100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SINKING

The sinking of the worlds most iconic vessel continues to resonate a century after the disaster. A look at how the ship thought to be unsinkable went down in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, carrying more than 1,500 souls with it.

T I TA N I C

REMEMBERING THE TRAGEDY

APRIL 14, 1912, 11:40 P.M.
Titanic is sailing at nearly 21 knots when the lookout spots an iceberg dead ahead and alerts the bridge. The crew throws the engines in reverse and steers hard to port but it is too late to avoid a collision. The iceberg grazes the ship along its starboard side, scraping a series of tears extending 76 metres along the hull below the water line.

269 m 269m Gashes in hull

IT WAS AN EPIC TRAGEDY that continues to haunt us. One hundred years ago the Titanic, the largest, most luxurious ocean liner of its day, slipped beneath the frigid waters of the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage. Its builders were so certain the ship was unsinkable that they equipped it with only enough lifeboats to serve one-third of the passengers and crew. More than 1,500 of 2,229 people aboard died in the disaster, the heaviest losses falling on the crew and third-class passengers. The ship raced towards New York at an unrelenting speed of 21 knots even as it received warnings about icebergs ahead. Belfast 1 MAIDEN VOYAGE
1 April 2, 1912: Titanic sails from Harland and Wolffs shipyard in Belfast. 2 April 10: Passengers board in Southampton and Cherbourg. 3 April 11: Passengers board in Queenstown, Ireland. Titanic sails for New York the same day. 4 April 12-14: Titanic receives nine telegraph warnings of iceberg elds ahead. 5 April 14: Titanic strikes an iceberg and begins to sink.
IRELAND Queenstown

FATAL GASHES IN THE ARMOUR

Boiler Room No. 5

Bulkhead

Titanic was built to survive four of its watertight compartments ooding, but the gashes in its hull allow water into six. Bulkheads were not built to extend the full height of the hull and, as the bow oods, it noses down and water spills from compartment to compartment.

U.K.
Southampton

2
Cherbourg FRANCE

MIDNIGHT Titanic clears the iceberg but the impact

has caused steel and iron rivets to pop out of the hull plating and has allowed seawater to enter six forward compartments. Titanic designer Thomas Andrews goes below deck to inspect the damage and informs Captain E.J. Smith that the ship will sink within hours. Captain Smith issues orders to prepare the lifeboats.

CANADA
New York

Queenstown

4 5
Atlantic Ocean

Q U E B E C

1:50 A.M. As the bow reaches water

level, seawater rushes through a port side gangway door causing the ship to list.
Ne w r Yo k

M l ea tr on c be ue ty Q Ci H al D N LA R D O N D U RA FO AB L EW N ND A

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THE DEATH TOLL

Edwardian-era class prejudices played a part in determining who survived and who perished. Sixty-one per cent of rst-class passengers survived, including nearly all women and children. By contrast, only one-third of passengers in steerage survived.

2:15 A.M. The

forward funnel snaps and water rushes in the opening.

2:18 A.M. A crack forms along the hull

as the heavy bow sags while the more buoyant stern remains aoat.

km

The wreck of the Titanic lies at a depth of about 4,000 m.

Titanic strikes an iceberg about 770 km southeast of Newfoundland.

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5 0 0

nd s ra k G an

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5

FIRST CLASS TOTAL: 202 123 SECOND CLASS 118 167 THIRD CLASS 178

KEY
SURVIVORS Men Women Children VICTIMS Men Women Children

2:18 A.M. Seconds later,

the hull snaps under the stress and the bow tears away.

HISTORY ON THE AUCTIONEERS BLOCK

More than 5,000 artifacts recovered from the wreck site were auctioned off as a single collection on April 11, the 100th anniversary of Titanics sailing from Queenstown, Ireland.

2:19 A.M. The bow breaks

loose and the stern briey settles back almost level with the surface.

528 CREW 215 698

2:20 A.M. The stern

lls with water, tips into a nearly vertical position, then slides beneath the surface.

This cherub once adorned Titanics grand staircase. It was recovered from the ocean oor during a 1987 salvage expedition to the site.

2:21 A.M.
The stern plunges after the bow. The wreckage falls 4,000 m to the ocean oor in about ve minutes, the bow diving nearly straight down, while the less aerodynamic stern corkscrews.

A remarkably preserved hat recovered from the seabed is part of the collection, whose total value was appraised in 2007 at $189 million U.S. A porthole from the Titanic. As the ship sank, the enormous water pressure forced many of the ships portholes to pop loose from the hull.

Stern section
Titanics stern comes to rest 600 m from the bow and facing in the opposite direction.

Bow section
The bow crumpled as it plows into the seabed.
600

ATLANTIC GRAVEYARD
The Titanic wreck lies at a depth of 4,000 m on the edge of the Atlantic Oceans abyssal plain. Oceanographer Robert Ballard located and visited the site in a deep-sea submersible in 1985.
SOURCES: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, DR. ROBERT BALLARD, KEN MARSCHALL
m

Vertical distances not to scale

DEAN TWEED, POSTMEDIA NEWS