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Since the wreck was found, the biggest source of revisionist history has been the condition of the wreck at 2.20am on April 15th. The ship was described as having left the surface intact in the findings of the 1912 inquiries...Beesley repeated this story...as did Gracie...so did "A Night To Remember"...so did all the movies made...it seemed heresey to question this, and only Walter Lord challenged the status quo in unwritten thoughts.

Then, on September 1st, 1985, the cosiness vanished. The Titanic had indeed broken apart. Where and when had it happened? Initial arguments in 1985 and 1986 blamed "water pressure" at a depth of 1000 feet, but this was amended when it became common knowledge that dozens of people in the inquiries, and in interviews had stated their convictions that the ship split apart on the surface. They had essentially been ignored. A rapid flurry of historical re-writing ensued.

How could the majority of people who had seen the ship disintegrate before their very eyes be overruled by the opinions of the minority (principally, the ship's officers)? Why had so many people seen different things? Suggestions have ranged from tricks on perception played by differences in perspective or light (or lack of). As we shall we see, this can't be the whole story as very often, survivors who viewed the scene from the same lifeboat saw different things, and while differences in the acuity of eyesight may place a part, this can't be the whole story. Between the time the Titanic's lights went out and the time that she sank only a few minutes elapsed. Hardly enough time for one's eyes to adjust to the darkness. But just enough time to discern gross shapes without seeing subtle finer deck structures.

Perhaps one should introduce another factor into the scene of phantasmagoria as the Titanic slipped asunder. Psychology: wishful thinking, and the like. And there is the politics of adjusted evidence: protecting the engineering of a ship to further protect its engineers from further investigation.

One extremely commendable attempt to describe the dynamics of the sinking can be found on Parks Stephenson's website. It deviates drastically from the accepted norm of the sinking by not showing the stern going up to 90 degrees just before "the final plunge." This is slightly remiss as it dismisses those eyewitnesses who saw the poop going up perpendicular, and can't be explained by saying that it would depend on where the witnesses were placed; some people would see the stern go up to 45 degrees, some 90 degrees. But, as we shall see, most witnesses say 90 degrees and only a few say 45 degrees. By factoring in the minority into the equations, we come up with a model that satisfies no-one. Under the imagery described in the article, only those lifeboats situated stem-on, or stern-on of the Titanic would see the rear go up to 90 degrees.

This is not what happened. Boats situated at all varieties of angles and distances describe 90 degrees.

This current works attempts to reconcile the viewpoints of the witnesses. With over 700 survivors, one could spend a huge amount of time collating and scrutinising all the accounts. For this reason, I have limited myself to accounts that are readily available via books and internet resources. Needless to say, many interesting and pertinent stories will have been omitted. Where theories emerge, I will examine their veracity. No doubt some will fail, and some will require more evidence at which point I appeal to my reader's knowledge to assist further...

The simulation shows the sinking as using the scenario derived by Parks Stephenson.

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Please download the Java Runtime Environment

How big would the Titanic appear to am observer? From 350 feet (just over 116 yards) away, the 350 feet of the stern when viewed looking perpendicular to the mid-point, would occupy 53 degrees, or a massive 44% of the total field of vision. However, from stem on, the 92 feet beam would be 15 degrees, or a US/UK penny seen from 72 mms (nearly 3 inches away).

From one mile (6080 feet), the view becomes rapidly diminished. Broadside on, the ship would occupy 3.3 degrees (a penny at 330 mms, or a little over a foot), and from stem on, 0.9 degrees (a penny at 1200 mms, or 4 feet).

Let us examine the statements from each boat. My own comments are in italics. Note that, even today, there is debate as to whom was in which lifeboat. I have only dealt with those statements made by people whose lifeboat assignation is known with certainty.

Boat 1

At the British Inquiry, George Symons said, "I stood and watched [the Titanic] till I heard two sharp explosions in the ship. What they were I could not say. Then she suddenly took a top cant, her stern came well out of the water then...that is the time when I saw her lights go out, all her lights. The next thing I saw was her poop. As she went down like that so her poop righted itself and I thought to myself, "The poop is going to float." It could not have been more than two or three minutes after that that her poop went up as straight as anything; there was a sound like steady thunder as you hear on an ordinary night at a distance, and soon she disappeared from view." In further questioning, he said, "[the poop] righted itself without the bow; in my estimation she must have broken in half [abaft the after expansion plate.]." Clariyfing one point, Symons noted that he saw all this about a quarter of a mile from the Titanic, and the lights went out at the same time as the poop fell back.

In later years, Symons was clear on one point: in "Titanic Voices," Joan Massey nee Symons remarked that George remarked, "Thats where the Titanic broke in half, out there," indicating the ocean.

C.E. Stengel was interrogated in America. Although he could not estimate the distance, he told the inquiry, "I saw her first row of port lights go under the water; I saw the next port lights go under the water; and finally the bow was all dark. When the last lights on the bow went under, I said, "There is danger here; we had better row away from here. This is a light boat, and there may be suction when the ship goes down. Let us pull away." The other passengers agreed, and we pulled away from the Titanic, and after that we stopped rowing for awhile, and she was going down by the bow most all the time, and all of a sudden there were four sharp explosions about that far apart, just like this (the witness indicating by snapping his fingers four times), and then she dipped and the stern stood up in the air, and then the cries began for help. I should think that the people who were left on the boat began to jump over. There was an awful wail like...She dipped, then, forward, and all you could see was the stern sticking up. When I heard the cries I turned my back. I said, "I can not look any longer.""

Stengel seems to have missed the poop falling back down almost level with the sea, possibly because he was rowing. It also seems likely that he missed the Titanic slip below the water, again, possibly because he turned his back when the 'wailing' began. Charles Hendrickson's estimate of distance was about 200 yards; Symons put the distance at about 1/4 of a mile. Lady Duff Gordon allegedly gave a figure of 200 yards to "The New York American", repeated in the London "Daily News" - a figure that she denied in court (she said that the article was a fabrication).

Boat 2

The yellow arrow indicates the general direction in which boat 2 lay at the time of the sinking.

4th Officer Boxhall told the British court that he was 1/2 mile away from the Titanic and that he did not see the actual foundering. At the same inquiry, James Johnson said that, "It might have been three-quarters of a mile, or it might have been a little bit less."

Two witnesses described the sinking of the ship at the US Inquiry. Frank Osman said that, "We pulled astern that way again, and after we got astern we lay on our oars and saw the ship go down. After she got to a certain angle she exploded, broke in halves, and it seemed to me as if all the engines and everything that was in the after part slid out into the forward part, and the after part came up right again, and as soon as it came up right down it went again." Mahala Douglas recounted, "In an incredibly short space of time, it seemed to me, the boat sank. I heard an explosion. I watched the boat go down, and the last picture to my mind is the immense mass of black against the starlit sky, and then nothingness."

However, in Archibald Gracie's "The Truth About The Titanic," he quotes Elisabeth Walton Allen thus: "As the Titanic plunged deeper and deeper we could see her stern rising higher and higher until her lights began to go out. As the last lights on the stern went out we saw her plunge distinctively, bow first and intact."

Boat 3

In America, George Moore told Senator Newlands that his lifeboat was just over a quarter of a mile from the doomed liner. He said, "I saw the forward part of her go down, and it appeared to me as if she broke in half, and then the after part went. I can remember two explosions."

