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April 10, 1912. Nine hundred and fourteen innocent passengers boarded
onto the magnificent and famous Titanic, the ship known as the unsinkable. They
wouldnt realize until later how ironic that nickname was. A clear sky and a sun
shimmering against the beautiful waters gave the passengers a false hope to the
luxurious cruise they were about to take. Families ready to take a well-needed
vacation, and employees just about to go on a ship ride where they were only going
to do even more work- waved goodbye to all of their friends and families while the
Titanic slowly drifted into the Atlantic Ocean at 12 noon. The first stop for the
Titanic was Cherbourg, France where it made a quick stop before it left port again to
go to Queenstown in Ireland. By the time the Titanic left Queenstown, on April 11,
1912, she held a startling 2,200 passengers in total. The 2,200 passengers whose
fates would be decided on this unseeming dangerous trip.
Like a sunny day before a storm, the numerous passengers of the Titanic had
no idea what was going to happen to them later in their trip. The first two days
across the Atlantic, April 12-13 1912, went very smooth. The crew worked hard, and
the guests enjoyed themselves through their lavish surroundings. Overall everyone
was very glad that they were on the ship, and so far, had no regrets. Sunday, April 12
also started out quite uneventful and normal as well, but later turned out deadly.
Throughout the day on April 14, the Titanic was receiving many urgent
warnings about icebergs coming up on their trail, and warnings telling the ship to
turn around. For various reasons, not all of the messages reached the ship, so
unfortunately the crew of the Titanic was not fully informed about the severity of
the iceberg situation, and just what the consequences might be.
At 9:20 that night, Captain Edward J. Smith, unaware of the seriousness of the
warnings, retired to his bedroom to sleep. The lookouts were still stationed
throughout the ship, diligent in their observations, yet observations were not what
the passengers needed to save them. With nobody knowing what would happen
later that night, the Titanic continued steaming through the Atlantic Ocean, full
speed ahead.
The quiet evening was cold and clear, but the moon was not bright. The
lookout crew didnt have binoculars either, so unfortunately nobody on the titanic
noticed the big, sharp iceberg until it was directly in front of the Titanic. At 11:40
p.m., the lookouts signaled warning alarms when they finally noticed the gigantic
iceberg looming in front of the Titanic. Once the alarms were sound, the captain put
the big ship in reverse, but that did little to stop the Titanic from heading directly to
the iceberg. The Titanic did back up a little, but not enough to save the many
peoples lives that were in great jeopardy.
The Titanics starboard side scraped along the ice berg just below the
waterline, and the lookouts were beginning to realize that there was no turning
back, and everyone was in great danger. The majority of the ship had gone to sleep
and was unaware of the serious accident. Even the passengers who were still awake
felt little as the Titanic hit the iceberg. The deadly iceberg was all of the passengers
doom, yet nobody thought much of it or how it would affect their lives as the Titanic
got caught further and further into the ice berg.
Captain Smith, however, felt that something had gone very wrong and went
to check in with the lookouts. Upon the devastating realization that the Titanic was
sinking, he immediately ordered for the lifeboats to be uncovered and for distress
calls to start being made.
At first, nobody understood the severity of the situation. The night was clear
and the Titanic seemed a perfectly safe place to be, just like it always had been. No
one was rushing to get into the first lifeboat that was lowered, but as it became
increasingly obvious that the Titanic was sinking, people were desperate to get on a
lifeboat as fast as possible. Tons of water was filling up the Titanics many corridors
and rooms and people were struggling to get onto a lifeboat so that they could
survive. To everyones horror, people were slowly figuring out that there were not
enough lifeboats for everyone to go on.
One last lifeboat was lowered at 2:05 a.m. The unfortunate people who
couldnt get on a lifeboat found other ways of getting off the ship. Some threw
objects into the water and jumped in after them to hold on. Some simply jumped
into the water thinking that they could swim. Unfortunately, anyone who was in the
water without anything else froze to death within minutes. At 2:18 a.m., the Titanic
snapped in two, fully sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, taking not only
everything left on the ship, but also the memories of thousands of peoples innocent
lives who didnt deserve to die that night.