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Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary

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Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary

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First of all, if you were a man, you were outta luck. The overall survival rate for men was 20%. For women, it was 74%, and for children, 52%. Yes, it was indeed "women and children first."

But what about class? Well, third class women were 41% more likely to survive than first class men. And third class men were twice as likely to survive as second class men.

Yes, class is a far weaker variable in determining survival rate than sex or age. Indeed, most of the variance in first class vs. third class survival rates can be attributed to sex alone. The reason for this is simple: 44% of the first class passengers were women, while only 23% of the third class passengers were women. Because the survival rate for women was far greater than the survival rate for men, we would thus expect a much higher survival rate for first class passengers as a whole than for third class passengers as a whole.

Although this analysis is incandescently obvious, it never seems to show up in mass media treatments of the Titanic disaster. Why is that?

And sex and age differences aside, why would anyone be surprised that passengers in steerage would have a lower survival rate than passengers topside close to the boat deck? (For the findings of Lord Mersey's Enquiry regarding the survival rate for third class passengers, see below under Lord Mersey's Report.)

The table to the right, Actual survival rates by sex, age, and class compared to expected survival rates based on sex and age alone, clarifies the variance in survival rates associated with (but not necessarily caused by) class. If sex and age were the only variables determining probability of survival, we would expect women in each class to have a 74.35% chance of survival, children to have a 52.29% chance, and men to have a 20% chance. Applying these percentages to the actual number of women, children, and men in each class, we compute the expected number of survivors. We then compute how that number varies from the actual number of survivors for that sex, age, and class category.

This method shows that the expected overall survival rate for first class passengers was 44.68%, for second class 40.46%, for third class 36.32%, and for crew 21.38%. It also shows that the actual survival rate was 39.80% higher than expectation for first class as a whole, and 30.58% below expectation for third class as a whole.

The more primitive approach -- taken by most writers on this subject -- is to divide the first-class overall survival rate (62.46%) by the overall average survival rate (31.97%), conclude that first-class passengers were twice as likely to survive as the average passenger, and attribute all this variance to class. The folly of this approach is obvious.

Finally, please note that comparing the absolute number of survivors in various categories does not address the likelihood of survival for passengers in any given category. Thus, the following statements are all true: "The Court, having carefully enquired into the circumstances of the above mentioned shipping casualty, finds, for the reasons appearing in the Annex hereto, that the loss of the said ship was due to collision with an iceberg, brought about by the excessive speed at which the ship was being navigated.

"Among the survivors, third class children outnumbered first class children by a ratio of more than four to one."(True, but the survival rate for third class children was only 34.18%, compared to 100% [or maybe 85.71%, see note below on Helen Allison] for first class children. There were just a lot more children in third class.)

"More men survived than women." (True, but only 20% of the men on board survived, compared to 74.35% of the women. Again, there were a lot more men on board than women.)

"More than twice as many second class men survived as first class children." (Yup, it's true, but ALL the first class children survived, compared to only 8.33% of the second class men.)

Ridiculous observations, of course, but people actually say things like this. They do not address the central question of whether women and children received preferential treatment. As the numbers given above show, they unquestionably did.
Lord Mersey's Report

The casualty figures listed above are from Lord Mersey's Report (British Parliamentary Papers, Shipping Casualties (Loss of the Steamship "Titanic"), 1912, cmd. 6352, Report of a Formal Investigation into the circumstances attending the foundering on the 15th April, 1912, of the British Steamship "Titanic," of Liverpool, after striking ice in or near Latitude 41º 46' N., Longitude 50º 14' W., North Atlantic Ocean, whereby loss of life ensued. (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912). Lord Mersey's report is available in major libraries in the United States and elsewhere. The casualty figures appear on page 42 of the report. However, the "Titanic, Loss of the" article in the 13th edition of theEncyclopaedia Britannica, (London, 1926), also gives the casualty figures and is easier to find. (To answer a recurring question: although theCarpathia picked up 712 survivors, one of these died en route to New York and was counted among the casualties, reducing the total number of survivors to 711.)

One possible variance from the figures in Lord Mersey's report has been called to our attention. This concerns the loss of one child in first class, Miss Helen Lorraine Allison. For more information, see Encyclopaedia Titanica. Since this casualty, whether included or excluded, has no effect on the analysis, and we have not been able to review primary source material supporting it, we have elected to leave Lord Mersey's figures as they are. Clearly we will never knowexactly how many people died in the wreck, since we do not know with absolute certainty how many people were on the ship in the first place.

Lord Mersey's report addressed (p. 40) the question of the low survival rate of third-class passengers, as follows:
"It has been suggested before the Enquiry that the third-class passengers had been unfairly treated; that their access to the boat deck had been impeded; and that when at last they reached that deck the first and second-class passengers were given precedence in getting places in the boats. There appears to have been no truth in these suggestions. It is no doubt true that the proportion of third-class passengers saved falls far short of the proportion of the first and second class, but this is accounted for by the greater reluctance of the third-class passengers to leave the ship, by their unwillingness to part with their baggage, by the difficulty in getting them up from their quarters, which were at the extreme ends of the ship, and by other similar causes. The interests of the relatives of some of the third-class passengers who had perished were in the hands of Mr. Harbinson, who attended the Enquiry on their behalf. He said at the end of his address to the court: 'I wish to say distinctly that no evidence has been given in the course of this case which would substantiate a charge that any attempt was made to keep back the third-class passengers ... I desire further to say that there is no evidence that when they did reach the boat deck there was any discrimination practiced either by the officers or by the sailors in putting them into the boats.'

"I am satisfied that the explanation of the excessive proportion lost is not to be found in the suggestion that the third-class passengers were in any way unfairly treated. They were not unfairly treated."

1. What was the number and capacity of the lifeboats? Total rated capacity was 1,178 (enough for 53% of the 2,201 persons on board). There were 20 boats in all: 14 lifeboats, each designed to carry 65 passengers; 2 emergency boats, each with a capacity of 40 passengers; and 4 Engelhardt (collapsible) boats, each capable of carrying 47 passengers. 2. How many lifeboats were launched, and what was their capacity? All 14 lifeboats, the two emergency boats, and two of the Engelhardt boats were launched. These had a capacity of 1,084 passengers. Obviously, many boats were not loaded to full capacity. There were many reasons for this; at first, many women and children were simply unwilling to be lowered 65 feet from the boat deck to the water. Some of the men put in boats were put there simply to show it was safe, and allay the fears of other passengers. (The two Engelhardt boats that were not launched floated off when the Titanic sank, and were used as rafts.) 3. Why were men put in the boats, when not all women and children had been put off? One reason has just been given in the answer to Question 2. Another is that there was enough lifeboat capacity for ALL women and children (534 persons total), AND 550 men as well. (Total capacity of the boats launched was 1,084.) This explains why, especially as the situation became more urgent, more men were put in the boats. Indeed, if the boat crews had loaded one man for each woman or child loaded, they could have expected to save all women and children, plus as many men. [I believe that if this approach been adopted from the start, the boats would have been loaded more rapidly, passenger fear would have been reduced as families were kept together, and far more lives would have been saved in the long run.] 4. What was the last distess signal sent?
The Titanic's last distress, sent in Intercontinental Morse Code, was:
CQD CQD SOS SOS CQD DE MGY MGY
"CQD" was the common international distress signal in use at the time; "SOS" was a newer distress signal. "DE" is the international code meaning "from", adopted from the French preposition of the same meaning. "MGY" was the Titanic's call signal. The signal was keyed by John G. Phillips, the Titanic's chief Marconi operator, using a spark transmitter. For a trove of information on this aspect of the Titanic debacle, see the list of "Wireless on the RMS Titanic" links at The Marconi Wireless Installation in R.M.S. Titanic web site.

