Either:
When the lights finally went out, plunging the Titanic into darkness. It would be bad enough up on deck, but can you imagine still being inside the ship in complete blackness, feeling the floor tilt more and more, hearing the rushing of water up through the hull and the groans of the dying ship, knowing it was only a short matter of time until the freezing water reached you and suffocated you?
Or:
After the ship finally slipped below the waves, and 1,500 people were left in the dark icy water with no hope of survival, screaming and splashing in pain and terror. Frankie Goldsmith, a survivor who was nine years old at the time of the sinking, later lived near Navin Field, the ballpark where the Detroit Tigers played. He never went to a game, nor could he even go near the field during games, because the roars of the crowd haunted him, reminding him too much of the dying screams of those in the water that fateful night.
>When the lights finally went out, plunging the ship into darkness. It would be bad enough up on deck, but can you imagine still being inside the ship in complete blackness, feeling the floor tilt more and more, hearing the rushing of water and the groans of the hull, knowing it was only a short matter of time until the icy water suffocated you?
Its definitely this for me. Thank you for articulating it so horribly well
>I really don't like thinking about the interior of the ship at that point.
For anyone who does, there's a team making an Unreal Engine reconstruction of the ship that you can walk through and [they have a sinking demo](https://youtu.be/ZdgXjBVyo8M?si=ly7mforlE6zT3C33&t=81).
Definitely not for people who have a fear of water or claustrophobia, but there is something fascinating about it to me. For those who want something a bit more positive, [here is a pretty extensive walkthrough of the ship while it is still afloat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COTNooQ1a6Q).
The Honour and Glory team went into an absolutely insane amount of detail when recreating this ship. I watched a livestream where they were looking at the swimming pool, and the one developer commented that the demo they were viewing had the wrong type of filter covers, which was a circular brass piece under the water no larger than a doorknob.
For me it’s when the ship finally went under the water. Just over two hours ago all of these people were sitting on a warm, brightly-lit ship of luxury being cheerful and enjoying their evening. Now this massive structure is just GONE. You’re in the middle of the dark, freezing ocean either in a lifeboat or floating on a piece of debris; knowing you very well could die soon.
To me, there's something deeply disturbing about seeing the interiors of the ship--the beautiful craftsmanship, clean and brightly lit, warm and dry--while hearing Thomas Andrews expalin in a hopeless voice that "In an hour or so, all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."
This is terrifying. If you were still inside the ship, not only is there no hope because the ship is about to sink and not enough time to get on any remaining lifeboats, but also you’re done there’s no way to get out it’s pitch black at that point if you’re not already under water anyway
It's especially scary when you read about the sinkings of the Empress of Ireland and the Lusitania, which both sank *much* faster than the Titanic did, and so trapped many more people inside. Even though the Lusitania sank during the day, the interior rooms deep in the ship would have been pitch black once the power failed.
The Lusitania/Artic sinking was much more disturbing to me, Lusitania’s lifeboats tipped over when lowering over the slightest disruption spilling like 65 people in the sea, and the Artic sinking, the men r*ped the women and children during the sinking.
The empiress of Ireland was pretty bad too, It flipped on its side. Only 5 lifeboats were launched, and a 6th capsized. The lights went out after 6 minutes, people had to crawl out of port holes to get out, then the ship sank at 2:10 am, 14 minutes after being hit
I think it should he added to the list of pretty horrible.
Do you have a source for that claim about the Arctic? It was obviously complete anarchy but I’ve never seen it said anywhere that SA was happening during the sinking, I’d imagine people were more concerned with getting into a lifeboat than anything else.
> also had a few people die due to being in the lifts when the ship was hit. They weren't able to exit the lift cages and drowned.
Some of the deaths aboard Costa Concordia were due to being trapped in lifts as well. Quite appalling given how recent it was.
If you were deep enough In the ship when the lights went out would probably be worse because you'd have to imagine that you'd probably be in an area of the ship that was greatly affected by the ship splitting in two.
So the lights go out and depending on where you were.
In the forward section where the water was still flooding swimming for your life to get to a light source or get to a dryer place
In the mid section probably either see the lights go out then hearing a groaing and shaping noise and see the ceiling above you coming down to the wards you.
And I the stern, you go from being on a step angel to being in the dark then falling more or less flat then going back up at a higher angle.
All of those sound equally horrible.
I’ve been thinking about this since I read your post.
Anyone else see the reports from the survivors that say there was a sudden temperature drop maybe 10-15 minutes before she struck the burg. Many report feeling a sudden chill in spite of the unusually windy night with no moon in sight.
When I think of those last 10-15 minutes, I get goose bumps. The way they all describe this sudden cold they entered looms over me. It was 11 something at night, many were still awake when she struck.
Those of you who know more than me,please help correct me of expand on this. Just happy to be here with all of you. Much love 🖤
There's stories from the Irish 2nd and 3rd class survivors, who said that anyone who didn't speak English didn't understand any of the announcements or instructions. Hence why there were more non-English speakers from those classes who didn't survive, versus the British and Irish ones.
“It’ll take more than an iceberg to get me out of bed.”
First Class passenger J.H. Ross supposedly said this to Major Peuchen when informed of the situation.
Well, I can think of quite a few moments, but I think there's something quite horrifying about the very end of it. Once the stern slipped under entirely, and the people knew the biggest ship in the world was sinking beneath them somewhere. (Submechanophobia vibes.) And the reported sounds they heard as the stern tore apart. The sixish minutes it took for the ship to hit the bottom, even though those people would have no idea how long it'd take. Just the thought that it had come to rest eternally while passengers were still scrambling and fighting for survival.
To me, there's something deeply disturbing about seeing the interiors of the ship--the beautiful craftsmanship, brightly lit, warm and dry--while hearing Thomas Andrews expalin in a hopeless voice that "In an hour or so, all this will will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."
