The Titanic thread...

[Luxobarge]

11:40pm - Moving at 20.5 knots. Suddenly, lookouts see iceberg dead ahead about 500 yards away and some 55 feet tall. They immediately sound the warning bell with three sharp rings and telephone the bridge. After what must seen an age, Sixth Officer Moody answers. "Iceberg right ahead!" Moody relays the message to Murdoch who instinctively calls "Hard a starboard" and engine room to stop then full astern. Helmsman swings the wheel hard over and after several seconds the Titanic begins to veer to port but the iceberg strikes the starboard bow and brushes alongside the ship. The collision is not noticed by many passengers and time from sighting to impact was approx 37 seconds. Murdoch rings the alarm then shuts all 15 watertight doors via a switch on the bridge.

Two things:

1) If Murdoch called out "Hard a starboard" why did the ship then turn to port? If the helm was put to starboard, then the ship would turn that way, irrespective of what the engines were doing - putting them full astern would just tighten the turn. However, in fact as you say the ship clearly turned to port, as the iceberg struck on the starboard side.

2) What happened next? I've been REALLY enjoying this thread, and of all the stuff in the media about the disaster recently I've enjoyed this thread the most - but don't leave us on a cliff-hanger, we want to know what happened next!

Cheers - keep it up!

[rich.]

i think the boat sank.. & we have to put up with celine dions wailing on the radio

[mach1rob]

any word on the iceberg??

Currently succumbing to global warming*

i think the boat sank.. & we have to put up with celine dions wailing on the radio

I know it may be considered crass to lol on thread about a terrible disaster but that was funny!


* may not be actually true

[alfaSleep]

2) What happened next? I've been REALLY enjoying this thread, and of all the stuff in the media about the disaster recently I've enjoyed this thread the most - but don't leave us on a cliff-hanger, we want to know what happened next!

.... and after the lights went out - it went serenely DOWN:-

READ ON..........

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17551046

alfaSleep

[3xpendable]

Hi All,

Apologies, I didnt realise there was such a following! I got involved with the events in a real-time forum so didnt have a chance to update, I will try and do so tonight

[Martin Evans]

I was reading something about this yesterday and there is an old mill about ten miles down the valley from where I live. It seems that a radio enthusiast in this mill picked up the Titantic's Mayday call. He told other people about it, who didn't believe the unsinkable ship could have sunk. Then it appeared in the newspapers and they realised it was true (Not that everything in newspapers is true ). See http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/loopsandli ... gelli.html.

[3xpendable]

The reason the ship turned to port is because up until the 30's, ships operated a tiller system so like in a small boat if you wanted to turn left, you turned the wheel right.

Ok here's the rest. Moments after the collision Captain Smith appears on the Bridge, asking what they have struck. Murdoch informs him they have glanced an Iceberg. He orders the water tight doors shut, and after he is informed they are already closed, he summons for offcers to their posts.

11:50 PM - Ten minutes after impact, water has risen 14 feet above the keel. Boiler room number 6, five feet above the keel, is already flooded in eight feet of water

[3xpendable]

12am 15th April 1912.

The mail room, 24 feet above the keel, begins floodding enough to float mail bags. Following reports to Captain Smith, now on the bridge, of water pouring into the forepeak, number 1,2, and 3 holds and boiler room number 6, he conducts a rapid tour with the ships designer, Thomas Andrews.
Back on the bridge Smith asks Andrews for his assessment. Titanic has a gash over 300ft long that has opened up the first 5 compartments to the sea. While pumps are holding the water back in Boiler Room 5, boiler room 6, the critical compartment, is flooding. When this floods, water will spill over the watertight bulkhead into the next, pulling the bow lower into the water. Andrews predicts the ship can stay afloat for an hour, to and hour and a half. The ship is doomed.

Smith orders a CQD (CQ = Calling all stations, D = Distress. Later on Titanic becomes the first ship in distress to send SOS). to be sent and gives their postiions as 41º 46'N, 50º 14 W

[3xpendable]

12:05am - The squash court, 32 feet above the keel, is awash. Orders given to swing out the lifeboats. If every lifeboat leaves full, there is only room for 1178 out of the estimated 2227 on board

[3xpendable]

12:15 - Band begins playing lively tunes on deck near the port entrance to the grand staircase.