The Enquiry found the Titanic's excessive speed to blame for the disaster:
Dated this 30th day of July, 1912
MERSEY, Wreck Commissioner"

Which pretty well sums it up. Seriously, what kind of idiot would drive a ship at full speed at night through an ice field? That question was asked by John Erskine in his noted essay,The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent:
So we forget the shocking blunder of the charge of the Light Brigade, and proudly sing the heroism of the victims. Lest we flatter ourselves that this trick of defense has departed with our fathers this reading of stupidity in terms of the tragic courage that endures its results let us reflect that recently, after full warning, we drove a ship at top speed through a field of icebergs. When we were thrilled to read how superbly those hundreds died, in the great English way, a man pointed out that they did indeed die in the English way, and that our pride was therefore ill-timed; that all that bravery was wasted; that the tragedy was in the shipwreck of intelligence. That discouraging person was an Irishman.
For even more delightful reading, see the Full text of the court's recommendations with a view to promoting the safety of vessels and persons at sea, which greatly improved the safety of ocean travel.

For additional primary source information on the Titanic disaster, check out the Encyclopaedia Titanica.
Miscellaneous Questions Answered

Back to Chuck Anesi's Home Page

©Copyright 1997, 2018 Chuck Anesi all rights reserved

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Titanic Disaster: Official Casualty Figures and Commentary

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First of all, if you were a man, you were outta luck. The overall survival rate for men was 20%. For women, it was 74%, and for children, 52%. Yes, it was indeed "women and children first." But what about class? Well, third class women were 41% more likely to survive than first class men.

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Titanic: A graphic look at how and why it sank - The Orange County Register

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Titanic: A graphic look at how and why it sank - The Orange County Register

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Titanic: A graphic look at how and why it sank

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A series of unfortunate circumstances came together to sink the Titanic 100 year ago.

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The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum is dedicated to the preservation, study and presentation of postal history and philately.

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Penn History--Penn and the Titanic--John B. Thayer, Jr.'s Statement Regarding the Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic

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Penn History--Penn and the Titanic--John B. Thayer, Jr.'s Statement Regarding the Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic

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John B. Thayer, Jr.'s Statement to the Press
Regarding the Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic
This document comes from the Thayer Collection, housed at the Independence Seaport Museum Library in Philadelphia, PA
The Pennsylvania Railroad
Information for the Press

April 20, 1912

The following statement was dictated this afternoon by J.B. Thayer, Jr., the seventeen year son of Mrs. J.B. Thayer, of Haverford, Pa. This is the only statement that he has made:

"Father was in bed, and mother and myself were about to get into bed. There was no great shock. I was on my feet at the time, and I do not think it was enough to throw anyone down. I put on an overcoat and rushed up on 'A' deck on the port side. I saw nothing there. I then went forward to the bow to see if I could see any signs of ice. The only ice I saw was on the Well deck. I could not see very far ahead, having just come out of a brightly lighted room. I then went down to our room and my father and mother cam on deck with me, to the starboard side of 'A' deck. We could not see anything there. Father thought he saw small pieces of ice floating around, but I could not see any myself. There was no big berg. We walked around to the port side and the ship had then a fair list to port. We stayed there looking over the side for about five minutes. The list seemed very slowly to be increasing. We then went down to our rooms on 'C' deck. All of us dressed quickly, putting on all our clothes. We all put on life preservers, including the maid and over thsee we put our ovrcoats. Then we hurried up on deck and walked around, looking out at different places until the women were all orderd [sic] to collect on the Port side. Father and I said good-bye to mother at the top of the stairs on 'A' deck. She and the maid went right out on 'A' deck on the port side and we went to the starboard side. As at this time we had no idea the boat would sink, we walked around 'A' deck and then went to 'B' deck. Then we thought we would go back to see if mother had gotten off safely, and went to the port side of 'A' deck. We met the chief steward of the main dining saloon and he told us that mother had not yet taken a boat, and he took us to her. Father and mother went ahead and I followed. They went down to 'B' deck, and a crowd got in front of me and I was not able to catch them , and lost sight of them. As soon as I could get through the crowd I tried to find them on "B" deck, but without success. That is the last time I saw my father. This was about one-half an hour before she sank. I then went to the starboard side, thinking that father and mother must have gotten off in a boat. All of this time I was with a fellow named Milton C. Lon of New York, whom I had just met that evening.

"On the starboard side the boats were getting away quickly. Some boats were already off in a distance. We thought of getting into one of the boats, the last boat to go on the forward part of the starboard side, but there seemed to be such a crowd around I thought it unqise to make any attempt to get into it. He and I stood by the davits of one of the boats that had left. I did not notice anybody that I knew, except Mr. Lindley, whom I had also just met that evening. I lost sight of him ina few minutes. Long and I then stood by the rail just a little aft of the Captain's bridge.

"The list to the port had been growing greater all the time. About this time the people began jumping from the stern. I thought of jumping myself, but was afraid of being stunned on hitting the water. Three times I made up my mind to jump out and slide down the davit ropes and try to make the boats that were lying off fromthe ship, but each time Long got hold of me and told me to wait ahile. He then sat down and I stood up waiting to see what would happen. Even then we thought she might possibly stay afloat.

"I got a sight on a rope between the davits and a star and noticed that she was gradually sinking. About this time she straightened up on an even keel and started to go down fairly fast at an angle of about thirty degrees. As she started to sink we left the davits and went back and stood by the rail about even with the second funnel. Long and myself said good-bye to each other and jumped up on the rail. He put his legs over and held on a minute and asked me if I was coming. I told him I would be with him in a minute. He did not jump clear, but slid down the side of the ship. I never saw him again. About five seconds after he jumped I jumped out, feet first. I was clear of the ship, went down, and as I came up I was pushed away from the ship by some force. I came up facing the ship and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off and fell towards me about fifteen yards away with a mass of sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the ship in a sort of a red glare, and it seemed to me that she broke in two just in front of the third funnel. At this time I was sucked down, and as I came up I was pushed out again and twisted around by a large wave, coming up in the midst of a great deal of small wreckage. As I pushed it from around my head my hand touched the cork fender of an overturned life boat. I looked up and saw some men on the top and asked them to give me a hand. One of them, who was a stoker, helped me up. In a short time the bottom was covered with about 25 or 30 men. When I got on this I was gacing the ship. The stern then seemed to rise in the air and stopped at about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed to hold there for a time and then with a hissing sound it shot right down out of sight with people jumping from the stern. The stern either pivoted around towards or boat, or we were sucked toward it, and as we only had one oar we could not keep away. There did not seem to be very much suction and most of us managed to stay on the bottom of our boat.

"We were then right in the midst of fairly large wreckage, with people swimming all around us. The sea was very calm and we kept the boat pretty steady, but every now and then a wave would wash over it.

"The assistant wireless operator was right next to me, holding on to me and kneeling in the water. We all sang a hymn and said the Lord's prayer, and then waited for dawn to come. As often as we saw the other boats in the distance we would yell "Ship Ahoy!" but they could not distinguish our cries from any of the others so we all gave it up thinking it useless. It was very cold and none of us were able to move around to keep warm, the water washing over her almost all the time.

"Towards dawn the wind sprang up, roughening up the water and making it difficult to keep the boat balanced. The wireless man raised our hopes a great deal by telling us that the Carpathia would be up in about three hours. About three-thirty our four o'clock some men on our boat on the bow, sighted her mast lights. I could not see them as I was sitting down with a man kneeling on my leg. He finally got up and I stood up.