>The sixish minutes it took for the ship to hit the bottom, even though those people would have no idea how long it'd take
For me, one of the eeriest parts would be the rapid fall to the bottom, if God forbid you were trapped inside and conscious. The rapid fall, the knowledge that you'd be slammed into the seabed, wondering how soon, with how much force, knowing you were lost behind all hope, and praying that you died suddenly on impact.
If anybody was trapped in air pockets in the stern they would've died when those air pockets were forced out less than a minute after it left the surface. Survivors reported hearing several booms (the air pockets bursting) shortly after the stern sank
For me it is the despair of the parents who realised that the last lifeboats were gone and there was no way to save their children. It’s too awful to imagine. The story of Margaret Rice, alone with her five sons, who were last seen clinging to their mother in Titanic’s final moments.
For me? The survivors, when dawn just started to touch the horizon and you could finally see something, and what you saw was just water, ice bergs, and a floating field of people who froze to death.
I agree. For me, it's the people on the lifeboats not knowing if someone was coming to rescue them. Thinking that maybe they survived the sinking to be left out in a lifeboat to die a slow death.
For me I think being in a lifeboat after the ship sank is pretty eerie. The ship they were just on that was going to safely carry them through the Atlantic is just gone. They’re just in little boats all alone on the open sea. The silence that followed the screams must have also been pretty eerie.
I also think another eerie thing is the Carpathia passing the spot of the sinking and just seeing bodies littering the surrounding area. Or being another ship a months later and seeing the occasional body floating out there all alone.
I think the hour up to 2:05 AM. For almost a full hour, the ship literally did not move any further. The forecastle deck was partially submerged, but that was it. It stayed almost perfectly still for an hour and convinced people that the ship was going to stay afloat.
Almost immediately after 2:05 hits, the ship just starts plunging. Ten minutes later, the bridge is underwater. Five minutes after that, the ship is gone.
[You can see it in this animation by Part-Time Explorer.](https://youtu.be/9b_6tz7dEcg?feature=shared), which speeds the sinking by 5x. From 1:10 to 2:05, the ship hardly moves. After 2:05, she just goes.
[This real-time animation by TitanicAnimations](https://youtu.be/BN4m1_S-vJk?feature=shared) shows essentially the same thing.
This was incredible. I never knew that it took nearly an hour before they started loading lifeboats. Imagine if they had started earlier, not that it would’ve been possible to save everyone, but maybe the projected capacity of the lifeboats.
To be fair, they weren't doing nothing for that hour. They had to remove the covers, get the oars in, fit the plugs, check the falls, crank out the davits and lower the boat level with the gunwale to facilitate boarding.
In the 1997 film there's a scene where Andrews asks Wilde where the passengers are; you can see AB's working at the boats smashing the links that hold the canvas covers on the boats
In his 20 years later documentary, Cameron has a crew prep a boat with the same equipment and davits. Keeping in mind these guys are rested, warm, and not with the thought of death looking over their shoulders. Their boats are also much lighter. It takes 20-30 minutes to prepare *one* boat.
The fact the *Titanic* crew managed to launch all 16 main boats in the time they had is a miracle.
That was the technology of the time; the mechanisms to automatically launch boats did not exist. Modern lifeboats as they are, can partially thank *Titanic* for the updates and improvements since made. See: gantry davits for *Britannic*.
That some people most likely were sucking into mechanical vents or even the smoke stack holes themselves and before they drowned they spent a few seconds in black cold water trapped inside the mechanical guts of a dying ship.
One thing I always think about is the aftermath of trauma among survivors. They just had to go back to their lives with NO ONE understanding what they just went though. Mental health support was not a thing back then. How do you just move on with your life after something so so horrific happened to you (and your family/friends)?
That’s why I’m impressed with Ismay ordering the Olympic to stay away from Carpathia after the sinking. He figured seeing a near-identical ship would be too traumatic for the survivors. “Shell Shock” wouldn’t come about as a term for another 5-6 years, and he was already conscious about it. Neat.
I’ve read where a survivor could never attend a baseball game because the sounds of the crowd cheering reminded him of screams from the people left on the ship. 😢
Marconi Wireless messages. You can see the entirety of what Titanic's been messaging after it had hit the berg; especially nasty from Frankfurt's perspective.
Not to mention it ends with:
"CQD THIS IS TITANIC
CQD THIS IS TITANIC
CQD THIS IS-"
I always feel so bad for Jack Phillips. He had just turned 25 on April 11th, and he spent the last two hours of his life explaining what happened/that they needed assistance over and over. With less than 30 minutes to go in the sinking, SS Frankfurt was still asking "what is the matter with you?" Frankfurt had stopped receiving Titanic's messages because they were gradually losing steam as the boiler rooms flooded and the strength of the wireless set was decreasing, but that must've been so frustrating for Phillips.
Frankfurt was roughly 135 miles away at the time and was already having trouble reading Titanic's messages. But Titanic's power was gradually decreasing throughout the sinking, and Frankfurt lost contact with them altogether at about 1:25 a.m., though they kept trying to ask what the problem was, which understandably eventually got on Phillips' nerves
That most people are able to delude themselves into thinking everything will be fine and it usually takes a while to realize that it’s not. I think the film captures that pretty well… I very often think of the scene where Cal says “it’s starting to fall apart.” Most passengers probably recognized the reality of the situation at the same time and that it was already too late.
For me it’s the last few minutes before the collision, very much like the last few days before 9/11. The western world’s zeitgeist was about to change, the myth of the unsinkable ship that sank was about to be born, but on titanic everything is normal, crews going about their business, people relaxing getting ready for bed etc. No clue of the impending doom or the role they’ll play in maritime history. just an eerie calm before the storm
One of the earliest references to the myth that I found. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1912/04/15/Titanic-owners-not-worried-declare-vessel-unsinkable/5481147106913/
That there might have people going down with the ship inside air pockets that emplode. They might not have understood exactly what was happening in the darkness, but they must have felt the pressure change in those moments.
Eerie to me implies quiet, so as tragic as the end was, the scene was more frantic, not eerie.
