April 8, 1912
Fresh supplies are loaded into the Titanic. Fruit, veggies, meat, coffee, beer, wine, cigars, tea and 1700 quarts of ice cream
The ship designer, Thomas Andrew's makes last minute adjustments.
April 9, 1912
Most of the crew spend their first night on board. Remember one of our first posts, a last minute crew change, David Blair is let go, means no binoculars for the crow's nest.
Tomorrow is sailing day!
April 10, 1912
The day finally arrived, today the Titanic began her maiden voyage.
It wasn't smooth sailing from the get-go. As the Titanic left her berth, she created a suction in the harbor that made the smaller ship move. The Titanic barely missed colliding with the SS City of New York. The New York was stranded because of the coal strike and it took some tugs to keep the two ships from colliding. After the narrow miss, the Titanic would make her way to Cherbourg, France to pick up 274 passengers (Molly Brown would be one of these, we will cover her in a couple of days) and 24 passengers would disembark during a 2 hour period. The ship would then begin to sail towards Queenstown, Ireland around 8pm.
April 11, 1912
Titanic drops anchor off the coast of Queenstown, Ireland. Father Browne got off the Titanic along with a few other passengers. Over 100 got on board the ship in Ireland headed towards a new life in America. Approx 1:30 PM the Titanic picked up her anchor for the last time ever and began a speed of 21 knots across the Atlantic ocean. There were around 2227 passengers on board. As every list varied it is unknown exactly how many were sailing but this number should be close.
April 12, 1912
Today the Titanic would cover around 386 miles. The bridge would receive their first 2 ice warnings and the telegraph machine would break. Harold Bride and Jack Phillips (remember those names) would spend the evening breaking the Marconi rules and would not only attempt but succeed in fixing the telegraph themselves. Many passengers wanted to wire home and brag about the ship's amenities.
April 13, 1912
The Captain would be informed that the fire in broiler room 6 is finally extinguished. Everyone realizes that this fire has damaged the bulkhead and that damage may help contribute to the events tomorrow night.
April 13 would be the last full night Titanic would ever see.
Margaret Brown
Margaret was never known as Molly during her lifetime. That was nickname created after her death. Margaret was ahead of her time in regards to women's rights. She had run for political office before women could vote, she volunteered at homeless shelters, she was on committees for women's educational rights and was a pillar of society in Denver, CO.
Mrs. Brown would be a passenger in lifeboat 6. She championed to take the boat back to the sinking site to pick up survivors but it is not known if her lifeboat went back. She did help calm other survivors throughout the night.
She is probably the most famous passengers because of a book, play and a movie about how she was so "unsinkable".
Her Denver home has been turned into a museum and it is a pretty cool place to visit.
April 14, 1912
So much happened on the 14th....first of all, a lifeboat drill that was scheduled would be canceled by Captain Smith because it is just too cold.
At least 7 ice warnings were taken to the bridge, the first arriving at 10:15am and the last around 11:00pm. These warnings were from other ships that had sailed similar routes to the Titanic. Captain Smith heeds the warnings (in a way) he alters course but does NOT slow down.
9:20pm Captain Smith retires to his room leaves orders to wake him if "in doubt".
9:40 Philips to working hard in the wireless room to deliver passenger messages. A "heavy ice ahead" warning is received but never given to the bridge because Bride and Phillips are "too busy". They have only a 2-hour window to use the Cape Race receiver in New Foundland to send messages.
10:00pm the air temperature is 32 and the ocean temperature is 28. Shift change...Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee go to the crow's nest to look for bergs. Remember there are no binoculars if there were the berg might have been seen sooner. The sea is calm, like glass. It is cold. There is no moon in the sky.
10:50pm The Californian sends a message that they are surrounded by ice and stopping for the night. Phillips wires back for them to "shut up, I am working Cape Race". The Californian operator gets angry, shuts off his machine and goes to bed.
11:00pm the iceberg is 15 miles ahead.
11:40....Lookout Fredrick Fleet spots an iceberg "right ahead". He calls to the bridge and First Officer Murdoch orders the ship "hard astarboard" which is a turn to the left (port) and a "full astern" that is a reversal of the engines. The hull strikes the berg on the starboard side (the side where the fire once was just yesterday) ripping 5 watertight compartments. It has only been 37 seconds since the first sighting of the iceberg. 37 seconds!!! Almost immediately the 5 compartments are filling with water.
11:50pm water is almost 14 feet deep in the hull. Captain Smith orders the ship designer, Thomas Andrews to "sound the ship"April 10, 1912
12:00am Thomas Andrews reports that the ship will flounder, there are only about 2 hours left. An order is given that women and children need to load the lifeboats. There are only enough boats for about half of the 2227 (ish) on board.
12:15am Phillips and Bride are ordered to send out a CQD (come quick distress) signal. This is the standard signal of the day, but before the night is over they will use the newish code, SOS. It was NOT the first time the code was used, but definitely the most famous time.
