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On Sunday, 24 of Titanic's 29 boilers were in service. During the day, preparations were made to light the remaining boilers to prepare for the next day's speed test. But, the boilers were never actually lit. Even with 84% of her boilers operating, Titanic'sengines drove the propellers at 75 rpms, giving a speed of 21 1/2 knots, almost 25 land mph on land. Sunday at 9:00 am, the Titanicpicks up a wireless message from the Caronia, eastbound from New York to Liverpool via Queenstown. She warned the Titanic of a field of ice 42'N from 49' to 51'W. The message was delivered to Captain Smith on the bridge. After noting it he posted it for his officers to read.
At 10:30 in the morning,passengers from all classes gathered in the First-Class Dining Room for Divine Services. Captain Smith led the congregation, reading from White Star Line's own prayer book. Sunday saw two breaks in shipboard routine: there was no daily inspection of the vessel or a lifeboat drill for the passengers and crew. Captain Smith elected to forgo this formality on Titanic's first Sunday at sea.
However, things were hectic in the Titanic's wireless room. The ships Marconi, John Phillips and his second assistant Harold Bride, were receiving and transmitting private telegrams to the lighthouse located on Cape Race, on the coast of New Foundland, for the Titanic's wealthy guests.
Titanic's course was changed when a message was received from Athinai via Baltic: ...Greek steamer Athinaireports passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice today in latitude 41.51 N, longitude 49.52 W.
This message palced icebergs within a few miles of Titanic's track. It, too, was taken immediately to the bridge and very shortly after to Captain Smith, who was lunching with J. Bruce Ismay. The captain handed the message to Ismay with the remark that the ship soon might be encountering ice. Ismay put the message in his pocket and later showed it to several passengers. The message was not posted on the bridge nor entered in the scrap log until 7:15 pm when Smith requested it back from Ismay.
By 5:30 pm, the temperature had repidly dropped to 39 degrees. Many of the passengers retreated from the deck for the warmer conditions inside the ship.
At 5:50 pm, slightly ahead of schedule, Titanic reached the 'Corner', the position along the 42nd degree of north latitude at which, according to sailing orders, the ship was to cross the 47th degree of west longitude. At this point the course was changed slightly to the south and west of the normal course
At 7:35 the temperature again took a nose dive, dipping down to 33 degrees and at 8:45, the cold temperatures had alarmed Second Officer Lightoller, who sent the ships carpenter to look over the ships fresh water supply, because of the possibility it could freeze. At 7:30 pm they intercepted caution from the nearby Californian which read, "Three large bergs southward of us." Bride took the warning to the bridge where an officer read it. Captain Smith never received the message because he was the guest of honor at a dinner party. The last ice warning was received at 9:40 pm by the Mesaba, "Ice warning, saw much heavy pack ice and a great number of large icebergs; also field ice." The Californian had tried to siganl the Titanic that it was completely surrounded by ice but the Titanic'swirless officer Phillips told the Californian to shut up because he was busy. The Californian then turned off her Marconi set and no more ice warnings were sent.
Titanic cruises at 20 1/2 knots when the ship's lookout Frederick Fleet, sees the iceberg right ahead at 11:40 pm. 500 yards away towering 55 to 60 feet above the water. Fleet immediately sounds the warning bell with 3 sharp rings. He then called the bridge and said, "Iceberg right ahead." First officer Murdoch orders the ship's wheel hard to starboard. At the start of her port turn, Titanic's bow began to swing away from the approaching berg. To Fleet and Lee it seemed as though the collision might have been avoided. The berg's dark mass was level with Titanic's bow, than slipped past along the starboard side, its top more than 25 feet above the crow's nest platform. Large ice chunks fell from it cascading onto the forward well deck. The iceberg glided along the ship's length, scraping and bumping against the first 300 feet of the vessel's hull deep below the waterline. As Titanic was still at about 21 knots she would have passed through 300 feet in less than 10 seconds. The ice passed amidships and Murdoch ordered the helm hard to port so that the stern would clear. Bobbing slightly from the impact, the berg dissappeared into the night. Though many passengers and crew were only slightly disturbed by the colision, many recalled feeling a slight vibration at the time of the imapct. Some who slept were not even awakened. Many crew members felt they had lost a propeller, which they figured was the cause of the vibration.
During the first 10 minutes after the collision, water rises 14 feet from the bow and the first five compartments begin to take on water.
