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Carpathia, the little ship that could. Loaded with over 700 survivors and 13 of Titanic's lifeboats.

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April 15th, 1912. Enter sorrow. 

2:20 AM. After an incredibly tense 2 and a half hours, Titanic finally gives out. Breaking in two, she quickly drowns beneath the freezing waters of the north Atlantic, taking almost 1,500 lives with her including shipbuilder Thomas Andrews and Captain Edward Smith. 

Despite being a shining example of the advancements in engineering and technology, nature still brought the unsinkable ship to her knees. 

And so came to a tragic end, the first journey of RMS Titanic. 

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April 14th, 1912 - North Atlantic Ocean

On this day, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. while crossing the North Atlantic Ocean.

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April 15th, 1912 - RMS Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic at 2:20 a.m., two hours and forty minutes after hitting an iceberg. In total, 1,496 people are believed to have perished in the sinking while 712 survived, rescued by the RMS Carpathia of the Cunard Line.

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HISTORY MEME → [4/10] Moments: Sinking of the RMS Titanic

The sinking of the RMS Titanic occurred on the night of 14 April through to the morning of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into the ship’s maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest passenger liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 (ship’s time) on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, which made it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling near her maximum speed when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen compartments to the sea. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four of her forward compartments flooded but no more, and the crew soon realised that the ship would sink. They used distress flares and radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. In accordance with existing practice, Titanic’s lifeboat system was designed to ferry passengers to nearby rescue vessels, not to hold everyone on board simultaneously; therefore with the ship sinking rapidly and help still hours away, there was no safe refuge for many of the passengers and crew. Compounding this, poor management of the evacuation meant many boats were launched before they were completely full. Thus, when Titanic sank, over a thousand passengers and crew were still on board. Almost all those who jumped or fell into the water drowned within minutes due to the effects of hypothermia. RMS Carpathia arrived on the scene about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued the last of the survivors by 09:15 on 15 April, some nine and a half hours after the collision. The disaster caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, and the unequal treatment of the three passenger classes during the evacuation. Subsequent inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations, leading to the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety today.

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A call had been sent for Thomas Andrews, Managing Director of Harland & Wolff Shipyard. As the Titanic’s builder, Andrews was making the maiden voyage to iron out any kinks in the ship. If anybody could figure out the situation, here was the man. He was indeed a remarkable figure. As builder, he of course knew every detail about the Titanic. But there was so much more to him than that. Nothing was too great or too small for his attention.  He even seemed able to anticipate how the ship would react to any situation. He understood ships the way some men are supposed to understand horses. And he understood equally well the people who run ships. They all came to Andrews with their problems. One night it might be First Officer Murdoch, worried because he had been superseded by Chief Officer Wilde. The next it might be a couple of quarreling stewardesses who looked to Andrews as a sort of Supreme Court. This very evening Chief Baker Charles Joughin made him a special loaf of bread. So far, Andrews’ trip had been what might be expected. All day long he roamed the ship, taking volumes of notes. At 6:45 every evening he dressed for dinner, dining usually with old Dr. O’Loughlin, the ship’s surgeon, who also had a way with the stewardesses. And then back to his stateroom A-36, piled high with plans and charts and blueprints. There he would assemble his notes and work out his recommendations.

A Night to Remember by Walter Lord

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Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course the experience of it was... Somewhat different.

TITANIC (1997) dir. James Cameron

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April 14th, 1912 - 9:20pm ~ Captain Smith retires to his room after checking in on the bridge. At 9.40pm, the Titanic receives its final ice warning from the SS Mesaba. This warning never reached the bridge.

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Titanic's radio stops functioning correctly around 11pm on the 13th. Marconi company policy would have the operators leave it be, and have it repaired on arrival in NYC by a technician. Instead Titanic's operators Jack Phillips and Harold Bride together work on it into the early hours of the 14th & fix the machine. Might wind up being fortuitous

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April 11th, 1912 ~ The Titanic leaves Queenstown, Ireland

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10th April 1912,18:30 ~ The Titanic reaches Cherbourg, France

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April 11th, 1912 - Queenstown, Ireland

On this day, RMS Titanic made her last port of call at Queenstown, Ireland.

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April 10th, 1912 - Southampton, England

On this day, RMS Titanic, White Star Line’s newest leviathan, departed from Southampton at noon and began her maiden voyage to New York.

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April 8th, 1912. Titanic’s departure from Southampton is only two days away. Further crew members are hired for the voyage, a last coat of paint is put on the funnels and fittings inside, and the Titanic is now completely coaled and ready for the voyage ahead.

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Well, it's April, and the 113th anniversary of the RMS Titanic's doomed maiden voyage is coming up.