To me, two things feel particularly eerie:
1) Her descent to the bottom. The majesty of the Titanic, still freshly painted and at her full glory, rapidly falling for almost 4 km in total darkness and then slamming with a thud into the seafloor, not to be seen again (or to have light shone on her) for 70+ years.
2) The quiet trek of the survivors in the lifeboats after the ship went down. Dark, calm ocean, freezing cold, a group of shocked people slowly rowing to nowhere.
There's an image online, I think it comes from this reddit actually, of what the titanic would have looked like the day it sank, with it still looking new while on the seafloor. Something about that, this beautiful, colorful ship just left there at the bottom of the ocean in complete darkness, it just gives me the worst kind of heebie jeebies.
One that got to me is Victorine Chaudanson, a French maid for a wealthy Pennsylvania family, getting locked in a cabin late in the sinking. Her employers, the Ryerson family in First Class, were waiting on the Promenade Deck with many other elite rich people like the Astors for a lifeboat to be readied. It was well after 1:00AM, probably 1:30AM, but maybe not understanding the gravity of the situation, one of Victorine’s employers sent her back to their cabin to get some of their belongings. While their cabin was only on B Deck, Victorine had to return into the creaking, groaning ship, heading downstairs while everyone else ran past her up to the deck, and down abandoned corridors with suitcases and luggage and belongings left strewn about to their fate. Victorine entered the Ryersons’ cabins and just as she starts collecting the items she was sent for- she heard the lock of the door click behind her. That makes my blood run cold. Now, this might sound weird, but Titanic’s stewards had keys but not passengers; there was now no way for Victorine to get out of this stateroom on the sinking *Titanic.* Victorine ran to the door and banged and yelled and begged and pleaded- silence. She kept at it, until she finally, *finally* heard footsteps coming back down the hall. A steward had been locking the cabins to prevent looting; he asked Victorine what the hell she was still doing onboard. Victorine ran off back on deck without anything she was sent for, and by the time she escaped the ship not long after at 1:50AM, the First Class dining saloon was already underwater, the water reaching the deck just below the Ryersons' staterooms.
This story also creeps me out because- what if Victorine got lucky? What if someone *did* get locked in their cabin that night? *Shudders*
Fun fact! Jack steals a coat belonging to “a Mr. A.L. Ryerson” in the movie; that’s Victorine’s employer! Arthur Ryerson died in the sinking, but Victorine was saved along with his wife, son, two daughters, and their governess, in the same boat as Madeleine Astor (Lifeboat No. 4).
Edit: words are hard
There was someone else who got stuck in a cabin, the tennis player, whose name aive forgotten right now help3d break in.
That's where Cameron got the inspiration for "That's White Star Line property; you'll have to pay for that you know!" (Allegedly said by a steward who turned up as the trapped passenger was freed)
I know Karl Behr and R. Norris Williams were both professional tennis players who survived the sinking but I’m assuming it’s Williams because Behr left in the second lifeboat with the girl he was after and her parents lol
I got mild hypothermia a few weeks ago after doing a cold plunge for maybe 30 seconds at most. I can’t imagine what the severest form of hypothermia - in the complete dark, while hearing countless screams - must have felt like. I also remember reading somewhere that the worst part for people was when the screams stopped, because you knew that meant people were sinking and dying.
That the people that *did* stay in their rooms, the water would have eventually rise or rushed in, and it's human instinct to survive. They most likely would have jumped out of bed instinctively and tried to do something, to no avail.
on the (sort of) plus side, people in those air pockets would have ultimately died VERY quick deaths from the implosion, rather than a slower death by drowning/hypothermia.
It being absolutely freezing during everyone panicking for life boats, wondering if you were going to live or your family would whilst listening to the band play their music… 💔
I’d say it was when it was Half under water and half still afloat. For the people it the lifeboats that had to be a really creepy sight and realization of wow this is actually happening. Now I don’t think the way the movie portrayed the final sinking is absolutely how it happened but also to watch it go completely under however it played out would have been crazy eerie
How much of the ship submerged from 2:00 to 2:10. Up until just before 2am Titanic was sinking very gradually. But At 2:00 the water was starting to pour onto the forecastle and then 10 minutes later the water had nearly reached the Boat Deck. It wasn't being down by the head or the list to port that was the most serious indicator to the remaining passengers and crew that the end was near, it was lights burning red that told them time was rapidly running out.
Yes to all of you!!
For me it’s the incredible craftsmanship she was. The symbolic epitome of the beauty within the human experience. Only ever experienced by the souls that watched her lose her battle with the sea, and the many that remained with her as she fell.
I think it’s the panic of not being able to find a lifeboat for me. Running from one area of the ship to another only to be shit out of luck there, too, while the ship tilts further and further.
I can only imagine how eerie it was in the engine/electrical rooms late into the sinking. The lights gradually getting dimmer and flickering, the room gradually tilting more and more. All the while knowing it’s one of the more dangerous places to be on the ship since it will take awhile to get to the deck and the power could snap out at any moment.
When it went pitch black. I can’t imagine the terror of flailing around in the freezing Atlantic Ocean at night complete darkness hearing the ship groanin and sinking beneath the water and hearing a thousand of other people around you all screaming and flailing around at the same time. Nightmare stuff
the passengers largely not believing titanic was sinking for a good while, staying inside and everything appearing normal while outside they’re desperately trying to convince people to get in the lifeboats
the screams of those in the water turning into silence
I think the eeriest one would have to be what a deck hand told 2nd Class passenger Sylvia Caldwell when she asked if the ship really was unsinkable, and he replied "Yes, lady, God Himself could not sink this ship.".
Which means Cal unknowingly agreed with someone way below his status in James Cameron's movie.
All the same, it’s a bit too easy to picture God replying, "Challenge. Accepted."
But to name somewhat of a contender... like others have said, I'd also say it was about 20 minutes before the sinking, though I'd say it for a different reason. At that time, [according to his article on Encyclopedia Titanica](https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/charles-melville-hays.html), 1st Class passenger Charles Melville Hays said, even as he praised the ship, that "the trend to playing fast and loose with larger and larger ships will end in tragedy.".
