The Titanic

 RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southhampton, United Kingdom, to New York City, United States. 

RMS Titanic was 882 feet 9 inches (269.06 m) long with a maximum breadth of 92 feet 6 inches (28.19 m). Her total height, measured from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge, was 104 feet (32 m). She measured 46,328 gross tons and had ten decks. 

 Captain Edward John Smith, the most senior of the White Star Line's captains, was transferred from Olympic to take command of Titanic. Henry Tingle Wilde also came across from Olympic to take the post of chief mate.

 The R.M.S. Titanic was touted as an “unsinkable” feat of shipbuilding.  The immense British ocean liner departed Southampton, England for New  York City on April 10, 1912. On the fourth day of its maiden voyage, the  vessel fatally struck an iceberg. At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, the luxury  steamship sank into the North Atlantic. 

 The Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was  traveling about 22 knots when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable  to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled  her starboard  side and water started to flood the ships compartments. The Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with four of her forward compartments  flooded but no more, and the crew soon realized that the ship would  sink. 

 By about 00:20, 40 minutes after the collision, the loading of the lifeboats was under way. Few passengers at first were willing to board the lifeboats and the  officers in charge of the evacuation found it difficult to persuade  them. Millionaire John Jacob Astor declared: "We are safer here than in that little boat. Some passengers refused flatly to leave the ship and get into the lifeboats.  

At 00:45, lifeboat No. 7 was rowed away from Titanic with an estimated 28 passengers on board, despite a capacity of 65. Lifeboat No.  6, on the port side, was the next to be lowered at 00:55. It also had  28 people on board, among them the "unsinkable"Margaret "Molly" Brown. 

Eyewitnesses saw Titanic's stern rising high into the air as the ship tilted down in the water. It was said to have reached an angle of 30–45 degrees, "revolving apparently around a center of gravity just astern of midships. Many survivors described a great noise, which some attributed to the boilers exploding. They described it as "partly a groan, partly a rattle, and partly a  smash, and it was not a sudden roar as an explosion would be: it went on  successively for some seconds, possibly fifteen to twenty". It was attributed to "the engines and machinery coming loose from their  bolts and bearings, and falling through the compartments, smashing  everything in their way".

After another minute, the ship's lights flickered once and then permanently went out, plunging Titanic into darkness. Some recalled seeing "groups of the fifteen  hundred people still aboard, clinging in clusters or bunches, like  swarming bees; only to fall in masses, pairs or singly as the great afterpart of the ship, two hundred fifty feet of it, rose into the sky."  

 The Titanic struck the iceberg at around 23:40 (ship's time) on Sunday, April 14, 1912. Her sinking took place two hours and forty minutes later at 02:20 (ship's time) on Monday,  April 15, 1912.

The noise of the people in the water screaming, yelling, and crying was a  tremendous shock to the occupants of the lifeboats, many of whom had up  to that moment believed that everyone had escaped before the ship sank.  The cries "came as a thunderbolt, unexpected,  inconceivable, incredible over the water. No one in any of the boats standing off a few  hundred yards away could have escaped the paralyzing shock of knowing  that so short a distance away a tragedy, unbelievable in its magnitude,  was taking place, which they were absolutely helpless, and could in no way avert or diminish it."

 After about twenty to thirty minutes, the cries began to fade as the swimmers lapsed into unconsciousness and death Then all was silent." For some survivors, the dead silence that followed was worse even than the cries for help. 

The Titanic band is one of the most mysterious and legendary tales that come from the ill-fated ocean liner. Wallace Hartley led the Titanic’s eight-member band, and upon panic of the passengers during the sinking of the ship. The band assembled in the first-class lounge to play in an effort to keep  everyone calm. As the ship continued to plunge, the band moved to the  forward half of the boat deck and continued playing even when their doom  became apparent. All members of the Titanic band died that night while  playing. However, the final song they played is still up to much debate. It was reported that the  band’s final song was the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee”. However,  reports indicate that the person who said that had left by way of a lifeboat an hour and twenty minutes previously and could not have witnessed the band’s final song.

 One of the unforgettable stories of the fateful event is of the Titanic preacher John Harper and his passion to save souls.  His preaching style was perfect for an evangelist according to the words  of another local pastor. “He was a great open-air preacher and could  always command large and appreciative audiences… He could deal with all  kinds of interrupters, his great and intelligent grasp of Bible truths  enabling him to successfully combat all assailants.” He  forsook his own rescue, choosing to provide the masses with one more  chance to know Christ. Harper ran person to person, passionately telling  others about Christ. As the water began to submerge the “unsinkable”  ship, Harper was heard shouting, “women, children, and the unsaved into  the lifeboats.” Rebuffed by a certain man at the offer of salvation  Harper gave him his own life vest, saying, “you need this more than I  do.” Up until the last moment on the ship Harper pleaded with people to  give their lives to Jesus. 

“The ship disappeared beneath the deep frigid waters leaving hundreds  floundering in its wake with no realistic chance for rescue. Harper  struggled through hypothermia to swim to as many people as he could,  still sharing the Gospel. Harper eventually would lose his battle with  hypothermia, but not before giving many people one last chance to hear and respond to a glorious Gospel witness.

“Four years after the tragedy at a Titanic survivor’s meeting in Ontario, Canada, one survivor recounted his interaction with Harper in the middle of the icy waters of the Atlantic.  He testified he was clinging to ship debris when Harper swam up to him,  twice challenging him with a biblical invitation to “believe in the  Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” He rejected the offer once.  Yet given the second chance and with miles of water beneath his feet,  the man gave his life to Christ. Then as Harper succumbed to his watery  grave, this new believer was rescued by a returning lifeboat. As he  concluded his remarks at the Ontario meeting of survivors he simply  stated, “I am the last convert of John Harper.””

 Almost two and a half hours after the Titanic sank, RMS Carpathia,  commanded by Captain Arthur Henry Rostron, arrived first on the scene to  find the area scattered with icebergs. They started to pick up  Titanic’s first lifeboat at 04:10. Over the next few hours, the  remainder of the survivors were rescued. Onboard the Carpathia, a short  prayer service for the rescued and a memorial for the people who lost  their lives were held, and at 08:50, Carpathia left for New York,  arriving on 18 April. 

On April 17, 1912, the day before survivors of the Titanic disaster reached New York; the Mackay-Bennett was sent off from Halifax, Nova Scotia to search for bodies. Onboard the Mackay-Bennett were embalming supplies, 40 embalmers, tons of ice, and 100 coffins. Although the Mackay-Bennett found 306 bodies, 116 were too badly damaged to take all the way back  to shore. Attempts were made to identify each body found. Additional  ships were also sent out to look for bodies. In all, 328 bodies were  found, but 119 were badly damaged and thus were buried at sea.

Of the Titanic's estimated 2,224 passengers and crew of all age, gender, and social class that  fateful night, only 710 escaped in the lifeboats who the RMS Carpathia later rescued. It is estimated that over 1500 people died in the icy waters in the North Atlantic.  Five others died later aboard the Carpathia, leaving just 706 survivors at that time.  

The surreal circumstances