What happened the next few minutes after the Titanic hit the iceberg will forever remain in history. First Officer Murdoch, who was the officer of the watch at that time, was responsible for the navigation of the Titanic. We will probably never know what thoughts flashed through his mind as the wall of ice passed along the starboard side of the bow, pieces of it falling onto the forecastle and well deck.

Murdoch ordered “hard a' port,” when the bow began to swing, his intentions to bring the stern away from the iceberg, but it was too late. He immediately rang the watertight-door alarm and then threw the switch that closed the doors.

The collision occurred at 11:40 P.M., a collision which could have, perhaps, been avoided. Murdoch had ordered the engines reversed which had, ironically, sealed the Titanic's doom. Like all ships, the Titanic turned more quickly the greater her forward motion. Had the Titanic proceeded ahead and turned, it is most likely that she would have avoided hitting the iceberg all together.

Moments later Captain Smith rushed onto the bridge.

“What have we struck?” he queried.

“An iceberg, sir,” was Murdoch's quick reply. “I put her hard a' starboard and run [sic] the engines full astern, but it was too close. She hit it. I intended to port around it, but she hit before I could do anymore.”

“Close the watertight doors,” Smith ordered.

“The watertight doors are closed, sir.”

Captain Smith pondered the situation. He was now faced with the fact that his ship had been damaged, how seriously was uncertain yet. Furthermore, he had not been present on the bridge at what was the most critical part of the voyage.

Aside from the men on the bridge and those closest to the impact, few realized that anything had happened. George Symons, a lookout, was lying in his bunk and thought that the anchor had dropped and the scraping sound he had heard was the chain running out of the ship. Henry Sleeper Harper, of the American publishing family, sat up in his bed and saw the iceberg pass his window, pieces of it crumbling as it went by.

Almost everyone in the first-class smoking room stood up from their seats when the jarring motion disturbed the room. Quartermaster George Rowe, located on the poop deck at the very stern of the ship, felt the jarring motion and, seeing the iceberg, walked to the rail to watch it pass.

After days of steady rhythm from the engines, the Titanic was suddenly quiet. The wake trailing behind the ship, the wind blowing through its rigging, all were slowly dying away. Soon there were a number of off-duty crewman milling around on the forward well deck, trying to find out what had happened.

Meanwhile, a very worried Captain Smith directed Fourth Officer Boxhall to inspect the ship for damage. Boxhall worked his way deep into the bow of the Titanic but could not find any sign of damage. He returned to the bridge with his report to the captain. Smith then ordered Boxhall to go and find the carpenter and to get him to sound the ship.

Boxhall bumped into the carpenter, John Hutchinson, on his way down to A-deck. “The captain wants you to sound the ship,” Boxhall told him.

“The ship is making water,” Hutchinson responded quickly. Boxhall then proceeded below while Hutchinson went to the bridge.

Boxhall soon found out that the mailing room was rapidly filling with water and he returned quickly to the bridge to tell the captain of the grim news.

Bruce Ismay, who had been asleep in his luxurious suite on B-deck, had also been awakened by the strange noise caused by the iceberg. Without bothering to change out of his nightclothes, he went to the bridge and asked Captain Smith what had happened.

“We have struck ice,” came Smith's reply.

“Do you think the ship is seriously damaged?” Ismay asked, hoping that things weren't as bad as they might be.

“I am afraid she is.”

The rest of the conversation between the two men has not survived but it is very likely that Ismay must have been shocked by the news. His dream was turning into what would become a nightmare.

Thomas Andrews, managing director of Harland & Wolff, arrived on the bridge a few minutes later after Ismay departed. He told Captain Smith, in detail, of the full seriousness of the Titanic's current situation. It was clear, based on reports received from throughout the ship, that the Titanic's first six watertight compartments had been ruptured. The ship had never been designed to take this kind of damage. Over two hundred feet of the ship had been opened to the sea.

Andrews, who knew the ship better than anyone, estimated that the great ship had only a little more than an hour of life left. He also was quite aware of the shortage of lifeboats.

Captain Smith now faced the worst situation any captain could face. His ship was sinking fast and the lives of more than 2,200 people were in jeopardy. He and his officers realized that the Titanic was doomed but the passengers and the remainder of the crew were mostly unaware of the serious situation.

In the next few hours a life and death struggle would begin that will forever remain in our history…

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Copyright (c)1996 Gary Arnold