Photos of the Titanic Tragedy From 101 Years Ago
Photos of the Titanic Tragedy From 101 Years Ago
(Photo by Bernice Palmer, courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
The Iceberg That Sank the Titanic
From the National Museum of American History:
Titanic struck a North Atlantic iceberg at 11:40 p.m. in the evening of April 14, 1912 at a speed of 20.5 knots (23.6 MPH). The berg scraped along the starboard or right side of the hull below the waterline, slicing open the hull between five of the adjacent watertight compartments. If only one or two of the compartments had been opened, Titanic might have stayed afloat, but when so many were sliced open, the watertight integrity of the entire forward section of the hull was fatally breached. Titanic slipped below the waves at 2:20 a.m. on April 15. The Cunard Liner RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene around two hours after Titanic sank, finding only a few lifeboats and no survivors in the 28 degrees Fahrenheit water. Bernice Palmer took this picture of the iceberg identified as the one which sank Titanic, by the survivors who climbed aboard Carpathia. The large iceberg is surrounded by smaller ice floes, indicating how far north in the Atlantic Ocean the tragedy struck.
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Comments (15)
And almost all the men from all sections. No Feminist volunteers for that glass ceiling.
Posted by Paul on April 19,2013 | 12:50 PM
survivers reports indicated that many gates from lower decks were locked causing so many third class passengers deaths
Posted by f.williams on April 16,2013 | 05:31 PM
I never heard about the Bremen coming upon the wreckage and seeing frozen bodies bobbing in the water. That would be mind blowing.
Posted by Amy Anderson on April 15,2013 | 07:35 PM
Does anyone know how many of the children survived? Also, how many from third class?
Posted by Mary Jane on April 15,2013 | 06:02 PM
Convention at the time had officers giving steering orders in terms of the tiller, not the direction of the turn. Thus, "Hard-a-starboard" meant "Push the tiller or steering oar as far as you can to starboard" and the ship would subsequently turn hard to port.
Posted by browan on April 15,2013 | 11:13 AM
Walter Lord discusses the change of directions in 'the night lives on'. the old way meant starboard meant to port.
Posted by shannon brown on April 15,2013 | 11:09 AM
I understand there were a large group of passengers that were fighting the federal reserve at the time. the fight ended when they went down. Is that true? now, there is a story!
Posted by on April 15,2013 | 10:12 AM
Thank you for catching the error. We've corrected the caption.
Posted by Marina Koren on April 15,2013 | 09:33 AM
Hard a-starboard would be to the right.
Posted by David Bessmer on April 15,2013 | 09:01 AM
The lifeboat pictured is actually a collapsible life raft and only held about half of the compliment of a lifeboat. They could have squeezed in a few more passengers, but the raft is close to the intended capacity.
Posted by Tom Gibson on April 14,2013 | 06:21 PM
Truly, these are certainly the pains that humanity bears, and so remorsefully, even to sense how such a memorial can become so precious within the sake time; and God's allowance to accept the complete burden of responsibility. For, it is primarily these such circumstances that inevitably captures the human spirit of which distinquish and credit's man of being so very sensitive to nature; and thus, all God's creatures of life. No such pains of such a magnatude within character of recognition, can ever be possibly forgotten or excused by humanity; and thus for the sake of man. Sincerely, Derek Johnson
Posted by Derek Johnson on April 14,2013 | 06:13 PM
starboard is right, port is left, maybe that was the problem. Maybe they didn't know either.
Posted by kevin on April 14,2013 | 05:40 PM
Gee, I thought starboard was to the right not left
Posted by Adrienne Hochee on April 14,2013 | 03:11 PM
Interesting but wonder why it has taken so many years for those photos to be shown.
Posted by Moira Eicholtz on April 14,2013 | 02:23 PM