The wreck of a ship that tried to warn the RMS Titanic of the iceberg that sank it on its maiden voyage has been found at the bottom of the Irish Sea. The British merchant steamship
On 14 April 1912, Titanic's radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on Titanic had begun to notice during the afternoon.
Titanic sank at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, claiming the lives of 1,500 passengers. With the Californian stopped in the ice before any SOS messages were sent from the Titanic, the ship didn't see the sinking liner's calls for help until dawn, hours after they'd been sent.
A merchant steamship, the Mesaba was crossing the Atlantic the night Titanic sank in April 1912. It sent a warning about iceberg-laden waters via radio to the British passenger ship that was received, but it never filtered through to the Titanic's captain, the university said.
The ship which sent an iceberg warning to the Titanic before the ocean-liner sank has been found in the Irish Sea. The merchant vessel SS Mesaba was crossing the Atlantic in April 1912 and sent a wireless message to the Titanic but its warning never reached the bridge.
The Californian was surrounded by icebergs and wireless communication was shut off by Titanic's wireless, so there was still NO way for it to hurry and save Titanic.
As depicted in the 1997 film starring Kate Winslet, Capt Smith later received warnings of icebergs while the liner was en route to New York.
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."
As the sun set on April 14, 1912, the temperature lowered to freezing. The sea's surface shone like glass, making it hard to spot icebergs, common to the North Atlantic in spring. Nevertheless, Captain Smith kept the ship at full speed. He believed the crew could react in time if any were sighted.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British.'"
Because of fog and icebergs, the Californian's captain, Stanley Lord, had halted his ship north of the Titanic, and his radio operator had broadcast a warning. The Titanic's radio operator, John George Phillips, told the Californian: ''Shut up, shut up!
Captain Arthur Rostron raced to the scene of the sinking saving those mentioned above and transporting them to New York. Exemplary as his actions were though, the Carpathia was simply too far away at the time of the sinking. Hypothermia can kill in as little as 15 minutes.
The lack of sufficient lifeboats was chief among the reasons cited for the enormous loss of life. While complying with international maritime regulations (Titanic carried more than the minimum number of lifeboats required), there were still not enough spaces for most passengers to escape the sinking ship.
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.
The sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic in April 1912 and the accompanying loss of life might have been averted if the ship's designers or the vessel's officers been made aware of certain engineering and damage control principles.
The ship carried at least twelve dogs, only three of which survived. First-class passengers often traveled with their pets. The Titanic was equipped with a first-rate kennel and the dogs were well-cared for, including daily exercise on deck.
The Titanic sank from human error. According to the granddaughter of the second officer of the Titanic, Louise Patten, a new steering system led to a mistake by the steersman, Robert Hitchins, into going "hard a port" instead of "hard a starboard" and straight into the iceberg instead of away from it.
Answer: That's wrong – it would probably have survived. When a ship hits an iceberg head on, all the force would be transferred back to the ship, so it wouldn't have ripped open, but crumpled round, so only 2-3 compartments would have been breached. It was built to survive with 4 compartments breached.
Smith was accused of ignoring ice warnings from other ships and failing to reduce the ship's speed to fit the conditions at hand. The British inquiry essentially exonerated him, saying he did nothing other captains wouldn't have done. The American inquiry was only slightly harsher in its judgment.
Are there skeletons on the Titanic? No intact human bodies or skeletons remain in the Titanic wreckage. The wreck was first located and explored in 1985 and no bodies were visible then, or on any of the other times that it has been visited.
Of the 337 bodies recovered, 119 were buried at sea. 209 were brought back to Halifax. 59 were claimed by relatives and shipped to their home communities. The remaining 150 victims are buried in three cemeteries: Fairview Lawn, Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch.
Had the Titanic sank in warm water, most of those in the water would have survived. Almost all had life jackets on, and the lifeboat passengers were rescued only a couple of hours after the ship sank. Passengers of sunken cruise ships can't survive indefinitely though unless the water is tropical.
The U.S. Senate inquiry was particularly critical of the vessel's captain, Stanley Lord, calling his inaction during the disaster "reprehensible". SS Californian on the morning after Titanic sank. Sunk by German U-boats, 9 November 1915, 61 miles (98 km) southwest of Cape Matapan, Greece.
He had recently arrived there himself on the Lusitania, having at a late stage changed his original plan to cross the Atlantic on Titanic. Photograph of Jack Phillips, the radio operator who was drowned in the disaster.
Competition for Atlantic passengers was fierce and the White Star Line wanted to show that they could make a six-day crossing. To meet this schedule the Titanic could not afford to slow down. It is believed that Ismay put pressure on Captain Smith to maintain the speed of the ship.