safe evacuation of every passenger before he evacuates himself. He (or she) is responsible for the lives of those onboard, and he can't coordinate their exit unless he's the last person off.