Sinking

Main article: Sinking of the RMS Titanic

At 11:40 p.m. (ship's time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge.^[140] First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be stopped,^[141] but it was too late; the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline.^[k] Five of the ship's watertight compartments were breached. It soon became clear that the ship was doomed, as she could not survive more than four compartments being flooded. Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper.^[143]
Those aboard Titanic were ill-prepared for such an emergency. In accordance with accepted practices of the time, where ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels,^[144][l] Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried her full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats.^[146] The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation. The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half-full.^[147] Third-class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water.^[148] The "women and children first" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats,^[148] and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard.
At 2:20 a.m., two hours and 40 minutes after Titanic struck the iceberg, her rate of sinking suddenly increased as her forward deck dipped underwater, and the sea poured in through open hatches and grates.^[149] As her unsupported stern rose out of the water, exposing the propellers, the ship began to break in two between the third and fourth funnels, due to the immense forces on the keel.^[150] With the bow underwater, and air trapped in the stern, the stern remained afloat and buoyant for a few minutes longer, rising to a nearly vertical angle with hundreds of people still clinging to it,^[151] before sinking. For many years it was generally believed the ship sank in one piece; however, when the wreck was located many years later, it was discovered that the ship had fully broken in two. All remaining passengers and crew were immersed into lethally cold water with a temperature of 28 °F (−2 °C).^[m] Almost all of those in the water died of cardiac arrest or other bodily reactions to freezing water, within 15–30 minutes.^[154] Only 13 of them were helped into the lifeboats, though these had room for almost 500 more people.^[155]
Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded was near enough to reach Titanic before she sank.^[156] A radio operator onboard the Birma, for instance, estimated that it would be 6 a.m. before the liner could arrive at the scene. Meanwhile, the SS Californian, which was the last to have been in contact before the collision, saw Titanic's flares but failed to assist.^[157] Around 4 a.m., RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene in response to Titanic's earlier distress calls.^[158]
About 710 people survived the disaster and were conveyed by Carpathia to New York, Titanic's original destination, while 1,500 people lost their lives.^[95] Carpathia's captain described the place as an ice field that had included 20 large bergs measuring up to 200 feet (61 m) high and numerous smaller bergs, as well as ice floes and debris from Titanic; passengers described being in the middle of a vast white plain of ice, studded with icebergs.^[159] This area is now known as Iceberg Alley.^[160]

The sinking, according to J. Thayer, sketched onboard Carpathia, based on his description

The iceberg thought to have been hit by Titanic, photographed on the morning of 15 April 1912.

"Untergang der Titanic", as conceived by Willy Stöwer, 1912

Atlantic crossing

Titanic was planned to arrive at New York Pier 54^[121] on the morning of 17 April.^[122] After leaving Queenstown Titanic followed the Irish coast as far as Fastnet Rock,^[123] a distance of some 55 nautical miles (63 mi; 102 km). From there she travelled 1,620 nautical miles (1,860 mi; 3,000 km) along a Great Circle route across the North Atlantic to reach a spot in the ocean known as "the corner" south-east of Newfoundland, where westbound steamers carried out a change of course. Titanic sailed only a few hours past the corner on a rhumb line leg of 1,023 nautical miles (1,177 mi; 1,895 km) to Nantucket Shoals Light when she made her fatal contact with an iceberg.^[124] The final leg of the journey would have been 193 nautical miles (222 mi; 357 km) to Ambrose Light and finally to New York Harbor.^[125]
From 11 April to local apparent noon the next day, Titanic covered 484 nautical miles (557 mi; 896 km); the following day, 519 nautical miles (597 mi; 961 km); and by noon on the final day of her voyage, 546 nautical miles (628 mi; 1,011 km). From then until the time of her sinking she travelled another 258 nautical miles (297 mi; 478 km), averaging about 21 knots (24 mph; 39 km/h).^[126]
The weather cleared as she left Ireland under cloudy skies with a headwind. Temperatures remained fairly mild on Saturday 13 April, but the following day Titanic crossed a cold weather front with strong winds and waves of up to 8 feet (2.4 m). These died down as the day progressed until, by the evening of Sunday 14 April, it became clear, calm and very cold.^[127]
The first three days of the voyage from Queenstown had passed without apparent incident. A fire had begun in one of Titanic's coal bunkers approximately 10 days prior to the ship's departure, and continued to burn for several days into its voyage,^[128] but passengers were unaware of this situation. Fires occurred frequently on board steamships of that day due to spontaneous combustion of the coal.^[129] The fires had to be extinguished with fire hoses, by moving the coal on top to another bunker and by removing the burning coal and feeding it into the furnace.^[130] Fortunately, the fire was over on 14 April.^[131][132]
Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.^[133] One of the ships to warn Titanic was the Atlantic Line's Mesaba.^[134] Nevertheless the ship continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time.^[135] Although the ship was not trying to set a speed record,^[136] timekeeping was a priority, and under prevailing maritime practices, ships were often operated at close to full speed, with ice warnings seen as advisories and reliance placed upon lookouts and the watch on the bridge.^[135] It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels. Close calls with ice were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907 SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg but still had been able to complete her voyage, and Captain Smith himself had declared in 1907 that he "could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."^[137][j]

