The water surrounding the Titanic when it sank on April 15, 1912 was 28°F. The SS Californian traveled through the same icy water close to where the Titanic sank.
The lookouts along with the officers on the bridge knew that a calm ocean would make icebergs hard to see with no breaking water at the base. It was also extremely cold that night with sea surface temperatures reportedly at 28 degrees -- a lethal temperature for any person.
Hundreds of passengers and crew went into the icy water. Fearful of being swamped, those in the lifeboats delayed returning to pick up survivors. By the time they rowed back, almost all the people in the water had died from exposure. In the end, more than 1,500 perished.
In reality, the cold shock ends after 90 seconds. Even in the winter waters of the North Atlantic, an average-sized adult still has 10 minutes before going numb, and at least an hour before the heart stops.
The average lifespan of an iceberg in the North Atlantic typically is two to three years from calving to melting. This means the iceberg that sank the Titanic "likely broke off from Greenland in 1910 or 1911, and was gone forever by the end of 1912 or sometime in 1913."
How often do cruise ships hit icebergs? While ships might regularly make contact with ice, it's unusual for it to be an issue.
The lookouts on the Titanic didn't see the Iceberg due to still weather conditions and a moonless night. The Titanic had two lookouts who were located in the crows nest, 29 meters about the deck, neither of which had binoculars. What is this?
Joughin survived the sinking, swimming to upturned collapsible lifeboat B and remaining by it until he was picked up by one of the other lifeboats.
Third-class passenger Rhoda Abbott jumped from the Titanic deck along with her two sons. The two boys drowned, but Abbott was the only female Titanic survivor to be pulled from the water.
On today's date in 1912, the body of James McGrady, a saloon steward aboard the RMS Titanic, was interred in Halifax, N.S., where he's buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery. Recovered in the preceding weeks, McGrady's body was the last body recovered from the tragic sinking that took place about two months prior.
Ice, coffins, canvas bags and embalming equipment were packed onto the ships - this was not a rescue, this was a recovery. The white specks were frozen bodies of the dead, wrapped in the ill-fated steamer's life belts.
Around 109 children were onboard when the titanic sank. And about half of the number, around 59 to 60 children, died. Only one child travelling in first class died. The others were children of third-class passengers.
What happened to the bodies? 125 of the bodies were buried at sea, due either to their severe damage, advanced decomposition, or a simple lack of resources (lack of enough embalming fluid). 209 other bodies were transported for burial in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Almost all of those who jumped or fell into the sea drowned or died within minutes due to the effects of cold shock and incapacitation. RMS Carpathia arrived about an hour and a half after the sinking and rescued all of the 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April, some nine and a half hours after the collision.
Survivors of 'Titanic' spoke of a super-naturally calm sea that night - smooth as glass, they called it. They described a sky so clear you could see a thousand stars. You cannot be at this spot without wishing there had been a little more wind on April 14 1912.
But what of Titanic's dead? Most of the more than 1,500 victims were lost to the North Atlantic. Crews aboard four recovery vessels pulled just 337 bodies out of the water.
Like any other ship, Titanic had a substantial population of rats. One was seen running across the Third Class Dining Room on the evening of the sinking, to the shock and amazement of the diners. Some of the women who saw it burst into tears, while men tried unsuccessfully to capture the rat.
Only 25 percent of the Titanic's third-class passengers survived, and of that 25 percent, only a fraction were men. By contrast, about 97 percent of first-class women survived the sinking of the Titanic. The term steerage originally referred to the part of the ship below-decks where the steering apparatus was located.
Why so few? In all only 337 bodies of the over 1500 Titanic victims were found, only one in five. Some bodies sank with Titanic. Winds and currents quickly scattered the remainder.
Titanic was celebrated as the biggest, safest, most advanced ship of its age, but it was a lowly stoker in its boiler room who truly deserved the name 'unsinkable'. John Priest survived no fewer than four ships that went to the bottom, including Titanic and its sister ship Britannic.
The RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 — 111 years ago — after it hit an iceberg. The RMS Carpathia, which was three hours away, came to the rescue of the stranded survivors.
Not one body was pulled from the water having been attacked by a shark.
As the half-filled boats rowed away from the ship, they were too far away for other passengers to reach, and most lifeboats did not return to the wreck due to a fear of being swamped by drowning victims. Only Lifeboats 4 and 14 returned to retrieve survivors from the water, some of whom later died.
— People have been diving to the Titanic's wreck for 35 years. No one has found human remains, according to the company that owns the salvage rights.
Iceberg warnings went unheeded: The Titanic received multiple warnings about icefields in the North Atlantic over the wireless, but Corfield notes that the last and most specific warning was not passed along by senior radio operator Jack Phillips to Captain Smith, apparently because it didn't carry the prefix "MSG" ( ...