Page 62 - All About History - Issue 09-14

The unsinkable ship

Inside the Titanic Pure luxury Main
The first-class decks
had luxurious cabins, staircase
gyms, Turkish baths,
Lifeboats cafes, á la carte
The ship had 20 boats, all restaurants, libraries
located on the upper deck: and a squash court.
12 at the bow and 8 at the Lookout
stern, capable of carrying a booth
total of 1,178 people.

Stern

How the collision happened

11.40pm

10%
Just 37 seconds after sighting 90% The impact would
the iceberg and having tried to submerged create six large cracks
avoid it, the Titanic touched it at in the submerged part
a speed of 22.5 knots (41.7km/h of the bow hull. Á la carte restaurant
/ 26mph). Decorated in Louis XIV-style
furnishings and with an exquisite
wooden panelling. The menu was
How the sinking unfolded designed by Auguste Escoffier, the Boiler rooms
They were six, where each
most famous chef of that time.
The rubbing of the iceberg against the hull created six cracks one had five boilers –
except the sixth one, with
below the waterline, flooding five watertight compartments. If only four – of almost 100
only four had been flooded, the ship would not have sunk. tons each.
2.15am The hull’s front 2.20am
part is detached.

The keel is subjected to
Water floods the compartments tremendous pressure. The command bridge The stern rises vertically for a
and its weight sinks the prow. The ship breaks. is destroyed. moment before sinking.

confidence was that the ship’s double-plated bottom had one of the most powerful radio systems in was at dinner. The second incident occurred when
and 16 watertight compartments designed to close the world , giving them a 640-kilometre (400- the ship Californian – which was approximately 32
if water entered them were believed to offer the mile) transmission range with the large antennae kilometres (20 miles) from the Titanic – reported to
utmost in security. Several years before he took between the two masts used to send and receive the Titanic that she was blocked in by ice. Phillips,
command of the Titanic, Captain Smith was quoted the messages. A large part of the radio operators’ the radio operator on duty at the time, signalled
as saying: “I cannot imagine any condition which job was to pass on and send messages from back to tell him to stop bothering him, that he was
would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of the crew and this responsibility – and perhaps busy. The Californian’s radio operator switched his
any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern pressure to keep some of their rich and privileged radio off and went to bed. Less than an hour later
shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” This comment passengers content – contributed to the disaster. the Titanic, rushing through the water at just under
tragically sums up the overly confident attitude of Starting 11 April, the ship began to receive ice 23 knots (42km/h / 26mph) on the cold and clear
the time. warnings from other ships further ahead of her in evening collided with an iceberg.
With the voyage under way and the ship the voyage and by the time of the disaster they had Would things have been any different if the
generally travelling full steam ahead, the ship’s received at least five warnings. message had been passed onto the bridge and
two radio operators were busy. Senior operator Perhaps the most striking of these both occurred the captain? With the benefit of hindsight it
John George Phillips and his junior, Harold on 14 April. First, the radio operators overheard an seems like an astonishing neglect of duties by the
Sydney Bridge, had agreed a system where the ice warning that was passed onto the bridge but radio operator. However, the captain and other
radio was operated for 24 hours a day. They also was not brought to Captain Smith’s attention as he senior members of the crew were well-aware of
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