Titanic (32 page)

Authors: Deborah Hopkinson

BOOK: Titanic

10.65Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

Wednesday, Carpathia

Just another line to say I am very well and getting quite used to things now . . . I escaped in my nightdress and coat and petticoats; everything else has gone . . . We are sleeping like a lot of dead things all over the floors of the ship . . . I dare say you all have lots of sympathy for me, but believe me, I am one of the lucky ones. My life is saved, my health is not impaired, and I have not lost anyone belonging to me. I tell you I have lots to be thankful for. I was ready to go down with the ship but they forced me into the lifeboat. I think it wicked to save the single girls, but now that I saved a baby whose mother was in another boat I don’t mind. We are still very fog bound, which makes all very anxious to arrive in New York.

— Edwina Trout, second class passenger

For more letters of survivors, see
On Board RMS
Titanic:
Memories of the Maiden Voyage
, by George Behe, Lulu.com: 2011.

(In some cases, times cited are approximate)

Tuesday, April 2
6:00 a.m.	Titanic begins sea trials.
8:00 p.m.	Titanic leaves Belfast for Southampton.
Wednesday, April 3	Titanic reaches Southampton around midnight.
Friday, April 5	Titanic is “dressed” with flags.
Saturday, April 6	Recruitment day for most of the crew; cargo begins to arrive.
Monday, April 8	Much of the fresh food is brought on board.
Wednesday, April 10
12:00 p.m.	Titanic sets sail on her maiden voyage.
6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.	Titanic anchors at Cherbourg, France, to load passengers.
Thursday, April 11
11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.	Titanic anchors at Queenstown to pick up more passengers; Father Frank Browne leaves the ship.
Sunday, April 14	Ice warnings are received throughout the day.
11:40 p.m.	Lookout Frederick Fleet spots an iceberg.
11:50 p.m.	In the first 10 minutes, water rises about 14 feet above the keel. The first five compartments take on water.
Monday, April 15
12:00 a.m.	Thomas Andrews tells Captain Smith the ship is doomed.
12:15 a.m.	Ships begin to receive the Titanic’ s distress signals.
12:40 a.m.	Lifeboat 7 on starboard side is the first boat launched, with 27 or 28 people — less than half its capacity of 65.
1:00 a.m.	Lifeboat 8 is the first boat launched from port side.
2:20 a.m.	Titanic sinks.
4:10 a.m.	Carpathia picks up the first lifeboat.
8:50 a.m.	Carpathia leaves the site for New York.
Thursday, April 18
9:00 p.m.	Carpathia arrives in New York.
April 19–May 25	United States Senate Inquiry hearings
May 28	United States Senate Inquiry Report
May 2–July 3	British Wreck Commissioner’s Inquiry hearings
July 30	British Wreck Commissioner’s Report

The whole truth about the
Titanic
will never be known. There are conflicting stories of survivors, differing eyewitness versions of what happened, and gaps in knowledge. Some of the key people — the captain, the designer, the chief engineer, and the officer on the bridge at the time of the collision, did not survive to give evidence. Investigators at the time did not have access to the actual location of the wreck. Maybe that’s part of what has fascinated us about the disaster for the past century.

Today, you can find articles on how the ship sank; you can compare notes with other amateur researchers and
Titanic
experts on passengers and their stories; and you can debate the precise timeline of events. On the next page are some links to actual voices of
Titanic
eyewitnesses and questions to get you started. Check out the bibliography for more books, articles, and websites.

A great place to start is with the testimony of people who were there. You can find the official British and American inquiry hearings on the
Titanic Inquiry Project
website at www.titanicinquiry.org. You can also find out more about passengers and crew — and just about everything else about the
Titanic
on the
Encyclopedia
Titanica
website at www.encyclopedia-titanica.org.

Listen to voices from the
Titanic
at the BBC Archive.

Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5049.shtml

Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5047.shtml

Survivor Eva Hart

www.bbc.co.uk/archive/titanic/5058.shtml

Some Questions for
Titanic
Researchers

Chief Baker Joughin claims to have spent over two hours in the water. What do you think?
People have been arguing about the
Californian
and her captain, Stanley Lord, for years. Was Captain Lord at fault?
Very few of the
Titanic
lifeboats went back to the ship. What would you have done?
What exactly caused the
Titanic
to sink and what kind of damage did she sustain?
Why do you think Captain Smith did not slow down on Sunday, April 14, 1912, despite receiving warnings of ice ahead?
What exactly did First Officer William Murdoch do on the bridge in the moments before and after the iceberg was sighted?
What would it be like to be a wireless operator on the night of the disaster? Would it have made a difference if Jack Phillips and Harold Bride had taken the
Mesaba
’s ice message to the bridge?
For years, people thought that the
Carpathia
was fifty-eight nautical miles away from the
Titanic
. But when the
Titanic
was discovered in 1985, it turns out the wreck was thirteen nautical miles south and east of her SOS position. How did Captain Rostron find the lifeboats?