"We had the second officer, Mr. Lightoller on board. He had an officer's whistle and whistled for the boats in the distance to come up and take us off. It took about an hour and a half for the boats to draw near. Two boats came up. The first took half and the other took the balance including myself. We had great difficulty about this time in balancing the boat as the men would lean too far, but we were all taken aboard the already crowded boats and in about half or three quarters of an hour later we we re picked up by the Carpathia.

"I have noticed second officer Lightoller's statement that J. B. Thayer was on our overturned boat, which would give the impression that it was father, when he really meant it was I, as he only learned my name in a subsequent conversation on the Carpat hia and did not know I was 'Junior'."

Last update: Wednesday, 02-Apr-2003 08:39:25 EST
Send mail concerning this page to:davidtoc@pobox.upenn.edu

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Penn History--Penn and the Titanic--John B. Thayer, Jr.'s Statement Regarding the Sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic

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This document comes from the Thayer Collection, housed at the Independence Seaport Museum Library in Philadelphia, PA The Pennsylvania Railroad Information for the Press April 20, 1912 The following statement was dictated this afternoon by J.B. Thayer, Jr., the seventeen year son of Mrs. J.B. Thayer, of Haverford, Pa.

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Did you know that Titanic burned more than 650 tons of coal every day, and that it cost $167 million in today's money to build the ship? Get the facts

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Titanic: The final messages from a stricken ship - BBC News

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Titanic: The final messages from a stricken ship - BBC News

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On the night the Titanic struck an iceberg, a network of wireless operators on ships and land stations frantically communicated with each other across the expanses of the North Atlantic in an effort to mount a rescue mission. The surviving messages form a real-time record of the events of that night.

The story of the Titanic is barnacled with myths and legends.

It has become part of the popular imagination, a symbol for the most epic and glamorous failure. It is tragedy with tea dances.

But there is really only one first-hand, real-time record of what happened that night - the collection of wireless messages sent between the Titanic and the other ships which hurriedly tried to organise a rescue operation, during that freezing night in April 1912.

It is a telegraphic narrative showing how the Titanic had been given warnings of ice by other ships - and which records the increasingly frantic calls for assistance after the collision with the huge iceberg.

And to mark the Titanic's centenary, the BBC World Service's Discovery programme is broadcasting an unusual re-creation of these conversations.

Find out more

Titanic - In Her Own Words, a Discovery special on the BBC World Service is presented by Sean Coughlan. Transmission times and dates can be found here .

Audio artist Susanne Weber has used speech synthesis software to translate these Morse messages into spoken words.

These are mechanical voices recreating the exchange of wireless messages, rather than actors performing a script, and it produces an eerie representation of how these overlapping messages crackled out over the airwaves.

It is something like hearing the urgent and confused text messages sent from a disaster.

Unlike in the Hollywood films of the tragedy, these wireless messages are stoically understated. Copied out in neat copperplate handwriting, and kept on the ships that had been in contact with Titanic, they are the actual words of the crew and passengers.

It's the Titanic in her own words.

Wireless was still a relatively young technology at the time of the Titanic's maiden voyage.

The Marconi company, the Edwardian equivalent of a top technology brand, had put its wireless operators on board some of the more prestigious ships.

The Titanic, as the showcase of an ambitious, optimistic era, had the biggest and best wireless equipment in the world.

It was still something of a novelty and much of the initial wireless traffic was from first class passengers sending messages to their friends, rather like text messages showing off about a glamourous trip.

"Hello Boy. Dining with you tonight in spirit, heart with you always. Best love, Girl," read one message sent on to New York, the Titanic's intended destination.

A message sent on to Los Angeles said: "No sickness. All well. Notify all interested in poker."

"Fine voyage, fine ship," wrote another, unaware of the awful irony of how that might later sound.

The wireless operators sending these messages were independent young men of the modern age, who had been recruited with the promise of escaping "blind alley careers".

They chatted to wireless operators in other ships in a jaunty, mock public school slang, calling each other "old man".

As well as letting passengers send personal messages, they provided the first wireless news service for ships.

As the Titanic crossed the Atlantic, the news headlines were about industrial unrest on the railways and a high-profile murder in France.

But the wireless was also beginning to be used for more serious purposes.

Ships gave each other safety information - and the Titanic received detailed advice about the location of icebergs - or "bergs, growlers and field ice" as one ship's captain described them.

Investigations after the sinking would never satisfactorily establish why these warnings had been ignored.

The senior wireless operator, Jack Phillips, had still been sending passengers' messages when the ship struck an iceberg. The collision was described as sounding like the tearing of calico.

The famous SOS

Wireless operators originally used Marconi's "CQD" distress signal. "CQ" was the signal to stop transmission and pay attention. The "D" was added to signal distress. In 1906 the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin created the signal "SOS" for summoning assistance. The letters were chosen for their simplicity in Morse Code - three dots, three dashes and three dots. While the "SOS" superseded "CQD" in 1908 Marconi operators rarely used it. It became standard after the sinking of the Titanic.
Survivors of the Titanic - I was there
With only enough room in the lifeboats for half the passengers and crew, the Titanic's captain turned to his only lifeline - the wireless - and asked the two Marconi operators to call for assistance.

The distress signal used by Marconi operators - CQD - boomed out over the Atlantic. The wireless operators joked they may as well also try another new distress signal that had been introduced - SOS - because they might never get a chance to use it again.

While the lifeboats were lowered, with awful goodbyes between husbands, wives and children, the wireless operators stuck to their task.

"Come at once. We have struck a berg. It's a CQD, old man," the Titanic called to another ship, the Carpathia.

"We have struck an iceberg and sinking by the head," she told a German ship, the Frankfurt.

The Titanic's messages caused consternation and disbelief among other ships.

They called back to the Titanic struggling to grasp what was happening, then urgently forwarded the distress signals in the hope that someone would be near enough to help.

It was like trying to organise a rescue by Twitter, with operators trying to make sense of the stream of sometimes contradictory information.

"We are putting passengers off in small boats. Women and children in boats. Cannot last much longer. Losing power," said the Titanic as the situation grew ever more desperate.

"This is Titanic. CQD. Engine room flooded."

In response her sister ship, the Olympic called back: "Am lighting up all boilers as fast as we can."

There were also flashes of anger in the confusion. "You fool... keep out," the Titanic barked at a ship almost 200 miles away who had interrupted to inquire: "What is the matter with you?"

The last recorded messages are increasingly desperate and fragmented - although a shore station officer following the exchanges reported there was "never a tremor" in the Morse tapped out by Jack Phillips.

"Come quick. Engine room nearly full," was sent from the Titanic only a few short minutes before the ship finally sank.

When the Titanic fell silent, the chasing ships carried on calling out for news, co-ordinating the rescue of the survivors.

And the wireless became the only way for survivors to contact their families.

"Meet me dock with two hundred dollars, underwear, cap, big coat - am well but slightly frozen," messaged one survivor from the Carpathia rescue ship.

"Completely destitute, no clothes," said one another. Words cost money - and a masterpiece of brevity reported: "Safe, Bert."

These poignant, first-hand reactions to the disaster had been gathered in an archive by John Booth, a Titanic historian and expert on old prints. But many were sold off at auction in the early 1990s.

Jack Phillips did not survive the sinking. But his heroism, staying at his post after being released from his duty by the captain, became an enduring part of the Titanic story.

Not least because one of the most influential templates for all future Titanic stories came from Harold Bride, his junior wireless operator.

Bride survived on an upturned lifeboat and then sold his story to the New York Times.

His story was a global media sensation, setting the tone of heroic self sacrifice, with the first accounts of the band playing while the ship sank, with tales of selflessness and cowardice.

