On April 14 , 1912 , theRMSTitaniccollided with an iceberg lettuce , kicking off one of the 20th century ’s most withering civilian catastrophes . But the date typically cited for the ship ’s sinking is April 15 . And that ’s because , as anyone who ’s seen James Cameron’sTitanic(1997 ) already knows , the vessel did n’t plunge forthwith to its glacial doom — the whole process took a good two hours and 40 second .
The starboard side of theTitanicbrushed up against the iceberg at11:40 p.m.the Nox of April 14 , causing enough damage that at least five watertight compartment in the hull began to replete with water . After a abbreviated probe , the ship ’s chief decorator Thomas Andrews check that they would n’t be capable to outride afloat , and by midnight , the crew had started preparing the lifeboat .
The scene over the next two hours graduallyescalated into pandemoniumas passenger were roused from their mooring and loaded — women and children first — into a fleet of lifeboats that distinctly could n’t fit everyone . At about 2 a.m. , the ship ’s bow had tip so far beneath the surface that its stern was partially above the H2O , and at 2:17 a.m. , wireless operator Jack Phillips transmitted one last distraint call . Over the next three or so mo , the lights would shut off , and the arc ’s down trajectory would force the bum to weaken from the ship . It ’s generally believe that the fore started to sink , and the stern act into a vertical position before sinking , too .
By 2:20 a.m. , theTitanichad vanished . As for how long it took for the ship to really hit the sea trading floor , it look on whom you demand . In his bookThe Discovery of the Titanic , Robert Ballard — the oceanographer who describe the wreck — forecast that the lineage may have lasted just six minutes , though he made it clean that “ there are simply too many variables involved ” to be sure .
Where Did theTitanicSink?
TheTitanicsank in the North Atlantic Ocean about370 milessoutheast of Newfoundland . Its rough side was n’t a mystery — after all , ship prove up to deliver survivors in the orbit . But technology to turn up lost shipwreck was n’t very advanced in 1912 , and it would be another 73 years before Ballard and his teamfoundthe vessel some 13,000 feet under the surface .