It's now midnight and Captain Smith asks Thomas Andrews, the ship's designer, for his opinion on the situation. Based on the 300 feet of damage from the iceberg on the starboard side, he figures out that 5 watertight compartments have been severely damaged, and possibly the sixth. The ship can only stay afloat if 3 compartments are damaged, even 4, but no more. As the water fills the compartments the bow will be pulled under, allowing the water to spill over the bulkheads (which only go as high as E Deck). He accumalates that the ship can stay afloat fro 1 to 1 1/2 hours only. Captain Smith gives their position to Phillips and Bride and tells them to send out C.Q.D., (Come Quickly Distress). He said, "Tell all that respond that we've been struck an iceberg and are going down by the head. Immediate assistance requested."
Fifteen minutes after the ship struck the iceberg the Captain gives orders to uncover lifeboats and rouse the crew and passengers. The Captain ordered that there must be no panic among the passengers and crew.
Between 12:10 and 1:50 am, several crew members on the Leyland liner, Californian, which is
positioned some 10 to 14 miles away on the unglamerous Liverpool to Boston run, notice a steamer in the distance firing rockets. With their only marconi operator asleep, they tryed the morse lamp to acquire the ship's name. The Titanic ato one point, sees the light flashing, but assumes it's only a flickering masthead light. Captain Smith takes notice of that and orders a crewman to use the Titanic's morselamp to get a response. The Californian never saw Titanic's message for help. It assumed that the 8 rockets that were fired from the Titanic were company signals of some kind, warning another ship of the ice.
Captain Smith orders Titanic's band to play in the first class lounge on A Deck at about 12:15 am. Later, they move to the Boat Deck near the entrance to the Grand Staircase.
At 12:25 am, the order is given to start loading the lifeboats, according to tradition, women and children first.
Meanwhile, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, are busy relaying the message for help, they soon switched to the new call at the time S.O.S. The Carpathia, steaming southeast some 58 miles away on route from New York to the Mediterranean receives the distress call at 12:25 am, and immediately turns around and heads full speed (17 knots) to the rescue. Other ships responded to the Titanic, but were too far away. The Frankfut and Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, didn't understand the situation. Frankfurt wanted more details and the Olympic wanted to know if the Titanic was steaming south to meet her. Not many inderstood that this "unsinkable" ship could possibly need assistance.
The first lifeboat, No. 7, is safely lowered into the water on the starboard side at around 12:45 am and was safely lowered away. it ca carry 65 people but leaves with 28 people aboard. Ten minutes later the first port side lifeboat, No. 6, is lowered down with only 28 aboard including the famous Molly Brown and Major Peuchen. At 1:15 am the water begins to reach the Titanic's name on the bow and she lists to port. An hour and forty minutes after the Titanic struck the iceberg, the third lifeboat, starboard lifeboat No. 9, leaves with 56 people. At this point, the ship has developed a noticeable list to starboard. Signs of panic begin to appear among some of the passengers on the ship and crew members get worried themselves. Port side boat No. 16 is lowered with 50 people at 1:35 am, and starboard boat No. 15 follows 30 seconds later with 70 people aboard. Most of the forward boats have now been cast away and remaining passengers begin to move to the stern area. Ismay leaves on collapsible C with 39 others aboard and the last lifeboat on the starboard side is launched.
It's now 2:00 am and the sea is only 10 feet below Promenade Deck and there are still 1500+ people left on the sinking ship. Five minutes later the Titanic's forecastle deck sinks underwater and the tilt begins to grow steeper. Captain Smith releases the wireless operators from their duty at 2:05 am. Disregarding Smith's command, Phillips continues to send S.O.S's.
Phillips sends the last radio message at 2:17 am while Captain Smith tells the remaining crew members, "It's every man for himself." According to legend, Smith then returns to the bridge, to fulfill the tradition that the captain goes down with the ship. A minute later a huge roar is heard as all movable objects inside crash toward the submerged bow. The ship's lights blink once and then turn off for good.
The Titanic breaks apart between the third and fourth funnels due to tremendous strain on the ship's hull, which is not designed for that weight. Withall the engines and propeller
shafts contained in the stern section, the weight grossed more than 20,000 tons.
Now at 2:20 am. the Titanic's broken stern section settles back into the water righting itself for a moment, then the bow pulls it upright in the sea. The bow section breaks away and descends to the bottom, leaving the stern floating for a few minutes. It slowly fills with water and sinks into the North Atlantic. In only a few minutes following this, the remainin 1500+ souls drown or freeze from hypothermia in the icy cold waters
For almost 2 hours, the survivors in the boats waited for a light of a rescue ship. Finally, at about 4:00 am in the morning a light came closer and closer. Rockets were being sent up and the foghorn kept blowing and blowing. The Carpathia had arrived.