And he commemorated the role of Jack Phillips, unflinching, even when he knew better than anyone else that there was no chance of a rescue ship arriving in time.

"I will never live to forget the work of Phillips during the last awful 15 minutes," said Bride.

"I suddenly felt a great reverence to see him standing there sticking to his work while everybody else was raging about."

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On the night the Titanic struck an iceberg, a network of wireless operators on ships and land stations frantically communicated with each other across the expanses of the North Atlantic in an effort to mount a rescue mission. The surviving messages form a real-time record of the events of that night.

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The Technology That Allowed the Titanic Survivors to Survive - The Atlantic

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The Technology That Allowed the Titanic Survivors to Survive - The Atlantic

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More than 1,500 people died in the sinking of the Titanic, but more than 700 survived. Those who did owed their escape to the newest communications technology of the time: wireless telegraphy.

It's hard to overstate the advance that wireless represented to ships and, especially, to their occupants. Before wireless came along, ship-to-ship communications relied on the primitive technologies of the human shout and the explosive flare and the semaphore flag. Human eyes and human ears were required to detect the presence of nearby ships, and human eyes and human ears are notoriously limited in their abilities. Which meant that individual vessels were, for the length of their time at sea, effectively isolated from the rest of the world. For the rest of the world, the only way to know whether a vessel had met distress during its journey was its failure to return to shore.

It was Guglielmo Marconi -- he, later, of radio fame -- who ultimately devised the system that could successfully facilitate communication between moving ships, via coded electromagnetic radio waves passed between dedicated transmitters and receivers. By the time of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, the British Navy was experimenting with Marconi's system -- the first use of operational wireless telegraphy in the field. The technology was quickly put to use on commercial ships. Though the range of shipboard wireless devices was limited to 500 miles -- a tiny span in a stretching sea -- the machines allowed nearby ships to talk to each other. Suddenly, finally, they were no longer alone.

When Titanic struck an iceberg in the early morning of April 15, 1912 (this despite many wirelessly transmitted warnings of icebergs from fellow ships), it happened to be within contact range of twelve other vessels. The short transmissions sent among those ships' wireless operators, staccato bursts of information and emotion, tell the story of Titanic's fate that night: the confusion, the chaos, the panic, the fear. The abbreviated transcript below, courtesy of the Great Yarmouth Radio Club, serves as a reminder not only of the many lives that were lost in the tragedy that would unfold, but also of the many that were spared. As Britain's postmaster general would later declare, "Those who have been saved, have been saved through one man, Mr. Marconi ... and his marvelous invention."

12.15 a.m.
15 April 1912
R.M.S. Titanic to Any Ship:
"CQD Titanic 41.44 N 50.24 W"
(CQD was the contemporary distress signal, though soon, the new distress signal would be put to use for the very first time).

12.17 a.m.
15 April 1912
R.M.S. Titanic to Any Ship:
"CQD CQD SOS Titanic Position 41.44 N 50.24 W. Require immediate assistance. Come at once. We struck an iceberg. Sinking".
(SOS was the first use of the new distress signal. So far, two ships had responded to the Titanic's distress call. They included the 'Frankfurt', nearly 170 miles away, and the 'Olympic', nearly 500 miles away.)

From 12.40 a.m. until the final message was sent from the Titanic sometime between 2.15 a.m. and 2.25 a.m. the Titanic, the 'Carpathia' and other ships kept a steady stream of messages, updating their progress and Titanic's condition. The Titanic continued to send out general CQD and SOS messages, in the chance that there might be a closer ship.

12.45 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic calls 'Olympic', (sister ship - 500 miles away en route to England) "SOS" (first use of SOS by Titanic - Bride jokingly suggests to Phillips that it may be his last chance to use the new distress call).

12.50 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic calls CQD and says, "I require immediate assistance. Position 41.46 N. 50.14 W." Received by 'Celtic'.

12.53 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Caronia' to MBC ('Baltic'), "MGY (Titanic) CQD in 41.46 N. 40.14 W. Wants immediate assistance".

1.00 a.m.
15 April 1912
MGY (Titanic) gives distress signal. DDC ('Cincinatti') replies. MGY's (Titanic) position 41.46 N. 50.14 W. Assistance from DDC ('Cincinatti') not necessary as MKC ('Olympic') shortly afterwards answers distress call.

1.00 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic replies to 'Olympic' and gives her position as 41.46 N. 50.14 W., and says, "We have struck an iceberg".

1.02 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic calls 'Asian' and said, "Want immediate assistance". 'Asian' answered at once and received Titanic's position as 41.46 N. 50.14 W., which was immediately taken to the bridge. Captain Smith instructs operator to have Titanic's position repeated.

1.02 a.m.
15 April 1912

'Virginian' calls Titanic but gets no response. Cape Race tells 'Virginian' to report to his Captain that the Titanic has struck iceberg and requires immediate assistance.
1.10 a.m
15 April 1912
Titanic to MKC ('Olympic'), "We are in collision with berg. Sinking Head down. 41.46 N. 50.14 W. Come soon as possible".
1.10 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic to MKC ('Olympic'), Captain says, "Get your boats ready. What is your position?"
1.15 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Baltic' to 'Caronia', "Please tell Titanic we are making towards her".
1.20 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Virginian' hears MCE (Cape Race) inform MGY (Titanic) "That we are going to her assistance. Our position 170 miles N. of Titanic".
1.25 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Caronia' tells Titanic, "Baltic coming to your assistance".

1.27 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Olympic' sends position to Titanic, "1.24 a.m. G.M.T. 40.52 N. 61.18 W", and asks "Are you steering southerly to meet us?" Titanic replies, "We are putting the women off in the boats".

1.30 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic tells 'Olympic', "We are putting passengers off in small boats." "Women and children in boats, can not last much longer".

1.35 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Olympic' asks Titanic what weather she had. Titanic replies, "Clear and calm".

1.35 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Baltic' hears Titanic say, "Engine room getting flooded." (Captain Smith had just visited the Titanic's radio room and advised this to Phillips and Bride).

1.35 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Mount Temple' hears DFT ('Frankfurt') ask, "Are there any boats around you already?" No reply.

1.37 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Baltic' tells Titanic, "We are rushing to you".

1.40 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Olympic' to Titanic, "Am lighting up all possible boilers as fast as (we) can".

1.40 a.m.
15 April 1912
Cape Race says to 'Virginia', "Please tell your Captain this: "The 'Olympic' is making all speed for Titanic, but her ('Olympic's') position is 40.32 N. 61.18 W. You are much nearer to Titanic. The Titanic is already putting women off in the boats, and she says the weather there is calm and clear. The 'Olympic' is the only ship we have heard say, "Going to the assistance of the Titanic. The others must be a long way from the Titanic".

1.45 a.m.
15 April 1912
Last signals heard from Titanic by 'Carpathia', "Come as quickly as possible old man: our engine-room is filling up to the boilers".

1.45 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Mount Temple' hears 'Frankfurt' calling Titanic. No reply.

1.47 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Caronia' hears Titanic though signals unreadable still.

1.48 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Asian' heard Titanic call SOS. 'Asian' answers Titanic but receives no answer. DFT ('Frankfurt') calls Titanic and says, "What is the matter with u ?"

1.50 a.m.
15 April 1912
Titanic says to 'Frankfurt', "You are a fool, stdbi - stdbi - stdbi and keep out". 'Caronia' hears 'Frankfurt' working to Titanic. 'Frankfurt' according to position 172 miles from MGY (Titanic) at time first SOS sent out.

1.55 a.m.
15 April 1912
Cape Race says to 'Virginian', "We have not heard Titanic for about half an hour. Her power may be gone".