John Podesta is sometimes placed in boat 3. His recollections are printed in "Titanic Voices": "Then all of a sudden, she swerved and her bow went under, her stern rose up in the air. Out went all her lights and the rumbling noise was terrible. It must have been her boilers and engines as well as her bulkheads, all giving way. Then she disappeared altogether."

Henry Harper said in "Harper's Weekly" (27/4/12): "The lights of the Titanic suddenly went out and we began to think her end could not be very far away...I certainly heard nothing that sounded like an explosion. I did hear a great roar mingled with hissing coming from the direction of the ship....very slowly the giant black hull began to diminish against the skyline. It was a frightful thing to feel that the ship was going, faster and faster"

Podesta's story of "swerving" is interesting. Had the Titanic's bow swung around and altered her heading before she slipped under? This point will be discussed soon.

Boat 4

The yellow arrow indicates the general direction in which boat 4 lay at the time of the sinking.

Sam Hemming recounted at the inquires that he saw boat 4 200 yards away on the port quarter. He lowered himself down the falls and swam to her. This was a very short time after the water had started to spill onto the bridge, so the final end of the Titanic could only have been minutes away. Walter Perkis puts the distance to the Titanic as "6 lengths" away, or nearly 5400 feet. As can be seen from the graphic for boat 2 above, the Titanic would have been extremely small at this distance.

In America, Emily Ryerson told the US Senate Inquiry, "Then suddenly, when we still seemed very near, we saw the ship was sinking rapidly. I was in the bow of the boat with my daughter and turned to see the great ship take a plunge toward the bow, the two forward funnels seemed to lean and then she seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife, and as the bow went under the lights went out; the stern stood up for several minutes, black against the stars, and then that, too, plunged down, and there was no sound for what seemed like hours."

In Britain, Thomas Ranger related that "The forward end of the ship went underneath and seemed to break off, and the afterpart came back on a level keel...[the afterpart slowly] turned up and went down steadily...You could see the three propellers in the air."

Frederick Scott was also asked about this. He testified, "We pulled away from the ship’s side and we had not been away long before the ship started breaking up, and her stern went up in the air, and you could see her three propellers..." His questioning deserves to be related:

Q. You got away? A. Yes; we had just got at the stern of her when she started breaking up.
Q. You say she started breaking up? A. Yes; she broke off at the after- funnel, and when she broke off her stern end came up in the air and came down on a level keel and disappeared.
Q. It went up in the air and came back on a level keel? A. Yes.
Q. Then did she go up again before she disappeared? A. No.
Q. Simply sank? A. She simply sank.
Q. (The Commissioner.) Where did she break? A. The after-funnel.
Q. (The Attorney-General.) Do you mean between the third and fourth funnels? A. No, the after-funnel. From the after-funnel to the stern of her.
Q. Do you mean the break was aft of her last funnel? A. Yes, just aft of the last funnel.

Colonel Gracie's book provides a few more pieces of evidence:

Mrs.Marian Thayer wrote, "The after part of the ship then reared in the air, with the stern upwards, until it assumed an almost vertical position. It seemed to remain stationary in this position for many seconds (perhaps twenty), then suddently dove straight down out of sight."

Mrs.Stephenson and Miss Eustis imparted the following to Gracie, "The lights on the ship burned till just before she went. When the call came that she was going I covered my face and heard someone call, 'She's broken.' After what seemed a long time I turned my head only to see the stern almost perpendicular in the air so that the full outline of the blades of the propeller showed above the water. She then gave her final plunge..."

Mrs. Louis A. Hippach gave her account to "The Chicago Tribune" (April 22 1912):
“Then we started to row. I knew the ship was sinking fast, because I saw the port holes were near the water. We heard some one cry in an appealing voice to us to come back and get more passengers, but we did not dare to. The boat listed so much to one side that I felt sure we would be swamped. When we had rowed about 150 yards away from the Titanic we heard a fearful explosion. I saw the ship split open. At the same time the ship’s bow rose up in the air as the steamer sank towards the center. We expected to be sucked into the ocean in the wake of the Titanic and I closed my eyes. I waited and waited. Finally I opened my eyes and the Titanic was gone."

This author would place boat 4 as being closer to 200 yards (Hemming's estimate) than Perkis's; after all, as such a great distance as claimed by Perkis, an unlit lifeboat would not be seen. It does seem remarkable ,incidentally, that boat 2 could row down the length of the Titanic, around the stern and wind up about 1/2 mile away, when boat 4, launched within minutes of no.2, got no further than approximately 200 yards away.

Mrs.Ryerson's description of the funnels is interesting. This author has long thought that, if Ryerson missed the falling of the 1st funnel, as described by Lightoller, then she may have seen the 2nd and 3rd funnels falling. After all, when the 1st funnel fell, it was probably not in a state of illumination; the forward part of the boat deck had dipped under, and the only possible "upwards" not "outwards" (from cabin windows and deck lights) was the forward Grand Staircase skylight...which would actually have been provided some small light for the base of the 2nd funnel, if anything.

Is there any evidence for two funnels falling at the same time? This will be discussed later. Parks' graphic of the sinking seem to indicate that the 2nd funnel was below the waterline when it snapped off. Mrs. Ryerson's statement seems to indicate that both of the two funnels she saw "seemed to lean" at the same time; once the lights of the Titanic went out, it would be probably be very dificult to see the last two funnels. Incidentally, based on Gracie's editing to remove Ryerson's statement of the break-up we should perhaps be wary of the account published in his book!

Boat 5

The yellow arrow indicates the general direction in which boat 5 lay at the time of the sinking.

Henry Etches, at the US Inquiry described the end of the Titanic thus: "We laid off about 100 yards and waited, and the ship started going down; seemed to be going down at the head, and [3rd Officer] Pitman gave us the order to head away from the ship, and we pulled off then, I should say, about a quarter of a mile, and laid on our oars...We remained [there] until the Titanic sank...She seemed to raise once as though she was going to take a violent dive, but sort of checked, as though she had scooped the water up and had leveled herself. She then seemed to settle very, very quiet, until the last, when she rose up, and she seemed to stand 20 seconds ... and then she went down with an awful grating, like a small boat running off a shingley beach.

At the same inquiry, Alfred Olliver was slightly cautious in his evidence: "I can not say that I saw it [sink] right plain; but to my imagination I did, because the lights went out before she went down...She was well down at the head at first, when we got away from her at first, and to my idea she broke forward, and the afterpart righted itself and made another plunge and went right down. I fancied I saw her black form. It was dark, and I fancied I saw her black form...I heard several little explosions, but it was not such explosions as I expected to hear...[this was] Before she sank and while she was sinking."

However, 3rd Officer Pitman provided a very different account of the sinking. This is an amalgamation of his evidence in America and England:
"Judging by what I could see from a distance [he was "barely 100 yards away"], she gradually disappeared until the forecastle head was submerged to the bridge. Then she turned right on end and went down perpendicularly...She did not seem to be broken in two." He also remarked that he heard four reports, like the sound of a big gun in the distance, after the ship had submerged. He did not see the afterpart right itself.

Gracie's book includes a note from Mrs.F.M.Warren: "She went lower and lowe, until the lower lights were extinguished, and then suddently rose by the stern and slipped from sight."

Norman Chambers' account was published in the Lawrenceville Alumni Bulletin in October 1912, in which he gives his estimate of the distance as being 300-400 yards; he notes, "a series of explosions commenced; these were dull booms, one following the other in rapid succession, accompanied by the slow sinking of the ship by the head. She continued to go down until she was practically in a vertical position, when the explosions ceased for a brief instant. They then became more frequent than before, and the Titanic sank out of sight."

