On the evening of April 14, 1912, the Titanic was cruising through the calm waters of the North Atlantic, roughly two and a half days away from New York. The sea was described as a mirror, reflecting the stars to the horizon. But at 11:40 PM, disaster struck.
A Calm Night Turns Ominous
As the Titanic sailed through the calm ocean, lookouts noticed a dark object emerging from the haze ahead. They rang the bell three times to alert the bridge. First Officer Murdoch, in charge that night, quickly responded, ordering the ship to turn left. Despite the swift action, the Titanic made contact with an iceberg just 37 seconds after it was first spotted.
The iceberg scraped along the Titanic's hull beneath the waterline, causing what seemed to be a minor impact. Most passengers slept through it, and those awake only felt a slight bump. However, the reality was far more severe.
Immediate Response and Realization
Murdoch immediately understood the gravity of the situation and ordered the watertight compartments to be sealed. Despite this, water continued to flood into the ship. By 2:18 AM, the bow of the ship was submerged, the immense weight of the water and the ship's propellers causing the Titanic to snap in half. The stern rose vertically before slipping beneath the waves, leaving 1,500 people in the frigid water as lifeboats rowed away to avoid the suction.
The Aftermath and Rescue
Rescue ship Carpathia arrived at 3:30 AM, missing the Titanic by just over an hour. It rescued 706 survivors from the lifeboats. The tragedy left two-thirds of the Titanic's passengers and crew dead, and news of the disaster made headlines worldwide.
The Titanic's Design and Its Fatal Flaw
The Titanic, constructed starting in 1909, boasted advanced safety features for its time, leading the media to call it unsinkable. Its builders claimed that the ship could be sliced into three pieces, and each piece would float. The design included 16 watertight compartments separated by steel walls known as bulkheads.
Bulkheads were meant to contain water in the event of a puncture and strengthen the hull. If one compartment flooded, doors could be shut to isolate it, allowing the ship to stay afloat. The Titanic was designed to remain buoyant even if the first four compartments were compromised. However, the bulkheads did not extend up to the deck, allowing water to spill over from one compartment to the next once the ship began to tilt.
The Night of the Disaster
On April 14th, the iceberg scraped along the Titanic's right side, flooding the forward compartments. The watertight doors were shut, but water flowed over the bulkheads, filling more compartments. Ship designer Thomas Andrews calculated that the ship would sink after seeing the water flow rate and knowing the pumps couldn't handle it. Approximately 45 minutes after the collision, Andrews informed the captain that the first five compartments were flooded.
As water filled the forward compartments, the ship's bow dipped lower, causing water to spill into adjacent compartments, much like an ice cube tray. The increasing weight tilted the ship further, exacerbating the flooding. The heaviest parts of the ship, the engines in the rear, combined with the water in the bow, created an unmanageable weight distribution. Eventually, the ship couldn't withstand the stress and broke apart.
Could the Titanic Have Been Saved?
Some argue that the Titanic might have fared better without bulkheads. The designers hadn't anticipated an iceberg scraping along the side and damaging six compartments. They had imagined head-on collisions or punctures. Without bulkheads, water might have dispersed more evenly, possibly delaying the sinking and allowing more time for rescue. Unfortunately, the bulkheads' design flaw turned out to be a catastrophic weakness, leading to one of history's most infamous maritime disasters.