2.00 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Virginia' hears Titanic calling very faintly, her power being greatly reduced.

2.10 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Virginian' hears 2 V's signalled faintly in spark similar to Titanic's (Phillips adjusting his transmitter to compensate for the dying power supply from the engine room).

2.17 a.m.
15 April 1912
Virginian hears Titanic, call "CQ" (call to all ships) , but unable to read him. Titanic's signals end very abruptly as power suddenly switched off. (Phillips had actually intended to send "CQD DE MGY", however at this point there is a loss of all power to the radio room - water can be heard flooding the wheelhouse - Phillips says to Bride "Come on, let's clear out". Bride climbs to the roof of the officer's quarters and assist with launching collapsible Lifeboat B - Phillips disappears aft).

Sometime between 2.15 a.m. and 2.25 a.m.
15 April 1912
The final wireless message sent from the Titanic:
R.M.S. Titanic to R.M.S. Carpathia:
"SOS SOS CQD CQD Titanic. We are sinking fast. Passengers are being put into boats. Titanic."

...

8.45 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Olympic' sent MSG (message) to Owners, New York via Sable Island saying, "Have not communicated with Titanic since midnight".

8.55 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Carpathia' replies to 'Baltic', "Am proceeding to Halifax or New York full speed. You had better proceed to Liverpool. Have about 700 passengers on board".

9.00 a.m.
15 April 1912
'Carpathia' to 'Virginian', "We are leaving here with all on board about 700 passengers. Please return to your Northern course".

The 'Carpathia' is now heading for New York where she will arrive at 9.00 p.m. on the evening of April 18th with aboard the 705 survivors.

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The Technology That Allowed the Titanic Survivors to Survive

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More than 1,500 people died in the sinking of the Titanic, but more than 700 survived. Those who did owed their escape to the newest communications technology of the time: wireless telegraphy. It's hard to overstate the advance that wireless represented to ships and, especially, to their occupants.

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Detailed facts, information and history about the RMS Titanic for teachers and students..

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Titanic | History, Sinking, Rescue, Survivors, & Facts

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Titanic: Titanic, British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 14-15, 1912, during its maiden voyage, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, killing about 1,500 people. One of the most famous tragedies in modern history, it has inspired numerous works of art and been the subject of much scholarship.

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The history of the RMS Titanic, RMS Olympic, HMHS Britannic and other White Star Line ships. The History of the Cunard Line featuring the RMS Lusitania, RMS Mauretania, RMS Aquitania, RMSQueen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and QE2. Other famous sea disasters are covered: RMS Empress of Ireland, SS Normandie, SS Andrea Doria, SS Great Britain.

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RMS Titanic is found by Dr Robert Ballad

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RMS Titanic is found by Dr Robert Ballad

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In the 1980s Dr. Robert Ballard was determined to discover the Titanic. On several occasions he tried to rally an expedition to find the most famous shipwreck of all time. To him undersea exploration was easy but the Titanic, deep on the Atlantic sea bed would push boundaries further than any deep sea diver had previously gone.

Equipment had to be specially designed to withstand the water pressures of the depths they needed to explore. The Titanic would lay at a depth over 13,000 feet.

In 1973, the submersible Alvin went through design changes. Inparticular, her steel hull was replaced with titanium alloy which could better withstand the depths involved.

Eventually funding was granted from Woods Hole and equipment was borrowed from various sources that included a side scan sonar, a deep-towed magnetometer, an LIBEC imaging system and of course underwater cameras.

The Titanic's distress signal placed the Titanic at 41°46'N, 50° 14' west. Part of the British Enquiry was to ascertain if this was exact. It concluded that the position given was slightly inaccurate as the Carpathia, who raced to the Titanic's rescue, reached the lifeboats before they should have done if the position was accurate.

Ballard's search strategy was simply: they would scan the ocean floor within a best search triangle until they found the ship.

Earlier in 1981 Jack Grimm led a team to find the ship, positive that they were searching the exact spot the ship foundered - they had not. Revised calculations suggested that the Titanic was eight miles further north than previously thought. They allowed for the speed of the lifeboats and the probable drift Titanic would have had on her way both after she had stopped and then down to the bottom of the ocean.

After reworking these calculations, a second 1981 expedition failed again. The Deep-tow passed within a mile and a half of the wreck but the sonar scanners were out of range. After three weeks of searching Grimm was convinced he had found one of Titanic's propellers. He began to tell the world that Titanic had been found.

Two years later Grimm wanted to search the area again but the expedition failed. Ballard who had followed the expeditions with great interest realised that Grimm had not spent enough time looking for the ship. It was now Ballard's turn.

Ballard had a realisation which led him to develop the Argo/Jason concept. When assembled they were a remote controlled deep towed deep sea video vessel combined with a swimming robot on a cable leash. The name of the project was derived form Greek mythology (Jason and the Argonauts).

Argo would be an unmanned submarine loaded with video cameras towed above the ocean bottom at the end of fibre-optical wires. The built in sonar could scan accurately the ocean floor for small debris.

In 1984 the US Navy agreed to fund a three week test for the following summer and Argo was built.

Aboard the Knorr, Ballard sailed to where he believed the Titanic sank. He hoped that his French colleagues had not beaten him to the wreck. However, by the end three weeks he had not found the ship and on August 6 1985 headed home.

Lateral thinking

When a ship it sinks it leaves a path of debris (objects from within the ship or objects breaking off). Depending how deep the vessel sinks this debris can be scattered over a large distance. On a shorter descent, the debris falls more or less vertically. However, as the Titanic sank 21/2 miles a huge debris field was expected.

A new search strategy was formed. This time they would first look for the debris field rather than the Titanic herself.

The logbook of the Californian enabled Ballard and his crew to estimate the speed and direction of drift of the lifeboats. The Californian was between five to ten miles away from the Titanic at the time of the disaster and reported in its log that they had experienced drift. Also Ballard knew that the Titanic had to be north of where the lifeboats were found.

On August 24 1985 Ballard returned to the vacinity of the Titanic. He had 12 days to locate the wreck. Argo was launched the next day but encountered technical problems. After another six days, the crew was fed up with the monotiny of observing sand, mud and the bottomless ocean.

But on the 1st September 1985 a strange appeared on the Video monitors. A BOILER!!!

The RMS Titanic had to be near.

New hopes were realised. Argo was launched to scan the search area for the Titanic. Eventually at an altitude of 160 feet above the bed, Argo passed over the main hull of the ship. They could see that the funnel had gone (the one which Lightoller recalled saved his life when it tore out of its fixtures moments before the ship went down).

Their first look at the Titanic lasted six minutes: she was upright and a large section of her hull was in tact. She laid 13,000 feet below the surface.

Following much the cheering and clapping, reverential silence overcame the crew of the Knorr. It was almost 2 a.m. and very close to the time when the Titanic actually sank. Argo was used to photograph the wreck during the many passages made over her.

Soon news that the Titanic had been found had reached the corners of the world. Once more the RMS Titanic was in the minds of millions of people.

EXPLORATION OF THE TITANIC
Day 1
On July 13th 1986 another Ballard expedition was underway to explore the Titanic in more detail.

Jason Junior (JJ) would be used to video the Titanic. JJ would be operated on a long cable attached to Alvin which contained three crew who would steer JJ.
Day 2
After a short lived dive due to battery failure, a second dive proved highly successful.

Apparently from nowhere, the razor sharp bow of the Titanic came into view. Both anchors were still in place. It appeared that the bow was buried more than 60 foot in the mud.

Ballard described the decaying metal as "frozen rivers of rust covering the ships' side and spread out over the ocean floor."

As Alvin moved across the forward deck, the giant bollards and capstans were clearly visible although the wires and ropes once connected to them were gone. The wooden floor had been eaten away.