Henry Frauenthal's story in American Medicine (May 1912) puts the distance to the wreck as being "about a mile."

The other problem is one of distance: Etches and another witness (Catherine Crosby) puts the distance to the wreck as being 1/4 mile, but Pitman puts it at 100 yards. This is an immense difference in recollections. Who is right? From the wireframe graphics, it can be shown that from 1/4 mile, very little would be seen. It also hard to reconcile the survivor's observations with the graphics shown on the Marconigraph.com site that shows the stern not going vertical except when viewed from the front and rear of the ship.

Boat 6

In America, Major Peuchen said that he "heard a sort of a rumbling sound and the lights were still on at the rumbling sound, as far as my memory serves me; then a sort of an explosion, then another. It seemed to be one, two, or three rumbling sounds, then the lights went out...[the ship was intact at that time. I feel sure that an explosion had taken place in the boat [Titanic]." Peuchen also said that "the stern at an angle of not as much as 45 degrees while lights were on", and that "You could not tell mucch after the lights went out."

In "Titanic: A Question of Murder" (a documentary broadcast in 1984), Marjorie Robb (nee Newell) said that "The Titanic was a broken ship" when she sank, but no information is given as to whether she formed this opinion at the time or later.

Frustratingly, I have very little information about boat 6. Even its distance is a source of confusion: the crewman at the tiller, Robert Hichens said that they were a mile away, Peuchen said 5/8ths of a mile. And there placement relative to the Titanic is not known with any certainty. It is known that the boat had spent some time rowing towards the lights of a mysterious ship's light; Peuchen thought it was imaginary and placed it to the north. He also said that his boat headed "directly straight off" from the Titanic's side, indicating that she was heading east if "straight off" means 'perpendicular' but this contradicts other evidence. So, boat 6 could either be somewhere on the portside or off the bows of the ship. "Straight off" is defined in internet disctionaries as a synonym for "straight away" or "immediately." Perhaps Peuchen meant that boat 6 headed off with delay?

There are very few accounts from Boat 6; Mrs.Stone, who put the distance at 1/2 mile, says that she saw the lights going out "one by one." Even the famous "Molly" [sic] Brown's account says only, "Suddenly a rift in the water, the sea opened up and the surface foamed lik giant arms spread around the ship, and the vessel disappeared from sight."

Boat 7

Archie Jewell told the British Court that his boat "...stopped there and watched her gradually sink away. We could see the people about on the deck before the lights went out. As she went away by the head so the lights went out, and we heard some explosions as she was going down. But all the lights went out and we could only see a black object in front of us...[it was light enough to see] the stern straight up in the air. As the stern stood up in the air so all the lights went out." He also says that some lights were "still burning on the afterend."

Information from Mrs.Thomas Potter, Jr in Gracie' book, is as follows: "...[she saw] the bow well bent in the water, as though ready for a dive. After the lights went out, some ten minutes before the end, she was like some great living thing who made a last superhuman effort to right herself and then, failing, dove bow forward to the unfathomable depths below."

And William T. Sloper in "The New Britain Herald" of 19/4/12, related that, "after we had rowed three hundred yards or so we rested on our oars...we watched the big ship's bow sinking lower and lower. Suddenly the lights dimmed...in a minute the lights went out entirely and then the stern seemed to rise perpendicularly in the air. There were two loud explosions, a grinding crash and the big ship plunged out of sight."

Piere Marechel provided a signed statement, which was published in The Manchester Guardian on April 20th 1912. He provides little description of the actual foundering, except that "the lights went out." In his estimation the distance to the wreck was half a mile. Mrs.Potter's information is consistent with the observation made by others that the ship seemed to try to "right herself" (ie. by falling back to the sea). Can we relate these accounts to an estimate of distance or bearing? James McGough puts the distance at 1/2 mile. Jewell says that his boat initially stayed 20 yards from the Titanic, but then pulled "a long way" away, met up with boat 5 and stayed moored alongside all night. Mrs.Bishop's account in America seems confused as she talks about 5 boats being gathered together 15 minutes after leaving the Titanic (5 boats hadn't even been launched by this point!), but she recalls that people were transshipped from boat 5 before the Titanic had sunk. It seems clear that, even though her numbers are wrong, boats 5 and 7 were already acting as one at this point. Pitman himself says that boat 7 was "quite close" to boat 5. In this case, the observations of boats 5 and 7 should be considered, not in isolation, but as one unit. It is odd that people seeing the same thing from the same vantage should see different things.

Incidentally, Gracie's book mentions in the summary of Jwewell's account that, "when [his boat] was 200 yards away, the ship took its final dip." Although the picturesque description of "dip" can be attributed to Gracie and his pen, the figure of "200 yards" is nowhere to be found in Jewell's evidence.

Boat 8

The yellow arrow indicates the general direction in which boat 8 lay at the time of the sinking.

Boat 8 is generally accepted to be the furthest one from the Titanic as the liner sank. Unfortunately estimates vary, but usually are of the order of a few miles. At this distance, the Titanic would be tiny, which may explain the dearth of information from this boat; as Mrs.White said; they were "not near enough" to see the ship.

However, a few accounts do exist. Alfred Crawford testified in America that they "saw her at a distance; yes. It seemed as if her bow was going down first...We saw all the lights going out on the forward part of her [and still burning on the after part]...There was a good bit of the stern part out of water. I could not say how many decks there ... but it seemed all clear right from amidships to aft."

Alice Leader said, "the lights [were] burning till they were extinguished by the waves."

Caroline Bonnell told the "Washington Times" (19/4/12): "Deck by deck we watched the lights go out, as the boat dropped lower and lower into the sea. At last but four rows of lights were left. Then the water reached the port holes, and as it rushed in here, there was one great explosion, and another, and then the ship left the horizon unbroken."

An interesting point is that boat 8 was practically bow-on to the Titanic, and would only be seeing the unlit forward portion of the hulk of the doomed ship. How then (especially in Bonnell's case if her account is accurate), can the portholes be seen, which were on the side of the ship and hence in a position unable to be viewed from boat 8?

Boat 9

In America, William Ward said the Titanic, "went very gradually for a while. We could just see the ports as she dipped. We could see the light in the ports, and the water seemed to come very slowly up to them. She did not appear to be going fast, and I was of the opinion then that she would not go. I thought we were only out there as a matter of precaution and would certainly go back to the ship. I was still of the opinion she would float...She gave a kind of sudden lurch forward, and I heard a couple of reports, reports more like a volley of musketry than anything else. You would not exactly call them a heavy explosion. It did not seem to me like an explosion at all."
Ward thought that the distance was about "a quarter of a mile, or something like that."

Bertha Watt wrote to Walter Lord in 1963 that, "We possibly were not 3/4 hour [in the water ?]when the ship seemed to break in the middle and went in nose and stern and in what seemed minutes not a vestage of her could be seen." Her sketch seems to indicate that she had a broadside (starboard side) view of the Titanic. Her contemporary account appeared in The Spectrum, her high school newspaper in April 1914: "...we heard the boilers burst and then she broke in two and slid into the water."

