The Titanic - History of a Disaster
The Titanic - History of a DisasterOn April 14,1912 a great ship called the Titanic sank on its
maiden voyage. That night there were many warnings of icebergs from
other ships. There seems to be a conflict on whether or not the
warnings reached the bridge. We may never know the answer to this
question. The greatest tragedy of all may be that there were not
enough lifeboats for everyone on board. According to Walter Lord,
author of The Night Lives On, the Titanic could have been saved in the
very beginning of the crisis when the iceberg was first reported to
the bridge. If First Officer Murdoch had steamed right at the iceberg
instead of trying to avoid it, he might have saved the ship. The
author feels there would have been a loud crash and anyone within the
first one hundred feet would have been killed, but the ship would have
remained afloat(82). This view was entirely speculation and we will
never really know if this would have happened. In contrast, Geoffrey
Marcus, author of The Maiden Voyage, suggests that the bridge did not
receive warning of the ice from the very beginning. One of the
messages received was from the Masaba warning the Titanic of a mass of
ice lying straight ahead. According to Marcus, the message never
reached the bridge, but instead was shoved under a paper-weight (126).
At 10:30 p.m. that evening, a ship going the opposite direction of the
Titanic was sighted. This ship, the Rappahannock, had emerged from an
ice field and had sustained damage to its rudder. The vessel signaled
the Titanic about the ice and the Titanic replied that the message was
received (Marcus 127). At 11 p.m. another ice report was received.
This one was from the Californian. This liner had passed through the
same ice field that the Rappahannock had reported to the Titanic. Like
all the other warnings, this warning never reached the bridge though
it was known to both of the Titanic's wireless operators (Marcus 128).
By the time the bridge realized the ship was about to hit an iceberg,
it was too late. Quartermaster Hitchens tried to turn the wheel hard
to the starboard. Twenty seconds later, he had an order for full speed
astern but the iceberg was too close. The starboard side hit the
iceberg, bringing a block of ice onto the deck (Pellegrino 21). After
the collision occurred, there was only one thing open for Captain
Smith to do. It was almost midnight and he gave the order to take to
the lifeboats (Lord, Lives On 82). This decision brought Captain Smith
face-to-face with the fact that there were 2,201 people on board and
enough
lifeboats for only 1,178 people (Lord, Lives On 83). The
Captain was going to have to make a choice as to who would be the
first allowed on the lifeboats. Around 12:30 a.m. the...
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