The expedition continued to the severed section of the intact bow section. A sudden strong current stopped the trip and Alvin was forced to head to the surface.
Day 3
JJ traversed the Grand Staircase, which at one time had been covered by a glass dome. Whatever JJ saw, Alvin's crew saw too. A Chandelier had survived the journey to the bottom of the sea. JJ's maiden voyage was a total success.
Day 4
The team visited Captain Smith's cabin to find its outer walls collapsed to a heap on the deck. Next, JJ explored the Gym where pieces of equipment could be seen in amongst the rubble. Metal frames from the electric camel were also intact.
Day 5

The debris field spans nearly 2000 feet between the two sections of the Titanic. The debris includes lumps of coal, wrought-iron deck benches, baths, crockery and other bric-a-brac.

Another boiler was found with an iron cup sitting peacefully on top of it. A safe was found on the ocean floor proudly showing off its brass handle. Ballard tried to open the safe but the door would not open to reveal its contents.

Day 6
It was clear from the debris field that the torn-off stern section had been badly damaged during its journey to the bottom and now lay 1,970 feet from the bow section.

Ballard's next plan lead Alvin along the bottom of the ocean bed directly behind the stern section and sent JJ to examine the hull. He found that the stern section was also buried deep beneath the mud, probably to a depth of 45 feet. Both middle and starboard side propellers were under the mud.

Before leaving the wreck, Ballard placed a memorial plaque on the stern in memory of those who lost their lives on that fateful night.

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RMS Titanic is found by Dr Robert Ballad

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In the 1980s Dr. Robert Ballard was determined to discover the Titanic. On several occasions he tried to rally an expedition to find the most famous shipwreck of all time. To him undersea exploration was easy but the Titanic, deep on the Atlantic sea bed would push boundaries further than any deep sea diver had previously gone.

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Robert Ballard, Ocean Explorer Information, Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic

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Robert Ballard, Ocean Explorer Information, Facts, News, Photos -- National Geographic

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We fund and support groundbreaking scientists, conservationists, educators, and storytellers. Every one of them is a National Geographic Explorer - infinitely curious about our planet, committed to understanding it, and passionate about helping make it better.

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BBC - History - British History in depth: Titanic: Sinking the Myths

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BBC - History - British History in depth: Titanic: Sinking the Myths

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Allegations of cowardice

J Bruce Ismay, chairman and managing director of the White Star Line, was a passenger on the ship. At the age of 39 he was also president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, a giant combine and owner-operator of several transatlantic business, at the head of which was White Star. The myths surrounding Ismay are many but almost all centre on allegations of his cowardice in escaping the sinking ship whilst fellow passengers, notably women and children, were left to fend for themselves. The claims made at the time and repeated today were that he 'saved his own skin' whilst others died.

In reality Ismay helped with loading and lowering several lifeboats and acquitted himself better than many of the crew and passengers. He only entered a lifeboat when it was actually being lowered and no other passengers were in the vicinity. Some witnesses stated he was ordered into the lifeboat but, whatever happened, Lord Mersey said at the British enquiry into the loss of Titanic, 'Had he not jumped in he would simply have added one more life, namely his own, to the number of those lost'.

Ismay's fault was that he survived and as a consequence laid himself open to the high and somewhat dubious moral code of the US press. Almost universally condemned in America, when he finally arrived home he was cheered and applauded as he descended the gangway at Liverpool. The British press had treated the whole episode in a far less judgmental way.

In a second, more serious allegation, it was claimed he ordered Captain Edward J Smith, Titanic's commander, to 'make a record crossing' thus indirectly causing the collision with the iceberg. It is unlikely that an experienced shipmaster like Smith, on his last voyage before retirement and the highest paid commander in the mercantile marine, would defer to Ismay on matters of navigation. No firm evidence has ever come to light to suggest that Ismay in any way interfered with the navigation of Titanic and, other than talking with the various heads of departments on the ship, conducted himself like many other passengers. Yet the opposite image of him exists today.

But where did all these stories come from? All of the negative stereotypes can be tracked back to the American press and in particular to those newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, one of the most powerful and influential men in America. Hearst and Ismay had met years before in New York when Ismay was an agent for his company. The shy and private Ismay disliked press attention and the two men fell out as a consequence of his refusal to cooperate.

Hearst never forgot, and in April 1912 his syndicated press prosecuted a vicious campaign against Ismay, who was defenceless in the eye of the hurricane. Stories were invented and witnesses, wishing to strengthen exorbitant insurance claims for lost baggage against the company, declared he had in fact ordered Smith to make a record crossing.

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J Bruce Ismay, chairman and managing director of the White Star Line, was a passenger on the ship. At the age of 39 he was also president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, a giant combine and owner-operator of several transatlantic business, at the head of which was White Star.

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The Secret of How the Titanic Sank - US News

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The Secret of How the Titanic Sank - US News

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Everyone knows the Titanic was big, and we have the hard numbers to prove it. Discover what made it a supersized ship.

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How the Men Reacted as the Titanic and Lusitania Went Under - The New York Times

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How the Men Reacted as the Titanic and Lusitania Went Under - The New York Times

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In their analysis, the researchers studied passenger and survivor lists from both ships, and considered gender, age, ticket class, nationality and familial relationships with other passengers. The differences emerged after a closer look at the survival rates.

On the Titanic, the study found, children were 14.8 percent more likely to survive adults, while on the Lusitania they were 5.3 percent less likely to do so. And women on the Titanic were 53 percent more likely to survive than men, while on the Lusitania they were 1.1 percent less likely to do so.

The implication, Dr. Torgler said, is that on the Titanic, male passengers went out of their way to help women and children.

The research is innovative, but there are still some unanswered questions, said Benigno Aguirre, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware who also works in the university's Disaster Research Center, and who was not involved in the study.

"The idea is an excellent idea - the sense of time in survival," Dr. Aguirre said. "My only concern is that as they do that they need to go back and look at group behaviors, counting the relationship within those groups."

In a study accepted for publication in Social Science Quarterly, Dr. Aguirre analyzed the records from a deadly nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003. He found that those who were at the club with friends, relatives or people they knew were less likely to survive than those who were there alone.

Although the researchers did consider parent-child relationships, Dr. Aguirre said he would like to see deeper analysis, looking into relationships of all sorts on the two ships, including family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

He said he had found that in life-or-death situations, those relationships can make a critical difference.

Meanwhile, Dr. Torgler and his colleagues are studying the reactions to more recent disasters - namely in the use of text messages, including those sent by people trapped during the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11.

In texts sent in those situations, Dr. Torgler said, people seemed to convey their love to family members, tried to find closure with difficult issues and showed signs of faith in God.

Correction: March 25, 2010

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How the Men Reacted as the Titanic and Lusitania Went Under

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In their analysis, the researchers studied passenger and survivor lists from both ships, and considered gender, age, ticket class, nationality and familial relationships with other passengers. The differences emerged after a closer look at the survival rates.

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"Suddenly a queer quivering ran under me, apparently the whole length of the ship. Startled by the very strangeness of the shivering motion, I sprang to the floor. With too perfect a trust in that mighty vessel I again lay down. Some one knocked at my door, and the voice of a friend said: 'Come quickly to my cabin; an iceberg has just passed our window; I know we have just struck one.'

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic, largest ship afloat, left Southampton, England on her maiden voyage to New York City. The White Star Line had spared no expense in assuring her luxury. A legend even before she sailed, her passengers were a mixture of the world's wealthiest basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage.