Boat 10

According to William Burke in America, Boat 10 was 1/4 mile away. At that same inquiry, Edward Buley told his interrogators, that after his boat left the Titanic, she "Settled down... She went down as far as the afterfunnel, and then there was a little roar, as though the engines had rushed forward, and she snapped in two, and the bow part went down and the afterpart came up and stand up five minutes before it went down. It was horizontal at first, and then went down...we could see the afterpart afloat, and there was no forepart to it. I think she must have parted where the bunkers were. She parted at the last, because the afterpart of her settled out of the water horizontally after the other part went down. First of all you could see her propellers and everything. Her rudder was clear out of the water. You could hear the rush of the machinery, and she parted in two, and the afterpart settled down again, and we thought the afterpart would float altogether. [The afterpart] uprighted herself for about five minutes, and then tipped over and disappeared, [going down] headforemost [not on the side].

Buley further noted, "You could see she went in two, because we were quite near to her and could see her quite plainly...we could see the outline of the ship...We were about 200 yards [away]."

Frank Evans concurred: from a distance of 200 yards, he could see that the ship, "parted between the third and fourth funnels...The foremost part was gone, and it seemed as if the engines were all gone out." He agreed with Senator Fletcher that, "After the forepart had disappeared the stern came up and was horizontal with the surface of the water" and that the part that had broken up was "From the after funnel to the ensign mast...about 200 feet was afloat...You could see that in the outline. Then she made a sudden plunge [forward], and the stern went right up. [The stern was afloat] about four or five minutes [in that horizontal position."

Boat 11

In America, W.Brice described the sinking as follows: "[She went] bow down first...She went down almost perpendicular...she became a black mass before she made the final plunge." He could not see if the ship had broken apart, but agreed with Charles MacKay that the distance was 1/4 mile away.

In his book, Gracie reprints Philip Mock's description; "We were probably a mile away when the Titanic's lights went out. I last saw the ship with her stern high in the air going down. After the noise I saw a huge column of black smoke slightly lighter than the sky rising high into the sky and then flattening out at the top like a mushroom."

Emma Schabert wrote to Walter Lord; "She was still brilliantly lighted and looked very mighty in the starlit night. We had been out about half an hour when the bow of the boat disappeared, the stern rose high in the air and then the tremendous craft slid rapidly into the bottomless ocean. Then we heard explosion after explosion..."

Nellie Becker wrote to The Madras Mail for their May 22, 1912 edition; "She seemed to break right in the middle, and the middle fall in."

Steward Leo Hyland made the following sketch, possibly indicating his boat's location with respect to the wreck. Note that his sketch seemingly shows boat 15 coming down soon after boat 13 (which is what happened on that night) but it also shows the Titanic with two mastlights, whereas it is now accepted that only her foremast carried a lamp.
The problem is that boat 11, on which Hyland left, departed from the doomed ship only a few minutes before numbers 13 and 15. Hyland's sketch, showing a full broadside view, cannot be accurate as his boat could not have got so far away from the hulk. His sketch, therefore, must be illustrative rather than accurate.

Boat 12

In America, Imanita Shelley could only provide a few details; "on reaching a distance of about 100 yards from the Titanic a loud explosion or noise was heard, followed closely by another, and the sinking of the big vessel began." Her distance conflicts with that of Fred Clench who said they were a quarter of a mile away. He told his interrogators in America:

Q. Did you hear any explosion?
A. I heard two explosions, sir.
Q. Immediately preceding the sinking of the ship?
A. Yes. Well, before the ship had sunk there was one explosion.
Q. How long before the ship sank?
A. I should say a matter of 10 minutes before she went under...There was another explosion, but I could not say how long from one to the other.
Q. After the second explosion, you having only heard two --
A. Only two, I heard.
Q. Then did the ship disappear?
A. The lights went out after the second explosion. Then she gradually sank down into the water very slowly.
Q. How long a time would you say it was after the second explosion before she sank out of sight?
A. I should say a matter of about 20 minutes.
Q. In the sinking of the ship did she apparently go bow down and did the stern go away up in the air?
A. Yes, sir; the stern was well up in the air when the bow was underneath.

In London,

John Poingdestre's description was more vivid (from a distance of 150 yards, he claimed): "I thought when I looked that the ship broke at the foremost funnel...because I had seen that [forward] part disappear..she was short; the afterpart righted itself after the foremost part had disappeared." He agreed with Lord Mersey's question that the fore part went to the bottom, and the remainder came "on an even keel." From his location, Poingdestre could see that the water was up to the officer's quarters just before the ship sank. He could see the keel and the propellor[s?]. Then the ship uprighted itself "as if nothing had happened" and floated "not above a couple of minutes."

Boat 13

George Beauchamp gave the only description of the sinking at either inquiry (The British one): "she went down bows first; I could see the stern and then the stern went...I could hear a roaring just like thunder."

Fortunately other accounts exist:

Lawrence Beesley, in 'The Loss of the S.S. Titanic' said that from a mile or two away, he saw the following: "And then as we gazed awe-struck, she tilted slowly up, revolving apparently about a center of gravity just astern of amidships, until she attained a vertical upright position; and there she remained - motionless! As she swung up, her lights, which had shone without a flicker all night, went out suddently, came on again for a single flash, then went out altogether. And, as they did so, there came a noise which many people, wrongly I think, have described as an explosion...it was partly a roar, 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] prolonged, more like the roll and crash of thunder. When the noise was over the Titanic was still upright like a column: we could now see her only as the stern and some 150 feet of her stood outlined against the star-specked sky, looming black in the darkness, and in this position, she continued for some minutes-I think as much as five minutes, but it may have been less. Then, first sinking back a little at the stern, I thought, she slid forwards through the water and dived slantingly down."

From what I can ascertain, Beesley is the only one to describe the lights coming back on for a single flash and yet this is repeated in many books on the sinking. Incidentally, Mary Hewlett put the distance as 1 1/2 miles away.

Fred Ray also gave an estimate of one mile's distance.

Washington Dodge gave a lecture, and declared, "The gradual submersion of the vessel forward increased...followed by the extinguishment of all the lights. We saw the vessel then clearly outlined as a great dark shadow on the water, probably at a distance of about a mile...suddenly, while I was looking at the dark outline of the steamer, I saw her stern rise high from the water, and then the vessel was seen to completely disappear from sight with startling rapidity. A series of loud explosions, three or four in number, were then heard..."

Alexander Littlejohn's account was partialled quoted by the Marine Forensic Panel: "We watched her like this for some time, and then suddenly she gave a plunge forward and all the lights went out. Her stern went right up in the air. There were two or three explosions and it appeared to that the stern part came down again and righted itself.”

Ruth Becker agreed. Despite statements to the contrary, she was always certain that the Titanic had broken up. In 1913, her account was published in the St.Nicholas Magazine in which she says, "...We could see the port lights go under one by one until there was an awful explosion of the boilers bursting. And then the ship seemed to break right down the middle...and after a bit, go down."

Albert Caldwell wrote to a Mrs.Buchanna on April 30th 1912 that he was "half a mile" from the Titanic.

Boat 14

Fifth Officer Lowe testimony to the US Inquiry was short; "She went down head first and inclined at an angle. That is, when she took her final plunge she was inclined at an angle of about 75 degrees." In London he was just as terse. He did not see the afterpart right herself onto an even keel at all, even though he was only 150 yards away, he claimed.