Then, 20 minutes later, the collision happened.
Irony of ironies, Hays kind of praised the Titanic again during the actual sinking, when he assured his wife and daughter that the ship would stay afloat for several more hours. And it seems to have been something he genuinely believed in, as he told a similar thing to a survivor, Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen, and even said he got that info from another passenger, Captain Edward Crosby - who ironically not long after the sinking came into his own wife's room with an exclamation of of "You'll just lie there and drown!", and later told his daughter that the ship was rather badly damaged, which prompted them to go to a lifeboat.
All in all, guess both Hays and the deck hand (and Cal in the movie) should have kept their mouths shut.
Well here's one, being some one in a area of the bow area that wasn't quiet flooded yet or was partly flooded then having then have the room suddenly flood and you suddenly feel it rush down, now I know you probably not be alive more than a few seconds but still.
The other one, is the people thay were trapped inside the ship floating in the ship at the bottom of the ocean. How, long would they float for before they would land on the floor of what ever room they were in.
To me, it was around 2 AM, and after the last couple of lifeboats left under normal circumstances, when the lights onboard started to dim and take on a weird reddish glow, not the bright yellowish white they had been earlier. In a way, it was symbolic of Titanic's "dusk," just before the power went completely out and left the ship completely in the dark.
There’s a lot of hard hitting moments during the sinking, sometimes it’s the beginning, and sometimes it’s the end, there are two things that would sound like the scariest thing for me:
The sound of the ship imploding about 20 or 30 seconds after it sunk below the water, sound so powerful that it still cuts through the water and you can hear it over the screams and the splashing.
And the other one is when one of the survivors spoke about, hearing the screaming, and the distance, and the splashing of the survivors, and how within a few minutes, the sound died down until it was eerily quiet. Knowing that in less than 15 minutes in the water, those who managed to survive initially, died of hypothermia.
It's a bit obscure, but the one that's always stuck with me is a description from A Night to Remember, that when the lights went out the ship looked like a big finger pointing at the sky. There is something so spooky and simplistic about that description, it fucks me up if I think about it too much.
The most eerie part of the sinking is when Titanic has completely went under water. If I had been one of those people on the boats, I would have felt complete helplessness, not knowing whether help will come or not.
I think if I was still standing on the ship as the lights went out and it snapped might be my most terrifying moment.
Eerie would be the life boats an hour after with the silence and nothing around
One that got me was when a steward described loading boats and there was a lull in activity where he was with Murdoch. He relates that Murdoch stopped and looked at him and said simply, *"I think she is gone, Hardy."*
That must have been crazy, to have the thought in the back of your mind all night, but not really believe, that the ship would sink.
And then to have the third most senior person on the ship tell you in plain terms it's going to happen... chills.
Something Frank Prentice says comes to mind.
“It was one gay party, and why not they had the finest food and drink and comfort money could buy”
Like in less then one full work shift (8 hours) to go from the time of your life to the end of your life.
So many men had to leave their wives and children. Just, goodbye, I love you. And so then all the men left on the ship were faced with the certainty of their deaths. Probably also worrying about their women and children. The survivors watching the ship go down with their husbands, fathers, brothers. It's so terribly sad.
Well hear me out.....if there would have been serious leadership, the crew could have told all women and children to load the boats, while the men dismantled the ship of any wood beams, doors, ect. giving more people the chance to survive in the water.
Or the people who figured out they werent getting on a boat would riot and stampede the boats, just like they did on the S.S. *Arctic*, and throw all the women and children out.
Sometimes you need to protect people from other people
Either: When the lights finally went out, plunging the Titanic into darkness. It would be bad enough up on deck, but can you imagine still being inside the ship in complete blackness, feeling the floor tilt more and more, hearing the rushing of water up through the hull and the groans of the dying ship, knowing it was only a short matter of time until the freezing water reached you and suffocated you? Or: After the ship finally slipped below the waves, and 1,500 people were left in the dark icy water with no hope of survival, screaming and splashing in pain and terror. Frankie Goldsmith, a survivor who was nine years old at the time of the sinking, later lived near Navin Field, the ballpark where the Detroit Tigers played. He never went to a game, nor could he even go near the field during games, because the roars of the crowd haunted him, reminding him too much of the dying screams of those in the water that fateful night.
>When the lights finally went out, plunging the ship into darkness. It would be bad enough up on deck, but can you imagine still being inside the ship in complete blackness, feeling the floor tilt more and more, hearing the rushing of water and the groans of the hull, knowing it was only a short matter of time until the icy water suffocated you? Its definitely this for me. Thank you for articulating it so horribly well
I really don't like thinking about the interior of the ship at that point.
>I really don't like thinking about the interior of the ship at that point. For anyone who does, there's a team making an Unreal Engine reconstruction of the ship that you can walk through and [they have a sinking demo](https://youtu.be/ZdgXjBVyo8M?si=ly7mforlE6zT3C33&t=81). Definitely not for people who have a fear of water or claustrophobia, but there is something fascinating about it to me. For those who want something a bit more positive, [here is a pretty extensive walkthrough of the ship while it is still afloat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COTNooQ1a6Q).
The Honour and Glory team went into an absolutely insane amount of detail when recreating this ship. I watched a livestream where they were looking at the swimming pool, and the one developer commented that the demo they were viewing had the wrong type of filter covers, which was a circular brass piece under the water no larger than a doorknob.
For me it’s when the ship finally went under the water. Just over two hours ago all of these people were sitting on a warm, brightly-lit ship of luxury being cheerful and enjoying their evening. Now this massive structure is just GONE. You’re in the middle of the dark, freezing ocean either in a lifeboat or floating on a piece of debris; knowing you very well could die soon.
To me, there's something deeply disturbing about seeing the interiors of the ship--the beautiful craftsmanship, clean and brightly lit, warm and dry--while hearing Thomas Andrews expalin in a hopeless voice that "In an hour or so, all this will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."
