The wireless operator on the Californian turns off his radio. Fleet sees an iceberg in the Titanic's path and rings the bell three times to indicate that something is ahead. He then calls the bridge.
On April 14, 1912, the day of the disaster, Titanic received seven iceberg warnings. One of these messages was transmitted from the SS Amerika via the Titanic to the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C. The message reported ice along Titanic's route.
"On the evening of April 14, the Titanic began to approach an area known to have icebergs. Smith slightly altered the ship's course to head farther south. However, he maintained the ship's speed of some 22 knots." "At approximately 9:40 PM the Mesaba sent a warning of an ice field.
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.)
Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling about 22 knots when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard side and opened six of her sixteen compartments to the sea.
The lookouts on the Titanic didn't see the Iceberg due to still weather conditions and a moonless night. The Titanic had two lookouts who were located in the crows nest, 29 meters about the deck, neither of which had binoculars.
As depicted in the 1997 film starring Kate Winslet, Capt Smith later received warnings of icebergs while the liner was en route to New York. But these were not heeded and the ship travelled at speed until it struck an iceberg and sank.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British. '"
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."
From the beginning, some blamed the Titanic's skipper, Captain E.J. Smith, for sailing the massive ship at such a high speed (22 knots) through the iceberg-heavy waters of the North Atlantic. Some believed Smith was trying to better the crossing time of Titanic's White Star sister ship, the Olympic.
None more so than the chairman of the White Star Line, J Bruce Ismay. Ismay became known as the “coward of the Titanic” after he made it off the ship, which sank on 15th April 1912 with the loss of more than 1,500 lives. Now, a distant cousin of his is fighting to clear his name.
Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic's owner the White Star Line persuaded the captain to continue sailing, sinking the ship hours faster than would otherwise have happened. “If Titanic had stood still, she would have survived at least until the rescue ship came and no one need have died,” Patten said.
As one of only 705 Titanic passengers who survived, Eva Hart never forgot what she had seen and heard that night. When she died on Wednesday at a hospice in London at the age of 91, she was regarded as last link of living memory with the maritime disaster that rocked the world on April 15, 1912.
Mr Cooper said: "Smith certainly did not ignore ice warnings per se, and he made sure the ones that reached the bridge were all posted in the chart room, though he did have to retrieve one that he had earlier handed to his boss J. Bruce Ismay.
One of these is a species of bacteria -- named Halomonas titanicae after the great ship -- that lives inside icicle-like growths of rust, called "rusticles." These bacteria eat iron in the ship's hull and they will eventually consume the entire ship, recycling the nutrients into the ocean ecosystem.
When a ship hits an iceberg head on, all the force would be transferred back to the ship, so it wouldn't have ripped open, but crumpled round, so only 2-3 compartments would have been breached. It was built to survive with 4 compartments breached.
Canine survivors
Three small dogs, two Pomeranians and a Pekingese, survived the Titanic disaster cradled in their owners' arms as they climbed into lifeboats.
Around two-thirds of the bodies recovered after the sinking were transported to Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada for burial, whilst a third were buried at sea.
How often do cruise ships hit icebergs? While ships might regularly make contact with ice, it's unusual for it to be an issue.
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.
Many of the factors leading to the loss of life on board the ship were judged to have been unforeseeable. Hundreds of claimants had joined the suit, asking for more than $16 million in damages. In the end, the company paid a total settlement of $664,000 to be divided among them.
Edward John Smith say "Even God himself couldn't sink this ship," Foster said.
— People have been diving to the Titanic's wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.
On today's date in 1912, the body of James McGrady, a saloon steward aboard the RMS Titanic, was interred in Halifax, N.S., where he's buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Recovered in the preceding weeks, McGrady's body was the last body recovered from the tragic sinking that took place about two months prior.
"I will follow the ship" may have been the last words Captain E.J. Smith ever said before the Titanic sunk beneath the waves. The events surrounding the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith, and his last whereabouts as the ship sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic have always been a bit of a mystery.