She was touted as the safest ship ever built, so safe that she carried only 20 lifeboats - enough to provide accommodation for only half her 2,200 passengers and crew. This discrepancy rested on the belief that since the ship's construction made her "unsinkable," her lifeboats were necessary only to rescue survivors of other sinking ships. Additionally, lifeboats took up valuable deck space.
Four days into her journey, at 11:40 P.M. on the night of April 14, she struck an iceberg. Her fireman compared the sound of the impact to "the tearing of calico, nothing more." However, the collision was fatal and the icy water soon poured through the ship.

It became obvious that many would not find safety in a lifeboat. Each passenger was issued a life jacket but life expectancy would be short when exposed to water four degrees below freezing. As the forward portion of the ship sank deeper, passengers scrambled to the stern. John Thayer witnessed the sinking from a lifeboat. "We could see groups of the almost fifteen hundred people still aboard, clinging in clusters or bunches, like swarming bees; only to fall in masses, pairs or singly, as the great after part of the ship, two hundred and fifty feet of it, rose into the sky, till it reached a sixty-five or seventy degree angle." The great ship slowly slid beneath the waters two hours and forty minutes after the collision

The next morning, the liner Carpathia rescued 705 survivors. One thousand five hundred twenty-two passengers and crew were lost. Subsequent inquiries attributed the high loss of life to an insufficient number of lifeboats and inadequate training in their use.

Elizabeth Shutes, aged 40, was governess to nineteen-year-old Margaret Graham who was traveling with her parents. As Shutes and her charge sit in their First Class cabin they feel a shudder travel through the ship. At first comforted by her belief in the safety of the ship, Elizabeth's composure is soon shattered by the realization of the imminent tragedy:

No confusion, no noise of any kind, one could believe no danger imminent. Our stewardess came and said she could learn nothing. Looking out into the companionway I saw heads appearing asking questions from half-closed doors. All sepulchrally still, no excitement. I sat down again. My friend was by this time dressed; still her daughter and I talked on, Margaret pretending to eat a sandwich. Her hand shook so that the bread kept parting company from the chicken. Then I saw she was frightened, and for the first time I was too, but why get dressed, as no one had given the slightest hint of any possible danger? An officer's cap passed the door. I asked: 'Is there an accident or danger of any kind? 'None, so far as I know', was his courteous answer, spoken quietly and most kindly. This same officer then entered a cabin a little distance down the companionway and, by this time distrustful of everything, I listened intently, and distinctly heard, 'We can keep the water out for a while.' Then, and not until then, did I realize the horror of an accident at sea. Now it was too late to dress; no time for a waist, but a coat and skirt were soon on; slippers were quicker than shoes; the stewardess put on our life-preservers, and we were just ready when Mr Roebling came to tell us he would take us to our friend's mother, who was waiting above ...

No laughing throng, but on either side [of the staircases] stand quietly, bravely, the stewards, all equipped with the white, ghostly life-preservers. Always the thing one tries not to see even crossing a ferry. Now only pale faces, each form strapped about with those white bars. So gruesome a scene. We passed on. The awful good-byes. The quiet look of hope in the brave men's eyes as the wives were put into the lifeboats. Nothing escaped one at this fearful moment. We left from the sun deck, seventy-five feet above the water. Mr Case and Mr Roebling, brave American men, saw us to the lifeboat, made no effort to save themselves, but stepped back on deck. Later they went to an honoured grave.
Our lifeboat, with thirty-six in it, began lowering to the sea. This was done amid the greatest confusion. Rough seamen all giving different orders. No officer aboard. As only one side of the ropes worked, the lifeboat at one time was in such a position that it seemed we must capsize in mid-air. At last the ropes worked together, and we drew nearer and nearer the black, oily water. The first touch of our lifeboat on that black sea came to me as a last good-bye to life, and so we put off - a tiny boat on a great sea - rowed away from what had been a safe home for five days.

The first wish on the part of all was to stay near the Titanic. We all felt so much safer near the ship. Surely such a vessel could not sink. I thought the danger must be exaggerated, and we could all be taken aboard again. But surely the outline of that great, good ship was growing less. The bow of the boat was getting black. Light after light was disappearing, and now those rough seamen put to their oars and we were told to hunt under seats, any place, anywhere, for a lantern, a light of any kind. Every place was empty. There was no water - no stimulant of any kind. Not a biscuit - nothing to keep us alive had we drifted long...

Sitting by me in the lifeboat were a mother and daughter. The mother had left a husband on the Titanic, and the daughter a father

and husband, and while we were near the other boats those two stricken women would call out a name and ask, 'Are you there?' 'No,'would come back the awful answer, but these brave women never lost courage, forgot their own sorrow, telling me to sit close to them to keep warm... The life-preservers helped to keep us warm, but the night was bitter cold, and it grew colder and colder, and just before dawn, the coldest, darkest hour of all, no help seemed possible...
...The stars slowly disappeared, and in their place came the faint pink glow of another day. Then I heard, 'A light, a ship.' I could not, would not, look while there was a bit of doubt, but kept my eyes away. All night long I had heard, 'A light!' Each time it proved to be one of our other lifeboats, someone lighting a piece of paper, anything they could find to burn, and now I could not believe. Someone found a newspaper; it was lighted and held up. Then I looked and saw a ship. A ship bright with lights; strong and steady she waited, and we were to be saved. A straw hat was offered it would burn longer. That same ship that had come to save us might run us down. But no; she is still. The two, the ship and the dawn, came together, a living painting."

References:
Elizabeth Shutes' account first appeared in: Gracie, Archibold, The Truth About the Titanic (1913), reprinted in: Foster, John Wilson (editor), The Titanic Reader (1999); Lord, Walter, A Night to Remember (1955); Davie, Michael, Titanic: The Death and Life of a Legend (1986).

How To Cite This Article:
"The Sinking of the Titanic, 1912," EyeWitness to History www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

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Eva Hart, 91, a Last Survivor With Memory of Titanic, Dies - NYTimes.com

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Eva Hart, 91, a Last Survivor With Memory of Titanic, Dies - NYTimes.com

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There have been shipwrecks with greater loss of life before and after the Titanic, but none have clamped such a chilling grip on the popular imagination.

That is partly because the Titanic was on her maiden voyage carrying many prominent and wealthy passengers, but it is mainly because of a well-publicized exercise in hubris.

The White Star Line had proclaimed the Titanic the "unsinkable ship," a claim that caused Miss Hart's mother such apprehension that even as they walked up the gangplank, her daughter later recalled, she renewed her warning that calling a ship unsinkable was "flying in the face of God." She was so convinced of impending doom, her daughter later maintained, that she slept during the day and stayed awake in her cabin at night fully dressed.

The iceberg that sliced the Titanic's hull below the waterline belied White Star's claims. The network of massive bulkheads that supposedly made the Titanic unsinkable had not been extended high enough. Water gushing into one compartment simply flowed over the top of the bulkheads.

Returning to England, where her mother remarried, Miss Hart was plagued with nightmares until, after her mother's death when she was 23, she confronted her fears head on, returning to sea and locking herself in a cabin for four days until the nightmares went away.

She held several jobs, becoming a professional singer in Australia, working as a Conservative Party organizer and serving as a magistrate in England. She described her life in a 1994 autobiography, "In the Shadow of the Titanic."

Until recent years, Miss Hart chose not to talk about the disaster, but when she did open up, she was outspoken, denouncing efforts to salvage artifacts from the Titanic as "grave robbing," and excoriating White Star officials for failing to provide enough lifeboats.

"If a ship is torpedoed, that's war," she once said. "If it strikes a rock in a storm, that's nature. But just to die because there weren't enough lifeboats, that's ridiculous."

Her anger was fueled by memory.

"I can remember the colors, the sounds, everything," she said. "The worst thing I can remember are the screams."