George Crowe (US Inquiry) also saw the ship sink. "After getting clear of the ship the lights were still burning very bright, but as we got away she seemed to go lower and lower, and she almost stood up perpendicular, and her lights went dim, and presently she broke clean in two, probably two-thirds of the length of the ship...one-third of the aft funnel sticking up. The after part floated back, ... then there was an explosion, and the aft part turned on end and sank"

Charlotte Collyer gave an account to "The Semi-Monthly Magazine" (May, 1912) (though some suspect that it is partially invention or ghos-written based on her story of Lowe rescuing a Japanese passenger from the flotsam):
"The end was very close. It came with a deafening roar that stunned me. Something in the very bowels of the Titanic exploded and millions of sparks shot up to the sky. This red spurt was fan shaped as it went up but the sparks dispersed in every direction in the shape of a fountain of fire. Two other explosions followed dull and heavy, as if below the surface the Titanic broke into two before my eyes. The fore part was already partly under the water. It wallowed over and vanished instantly. The stern reared straight on end and seemed poised on the ocean for many seconds, they seemed minutes to us. It was only then that the electric lights on board went out."

Joseph Scarrott gave a brief account at the British Inquiry ("the ship went with a rush, and you could hear the breaking up of things in the ship, and then followed four explosions") but was more lucid later on. The relevant part of his story, from "Titanic Voices" is as follows, "She went slowly down. bow first with a slight list to starboard until the water reached the bridge, then she went quicker. When the third funnel had nearly disappeared I heard four explosions, which I took to be the bursting of the boilers. The ship was right up on end then. Suddently she broke in two between the third and fourth funnel. The after part of the ship came down on the water in its normal position and seemed as if it was going to remain afloat, but it only remained a minute or two then it sank. The lights were burning right up until she broke in two."

Another of Scarrott's account appeared in the Sphere newspaper on May 25th, 1912: "She went down bow first with a slight list to starboard until the water reached the bridge, then she went quicker. When the third funnel had nearly disappeared I heard four explosions, which I took to be the bursting of the boilers. The ship was right on end then. Suddenly she broke in two between the third and fourth funnel. The after part of the ship came down on the water in its normal position and seemed as if it was going to remain afloat, but it only remained a minute or two and then sank. The lights were burning right up until she broke in two."

Ellen Walcroft's tale was recounted in The Maidenhead Advertiser on April 29th: "We could see the ship gradually going down, but all the lights were on, when suddenly two terrible explosions took place. The ship seemed to go forward and then split in the middle and then there were two more explosions that seemed from underneath the water."

Esther Hart said, in "The Ilford Graphic" (10/5/12) that the ship was breaking in halves: "Then with a mighty and tearing sob, as of some gigantic thing instinct with life, the front portion of her dived...into the sea, and the after part, with a heavy list, also disappeared...for a few moments we could see everything that was happening, for, as the vessel sank, millions and millions of sparks flew up and lit everything around us."

Esther's daughter, Eva, also claimed this, but it is sometimes stated that she changed her story, something that this author has not been able to substantiate.

Boat 15

Arthur Lewis's account was published in "The Southampton Echo" on 9/12/72; "...the propellers was up in the air. And after ten minutes we heard a sound as the engines fell off the blocks and then she just slid down under the water."

George Pelham was not called at either inquiry, but his deposition is one of the few that have survived; "...when about a half mile off we heard two explosions and rumbling noises. Directly afterwards she seem to break in two and the stern to partly right itself for a brief period. The lights were burning till the last..."

Charles Dahl's story appeared in The Manitoba Free Press on April 29th, 1912: "..we rowed about three quarters of a mile from the ship. By this time the water was up to the bridge of the doomed vessel. The bow settled long before the stern. Suddenly we heard an explosion, and in two minutes a second followed. All the lights then went out. She seemed to break in two. The stern went down. There was no trouble for us to see it. There seemed to be a black cloud come up as the head went down.

Fireman Frank Dymond's story was published in the Hampshire Telegraph on May 3rd of 1912; "The Titanic broke in two, and her boilers blew up. The sound of the machienry as it ran out of her was plainly heard when she went down."

Walter Nichols story was oublished in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on April 19th: "The ship sank slowly and steadily and thn we heard a little explosion that must have been the first boiler. After that the lights began to go out in different parts of the ship. The came a big explosion. We could see a mass of black smoke. The boat seemed to lift right up out of the water and tilt up on end, and then seemed to break and drop back. For one moment she was right up in the air standing on her nose."

Boat 16

C.E.Andrews evidence in America is as follows: "I should say about half a mile [from the Titanic] ... I heard just a small sound; it was not very loud, but just a small sound. When we got away in the boat at the last everything seemed to go to a black mist. All the lights seemed to go out and everything went black...[the lights] seemed to go out altogether." He states that he did not know if the ship broke up or not.

At the same inquiry, Ernest Archer was also not certain; he could "not say" that the ship broke up, even though he could see the ship from his boat, a quarter of a mile away. All he said to his questioners is that he was watching the ship settle down all the time.

Percy Keen's story appeared in "Titanic Voices": "...afterwards we saw the fore part of the ship break away up to the foremost funnel, and it appeared to us that when the ship had listed heavily to port the engines fell out and crashed through the side. The second funnel broke off, and killed a number of men in its fall."

It is probably a coincidence, but when the Titanic split apart, the forward set of cylinders of the reciprocating engines were broken off and hurtled to the ocean floor.

Boat C

At the British Inquiry, Albert Pearcey noted that the Titanic "was plunging forward" and saw her stern upstanding.

Quartermaster Rowe told the Senators in America that after he had left the ship, he "heard one [explosion]... It was not an explosion; a sort of a rumbling...more like distant thunder...[this was] before she sank." Rowe was three quarters of a mile away and saw her stern disappear at the end.

According to Wyn Craig Wade's book "Titanic - End of a Dream" Frank Goldsmith Jr. recalled hearing someone in his boat say "She's going to float!"

Goldmsith's story could very well indicate that someone (unidentified) had seen the stern fall back making them think that it was going to float.

Boat D

In America, John Hardy said that "[they] could get a full view of her, unfortunately...she went down head first...[the stern did] not [go] perpendicular, but almost. Her stern was right out of the water."

Arthur Bright had this to say; "I was 50 to 100 yards away, I would say, when she went down. I could not be exact, but about that...She broke in two. All at once she seemed to go up on end, you know, and come down about half way, and then the afterpart righted, itself again and the forepart had disappeared. A few seconds the after part did the same thing and went down. I could distinctly see the propellers - everything - out of the water...Then that [stern] righted itself again, got on an even keel again after that...It settled down in the water on an even keel." Stating that the bow had disappeared, he said that the ship broke "near the middle"

William Lucas stated in London that he saw the Titanic sink from a distance of about 150 yards. He was not asked for any further details.

May Futrelle's story appeared in The Seattle Daily Times On April 22nd and 23rd, 1912; "Of a suddent the lights snapped out. There was a tremendous creaking noise, the Titanic seemed to break in two. Then there was a tremendous explosion. For a fraction of a second she arose in the air and was plainly visible in the light caused by the blowing up of the boilers." She gave a second account to The Phildelphia Evening Bulletin Which appeared on April 29th: "The rows of lights began to go out in sections, as someone had gone along the boat turning off the control switches one by one...we could still see her great hulk. She began to settle by the nose. Then came two dull explosions. We saw her break in two. The bow, which had been pointing downwards, dipped, turned up again, writhed and sank with the stern - exactly as though one had stepped on a worm." Her setimate of the distance was "half a mile, it may have been less."

This later description of the bow rising again is reminscent of the famous Thayer/Skidmore sketch, reproduced on this page.

