The Unsinkable

Titanic, the famous movie portraying intense love between two fellow passengers on the ship, Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater is also the world’s most luxurious ship of its time. It started its first voyage on the 10th April 1912, from Southampton, England to New York. The ship carried people from all walks of life, rich industrialists, actors and people from the working class. RMS Titanic was being commanded by 62-year-old, Senior Captain Edward John Smith. The journey carried people to America in hopes of a better life. This ship created a lot of excitement in the public and media, for it was not only the world’s largest, around 269 metres in length, but also the most luxurious one. It had all sorts of amenities that any 5-star hotel would have today, including stained glass mirrors, ornate wood panelling, two staircases, a heated swimming pool, a Turkish bath, a gym, and a library, among others. All of this came at a cost of about $7.5 million, which equals nearly $400 million in today’s inflated economy. Clearly, the ship was state-of-the-art, and its claim of being ‘unsinkable’ added to its glory. Despite the claim, it sank, leading to a lot of controversy and theories on why it happened. 

White Star Line was behind the architecture of RMS Titanic; its President was the one who announced it as ‘unsinkable’. Two days after the journey began across the Atlantic, the ship received its first ice warnings. It was not unusual to receive warnings of this sort, and so Titanic changed its course twice to avoid the potential dangers of an iceberg. However, it did not reduce the speed, sailing at 21.5 knots (44kmh). On 14 April 1912, 7 more warnings were communicated, which were ignored by the crew, and they continued without slowing down. After the sun sets, the temperature dropped quickly on the 14th. There was no moon, which made the visibility very low. From the crow’s nest, a lookout point at a height, Frederick Fleet was atop, and he saw a huge iceberg in front of him at 11:39. He alerted everyone. First officer William Murdoch heard his message and signalled to the engine room. Unfortunately, it was too late, and at 11:40, the ship crashed into the massive iceberg (200 by 400 ft), as big as a football field. It damaged the right side, near the bow. It grazed along the iceberg for 10 seconds, leading to holes in the ship. After the collision, Captain Smith and the architect Thomas Andrews quickly realised that the ship was bound to sink despite the safety features it had, which earned it the title of being unsinkable. Due to the impact of the iceberg, its double bottom hull(main body) was completely damaged, and 6 out of 16 compartments of the hull were already filled with water, while the safety net had the capacity for only 4. 

The aftermath of the collision took everyone by surprise. At midnight, Radio Operator Jack Phillips tried sending signals to any ship that might be nearby and after 20 minutes, RMS Carpathia received the signal and turned its course to rescue the passengers, but it was still 107 km away. Initially, the passengers on board were not that scared; they too thought that it was unsinkable. The first lifeboats were thus half filled, but as the realisation set in, there was chaos; everyone fought to get on the lifeboats. The Titanic had 20 lifeboats with a capacity of 1200 people, while there were almost 2,000 on board. At 1:00 am, the ship was half submerged in water with its other side in the air. The last lifeboat was lowered at 2:05 am, but there were still more than a thousand people left on the ship. Some people fought for their lives while others accepted their fates. As per eye witnesses, the ship broke into two halves at 2:20. The ship slowly sank in, taking people with it; those who knew how to swim died of hypothermia in the -2°C temperature of the Atlantic. At last, RMS Carpathia reached, only to save the few people alive on lifeboats at 3:30 on 15th April 1912. 

 The tragic accident has led to many investigations and controversies. One such controversy surrounds SS Californian, a ship that was just 37 kms away from Titanic, which could have possibly saved the people on board. They were the ones who released the iceberg warning an hour before the collision. At 11:15, they turned off the radio and docked their ship due to potential danger that night. Since the radio was turned off, no distress calls were received by them, but what about the flares and crackers that were lit up to ask for help? At 12:00, as per some news, flares were seen in the sky by Californian, but their captain, Stanley Lord, chose to ignore them, saying that it was a mere celebration by rich people on the Titanic. Had the SOS calls been taken seriously, thousands of people could have been saved. Many newspapers blamed Lord for this incident. However, many other reasons contributed to the accident, lack of lifeboats, and no safety drills were conducted by Edward and Robert Hichen steered the wheel towards the iceberg in panic. Moreover, there were multiple warnings sent to the Titanic, but it didn’t slow down. As per the enquiry, there was pressure from White Star Line to keep up the speed to complete the journey in mere 6 days to set a record. 

The incident led to many reforms. In 1914, the International Ice Patrol was set up to warn ships. Many more regulations were formulated, which changed the way ships operate. 

aditi pandey

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