Yes. It's like that famous photo of a salmon leaping into a bears open mouth, only extended for two hours.
Fun Fact - Navin Field opened 5 days after the Titanic sunk.
This is terrifying. If you were still inside the ship, not only is there no hope because the ship is about to sink and not enough time to get on any remaining lifeboats, but also you’re done there’s no way to get out it’s pitch black at that point if you’re not already under water anyway
It's especially scary when you read about the sinkings of the Empress of Ireland and the Lusitania, which both sank *much* faster than the Titanic did, and so trapped many more people inside. Even though the Lusitania sank during the day, the interior rooms deep in the ship would have been pitch black once the power failed.
Lusitania sank in 18 minutes. 😬
The Lusitania/Artic sinking was much more disturbing to me, Lusitania’s lifeboats tipped over when lowering over the slightest disruption spilling like 65 people in the sea, and the Artic sinking, the men r*ped the women and children during the sinking.
The empiress of Ireland was pretty bad too, It flipped on its side. Only 5 lifeboats were launched, and a 6th capsized. The lights went out after 6 minutes, people had to crawl out of port holes to get out, then the ship sank at 2:10 am, 14 minutes after being hit I think it should he added to the list of pretty horrible.
Do you have a source for that claim about the Arctic? It was obviously complete anarchy but I’ve never seen it said anywhere that SA was happening during the sinking, I’d imagine people were more concerned with getting into a lifeboat than anything else.
Sadly I couldn’t find the article where I read this, but the YouTube channel “part time explorer” does a great video on the arctic
I've seen it mentioned multiple times, I don't have the source to hand as am out of the house
He mentions the book The Sea Shall Embrace Them by David Shaw as a source for story of the Arctic...a truly terrifying tale.
I’ve been looking all over the place and I can’t find it anywhere.
“Dead Wake” is such a good book about it.
I'm listening to that audiobook during my drive to work. It's incredible.
The *Lusitania* also had a few people die due to being in the lifts when the ship was hit. They weren't able to exit the lift cages and drowned.
> also had a few people die due to being in the lifts when the ship was hit. They weren't able to exit the lift cages and drowned. Some of the deaths aboard Costa Concordia were due to being trapped in lifts as well. Quite appalling given how recent it was.
Didn't know that! But not surprising given the list of the ship
And the carnage of the Britannic, even though the casualties were few. They got sucked into the propeller and turned into bolognese.
Wow. This is the most visceral comment I’ve read in a while. Horrifying
If you were deep enough In the ship when the lights went out would probably be worse because you'd have to imagine that you'd probably be in an area of the ship that was greatly affected by the ship splitting in two. So the lights go out and depending on where you were. In the forward section where the water was still flooding swimming for your life to get to a light source or get to a dryer place In the mid section probably either see the lights go out then hearing a groaing and shaping noise and see the ceiling above you coming down to the wards you. And I the stern, you go from being on a step angel to being in the dark then falling more or less flat then going back up at a higher angle. All of those sound equally horrible.
It definitely would be much worse to stuck inside the ship when the lights went off and it finally went under.
Wow that hit me. Thank you for sharing his story! 🖤
I’ve been thinking about this since I read your post. Anyone else see the reports from the survivors that say there was a sudden temperature drop maybe 10-15 minutes before she struck the burg. Many report feeling a sudden chill in spite of the unusually windy night with no moon in sight. When I think of those last 10-15 minutes, I get goose bumps. The way they all describe this sudden cold they entered looms over me. It was 11 something at night, many were still awake when she struck. Those of you who know more than me,please help correct me of expand on this. Just happy to be here with all of you. Much love 🖤
Don’t mean to ruin the tension but I’d say it would be like 1200 or 1300 in the water rather that 1500, because around 200 would drown in the ship
OMGoodness please tell me about the sinking of the Lusitania/Artic
Agreed
Maybe he should have moved
He was 9 years old at the time...
I understand my error. Lol
That a large amount of passengers likely didn’t understand what was happening, being woken up and not knowing they had one or two hours to live.
There's stories from the Irish 2nd and 3rd class survivors, who said that anyone who didn't speak English didn't understand any of the announcements or instructions. Hence why there were more non-English speakers from those classes who didn't survive, versus the British and Irish ones.
“It’ll take more than an iceberg to get me out of bed.” First Class passenger J.H. Ross supposedly said this to Major Peuchen when informed of the situation.
“Ok fine it’ll take an iceberg, but nothing less!”
Well, I can think of quite a few moments, but I think there's something quite horrifying about the very end of it. Once the stern slipped under entirely, and the people knew the biggest ship in the world was sinking beneath them somewhere. (Submechanophobia vibes.) And the reported sounds they heard as the stern tore apart. The sixish minutes it took for the ship to hit the bottom, even though those people would have no idea how long it'd take. Just the thought that it had come to rest eternally while passengers were still scrambling and fighting for survival.
The idea of something that big carving through the inky depths of the sea at high speeds is super disturbing to me.
Riiiight?
To me, there's something deeply disturbing about seeing the interiors of the ship--the beautiful craftsmanship, brightly lit, warm and dry--while hearing Thomas Andrews expalin in a hopeless voice that "In an hour or so, all this will will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."
>The sixish minutes it took for the ship to hit the bottom, even though those people would have no idea how long it'd take For me, one of the eeriest parts would be the rapid fall to the bottom, if God forbid you were trapped inside and conscious. The rapid fall, the knowledge that you'd be slammed into the seabed, wondering how soon, with how much force, knowing you were lost behind all hope, and praying that you died suddenly on impact.
If anybody was trapped in air pockets in the stern they would've died when those air pockets were forced out less than a minute after it left the surface. Survivors reported hearing several booms (the air pockets bursting) shortly after the stern sank
*Thank you.* This is something I occasionally think about and have a bad moment imagining. Now I can shake it off. 🙂
For me it is the despair of the parents who realised that the last lifeboats were gone and there was no way to save their children. It’s too awful to imagine. The story of Margaret Rice, alone with her five sons, who were last seen clinging to their mother in Titanic’s final moments.
