Soon it was clearly obvious that the ship was taking on water. Lamp Trimmer Samuel Hemming heard air escaping from the forpeak tank and reported it to Cheif Officer Wilde who was making an inspection. Wilde reported this the the bridge. Later, he, Captain Smith, Thomas Andrews and Fourth Officer Boxhall went to make a tour below decks. There was no doubt now the ship was sinking. Andrews later led the men to the Officer's mess room on the boat deck. The engines had long gone quiet, and the ship, now slightly down at the head had begun to sink. In the mess room, Andrews makes the final verdict. He explains to Smith the extent of the damage, then speaks the words "Titanic will founder". When asked how long Andrews thought the ship had to live, Andrews did some quick calculations, and spoke softly back to the Captain. "An hour, perhaps two."
Fourth Officer Boxhall now went to find the other officers. He met Fifth Officer Harold Lowe and Third Officer Pitman. When he got to Lightoller's cabin, he stuck his head in. Lightoller, never one to act to rashly, was sitting quietly on his bed smoking his pipe.
"You know we have struck an iceberg?" asked Boxhall.
"I know we have struck something" Lightoller replyed.
"The water is up to F deck and the mail hold," Boxhall said grimly. Lightoller did not need telling a second time. He quickly jumped up and pulled on his pants, a sweater and his white star overcoat and hurried outside.
Smith had previously gone into the wirless room to tell Phillips and Bride to be ready to send out a distress message. Now, he confirmed that assistance was needed immidiatly. Smith handed Phillips a sheet of paper with Titanic's estemated position, and Phillips went on to send CQD followed with MGY, Titanic's morse code symbol. CQD, the distress call was slowly being replaced with SOS, but many people didn't understand the new signal, and continued using the old one. White Star's ship Republic was the first ship to use CQD in 1909 (I have head many myths about what CQD actually means, several saying it means 'Come Quick, Distress' or Danger, and others state that at the time, 'CQ' meant stop trasmission and listen, and the 'D; means distress. When I can confirm what it means, I will post it here.) It wasn't long before other ships began picking up Titanic's pleas for help. HAPAG's Frankfurt was the first to respond, and it seemed to have a very strong signal, but when it gave it's position, it proved to be over 170 miles away. Cunard's Capathia replyed too to the calls. When the wireless opperator received the call, he quickly ran to tell the captain, Arthur Rostron, who turned the ship around and rushed to Titanic's aid. At 58 miles away, would she make it in time?
As Phillips and Bride sent the messages and calmly joked about the situation, First Officer Murdoch and Third Officer Pitman were lowering the starboard lifeboats level with the boat deck so passengers could board. Pitman was amazed at how the new Welin davits were so easily opperated. He decided that they were much better than those on the older liners. In only two minutes, the boat was flush with the boat deck. Many people were still inside, forced back in by the cold and an un-earthly roar eminating from the steam pipes running up the forward three funnels. Steam was being vented off from the still hot boilers into the night air. Eventually, a crowd of people came forward to near where boats 7 and 5 were being redied.
"Ladies this way," Mudoch called to the crowd of people, all of which were wearing lifebelts. Gradually, the women edged towards the boat, followed by their husbands. Lookouts Hogg and Jewell and seaman William Weller were also added to the boat to man the tiller and oars.
"Are there ladies before this boat goes?" Murdoch called along the deck. When none approached, he ordered the boat lowered, and told the crew to row to an aft gangway door to let more people aboard.
At 12:25 AM, boat number 7 touched down in the North Atlantic water. The evacuation of Titanic had begun. |