Collecting passengers

On Wednesday 10 April 1912 Titanic's maiden voyage began. Following the embarkation of the crew the passengers began arriving from 9:30 a.m., when the London and South Western Railway's boat train from London Waterloo station reached Southampton Terminus railway station on the quayside, alongside Titanic's berth.^[112] In all, 923 passengers boarded Titanic at Southampton, 179 First Class, 247 Second Class and 494 Third Class. The large number of Third Class passengers meant they were the first to board, with First and Second Class passengers following up to an hour before departure. Stewards showed them to their cabins, and First Class passengers were personally greeted by Captain Smith on boarding.^[113] Third Class passengers were inspected for ailments and physical impairments that might lead to their being refused entry to the United States - a prospect the White Star Line wished to avoid, as it would have to carry anyone who failed the examination back across the Atlantic.^[110] 922 passengers were recorded as having embarked Titanic at Southampton. Additional passengers were to be picked up at Cherbourg and Queenstown.^[83]
The maiden voyage began on time, at noon. An accident was narrowly averted only a few minutes later as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York of the American Line and what would have been her running mate on the service from Southampton, White Star's Oceanic. Her huge displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and then drop into a trough. New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging her around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow, and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put "full astern".^[114] The two ships avoided a collision by a matter of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour, while the drifting New York was brought under control.^[115]
After making it safely through the complex tides and channels of Southampton Water and the Solent, Titanic headed out into the English Channel. She headed for the French port of Cherbourg, a journey of 77 nautical miles (89 mi; 143 km).^[116] The weather was windy, very fine but cold and overcast.^[117] Because Cherbourg lacked docking facilities for a ship the size of Titanic, tenders had to be used to transfer passengers from shore to ship. The White Star Line operated two at Cherbourg, the SS Traffic and the SS Nomadic. Both had been designed specifically as tenders for the Olympic-class liners and were launched shortly after Titanic.^[118] (Nomadic is today the only White Star Line ship still afloat.) Four hours after Titanic left Southampton, she arrived at Cherbourg and was met by the tenders. 274 additional passengers were taken aboard, 142 First Class, 30 Second Class, and 102 Third Class. Twenty-Four passengers who had booked passage only cross-channel from Southampton left aboard the tenders to be conveyed to shore. The process was completed within only 90 minutes and at 8 p.m. Titanic weighed anchor and left for Queenstown^[119] with the weather continuing cold and windy.^[117]
At 11:30 a.m. on Thursday 11 April, Titanic arrived at Cork Harbour on the south coast of Ireland. It was a partly cloudy but relatively warm day, with a brisk wind.^[117] Again, the dock facilities were not suitable for a ship of Titanic's size, and tenders were used to bring passengers aboard. In all, 123 passengers boarded Titanic at Queenstown, 3 First Class, 7 Second Class and 113 Third Class. In addition to the 24 cross channel passengers who had disembarked at Cherbourg, another seven passengers had booked an overnight passage from Southampton to Queenstown. Among the departures was Father Francis Browne, a Jesuit trainee, who was a keen photographer and took many photographs aboard Titanic, including the last-ever known photograph of the ship. A decidedly unofficial departure was that of a crew member, stoker John Coffey, a Queenstown native who sneaked off the ship by hiding under mail bags being transported to shore.^[120] Titanic weighed anchor for the last time at 1:30 p.m. and departed on her westward journey across the Atlantic.^[120]

Titanic (right) after the near-collision with New York (left, together with Oceanic at the far left)