But even worse, she conceded, was the silence that followed.

"It seemed as if once everybody had gone, drowned, finished, the whole world was standing still. There was nothing, just this deathly, terrible silence in the dark night with the stars overhead."

Miss Hart, who never married, leaves no immediate family. The remaining Titanic survivors are Edith Brown Haisman, Barbara West and Millzina Dean, all of England; Michael Navratil and Louise Laroche of France, and Eleanor Shuman, Winnifred Tongerloo and Lillian Asplund of the United States.

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Eva Hart, 91, a Last Survivor With Memory of Titanic, Dies

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There have been shipwrecks with greater loss of life before and after the Titanic, but none have clamped such a chilling grip on the popular imagination. That is partly because the Titanic was on her maiden voyage carrying many prominent and wealthy passengers, but it is mainly because of a well-publicized exercise in hubris.

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In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanic’s Doom - New York Times

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In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanic’s Doom - New York Times

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Each of the great ships under construction required three million rivets that acted like glue to hold everything together. In a new book, the scientists say the shortages peaked during the Titanic's construction.

"The board was in crisis mode," one of the authors, Jennifer Hooper McCarty, who studied the archives, said in an interview. "It was constant stress. Every meeting it was, 'There's problems with the rivets and we need to hire more people.' "

Apart from the archives, the team gleaned clues from 48 rivets recovered from the hulk of the Titanic, modern tests and computer simulations. They also compared metal from the Titanic with other metals from the same era, and looked at documentation about what engineers and shipbuilders of that era considered state of the art.

The scientists say the troubles began when its ambitious building plans forced Harland and Wolff to reach beyond its usual suppliers of rivet iron and include smaller forges, as disclosed in company and British government papers. Small forges tended to have less skill and experience.

Adding to the problem, in buying iron for the Titanic's rivets, the company ordered No. 3 bar, known as "best" - not No. 4, known as "best-best," the scientists found. Shipbuilders of the day typically used No. 4 iron for anchors, chains and rivets, they discovered.

So the liner, whose name was meant to be synonymous with opulence, in at least one instance relied on cheaper materials.

Many of the rivets studied by the scientists - recovered from the Titanic's resting place two miles down in the North Atlantic by divers over two decades - were found to be riddled with high concentrations of slag. A glassy residue of smelting, slag can make rivets brittle and prone to fracture.

"Some material the company bought was not rivet quality," said the other author of the book, Timothy Foecke of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency in Gaithersburg, Md.

The company also faced shortages of skilled riveters, the archives showed. Dr. McCarty said that for a half year, from late 1911 to April 1912, when the Titanic set sail, the company's board discussed the problem at every meeting. For instance, on Oct. 28, 1911, Lord William Pirrie, the company's chairman, expressed concern over the lack of riveters and called for new hiring efforts.

In their research, the scientists, who are metallurgists, found that good riveting took great skill. The iron had to be heated to a precise cherry red color and beaten by the right combination of hammer blows. Mediocre work could hide problems.

"Hand riveting was tricky," said Dr. McCarty, whose doctoral thesis at Johns Hopkins University analyzed the Titanic's rivets.

Steel beckoned as a solution. Shipbuilders of the day were moving from iron to steel rivets, which were stronger. And machines could install them, improving workmanship.

The rival Cunard line, the scientists found, had switched to steel rivets years before, using them, for instance, throughout the Lusitania.

The scientists discovered that Harland and Wolff also used steel rivets - but only on the Titanic's central hull, where stresses were expected to be greatest. Iron rivets were chosen for the stern and bow.

And the bow, as fate would have it, is where the iceberg struck. Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship's bow plates. And the damage, Dr. Foecke noted, "ends close to where the rivets transition from iron to steel."

The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to arrive before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.

The researchers make their case, and detail their archive findings, in "What Really Sank the Titanic" (Citadel Press).

Reactions run from anger to admiration. James Alexander Carlisle, whose grandfather was a Titanic riveter, has bluntly denounced the rivet theory on his Web site. "No way!" Mr. Carlisle writes.

For its part, Harland and Wolff, after its long silence, now rejects the charge. "There was nothing wrong with the materials," Joris Minne, a company spokesman, said last week. Mr. Minne noted that one of the sister ships, the Olympic, sailed without incident for 24 years, until retirement. (The Britannic sank in 1916 after hitting a mine.)

David Livingstone, a former Harland and Wolff official, called the book's main points misleading. Mr. Livingstone said big shipyards often had to scramble. On a recent job, he noted, Harland and Wolff had to look to Romania to find welders.

Mr. Livingstone also called the slag evidence painfully circumstantial, saying no real proof linked the hull opening to bad rivets. "It's only waffle," he said of the team's arguments.

But a naval historian praised the book as solving a mystery that has baffled investigators for nearly a century.

"It's fascinating," said Tim Trower, who reviews books for the Titanic Historical Society, a private group in Indian Orchard, Mass. "This puts in the final nail in the arguments and explains why the incident was so dramatically bad."

The Titanic had every conceivable luxury: cafes, squash courts, a swimming pool, Turkish baths, a barbershop and three libraries. Its owners also bragged about its safety. In a brochure, the White Star Line described the ship as "designed to be unsinkable."

On her inaugural voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the ship hit the iceberg around 11:40 p.m. and sank in a little more than two and a half hours. Most everyone assumed the iceberg had torn a huge gash in the starboard hull.

The discovery in 1985 of the Titanic wreck began many new inquiries. In 1996, an expedition found, beneath obscuring mud, not a large gash but six narrow slits where bow plates appeared to have parted. Naval experts suspected that rivets had popped along the seams, letting seawater rush in under high pressure.

A specialist in metal fracture, Dr. Foecke got involved in 1997, analyzing two salvaged rivets. He was astonished to find about three times more slag than occurs in modern wrought iron.

In early 1998, he and a team of marine forensic experts announced their rivet findings, calling them tentative.

Dr. Foecke, in addition to working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also taught and lectured part time at Johns Hopkins. There he met Dr. McCarty, who got hooked on the riddle, as did her thesis adviser.

The team acquired rivets from salvors who pulled up hundreds of artifacts from the sunken liner. The scientists also collected old iron of the era - including some from the Brooklyn Bridge - to make comparisons. The new work seemed only to bolster the bad-rivet theory.

In 2003, after graduating from Johns Hopkins, Dr. McCarty traveled to England and located the Harland and Wolff archives at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, in Belfast.

She also explored the archives of the British Board of Trade, which regulated shipping and set material standards, and of Lloyd's of London, which set shipbuilding standards. And she worked at Oxford University and obtained access to its libraries.

What emerged was a picture of a company stretched to the limit as it struggled to build the world's three biggest ships simultaneously. Dr. McCarty also found evidence of complacency. For instance, the Board of Trade gave up testing iron for shipbuilding in 1901 because it saw iron metallurgy as a mature field, unlike the burgeoning world of steel.

Dr. McCarty said she enjoyed telling middle and high school students about the decade of rivet forensics, as well as the revelations from the British archives.

"They get really excited," she said. "That's why I love the story. People see it and get mesmerized."

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In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Titanic's Doom

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Each of the great ships under construction required three million rivets that acted like glue to hold everything together. In a new book, the scientists say the shortages peaked during the Titanic's construction. "The board was in crisis mode," one of the authors, Jennifer Hooper McCarty, who studied the archives, said in an interview.

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Encyclopedia Titanica: Titanic Facts, History and Biography

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Encyclopedia Titanica: Titanic Facts, History and Biography

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Titanic facts, true stories, passenger and crew biographies, victim and survivor lists - Complete deckplans and detailed information about the disaster.