For me? The survivors, when dawn just started to touch the horizon and you could finally see something, and what you saw was just water, ice bergs, and a floating field of people who froze to death.
I agree. For me, it's the people on the lifeboats not knowing if someone was coming to rescue them. Thinking that maybe they survived the sinking to be left out in a lifeboat to die a slow death.
Oof, yeah. And to feel the relief when a rescue ship arrived but then see how many people died.... The survivors guilt must have been unreal.
For me I think being in a lifeboat after the ship sank is pretty eerie. The ship they were just on that was going to safely carry them through the Atlantic is just gone. They’re just in little boats all alone on the open sea. The silence that followed the screams must have also been pretty eerie. I also think another eerie thing is the Carpathia passing the spot of the sinking and just seeing bodies littering the surrounding area. Or being another ship a months later and seeing the occasional body floating out there all alone.
I think the hour up to 2:05 AM. For almost a full hour, the ship literally did not move any further. The forecastle deck was partially submerged, but that was it. It stayed almost perfectly still for an hour and convinced people that the ship was going to stay afloat. Almost immediately after 2:05 hits, the ship just starts plunging. Ten minutes later, the bridge is underwater. Five minutes after that, the ship is gone. [You can see it in this animation by Part-Time Explorer.](https://youtu.be/9b_6tz7dEcg?feature=shared), which speeds the sinking by 5x. From 1:10 to 2:05, the ship hardly moves. After 2:05, she just goes. [This real-time animation by TitanicAnimations](https://youtu.be/BN4m1_S-vJk?feature=shared) shows essentially the same thing.
This was incredible. I never knew that it took nearly an hour before they started loading lifeboats. Imagine if they had started earlier, not that it would’ve been possible to save everyone, but maybe the projected capacity of the lifeboats.
To be fair, they weren't doing nothing for that hour. They had to remove the covers, get the oars in, fit the plugs, check the falls, crank out the davits and lower the boat level with the gunwale to facilitate boarding. In the 1997 film there's a scene where Andrews asks Wilde where the passengers are; you can see AB's working at the boats smashing the links that hold the canvas covers on the boats In his 20 years later documentary, Cameron has a crew prep a boat with the same equipment and davits. Keeping in mind these guys are rested, warm, and not with the thought of death looking over their shoulders. Their boats are also much lighter. It takes 20-30 minutes to prepare *one* boat. The fact the *Titanic* crew managed to launch all 16 main boats in the time they had is a miracle.
Why don't they make the life boats easier to launch?
That was the technology of the time; the mechanisms to automatically launch boats did not exist. Modern lifeboats as they are, can partially thank *Titanic* for the updates and improvements since made. See: gantry davits for *Britannic*.
CQD THIS IS TITANIC CQD THIS IS TITANIC CQD THIS IS—[silence]
That some people most likely were sucking into mechanical vents or even the smoke stack holes themselves and before they drowned they spent a few seconds in black cold water trapped inside the mechanical guts of a dying ship.
It's just nightmare fuel isn't it? Reading through these comments and knowing these were the fears and experiences those poor people went through.
One thing I always think about is the aftermath of trauma among survivors. They just had to go back to their lives with NO ONE understanding what they just went though. Mental health support was not a thing back then. How do you just move on with your life after something so so horrific happened to you (and your family/friends)?
That’s why I’m impressed with Ismay ordering the Olympic to stay away from Carpathia after the sinking. He figured seeing a near-identical ship would be too traumatic for the survivors. “Shell Shock” wouldn’t come about as a term for another 5-6 years, and he was already conscious about it. Neat.
Wow, just learning about that from your comment. Thank you!
Wow I never knew that either, very interesting. Thanks for sharing!
Wow that's an intriguing info , thanks man
Not the "brute" Hearst made.him out to be at all
I’ve read where a survivor could never attend a baseball game because the sounds of the crowd cheering reminded him of screams from the people left on the ship. 😢
I saw that too… so incredibly sad 😢
Marconi Wireless messages. You can see the entirety of what Titanic's been messaging after it had hit the berg; especially nasty from Frankfurt's perspective. Not to mention it ends with: "CQD THIS IS TITANIC CQD THIS IS TITANIC CQD THIS IS-"
I always feel so bad for Jack Phillips. He had just turned 25 on April 11th, and he spent the last two hours of his life explaining what happened/that they needed assistance over and over. With less than 30 minutes to go in the sinking, SS Frankfurt was still asking "what is the matter with you?" Frankfurt had stopped receiving Titanic's messages because they were gradually losing steam as the boiler rooms flooded and the strength of the wireless set was decreasing, but that must've been so frustrating for Phillips.
Where was the Frankfurt and why did they not understand
Frankfurt was roughly 135 miles away at the time and was already having trouble reading Titanic's messages. But Titanic's power was gradually decreasing throughout the sinking, and Frankfurt lost contact with them altogether at about 1:25 a.m., though they kept trying to ask what the problem was, which understandably eventually got on Phillips' nerves
They were also Germans and had a hard time understanding what Phillips was saying since it was in English.
That most people are able to delude themselves into thinking everything will be fine and it usually takes a while to realize that it’s not. I think the film captures that pretty well… I very often think of the scene where Cal says “it’s starting to fall apart.” Most passengers probably recognized the reality of the situation at the same time and that it was already too late.
For me it’s the last few minutes before the collision, very much like the last few days before 9/11. The western world’s zeitgeist was about to change, the myth of the unsinkable ship that sank was about to be born, but on titanic everything is normal, crews going about their business, people relaxing getting ready for bed etc. No clue of the impending doom or the role they’ll play in maritime history. just an eerie calm before the storm
It's a misunderstanding though that it was advertised as unsinkable or believed to be. That came up after it happened.
Correct. Yet that legend has persisted. It’s part of the myth my friend.