Hugh Woolner's account in America agreed with the 150 yards distance. He was watching the Titanic go down and did not think she broke in two. He also said, "she seemed to me to stop for about 30 seconds at one place before she took the final plunge, because I watched one particular porthole, and the water did not rise there for at least half a minute and then she suddenly slid under with her propellers under the water...[I heard] a sort of [cotinuous] rumbling roar, it sounded to me, as she slid under.I could not really see a thing when the lights went out. It was all brilliantly lighted at the stem end, and suddenly the lights went out, and your eyes were so unaccustomed to the darkness, you could see nothing, and you could only hear sounds."
His letter, written on board the Carpathia added little more; "[The] Lights were still burning and she settled forward still further, then stopped for about thirty seconds. Suddenly, with a terrific roar, like thousands of tons of rocks rumbling down a metal shute, she plunged down, head first. Every light went out and the roaring went on for about a minute." Woolner gave an account to a friend which appeared in the Calgray Herald on April 21, 1912; "They had gone about 200 yards when the Titanic sank. Her lights were all burning. As Woolner described it, she suddenly pitched head on, stern rising at least 80 feet into the air, and she seemed to slide rather than sink, takin gher final plunge head foremost at an angle of probably 45 degrees. It was on this account that there was almost no suction.
Woolner says that about 30 seconds elapsed, he judges, from the time she lifted until she went to the bottom.
However we got away from her and got clear, but only about 150 yards, when I saw the monster take a huge tilt forward and her stern came clean out of the water at least eighty feet."

Irene Harris wrote to Archibald Butt's widow, and although she did not give any details about the sinking, she did say that they were "less than a hundred yards" from the Titanic.

On board/near the Titanic

Baker Charles Joughin was still on board the ship at the end. He recounted his story in London:
"I kept out of the crush [of people heading aft] as much as I possibly could, and I followed down - followed down getting towards the well of the deck, and just as I got down towards the well [the Titanic] gave a great list over to port and threw everybody in a bunch except myself. I did not see anybody else besides myself out of the bunch...I was not exactly in the well, I was on the side, practically on the side then. She threw them over. At last I clambered on the side when she chucked them...[the starboard side] was not going up, but the other side was going down...there were hundreds piled up [in the bunch]...the ship did not return [from the list]...[I got] on the side of the ship "by the poop"...I did not see anyone else on the poop...I was just wondering what next to do. I had tightened my belt and I had transferred some things out of this pocket into my stern pocket. I was just wondering what next to do when she went..."
He found himself in the water. He later stated that "[The Titanic] was not far out of the water at any stage that I saw...[When the ship sank] It was a glide. There was no great shock, or anything."
Joughin seems to indicate that the ship never attained the perpendicular...The electric lights were burning right to the very last. I saw the time by my watch at a quarter-past two...I was getting towards the rail. It was a quarter-past two then."

According to Joughin, the lights were burning till the very end, something contradicted by the dozens of eye witnesses in the lifeboats. There are some other problems with his testimony. Perhaps he had imbibed more liquor than he would later admit to?

Compare this with his story as given to the New York Evening Journal on April 19th, 1912:"I remained on board until the Titanic began to sank. Then I jumped...I began swimming vigorously, knowing that if I did not get far away from the liner before she sank the suction would draw me under and there would be no hope."

Now, what must we make of the Chief Baker's story?

Patrick Dillon was on the poop, along with "others" (something that contradicts Joughin). His testimony in London is as follows:
Q. Before the ship actually went down did you see her make any movements? A. Yes, she took one final plunge and righted herself again.
Q. She gave a plunge and righted herself again? A Yes.
Q. Did you notice anything about the funnel? A. Not then.
Q. Did you afterwards notice something about the funnel? A Yes.
Q. What? A. When she went down.
Q. Was that after you had left the ship? A Before I left the ship.
Q. What did you notice? A. Well, the [aftermost] funnel seemed to cant up towards me.
Q. Did you get the idea that the ship was breaking in two? A. No.
Q. When you came up again, after you were sucked down - you told us you were sucked down and came up again was the ship still floating then? A. No.
Q. She had sunk when you came up again? A. Well, I saw what I thought would be the afterpart of her coming up and going down again, final.
Q. Then she had not sunk? A. She came up and went down again.
Q. You saw what you thought was the afterpart coming up again? A. I thought it was the ship coming up again. She came up and went down again - finish.

Dillon did not mention the ship taking such a huge list that everyone was thrown into a heap, as Joughin asserts. He also mentions the ship righting herself, confirming the statements of witnesses off the ship. To be fair, Dillon's testimony does have some problems, mainly timing issues.

Frank Prentice gave interviews with the BBC in 1966 and shortly before he passed on in the 1980s. Amalgamating these accounts, he said that he was hanging onto the stern by the port side sign warning nearby ships that the Titanic had triple screws. The stern "went down" and then "came up like a float." He also mentions that people were sliding down into the well [deck], perhaps indicating that the list had been more forward than to port (otherwise he would have noticed many people sliding towards him !)

Prentice had been talking to a fellow crewman named Cyril Ricks, who had also been in conversation with Alfred Theissinger. In the Washington Herald on April 19th, he is quoted as saying, "As we stood looking at this [the? iceberg], the cause of the disaster, a violent explosion suddenly shook the entire boat. I lost sight of Reick, [Ricks] but saved myself from being thrown---God only knows where---by grabbing hold of the rail. The vessel seemed to break in two. The part on which I stood went way up into the air and remained in that position. This was the stern. The lights had gradually gone out, excepting one light near where I stood. Several hundred men were gathered about me. I saw that all was over.
“Steward Selbert [Siebert?] was the nearest person to me. All of us had life belts on. I said to Selbert; ‘Come, we had better get away and take our chances before she sinks. I leaped into the water and he followed me."

In the water was Thomas Whiteley, and he gave a lecture with the following details: "When I got the rope on my leg off I came to the top, made for some wreckage which I hung on to, just in time to see the Titanic blow her sides away. She broke in the middle, her forward end went down. The aft end righted itself, went right up into the air and disappeared. So, she must have been full of water, as there was no air in her. There was no suction or I would not have been here."

Somewhere nearby was George Rheims. At the Limitation of Liability hearings, he told his inquisitors; " "I jumped on the starboard side near the gymnasium...I swam out to go away from the "Titanic" to avoid the suction, but there was no suction; I did not notice any; and while I was swimming I looked over my shoulder and saw the "Titanic" go down...She went down straight; I saw the screws out of the water in the air; she went down perfectly straight; put her nose in the water; then when she disappeared I turned and tried to come back, where I thought she had gone down, in order to get hold of a piece of wreckage, and I saw some people who seemed to be standing in the water, when I got on this Englehardt A..."

Richard Norris Williams had also leapt into the water. Walter Lord made the following notes during an interview in 1962, "Water catches up with them [he and his father] and sweeps them up the deck toward the stern. Ship seems to be rushing forward and down, making the wave that engulfs them. Father swept aft and away. Carried overboard himself. Hears a last word from father. Strikes out swimming. Thinks he goes a mile - actually 50 - 100 feet. Turns around a watches in astonishment as Titanic towers over him. Despite the horror and the peril, can't help feeling it's a majestic sight. The Titanic rises, settles back, then starts rising again . . . this time all the way. Stern rises right out of the water, till rudder and three propellers are clearly visible, right above. Seems to twist around in a semi-circle, then plunges straight down."

Edward Brown was in the water having been swept out of boat A, right before the forward funnel. He heard a "great noise...a great report...With the first report of that explosion I saw the afterpart of the ship giving a tremble..., and I thought by the afterpart going up... and giving a bit of a tremble that the bow had fallen off. I might be wrong." The lights were burning when the ship gave this "tremble," and as the bridge went from under him, he heard the first explosion.