12:20am Carpathia gets a message “come at once. We have struck a berg. It’s a CQD, old man”. They change course to come offer assistance. They are 58 miles and almost 4 hours away. The band starts playing on deck to “comfort” the passengers.
12:45am lifeboat #7 is the first to leave the ship. There are 27 on board, and the boat could carry 65. Titanic sends up distress rockets. Someone onboard the Californian sees the rockets but is unsure what they mean so he goes back to bed.
12:55am two more lifeboats leave, including #6, Margaret Brown’s vessel.
1:00am lifeboat #1 leaves with the Duff-Gordons both onboard.
1:10am Ida and Isidor Straus (co-owner of Macy's) are offered a spot on lifeboat #8. Isidor would not board while other men when still onboard. Ida seals her fate by refusing to leave her husband's side. She stated, “where you go, I go”. The Countess of Rothes does board lifeboat #8.
1:15am another lifeboat is launched and the water is up to the Titanic nameplate on the bow
1:20am Millvina Dean’s lifeboat, #10 leaves.
1:30am Phillips sends out the message “women and children in boats. Cannot last much longer.”
1:40am Bruce Ismay snuck onto a collapsible lifeboat and his boat is lowered from Titanic.
2:00am the bow goes under and collapsible lifeboat A is filled with water as 20 people get inside. Lifeboat #14 will come to save them, but some will have died. They leave 3 bodies in the boat and it is a month before those bodies will be recovered. Collapsible B would land upside down. There wasn't time to right it, so men climbed onboard...including Officer Lightolier. After the ship went under, Col. Archbald Gracie (who wrote a wonderful book on the sinking and die before it was finished), Jack Thayer (son of Pennsylvania railroad co-owner) and wireless operator Harold Bride would climb on top of the hull of the boat after swimming away from the sinking vessel. It is said 30 men were on this boat at one time.
2:01am Captain Smith announces “it is every man for himself”.
2:05am the last lifeboat left the ship
2:17am Wireless operator Jack Phillips makes it to a boat, but he will die and his body is never found. It is supposed he may have made it to collapsible B.
2:18am The lights blick and then go out. The bow goes under raising the stern. The ship breaks into and the bow will travel to the bottom of the ocean. The stern settles back down, but as it fills with water it begins to take a plunge. The last message is sent for help.
2:20am 2 hours and 40 minutes after the Titanic struck the berg, it was gone. As the travels under the ocean, it tumbles and implodes and lands on the bottom around a mile from the bow. (the ship would not be found on the ocean bottom until September 1, 1985)
3:30am The Carpathia arrives.
4:10am the first boat is picked up, #2
8:30am the last boat #12 is picked up
8:50am The Carpathia heads towards NYC
April 16, 1912
A Carpathia crew member would attempt to make a list of all the survivors and that information would be relayed back to NY and to the White Star Line for posting. This process would take 2 days.
There were varying reports on the 15th that were published in NY ranging from all passengers survived or that the ship was ok but limping back to port. Today NY would realize that over 1500 died, the ship was gone and the Carpathia was bringing 705 survivors to NYC.
Survivors would be assessed and treated for injuries. Exposure and hypothermia would be the most common injuries.
Several recovery companies would be hired on this date. Their main job would be to recover bodies and lifeboats from the Atlantic ocean. They were hired on this date, but they still have to make the way to the wreckage site so they won't get started for a couple of days.
April 17, 1912
On this date, McKay and Bennett left Halifax headed toward the wreckage site. They were hired to recover items/people from the site.
The Carpathia continued relaying names of survivors back to NYC. On this list would also be two lap dogs. What Carpathia doesn't do is answer any questions about any passengers. Not even when President Roosevelt (he was not the current Pres, that was Taft) questioned whether his aide, Archibald Butt survived.
Major Archibald Butt
His life was all about the military. He joined a volunteer army in the late 1800s. Once he left the army, he had caught the eye of Teddy Roosevelt who made him his military aide. They became close friends during TR's Presidency and because William Taft and TR were buddies, Butt became Taft's pal too. When Taft and TR began feuding, Butt felt in the middle of the two and his health declined. He spent 6 weeks in Europe to recover and then booked passage on the Titanic because it was time to come home.
The sad part is that no one knows what role if any he played in the events of the night. There are so many conflicting reports of what he may have done that we will never know for sure. He did perish and his body was never recovered.
Another Archibald (I confused the two when I was younger)
Archibald Gracie was so wealthy he did not do much for a living. He dabbled in real estate, military history and built a mansion that would one day be where the governor of NY would live. He had a wife and two daughters (one died in a freak elevator accident). In 1912 he had finished a book that he spent seven years writing and decided to take a break and go to Europe. He went alone and spent his time reading and sightseeing. He booked the Titanic as a grand way to end his trip. During the sailing, he was seen to spend most of his time in the library and the ship's gym/pool. He worked out often on land so he was very fit and his physical ability would help him so much the morning of April 15.