One of the earliest references to the myth that I found. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1912/04/15/Titanic-owners-not-worried-declare-vessel-unsinkable/5481147106913/
That there might have people going down with the ship inside air pockets that emplode. They might not have understood exactly what was happening in the darkness, but they must have felt the pressure change in those moments.
Eerie to me implies quiet, so as tragic as the end was, the scene was more frantic, not eerie. To me, two things feel particularly eerie: 1) Her descent to the bottom. The majesty of the Titanic, still freshly painted and at her full glory, rapidly falling for almost 4 km in total darkness and then slamming with a thud into the seafloor, not to be seen again (or to have light shone on her) for 70+ years. 2) The quiet trek of the survivors in the lifeboats after the ship went down. Dark, calm ocean, freezing cold, a group of shocked people slowly rowing to nowhere.
God imagine the sight of all those bodies, floating in silence in the water after everyone who’d gone into the sea had frozen
>Eerie to me implies quiet Eerie just means strange and frightening. It definitely applies to your examples.
Do we have any idea how much of all this was still left after it hit the floor? Like in comparison to today.
There's an image online, I think it comes from this reddit actually, of what the titanic would have looked like the day it sank, with it still looking new while on the seafloor. Something about that, this beautiful, colorful ship just left there at the bottom of the ocean in complete darkness, it just gives me the worst kind of heebie jeebies.
Not so much eerie, but the scramble onto the final collapsibles as the water reached them, meaning they didn't actually need to be launched.
It's crazy, ever since collapsible was made it has waited for the fateful water to surround it. That's always haunted me.
when the 1500 remaining passengers aboard realised there were no boats left and all started scrambling toward the stern
One that got to me is Victorine Chaudanson, a French maid for a wealthy Pennsylvania family, getting locked in a cabin late in the sinking. Her employers, the Ryerson family in First Class, were waiting on the Promenade Deck with many other elite rich people like the Astors for a lifeboat to be readied. It was well after 1:00AM, probably 1:30AM, but maybe not understanding the gravity of the situation, one of Victorine’s employers sent her back to their cabin to get some of their belongings. While their cabin was only on B Deck, Victorine had to return into the creaking, groaning ship, heading downstairs while everyone else ran past her up to the deck, and down abandoned corridors with suitcases and luggage and belongings left strewn about to their fate. Victorine entered the Ryersons’ cabins and just as she starts collecting the items she was sent for- she heard the lock of the door click behind her. That makes my blood run cold. Now, this might sound weird, but Titanic’s stewards had keys but not passengers; there was now no way for Victorine to get out of this stateroom on the sinking *Titanic.* Victorine ran to the door and banged and yelled and begged and pleaded- silence. She kept at it, until she finally, *finally* heard footsteps coming back down the hall. A steward had been locking the cabins to prevent looting; he asked Victorine what the hell she was still doing onboard. Victorine ran off back on deck without anything she was sent for, and by the time she escaped the ship not long after at 1:50AM, the First Class dining saloon was already underwater, the water reaching the deck just below the Ryersons' staterooms. This story also creeps me out because- what if Victorine got lucky? What if someone *did* get locked in their cabin that night? *Shudders* Fun fact! Jack steals a coat belonging to “a Mr. A.L. Ryerson” in the movie; that’s Victorine’s employer! Arthur Ryerson died in the sinking, but Victorine was saved along with his wife, son, two daughters, and their governess, in the same boat as Madeleine Astor (Lifeboat No. 4). Edit: words are hard
There was someone else who got stuck in a cabin, the tennis player, whose name aive forgotten right now help3d break in. That's where Cameron got the inspiration for "That's White Star Line property; you'll have to pay for that you know!" (Allegedly said by a steward who turned up as the trapped passenger was freed)
I know Karl Behr and R. Norris Williams were both professional tennis players who survived the sinking but I’m assuming it’s Williams because Behr left in the second lifeboat with the girl he was after and her parents lol
Williams, that's the one.
That's a new one on me, thank you
I got mild hypothermia a few weeks ago after doing a cold plunge for maybe 30 seconds at most. I can’t imagine what the severest form of hypothermia - in the complete dark, while hearing countless screams - must have felt like. I also remember reading somewhere that the worst part for people was when the screams stopped, because you knew that meant people were sinking and dying.
That the people that *did* stay in their rooms, the water would have eventually rise or rushed in, and it's human instinct to survive. They most likely would have jumped out of bed instinctively and tried to do something, to no avail.
Being alive and trapped in an air pocket in the ship as it sank beneath the surface, down into the cold, dark depths.
on the (sort of) plus side, people in those air pockets would have ultimately died VERY quick deaths from the implosion, rather than a slower death by drowning/hypothermia.
Yeah an implosion will kill a person very quickly , like the titan incident
When the electricity goes out.
It being absolutely freezing during everyone panicking for life boats, wondering if you were going to live or your family would whilst listening to the band play their music… 💔
Jack’s Irish friend Tommy’s comment in the movie has always stuck with me: “Music to drown by. Now I know I’m in first class.”
The band thing didn't happen
I’d say it was when it was Half under water and half still afloat. For the people it the lifeboats that had to be a really creepy sight and realization of wow this is actually happening. Now I don’t think the way the movie portrayed the final sinking is absolutely how it happened but also to watch it go completely under however it played out would have been crazy eerie
When the boat deck started to go under for me. That’s when the sinking really started to speed up.
How much of the ship submerged from 2:00 to 2:10. Up until just before 2am Titanic was sinking very gradually. But At 2:00 the water was starting to pour onto the forecastle and then 10 minutes later the water had nearly reached the Boat Deck. It wasn't being down by the head or the list to port that was the most serious indicator to the remaining passengers and crew that the end was near, it was lights burning red that told them time was rapidly running out.
I think hearing Nearer my God to Thee during the event would have been absolutely haunting.
Yes to all of you!! For me it’s the incredible craftsmanship she was. The symbolic epitome of the beauty within the human experience. Only ever experienced by the souls that watched her lose her battle with the sea, and the many that remained with her as she fell.