It is astonishing that Brown did not mention the forward funnel falling!

Perched atop the swamped collapsible lifeboat A was Eugene Daly.His story appeared in "The Daily Sketch", May 4th, 1912. Here is the pertinent portion: "As I stood on the craft I saw the ship go down. Her stern went up and she gradually went down forward. Her stern stuck up high. I thought she would fall over on us, and she seemed to be swinging around, but she did not. "

Another incumbent of the flimsy craft was August Wennerstrom. He wrote: "Men jumped and were (was) washed overboard. Titanic sank deeper and deeper. So came a second explosion that threw us me clear across the deck as a wonder, we landed right in front of a collapsible boat, that had until now been overlooked. We took hold of same and in some way, we got one side loose and in some other way, the other side. We had not to push the boat off the deck, as the Titanic by this time was under the water and we were floating about her decks, and the Titanic turned her nose down under the water and her back-part raised higher and higher.
When the third explosion came we were right above one of the funnels and the explosion ripped the bottom out of our boat and threw us clear around the Titanic to the other side. here we stayed and laid, holding fast to our bottomless canvas-boat, which was filled with water, but could not sink account the cork-railing around her sides. It was a scene that I will never forget. It was horrible, but at the same time in one way that I am not able to explain, a wonderful dramatic act. Right to the left of us stood the Titanic with her nose 700 ft. down under the water and her stern in nearly 60 degree about 150 ft. above the sea level. The titanic sank in the position very slowly deeper and deeper and the last we saw of her was the electric light, still burning when she was under the water."

Wennestrom does not mention the ship break up. His account should perhaps be considered with some caution as his memories of Captain Smith's last actions do not fit with what we know ("Coming out of the deck, again, we met a swedish woman from Chicago. She had, if I remember right, 4 small children and had not gotten them dressed in time to get in the lifeboats. We helped her with the children and I carried one of them. We met Capt. Smith, he picked up one of her children, but said that our time was coming, and before he finished the words, one of the boilers in the engine room exploded, and threw us all apart. This was the last I saw of the woman and her children from chicago"). Smith is commonly accepted as diving into the water as the bridge became inundated.

William J. Mellors had been near boat A and according to his account to Dorothy Ockenden, on May 9, 1912, was washed off the Titanic by an explosion: "When I came to my senses a few minutes after I looked round and suddenly saw the ship part in the middle with the stern standing several hundred feet out of the water."

John Collins had been sucked down but had emerged to clamber onto boat B, upside down and a refuge for dozens of men ultimately. When he came to the surface, the lights of the Titanic were burning, but by the time he clambered onto the boat, they were off. His questioning in the US is as follows:
Q. When you were in the water, after you came up above the surface of the water, you saw the lights on the Titanic?
A. Just as I came up to the surface, sir. Her bow was in the water. She had not exploded then. Her bow was in the water, and I just looked around and saw the lights.
Q. Had she broken in two?
A. Her bow was in the water and her stern was up.
Q. But you did not see any break? You did not think she had parted, and broken in two?
A. Her bow was in the water. She exploded in the water. She exploded once in the water, and her stern end was up out of the water; and with the explosion out of the water it blew her stern up.
Q. You saw it while it was up?
A. Yes, sir; saw her stern up.
Q. How long?
A. I am sure it floated for at least a minute.
Q. The lights were still burning?
A. No, sir; the lights was out.
Q. If it was dark, how could you see?
A. We were not too far off. I saw the white of the funnel. Then she turned over again, and down she went.

John B. Thayer Jr. also observed the end of the ship from his precarious vantage point. "The Evening Bulletin" of Philadelphia published his story on Thursday, April 14, 1932:
"Long and I stood by the rail away from the crowd, about midship, and talked over many things, the ship all this while sinking faster and faster, seeming to move forward in the water as it went down by the head. I was trying to get away from the ship. I looked back and the second funnel fell and missed me by about ten yards. This funnel, large enough for two automobiles to go through abreast, made a tremendous additional wash and suction. I was drawn down again...The Titanic seemed to hang and with the roar of boilers and engines breaking loose in the hold slipping to the forward part of the ship the stern bulkheads held and the ship, pivoting and moving in an almost perpendicular position, was sticking up in the air almost 300 feet.
The ship then corkscrewed around so that the propeller, rudder and all seemed to go right over the heads of us on the upturned boat. Of course the lights now were all out. The ship seemed to hang in this position for minutes. Then with a dive and final plunge, the Titanic went under the water with very little apparent suction or noise."

His 1940 account is thus; "She continued to make the same forward progress as when I left her. The water was over the base of the first funnel...the rumble and roar continued...suddenly the whole superstructure of the ship appeared to split, well forward to midship, and blow or buckle upwards. The second funnel ... seemed to be lifted off, emiting a cloud of sparks...[she was] 50 or 60 yards away. The forward motion had stopped. She was pivoting on a point just abaft of midship. Her stern was gradually rising into the air...the last funnel was about on the surface on the water...I do not believe it fell.

Her deck was turned slightly towards us...the great after part of the ship, two hundred and fifty feet of it, rose into the sky, till it reached a sixty five or seventy degree angle. Her it seemed to pause and just hung for what felt like minutes. Gradually she turned her deck away from us...we were gradually being sucked in towards the great pivoting mass. I looked upwards - we were right underneath the three enormous propellers. Then with the deadened noise, she slid quietly away from us into the sea."

Thayer did not think the ship broke up into separate pieces but thinks that engines and boilers crashed in amidships, breaking the keel downwards.

2nd Officer Charles Lightoller was sure that the ship went down intact, and gave a detailed account in London: "After the funnel fell there was some little time elapsed. I do not know exactly what came or went, but the next thing I remember I was alongside this collapsible boat again, and there were about half a dozen standing on it. I climbed on it, and then turned my attention to the ship. The third if not the second funnel was still visible, certainly the third funnel was still visible. The stern was then clear of the water...she was gradually raising her stern out of the water. Even at that time I think the propellers were clear of the water. That I will not be certain of...Only the forward [funnel had broken away], I am not sure whether [the 2nd funnel] was below water or not."
He then contradicted himself, "No, the second funnel was immersed. As a matter of fact, I am rather under the impression that the whole of the third funnel was visible. [The afterpart] did not settle on the water...I was watching her keenly the whole time...After [the ship] reached an angle of 50 or 60 degrees, or something about that, there was this rumbling sound, which I attributed to the boilers leaving their beds and crushing down on or through the bulkheads. The ship at that time was becoming more perpendicular, until finally she attained the absolute perpendicular - somewhere about that position , and then went slowly down. She went down very slowly until the end, and then, after she got so far, the afterpart of the second cabin deck, she, of course, went down much quicker."

He also wrote about the end in his autobiography "Titanic and Other Ships": "The fore part, and up to the second funnel was by this time completely submerged, and as we watched...suddenly all the lights went out and the huge bulk was left in black darkness, but clearly silhouetted against the bright sky. [Then I heard the hollow thundering roar] ..the huge ship slowly but surely reared herself on end and brought rudder and propellers clear out of the water, till, at last, she assumed an absolutely perpendicular position. In this amazing attitude she remained for the space of half a minute. Then with impressive majesty and ever-increasing momentum, she silently took her last tragic dive."

Of interest is an anecdote related by Thayer in his 1940 pamphlet. He met Lightoller on the S.S. Oceanic in 1914 and the two of them compared notes: "We agreed on almost everything," Thayer wrote, "with the exception of the splitting or bending of the ship. He did not think it broke at all."

