Titanic (14 page)

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A chart showing the estimated positions of the
Titanic
and other nearby ships, based on testimony.

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An illustration showing women and children being put onto a lifeboat from the B Deck.

“Women and children first; men had to save themselves as they could. When Elna and I came up all the lifeboats were crowded, so no rescue was possible . . . You have to try to imagine it — the last moment I saw my dear sister stand there with little Thelma tightly in her arms.”

— Ernst Persson, third class passenger

12:40 a.m. In one short hour, the world had changed.

Instead of a triumphant arrival in New York City carrying hopeful families of many nationalities and the elite of society, the most magnificent ship in the world was headed to certain disaster. But most of the passengers and crew still didn’t realize it.

While seawater continued to fill the compartments below and the boat now had a slight list to the port side, the flooding was not apparent to most. The changes were gradual, and not very visible. In other words, most people simply weren’t aware that the situation was worsening from moment to moment.

Those on the upper decks could certainly see and hear the distress rockets Joseph Boxhall was launching into the moonless sky. Even so, there was no sense of panic. Most first and second class passengers had made their way to the Boat Deck or to warmer public areas on the upper decks, while many in third class were gathered on D Deck, waiting for instructions.

On the starboard side, First Officer William Murdoch and some crew members were getting the first lifeboat (Lifeboat 7) away, with Lifeboat 5 not far behind. Second Officer Charles Lightoller, who’d been off duty and asleep at the time of the accident, was now taking charge of the crew who were busy launching lifeboats on the port side. Launching the lifeboats took a lot of work; it took at least four men to handle the ropes as each boat was lowered from the deck to the water.

Below, seawater was making its way into and through the bowels of the ship. In Boiler Room 6, where the water had been eight feet deep just ten minutes after the
Titanic
struck the iceberg, the flooding continued unabated. The men had abandoned Boiler Room 6 as a lost cause.

While Boiler Room 5 was still secure, problems were beginning in Boiler Room 4. Sometime after 12:30 a.m., the crew noticed water seeping in over the floor plates from somewhere below. There had been no immediate sign of damage here, but by about 12:40 a.m. the water was approximately a foot deep. It’s likely that the ship had been damaged on the bottom as well as the side.

Stoker Fred Barrett, who’d been in Boiler Room 6 at the time of the collision, had stayed below, helping the engineers working with the pumps and furnaces. Junior second engineer Herbert Harvey, age thirty-four and engaged to be married, had sent Barrett here and there on various errands as they worked to rig up pumps to keep Boiler Room 5 dry.

When another engineer, Jonathan Shepherd, tripped in an open manhole in Boiler Room 5 and broke his leg, Harvey and Barrett carried him to the pump room, a space at one end of the boiler room.

Harvey and Barrett kept on working. Suddenly, Fred Barrett saw seawater begin to rush in. Engineer Harvey yelled at Fred to go. Barrett scrambled up an escape ladder as water surged in. He last saw Harvey turning back to try to reach Jonathan Shepherd. Both perished. Boiler Room 5 was now lost to the flooding. Fred Barrett made his way up to the Boat Deck. By now, a little after 12:40 a.m., he could see that the ship was tipping noticeably, “sloping down by the head.” The mail room was filling and water was already within two feet of G Deck, and rising fast.

The first lifeboat was just being lowered to the water below.

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This photo of the
Titanic
’s bridge and one of its lifeboats hanging from its davits over the side of the ship was taken by Father Browne. Captain Smith can be spotted looking down at the water.

Lifeboat 7, the first boat launched, carried less than thirty people, mostly first class men and women. (No one carried a stopwatch or was there to time the exact launch of every lifeboat. Most passengers didn’t even know what lifeboat they were in. But by piecing together testimony from various crew members and passengers, we can arrive at approximate times. See the table of launch times on page 252.)

Lifeboat 5 followed three minutes later, with Third Officer Harold Pitman in charge. As Lifeboat 5 reached the water and pulled away, Quartermaster Alfred Olliver, also in the boat, noticed what most people were still not aware of from on board ship: The bow had already sunk fifteen or twenty feet.

Jack Thayer, wearing a warm mohair vest and an overcoat, tied on his bulky cork life belt and went to wait with his family in a noisy, crowded lounge on A Deck. His new friend, Milton Long, came by and asked if he could stay with them. There were no clear instructions of what to do. “It seemed we were always waiting for orders and no orders ever came,” said Jack later.

“It was now about 12:45 a.m. The noise was terrific,” remembered Jack. “The deep vibrating roar of the exhaust steam blowing off through the safety valves was deafening, in addition to which they had commenced to send up rockets. Shortly we heard the stewards passing the word around: ‘all women to the port side.’”

Jack said good-bye to his mother at the head of the stairs on A Deck, where she and her maid went out to board one of the lifeboats. The men decided to wander over to the starboard side. “People like ourselves were just standing around, out of the way. The stokers, dining room stewards, and some others of the crew were lined up, waiting for orders. The second and third class passengers were pouring up onto the deck from the stern, augmenting the already large crowd.”

After a while, they made their way back to the port side to make sure Jack’s mother had gotten into a lifeboat. Much to their surprise, she was still there. Now they were told that the lifeboats would be loaded from one deck below, A Deck. The ship was still only listing to port very slightly at this point. Jack and Milton Long followed a crowd, walking behind Jack’s parents as they headed down to make sure that Mrs. Thayer could get into a lifeboat. Before Jack knew it, people had pushed between them, and he lost sight of his parents in the crowd.

“Long and I could not catch up, and were entirely separated from them,” said Jack. “I never saw my Father again.”