Nature14–15 April 1912

Sinking of the Titanic

Also called: Titanic disaster, RMS Titanic

On the night of 14 April 1912 the British liner Titanic, on her maiden voyage, struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank early the next morning. Of some 2,200 aboard, more than 1,500 died.

The sinking of the Titanic — painting by Willy Stöwer, 1912
Willy Stöwer · Public domain · Source

The White Star Line’s Titanic was the largest ship in the world, called “unsinkable” for her watertight compartments. Leaving Southampton for New York on 10 April 1912, she received ice warnings from several ships on the 14th but hardly slowed.

At 11:40 p.m., south of Newfoundland, the lookout saw an iceberg dead ahead. The ship turned but scraped along it on her starboard side, opening the first five compartments to the sea — she had been built to survive four. Her twenty lifeboats could hold 1,178 people at most, and the first boats left half empty.

At 2:20 a.m. on the 15th she broke in two and sank. More than 1,500 people died in water of −2 °C. Carpathia, answering the distress call, picked up some 710 survivors from the boats from about 4 a.m. The disaster led to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which required lifeboats for all, round-the-clock radio watch and an ice patrol in the North Atlantic.

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States and rulers at the time: Great Britain
United States — President William Howard Taft
Places: Wreck of the Titanic

People

Edward Smith1850 – 1912
commander · White Star Line captain who commanded Titanic on her maiden voyage and went down with the ship
Thomas Andrews1873 – 1912
participant · Chief designer at Harland & Wolff who sailed on the maiden voyage, was first to know the ship would sink, and died helping passengers

5 parts of this event

1
1911Launch of the Titanic
On 31 May 1911 the 269 m Titanic was launched at Harland & Wolff in Belfast.
2
1912Titanic’s maiden voyage
On 10 April 1912 Titanic left Southampton, called at Cherbourg and Queenstown, and on the 11th headed out into the Atlantic for New York with some 2,200 people aboard.
3
1912Carpathia’s rescue
Answering Titanic’s distress call, Cunard’s Carpathia raced through the ice, picked up some 710 survivors from the lifeboats early on 15 April 1912 and landed them in New York on the night of the 18th.
4
1914International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
After inquiries by the US Senate and in Britain, the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) was signed in London on 20 January 1914, requiring lifeboats for all, round-the-clock radio watch and a North Atlantic ice patrol.
5
1985Discovery of the Titanic wreck
On 1 September 1985 an expedition led by America’s Robert Ballard and France’s Jean-Louis Michel found the wreck of the Titanic 3,800 m down on the Atlantic floor.

Before and after

Earlier: 1911 Railway Protection Movement
Later: 1917 Balfour Declaration

Themes that include this event

The Titanic1911 – 1985
From the launch of the “unsinkable” ship to her maiden voyage, the iceberg, Carpathia’s rescue, the convention that changed the rules of the sea, and the wreck found on the Atlantic floor more than seventy years later