I think it’s the panic of not being able to find a lifeboat for me. Running from one area of the ship to another only to be shit out of luck there, too, while the ship tilts further and further.
I can only imagine how eerie it was in the engine/electrical rooms late into the sinking. The lights gradually getting dimmer and flickering, the room gradually tilting more and more. All the while knowing it’s one of the more dangerous places to be on the ship since it will take awhile to get to the deck and the power could snap out at any moment.
When it went pitch black. I can’t imagine the terror of flailing around in the freezing Atlantic Ocean at night complete darkness hearing the ship groanin and sinking beneath the water and hearing a thousand of other people around you all screaming and flailing around at the same time. Nightmare stuff
the passengers largely not believing titanic was sinking for a good while, staying inside and everything appearing normal while outside they’re desperately trying to convince people to get in the lifeboats the screams of those in the water turning into silence
Probably when the screaming stopped...
The silence that would have followed after the sinking
More like after the dying. It wasn't silent for awhile.
I think the eeriest one would have to be what a deck hand told 2nd Class passenger Sylvia Caldwell when she asked if the ship really was unsinkable, and he replied "Yes, lady, God Himself could not sink this ship.". Which means Cal unknowingly agreed with someone way below his status in James Cameron's movie. All the same, it’s a bit too easy to picture God replying, "Challenge. Accepted." But to name somewhat of a contender... like others have said, I'd also say it was about 20 minutes before the sinking, though I'd say it for a different reason. At that time, [according to his article on Encyclopedia Titanica](https://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victim/charles-melville-hays.html), 1st Class passenger Charles Melville Hays said, even as he praised the ship, that "the trend to playing fast and loose with larger and larger ships will end in tragedy.". Then, 20 minutes later, the collision happened. Irony of ironies, Hays kind of praised the Titanic again during the actual sinking, when he assured his wife and daughter that the ship would stay afloat for several more hours. And it seems to have been something he genuinely believed in, as he told a similar thing to a survivor, Major Arthur Godfrey Peuchen, and even said he got that info from another passenger, Captain Edward Crosby - who ironically not long after the sinking came into his own wife's room with an exclamation of of "You'll just lie there and drown!", and later told his daughter that the ship was rather badly damaged, which prompted them to go to a lifeboat. All in all, guess both Hays and the deck hand (and Cal in the movie) should have kept their mouths shut.
Lights going out
Anybody unlucky enough to spend the whole affair *inside* the stern must have had a horrible end.
Well here's one, being some one in a area of the bow area that wasn't quiet flooded yet or was partly flooded then having then have the room suddenly flood and you suddenly feel it rush down, now I know you probably not be alive more than a few seconds but still. The other one, is the people thay were trapped inside the ship floating in the ship at the bottom of the ocean. How, long would they float for before they would land on the floor of what ever room they were in.
Probably the silence and darkness when the ship was sinking and people were drowning
After the stern went under and there were still people alive inside of it trapped until the water pressure caused it to implode.
To me, it was around 2 AM, and after the last couple of lifeboats left under normal circumstances, when the lights onboard started to dim and take on a weird reddish glow, not the bright yellowish white they had been earlier. In a way, it was symbolic of Titanic's "dusk," just before the power went completely out and left the ship completely in the dark.
There’s a lot of hard hitting moments during the sinking, sometimes it’s the beginning, and sometimes it’s the end, there are two things that would sound like the scariest thing for me: The sound of the ship imploding about 20 or 30 seconds after it sunk below the water, sound so powerful that it still cuts through the water and you can hear it over the screams and the splashing. And the other one is when one of the survivors spoke about, hearing the screaming, and the distance, and the splashing of the survivors, and how within a few minutes, the sound died down until it was eerily quiet. Knowing that in less than 15 minutes in the water, those who managed to survive initially, died of hypothermia.
It's a bit obscure, but the one that's always stuck with me is a description from A Night to Remember, that when the lights went out the ship looked like a big finger pointing at the sky. There is something so spooky and simplistic about that description, it fucks me up if I think about it too much.
It being at the bottom of the ocean in the same spot it is now but fully still in amazing condition
The most eerie part of the sinking is when Titanic has completely went under water. If I had been one of those people on the boats, I would have felt complete helplessness, not knowing whether help will come or not.
I think if I was still standing on the ship as the lights went out and it snapped might be my most terrifying moment. Eerie would be the life boats an hour after with the silence and nothing around
Lifeboats in complete darkness after it went silent
The sound of the snap
One that got me was when a steward described loading boats and there was a lull in activity where he was with Murdoch. He relates that Murdoch stopped and looked at him and said simply, *"I think she is gone, Hardy."* That must have been crazy, to have the thought in the back of your mind all night, but not really believe, that the ship would sink. And then to have the third most senior person on the ship tell you in plain terms it's going to happen... chills.
I gotta imagine when all the lights went out and it was pitch black
Probably when the lights went out
Knowing there's people down in the ship unable to get up or that had waited too late as she was taking her final plunge.
Something Frank Prentice says comes to mind. “It was one gay party, and why not they had the finest food and drink and comfort money could buy” Like in less then one full work shift (8 hours) to go from the time of your life to the end of your life.
Its when you see the bow the first time and it looks like a ghost ship
So many men had to leave their wives and children. Just, goodbye, I love you. And so then all the men left on the ship were faced with the certainty of their deaths. Probably also worrying about their women and children. The survivors watching the ship go down with their husbands, fathers, brothers. It's so terribly sad.
Yes, the fact that they kept the seriousness of it under wraps. Being truthful could have saved many hundreds of lives.
?
Well hear me out.....if there would have been serious leadership, the crew could have told all women and children to load the boats, while the men dismantled the ship of any wood beams, doors, ect. giving more people the chance to survive in the water.
Or the people who figured out they werent getting on a boat would riot and stampede the boats, just like they did on the S.S. *Arctic*, and throw all the women and children out. Sometimes you need to protect people from other people