Titanic | History, Sinking, Rescue, Survivors, Movies, & Facts (2024)

Final hours

Throughout much of the voyage, the wireless radio operators on the Titanic, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, had been receiving iceberg warnings, most of which were passed along to the bridge. The two men worked for the Marconi Company, and much of their job was relaying passengers’ messages. 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 message was never relayed to the Titanic’s bridge. At 10:55 pm the nearby Leyland liner Californian sent word that it had stopped after becoming surrounded by ice. Phillips, who was handling passenger messages, scolded the Californian for interrupting him.

Two lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, were stationed in the crow’s nest of the Titanic. Their task was made difficult by the fact that the ocean was unusually calm that night: because there would be little water breaking at its base, an iceberg would be more difficult to spot. In addition, the crow’s nest’s binoculars were missing. At approximately 11:40 pm, about 400 nautical miles (740 km) south of Newfoundland, Canada, an iceberg was sighted, and the bridge was notified. First Officer William Murdoch ordered both the ship “hard-a-starboard”—a maneuver that under the order system then in place would turn the ship to port (left)—and the engines reversed. The Titanic began to turn, but it was too close to avoid a collision. The ship’s starboard side scraped along the iceberg. At least five of its supposedly watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured.

After assessing the damage, Andrews determined that, as the ship’s forward compartments filled with water, its bow would drop deeper into the ocean, causing water from the ruptured compartments to spill over into each succeeding compartment, thereby sealing the ship’s fate. The Titanic would founder. (By reversing the engines, Murdoch actually caused the Titanic to turn slower than if it had been moving at its original speed. Most experts believe the ship would have survived if it had hit the iceberg head-on.)

Smith ordered Phillips to begin sending distress signals, one of which reached the Carpathia at approximately 12:20 am on April 15, and the Cunard ship immediately headed toward the stricken liner. However, the Carpathia was some 58 nautical miles (107 km) away when it received the signal, and it would take more than three hours to reach the Titanic. Other ships also responded, including the Olympic, but all were too far away. A vessel was spotted nearby, but the Titanic was unable to contact it. The Californian was also in the vicinity, but its wireless had been turned off for the night.

As attempts were made to contact nearby vessels, the lifeboats began to be launched, with orders of women and children first. Although the Titanic’s number of lifeboats exceeded that required by the British Board of Trade, its 20 boats could carry only 1,178 people, far short of the total number of passengers. This problem was exacerbated by lifeboats being launched well below capacity, because crewmen worried that the davits would not be able to support the weight of a fully loaded boat. (The Titanic had canceled its scheduled lifeboat drill earlier in the day, and the crew was unaware that the davits had been tested in Belfast.) Lifeboat number 7, which was the first to leave the Titanic, held only about 27 people, though it had space for 65. In the end, only 705 people would be rescued in lifeboats.

As passengers waited to enter lifeboats, they were entertained by the Titanic’s musicians, who initially played in the first-class lounge before eventually moving to the ship’s deck. Sources differ on how long they performed, some reporting that it was until shortly before the ship sank. Speculation also surrounded the last song they performed—likely either Autumn or Nearer My God to Thee. None of the musicians survived the sinking.

By 1:00 am water was seen at the base (E deck) of the Grand Staircase. Amid the growing panic, several male passengers tried to board lifeboat number 14, causing Fifth Officer Harold Lowe to fire his gun three times. Around this time, Phillips’s distress calls reflected a growing desperation as one noted that the ship “cannot last much longer.”

As the Titanic’s bow continued to sink, the stern began to rise out of the water, placing incredible strain on the midsection. At about 2:00 am the stern’s propellers were clearly visible above the water, and the only lifeboats that remained on the ship were three collapsible boats. Smith released the crew, saying that “it’s every man for himself.” (He was reportedly last seen in the bridge, and his body was never found.)

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. The stern momentarily settled back in the water before rising again, eventually becoming vertical. It briefly remained in that position before beginning its final plunge. At 2:20 am the ship foundered as the stern also disappeared beneath the Atlantic. Water pressure allegedly caused that section, which still had air inside, to implode as it sank.

Hundreds of passengers and crew went into the icy water. Fearful of being swamped, those in the lifeboats delayed returning to pick up survivors. By the time they rowed back, almost all the people in the water had died from exposure. In the end, more than 1,500 perished. Aside from the crew, which had about 700 fatalities, third class suffered the greatest loss: of approximately 710, only some 174 survived. (Subsequent claims that passengers in steerage were prevented from boarding boats, however, were largely dispelled. Given Smith’s failure to sound a general alarm, some third-class passengers did not realize the direness of the situation until it was too late. Many women also refused to leave their husbands and sons, while the difficulty of simply navigating the complex Titanic from the lower levels caused some to reach the top deck after most of the lifeboats had been launched.)

Read our timeline of the Titanic’s final hours.

Rescue

The Carpathia arrived in the area at approximately 3:30 am, more than an hour after the Titanic sank. Lifeboat number 2 was the first to reach the liner. Over the next several hours the Carpathia picked up all survivors. White Star chairman Ismay wrote a message to be sent to the White Star Line’s offices: “Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning fifteenth after collision iceberg, resulting serious loss life; further particulars later.” At approximately 8:30 am the Californian arrived, having heard the news some three hours earlier. Shortly before 9:00 am the Carpathia headed for New York City, where it arrived to massive crowds on April 18.