How & When did Titanic Sink?

The mention of Titanic brings us the beautiful image of Jack Dawson and Rose standing right at the front of the large sea liner as they stood against the sea wind to give the world's its most romantic pose. The grim reality was way different; the huge ship was carrying 2,200 passengers when it sunk in the icy cold water of the Atlantic Ocean.

The RMS Titanic was one of the largest and the most luxurious sea liners that claimed to be unsinkable. It had left Southampton, England on Wednesday, April 10, 1912, and was sailing for New York. It was the largest ship to be sailing the oceans and stood at an impressive height of 175 feet; it was 882.5 feet long and 92.5 feet wide.

When Did The Titanic Sink?

The British ocean liner sunk into the North Atlantic Ocean at around 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912. The grand ship was designed by the Irish shipbuilder William Pirrie in Belfast. It was not only the biggest and the most luxurious cruise but also the fastest. The ship was proudly claiming to be unsinkable and had 16 water tight compartments. The surety of the builder in the ability of the ship to never sink resulted in a lesser number of lifeboats, a decision that added more names to the death toll of the incident.

(Image Courtesy: US News & World Report)

Where Did The Titanic Sink?

The ship had departed from Southampton, England to sail for New York. However, it met its tragic end as it sunk into the North Atlantic Ocean which is about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The ship hit the ocean floor just two and a half hours after colliding with the iceberg.

(Image Courtesy: Smithsonian Magazine)

How Did The Titanic Sink?

The presumably unsinkable ship carried 2000 passengers who were some of the wealthiest people in the world, only 705 made it back. A series of factors contributed to the disaster.

#1. Firstly Captain Edward J. Smith took the iceberg warning very lightly and dismissed it off, and some warnings did not even make it from radio room to the ship's bridge. 

#2. The crew members who were on a lock out for icebergs did not have any binoculars. 

#3. Another surprising factor was the low-quality construction material that was used in the construction. The hulls were held together by poorly-cast wrought-iron rivets, and once the iceberg hit the ships, these rivets came off easily breaking away the hull at the seams. The resultant holes filled almost 6 compartments of the ship with water and made the ship sink rapidly. 

#4. When the distress call was given out, the Californian was closest but did not answer the call as it was not sure about the reason as to why the call was given out. 

#5. Another ship The Carpathia, who responded to the call was three hours away and the long time duration resulted in the death of more passengers.

The remains of the ship were discovered on the ocean floor in 1985 and the incident is considered to be one of the greatest tragedy to have ever taken place.

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