He claimed to have felt the instant the ship his the iceberg and he got up and started planning from that second that the ship would sink. He put on his life jacket, his overcoat, and a hat. He was seen helping many ladies unto lifeboats and assisted in launching the collapsible lifeboats. Gracie stayed on the ship until it went under. He was pulled under with the ship, but he swam and fought his way to the surface. When he emerged he was exhausted but he saw the collapsible B boat that had slid off the boat deck upside down and swam over to it. He would be one of many men that tried to hang onto the hull or climb on top of the overturned boat. LIfeboat 12 would come to their aide and Gracie was pulled onboard. When they got back to New York Gracie started a book on the sinking. The sad part is that his health never recovered from the exposure to the elements... he died right before his book was published around six months after the sinking.
April 18, 1912
It was raining, but the Carpathia arrived in New York with the survivors. Before the ship docked they would take off all of the lifeboats then the passengers would start to disembark.
Reporters and gawkers would all crowd the pier for the story of what happened. Harold Bride, one of the wireless operators, would agree to sell his story.
Many passengers just wore a shocked face as they walked down the gangplank. It was a sad day to arrive in America and they arrived so differently than they all planned.
April 19, 1912
While the White Star employees and all other involved parties were in New York, the government officially began an inquiry as to what happened the night of April 14, when the ship struck the iceberg. The inquiry would last until May 25 and would go back and forth from NYC to DC (there would be similar trials in London when. 80 people would be called to testify about the lifeboats, ice warnings, evacuation procedures, crew actions and other ships near the wreck site at the time of the sinking. The committee did not get to view the lifeboats. Remember that on April 18 the lifeboats were unloaded from the Carpathia as she entered NYC. By the next morning, they were gone. No one knows for sure, but it is speculated that they were loaded onto another ship and returned to White Star to be used on another of their vessels.
During the inquiry, J Bruce Ismay would have to answer why he survived, why the ship was going so fast in icy waters, why the lifeboats were half filled, and what role he played in the events that transpired during the sailing. Fredrick Fleet, one of the lookouts would give a wonderful testimony about sighting the berg, remember he is the one who called the bridge and reported, "Iceberg, right ahead". He would also talk about how there were no binoculars, just his own eyes and had he had some he could have spotted the iceberg sooner.
Another interesting fact is that many of the crew (about 910 at sailing---only 212 survived) were contracted with the Titanic so when the ship went down they stopped getting paid.
Crew member Violet Jessop
Violet's father died when she was young and her mother earned a living working on ships. When Violet's mom got too ill to work, Violet decided to work on ships herself. She worked on a few ships before she was put on the White Star Olympic (one of Titanic's sister ships). She was working when the Olympic collided with the Hawke and while it didn't sink, the ship limped back to port and Violet made it off safely. When the Titanic was launched, Violet applied to contract with that ship. She got the job and of course, you know how the ship collided with an iceberg, but what you don't know is that Violet made it off the ship herself in lifeboat 16. She could not or would not give up her career and during WWI she went to work on another Titanic sister ship, the Britannic. The ship encountered a German U-boat and started sinking. It sank very quickly and Violet could not make a lifeboat so she jumped in the water. She was rescued but suffered a fractured skull. She still didn't quit working on ships!! She kept working right through WWII and retired in her early 60's. She died of heart disease, not a sinking ship. *I was lucky enough to have her ticket in Branson once, the only time I ever "survived" a trip to the museum.
April 20, 1912
On this date, McKay and Bennett started recovering bodies from the wreckage site. It took a lot of research but I finally found some good sources/books for accurate information on the retrieval process.
There were four companies hired to complete the task, McKay and Bennet was the first and when it became apparent there was no way they could handle it alone, three more companies were hired. Cable Ship Minia would be sent to the site, followed by the Montmagny and Algerine.
M&B stats:
306 bodies recovered
Due to a shortage of embalming fluid, M&B would bury 116 bodies at sea (also the state of the bodies were a factor in this number, but they list the fluid as the main reason). M&B would return to Halifax with 190 bodies including, John Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus, Wallace Hartley (with his violin case strapped to him--I saw this violin in 2017 --if you ever get a chance to see it you should)
CS Minia stats:
17 bodies recovered
They would bring 15 bodies back to Halifax and bury 2 unidentified bodies at sea.
CGS Montmagny stats:
4 bodies recovered
They would bury one body at sea and return to Halifax with three bodies.
SS Algerine stats:
1 body recovered
Overall, when the bodies other ships picked up, 337 bodies were recovered. Some were buried at sea, a few were claimed by relatives and 150 were buried in three places in Halifax (I am so excited to be going to the cemeteries this October).
That is it guys, see you next year and at certain dates that important to Titanic history. Thanks for reading.
Of All the Gin Joints: A Cocktail Drinker's Guide to Hollywood Hijinks and Mayhem by Mark Bailey
