2:00 AM: Water now only ten feet below Promenade Deck.
2:05 AM: There are now still over 1,500 people left on the sinking ship. Collapsible D is one of the last boats left. It has room for 47 people. To prevent a rush on the boat, Lightoller waves (and possibly fires) his pistol into the air and crew members form a circle around it, with arms locked together, allowing only women and children aboard. The boat is lowered with 44 aboard. Titanic's forecastle head sinks under water, the tilt of her decks growing steeper.
2:10 AM: Captain Smith releases wireless operators from their duties.
2:17 AM: Wireless operator Phillips continues to send last radio message. Captain Smith tells crew members, 'It's every man for himself,' and is seen returning to the bridge, possibly to await the end. Thomas Andrews, the ship's builder, is seen alone in the first-class smoking room staring into space.
Titanic's bow plunges under, enabling the ensnared collapsible B to float clear of the ship but she is upside down. Meanwhile, Father Thomas Byles hears confession and gives absolution to over one hundred second and third-class passengers gathered at the aft end of the Boat Deck. The ship's band stops playing. Many passengers and crew jump overboard moments before Titanic's forward funnel collapses, crushing a number of swimming passengers.
Collapsible A now floats free and about two dozen people in the water grab hold of it. It clears right side up, but is swamped and dangerously overloaded. Much later, Lowe, in boat No. 14, saves them just before dawn. Probably as many as half, however, have died.
2:18 AM: A huge roar is heard as all moveable objects inside Titanic crash toward the submerged bow. The ship's lights blink once and then go out. Many survivors witness the ship rip itself apart, breaking in two. The bow half sinks.
2:20 AM: Titanic's broken-off stern section settles back into the water, righting itself for a few moments. Slowly it fills with water and again tilts its stern high into the air before slowly sinking into the sea. Over 1,500 souls are lost in the greatest maritime disaster in history.
David had read this and all the accounts of Titanic’s demise many times over, how it had taken less than two and a half hours from point of impact with the ice to her slipping below the calm sea that night. What had never troubled him before in his reading was Murdoch’s having “instinctively” called hard-a- starboard to his helmsman and his ordering the engine room to stop engines followed by full astern. David realized now that it would have made more sense to give these orders in reverse—full astern, kill engines, hard to starboard. Ingles could not help but wonder now if it was human error, wrongful instinct, or captain’s orders? He continued to search for inconsistencies and what might be construed as outright lies in the testimony that Kilborn cited in his pages which David, his Kindle reader reflected in his glasses, continued to read:
3:30 AM: With Titanic no longer of this earth, The Carpathia's flares rise over the scene and those aboard the rescue ship sight lifeboats in the water. Carpathia’s normal speed is 14? knots, but she has raced to the rescue at a shuddering 17? knots.
4:10 AM: First boat, No. 2, is picked up by the Carpathia. Ice floes all about the disaster area amid debris from Titanic.
5:30 AM: The Californian advised by the Frankfort of the loss of Titanic makes for the disaster area.
5:30 to 6:30 AM: Collapsible A survivors rescued by boat No. 14, and collapsible B by boats 4 and 12.
8:30 AM: Last boat, No. 12, picked up by the Carpathia. Lightoller is the last survivor to come on board. The Californian arrives at the disaster site, comes alongside Carpathia, and then she steams through the disaster area to make a final sweep for survivors or bodies in the water.
8:50 AM: The Carpathia leaves the disaster area bound for New York. She carries 705 survivors and one dog named Varmint. An estimated 1,522 souls have been lost. Ismay wires White Star New York offices: 'Deeply regret advise you Titanic sank this morning after collision with iceberg, resulting in serious loss of life. Full particulars later.'
April 17: Three days later, hired by White Star Line, the Mackay-Bennett leaves Halifax to search for bodies at the disaster site. They find hundreds they pluck from the ocean and place on deck; from a distance, the cargo looks like cordwood. They fast run out of room on the boat for the corpses.
April 18, 9:00 PM: Carpathia arrives in New York Harbor. She outruns hordes of newspaper reporters in boats clamoring for news. As the Carpathia passes the Statue of Liberty, 10,000 people are on hand to watch. Titanic's lifeboats hang at Carpathia’s sides like a somber catch. She passes the Cunard pier (no. 54) and steams onward up-river to the White Star piers. There the crew lowers Titanic's boats. The Carpathia then returns to the Cunard pier to finally unload the survivors.
April 19 to May 25: Inquiry into the Titanic disaster undertaken by United States Senate Inquiry, headed by Senator William A. Smith. Eighty-two witnesses are called.
April 22: White Star sends the Minia out from Halifax to help overtaxed Mackay-Bennett, which has picked up 306 bodies. The Minia finds only a mere 17 after a week-long search.
David put aside his K6 Kindle reader, saddened once again at the plight of those on board the sinking ship that night. What made Titanic’s fate so tragic and heart-wrenching was the certainty of all those aboard thinking themselves in a safe place of warmth, lights, beautiful finery, and grace—like the house of the gods. Like a great, gilded floating terra firma below their feet. Everyone had been lulled into believing that they were in a sense on solid ground in a place where no harm could come to them aboard a well-lit, warmly heated, comfortable and lovely ‘unsinkable’ ship. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. Especially if it was an inside job.
Anything manmade had the potential for disaster. Why hadn’t they been keenly aware of this during these years of the great Industrial Revolution that coincided with the Gilded Age? That fateful night everything that could have gone wrong simply did. Perhaps some things unseen… some things no one to this day would believe had hastened this fate—indeed had shaped this fate. Alastair Ransom, Declan Irvin, and Thomas Coogan had also shaped this fate, as had Captain Smith, Murdoch, Lightoller, and no telling how many others. Perhaps it was Titanic’s destiny from the beginning. Or was it? What could they’ve done? What could any one of them have done?
And how did that dog get off the ship when so many people could not get off Titanic in any safe manner?
Trinity came in sight of Titanic at anchor offshore at Cherbourg, France, a beautiful cove bathed in morning light on April 12 of 1912. As there was no pier large enough to accommodate the ship of ships gracing the harbor, boarding passengers must transport themselves and their bags via shuttle by boat-trains that were being de-boarded directly onto Titanic.
Once again, those aboard Trinity saw the familiar sight of four smokestacks as they approached. With Titanic at anchor, with waters as still as glass, and what with the boat- trains coming and going from Cherbourg pier to the giant ship, Ransom and the others were more hopeful this time of getting aboard and stating their case for quarantine before Titanic set sail for America.
Once again the beautiful schooner caught the attention of people aboard Titanic, and a wave of excitement filled the air as Trinity lowered her sails and came rushing at the monster ship under the deft hand of Captain McEachern, who this time brought her alongside Titanic only so far, not about to make the same mistake as before.
Ransom rushed to McEachern and pleaded, “Why have you stopped?”
“Can’t you feel that? Underfoot, man? Under your toes, man?” asked the captain.
Ransom, indeed, everyone aboard Trinity felt vibration created by the displacement of water—a kind of underwater shock wave that amounted to a huge draught shuddering through the schooner and the boat train. This even as Titanic sat in an idle position, all engines stopped. She still displaced a huge amount of water, enough to scuttle the schooner that was dwarfed before her.
