On April 14, after four days at sea the Titanic collided with a jagged iceberg at 11:40 p.m. Because it was dark that night, and the lookouts in the crow's nest didn't have binoculars with them since they were locked up, they didn't see the iceberg until it was too late.
On the ill-fated night of April 14, 1912, Charles Dahl, a third-class passenger on the Titanic, survived the sinking by taking refuge on lifeboat number 15. He would later claim that, from this lucky vantage point, he observed nineteen icebergs in the hours that followed.
Lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee begin their watch in the Titanic's crow's nest. The night is unusually calm, making icebergs more difficult to see—because there are no waves breaking at the icebergs. Adding to the difficulties is the fact that the crow's nest's binoculars have been misplaced.
Based on its trajectory, the iceberg would have eventually melted away when it reached the warm waters of the Gulf Stream approximately two weeks after striking the Titanic. According to reports by survivors, the iceberg was about 50 to 100 feet tall and may have been as much as 400 feet long.
The centre propeller
Whilst doing so helped the ship not to go forwards, its location in front of the rudder further crippled the handling of the ship. If the centre propeller had been designed to keep working when in reverse, it's likely that the Titanic would have avoided the iceberg completely.
The Titanic grazed the fatal iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, creating what is now believed to be a series of punctures below the waterline. Many passengers were in bed at the time, and few survivors said they noticed anything more than a slight vibration if even that.
The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic in April 1912 and the accompanying loss of life might have been averted if the ship's designers or the vessel's officers been made aware of certain engineering and damage control principles.
History books record that the white-whiskered skipper was woken in his cabin when the ship struck the iceberg and decided to go down with his ship. But a previously unseen account by survivor Emily Richards blamed Captain Smith for the tragedy and said he had been drinking just hours before the catastrophic collision.
In the case of the Titanic, the victims had no option but to face these deathly temperatures: Water temperature: 28°F (in the dangerously low end) Survival time: A mere 30 - 90 minutes.
Robert Hichens: How 'man who sank the Titanic' spiralled into depression before being jailed for attempted murder. The man at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck a fateful iceberg in 1912 has not been remembered well throughout history.
Many lifeboats only carried half of their maximum capacity; there are many versions as to the reasoning behind half-filled lifeboats. Some sources claimed they were afraid of the lifeboat buckling under the weight; others suggested it was because the crew was following orders to evacuate women and children first.
No, Rose and Jack Dawson, played by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio respectively, aren't based on real people in Titanic – however, certain facets of Winslet's character were inspired by the American artist Beatrice Wood.
There are no survivors of the Titanic alive today
The very longest-living person to have survived the Titanic died on the 31st of May 2009. Her name was Elizabeth Gladys 'Millvina' Dean, and she was just two months old when she boarded the Titanic with her family.
Of the 337 bodies recovered, 119 were buried at sea. 209 were brought back to Halifax. 59 were claimed by relatives and shipped to their home communities. The remaining 150 victims are buried in three cemeteries: Fairview Lawn, Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch.
In all, from 44 to 48 were actually saved from the water while about 79 passengers and crew have have been found who said they had been in contact with the water. There are probably others whose accounts are yet to be discovered, as well.
The Titanic sank from human error. According to the granddaughter of the second officer of the Titanic, Louise Patten, a new steering system led to a mistake by the steersman, Robert Hitchins, into going "hard a port" instead of "hard a starboard" and straight into the iceberg instead of away from it.
At roughly midnight, Andrews reportedly told Smith the Titanic could last another 60 to 90 minutes. Smith now knew the Titanic was doomed. He also knew that its 20 lifeboats, with a total capacity of 1,178, couldn't begin to accommodate the more than 2,200 passengers and crew members aboard.
Shortly after 11:40 p.m. on 14 April, Smith was informed by First Officer William Murdoch that the ship had just collided with an iceberg.
There are fears that during retrieval, the Titanic wreck would disintegrate into pieces, making it impossible to have something concrete by the time the remains reach the sea surface. There are documented reports that metal-eating bacteria has already consumed most of Titanic's wreckage.
After several trips back to the drawing board, it turns out that raising the Titanic would be about as futile as rearranging the deck chairs on the doomed vessel. After a century on the ocean floor, the Titanic is apparently in such bad shape that it couldn't withstand such an endeavor for various reasons.
Now it turns out that the Titanic will stay where it is, at least for now, as it is too fragile to be raised from the ocean floor. The acidic salt water, hostile environment and an iron-eating bacterium are consuming the hull of the ship.
The ship's captain Edward Smith went down with his vessel and his last words were poignant. He said: "Well boys, you've done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you.
At approximately 2:18 am the lights on the Titanic went out. It then broke in two, with the bow going underwater. Reports later speculated that it took some six minutes for that section, likely traveling at approximately 30 miles (48 km) per hour, to reach the ocean bottom.
Lillian died in her home in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, on May 6, 2006, at the age of 99. She was buried at the Old Swedish Cemetery in Worcester, alongside her father, mother, and brother. Her death left Barbara West Dainton and Millvina Dean as the last two living survivors of the Titanic.
Bottles of wine, shoes, suitcases are among the items that can be seen strewn across the ocean floor, reminders of lives that were cut short by the icy Atlantic waves. But, crucially, plenty is still missing: human remains. Some 1,160 people went down with the Titanic. but no bodies have ever been found.