Steven Otfinoski - Smooth Sea and a Fighting Chance: The Story of the Sinking of Titanic

On April 10, 1912, the worlds largest and most luxurious ocean liner, the White Star Lines RMS Titanic, left Southampton, England, for its maiden voyage to New York.

The Titanic was one of the greatest technological wonders the world had ever seen. The ship stretched a massive 882.9 feet (269.1 meters) long and 92.5 feet (28.2 m) wide. It could reach a top speed of about 24 knots and, with dining rooms, lounges, a squash racquet court, a gymnasium, and a swimming pool, the Titanic brought luxury and comfort to a new height in ocean travel. Most strikingly, the ship was equipped with 16 watertight compartments. This safety design would allow the ship to continue floating with up to four of the compartments flooded. This led some people to claim that the Titanic was unsinkable.

As it left the dock at Southampton, the Titanic nearly collided with another passenger ship, the America Lines SS New York. Some superstitious crew members saw this as a bad omen, but others felt they were lucky to avoid an accident. The ship made two brief stops at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, to take on more passengers. With at least 2,205 passengers and crew members aboard, the Titanic headed into the Atlantic Ocean for what promised to be a smooth, five-day sail to New York.

Radio operator Cyril Evans had an important message to deliver. Nearly an hour before, his ship, the SS Californian, a small British liner bound for Boston, had run into a large field of icebergs in the North Atlantic. Its captain, Stanley Lord, had wisely decided to slow for the night. In the morning the crew would be able to see the icebergs and safely steer around them. Evans was standing on deck with Lord when the captain pointed to a ships light some distance away.

Who is she? Lord asked.

The Titanic, Evans replied. The captain nodded. They knew the huge luxury passenger ship was making its maiden voyage.

Send her a message to warn her about the icebergs ahead, Lord told the radio operator.

Evans message was short and to the point: We are stopped and surrounded by icebergs. But the reply he received from the Titanic a few moments later surprised him: Shut up, shut up, I am busy: I am working you are jamming me.

Evans was taken aback by the rudeness of the Titanics radioman. He sounded tired and edgy, but that was no excuse. Evans was tired himself, but had taken the time to deliver the warning. He thought about sending the message again, but didnt want to be told off once more by the man on the other end. So he shut off his radio and prepared to turn in for the night.

A slight jarring of the ship awakened John Jacob Astor IV and his wife, Madeleine. Astor assured Madeleine it was nothing. She was pregnant and needed all the rest she could get.

The thought of a mishap that could delay their arrival in New York irked Astor. As a member of one of the wealthiest families in America, he was used to getting his way. He and Madeleine had left the United States under a cloud more than a year earlier on an extended honeymoon across Europe and Egypt.

When the recently divorced Astor had married the much younger Madeleine, the marriage had created a scandal. Once well respected, Astor had found himself shunned by New York society. He hoped that time had healed the situation and that he and Madeleine would once again be accepted by their peers. Unable to sleep, Astor decided to go out and see just what had happened to the ship.

Margaret Brown was reading in bed when the crash came. The ship jolted, throwing her from the brass bed to the deck. She immediately got up, dusted herself off, and decided to investigate.

Brown had been abroad for some time, having toured Egypt with the Astors and her daughter, Helen, who had then returned to her university studies in Paris at the Sorbonne. Margaret Browns husband, mining millionaire J. J. Brown, was back in Denver, Colorado, seeing to his properties. Mr. Brown wasnt fond of travel.

Margaret Brown

Margaret Brown kept busy with civic affairs. She had helped establish the first American court for juvenile defendants and was a tireless advocate in the fight for womens and education. But now she was on a different kind of mission. She put on some clothes and went out into the corridor. There were a number of first-class passengers milling around in their nightclothes, wearing the same puzzled looks on their faces. One gentleman pointed to another in his pajamas and teased, Are you prepared to swim in those things? Someone laughed. Then some of them decided to go up on deck to learn more. Brown didnt join them. Instead she went back to her cabin and returned to her book.

Captain Edward Smith

Captain Edward Smith knew something was wrong. Several crew members had brought word to him that the ship had grazed an , out of breath.

Shes taking water fast! Hutchinson gasped.

When J. Bruce Ismay felt the ship jolt, he took it personally. Ismay was president of the White Star Line, which owned the Titanic. Anxious to see what had happened, he threw some clothes over his pajamas, put on his carpet slippers, and headed for the bridge. Captain Smith told him that they had struck an iceberg.

Do you think the ship is seriously damaged? Ismay asked.

The captain paused before speaking. Im afraid she is, he said.

Harold Bride rubbed his eyes, sat up in his bunk, and opened the door that separated his sleeping quarters from the work area. He stared at first operator Jack Phillips, hunched over the radio. The poor man had been sending and receiving messages for hours. Bride, the second operator, wasnt supposed to take over the radio for another two hours, but decided Phillips needed a rest. He put on some clothes and told his partner to get to bed. As devoted as Phillips was to his work, he didnt put up any resistance. But before he turned over the headphones, he gave Bride a stunning piece of news. Phillips said he thought that the ship had run into some kind of trouble. It would probably have to be sent back to Ireland, where it had been built. Bride received the news with mild concern. Even damaged, the