The second funnel

Much has been written and spoken of the 1st funnel and its collapse, and also of Patrick Dillon who saw the 4th funnel cant aftwards towards the poop deck, but little has been written about concerning the 2nd funnel. There are a few account above of the 2nd funnel falling, but one not mentioned above is by Richard Norris Williams, whose account appeared in the May 11th 1997 edition of "Main Line Life": "my efforts to swim in the direction of the starboard rail to get away from the ship...Before I had swam more than ten feet I felt the deck come up under me and I found we were high and dry. My father was not more than 12 or 15 feet from me...He started towards me just as I saw one of the four great funnels come crashing down on top of him." He doesn't mention the funnel in his interview with Walter Lord, partially repeated above. It should be pointed out that there are doubts about Williams's story. As George Behe says, "[he] never mentioned a falling funnel in any of his 1912 accounts. Instead, he merely said that he lost track of his father when the foredeck began to submerge. A close reading of Williams' modern-day account of the falling funnel reveals a number of serious contradictions that make me doubt its authenticity and wonder if he might have merely assumed that his father was killed by the falling funnel."

Lightoller says that, a little while before the forward funnel fell, the bridge and crow's nest were on the waterline, and from this, we can deduce the likely situation at this point:

Note from Norris's story that the wave that coursed along the boat deck washed him high and dry. From Lightoller, the blowers at the base of the 1st funnel were underwater, and shortly afterwards the stack fell near him after he managed to extricate himself from the gratings. The only place that would be "high and dry" would be well aft, somewhere near the 2nd funnel. It is difficult to envisage the 1st funnel falling so far aft that it could have reached the area of funnel 2. If one draws a circle with its centre at the rear base of the 1st funnel and its radius equal to its height, the funnel would still fall short of the 2nd funnel's area.

Thayer offers much more in the way of evidence for the fall of the 2nd funnel. He even says that it fell near him, on the starboard side of the ship. He even talks about the drop to the water being about 10 yards when he and his companion jumped from the doomed ship, "about abreast of the second funnel." It is unlikely that he was confused about the identification of the funnels; he even writes about water washing around the base of the first funnel, so he was about to differentiate between them. It may be prudent to mention that Thayer's opinion had changed over the years. I am grateful to Ioannis Georgiou for providing me with a copy of Thayer's account that appeared in "The New York World" newspaper on April 21st, 1912, in which Thayer is reported as saying that, after he had jumped, "I was clear of the ship, went down, and as I came up, I was pushed away from the ship by some force. I came up facing the ship, and one of the funnels seemed to be lifted off and fell towards me about fifteen yards away, with a mass of sparks and steam coming out of it. I saw the ship in a sort of red glare, and it seemed to me that she broken in two just in front of the third funnel [NB: which is exactly where the Titanic did split]." After being sucked down, Thayer came up to the surface again and found refuge on boat "B": "The stern then seemed to rise in the air and stopped at about an angle of 60 degrees. It seemed to hold there for a time and then with a hissing sound it shot right down out of sight with people jumping from the stern. The stern either pivoted around towards our boat, or we were sucked towards it, and as we only had one oar we could not keep away."

This is so very close to the account that appeared in print in "The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters" by Logan Marshall, that the newspaper account must have been the basis for the book. The only inclusion in Marshall's book is that, before jumping, Thayer stated that "about this time she straightened up on an even keel and started to go down fairly fast at an angle of about 30 degrees," and then stood by the rail about even with the second funnel.

It is tempting to speculate that Collins, and Gracie, who were nearby and were also sucked down like Thayer, has also been caught in the suction of the funnel falling. But why did Thayer not mention the falling funnel to the father of his shipboard companion? The answer may be one of tact. I suspect that Thayer did not want to give Judge Long the impression that his son was squashed to pulp in the last few minutes.

But why did no-one see the 1st and 2nd funnel falling (apart from Emily Ryerson in boat 4?) The answer is uncertain but it may have to do with the timing. Lightoller was unsure of seeing the 2nd funnel when he was standing on boat B. He says it may have been immersed. Perhaps the reason is that the two forward funnels fell so close to one another in time that those washed off boat B by the wave generated by funnel one were more concerned with their own struggle for survival rather than making note of the tragic scene before them.

Are there any forensic clues from the wreck that describe the collapse of funnel 2? If there are, not much data has been alluded to. A red herring is included in the 1991 IMAX expedition companion book, "Titanic In A New Light". A photograph is caption saying that it shows the collapsed boat deck on the port side, and its curvature indicates that it might have been hit by the 2nd funnel. Sadly, the photo is miscaptioned, as the photo actually shows the collapsed forward bridge bulwark on the starboard side which now sags not too far above deck A below. Parks Stephenson conjectures that the 2nd funnel fell to port in his wreck observation essay.

The Puzzle of Boat B

Overturned boat B was swept off the boat deck on the port side of the Titanic, but ended up as a refuge to people on the starboard side. With two exceptions, every individual on baots A and B were initially on the starboard side: Olaus Abelseth on the starboard side, ended up on boat A; George Rheims was on the starboard side near gymnasium, and he found himself on boat A after he swam back to where the ship had gone down; Rhoda Abbott had previously been awaiting departure near boat C and got on boat A; August Weikman was on starboard side (boat A), as was Richard Norris (boat A) and Eugene Daly (boat A). Jack Thayer was on the starboard side and ended up on boat B, as did Archibald Gracie and John Collins.

The only exceptions to this are Harold Bride, who swam from the port side of the Titanic, and then back again, finding boat B. The other one is Victor Sunderland and his story is interesting. In "The Cleveland Plain Dealer", on Friday, April 26, 1912 he said; "A lifeboat, bottomside up and evidently one of those which had overturned under its load, floated up to the rail and we grabbed for it. We climbed upon it and it drifted over the submerged part of the Titanic. We passed under the forward funnel and just as we were clear it fell. At that minute the Titanic broke in two just aft of amidships and the stern stood straight in the air." "'Make for the stern. It looks like she will float,' Lightoller shouted, but just as he spoke the stern plunged down."

The mention of "the rail" is interesting. The solid bulwark, sometimes called a rail, at the portside bridge wing was now underwater. The other solid rail, running amidships, was too far aft for the boat to reach it. The rail is probably the barrier between the 1st class promenade and the officer's promenade on the boat deck, and just mere feet from where the boat had been tipped to the deck.

Lightoller's statement about "making for the stern" does not tie in with his statements that the ship would sink. If he had not seen the ship split apart, then why implore others to "make for it"? If it was still attached to the rest of the Titanic, then it would only provide a temporary refuge before it went down.

The most interesting part of the account is the boat drifting over the submerged part of the Titanic, and that it passed "under" the forward funnel. It must have taken some very little time to do this, as Lightoller did not see the boat when he was swimming in the water, and then dragged against the flow into the vents in front of the funnel. This presupposes that he was underwater for a short amount of time and therefore missed the boat drifting by.

How did the boat end up on the starboard side? Was it caught up in the suction that had threatened to take Lightoller down? Unlikely, as many were thrust into the water when the bridge lunged down and none, as far as I can gather, reported any suction. Lightoller reported that he was swimming for the starboard side of the Titanic when he was sucked against the vent. If he was hoping to swim for higher ground, then he may have swum very close to the vents just aft of the bridge. We do not know for sure.

A possible explanation is that the lifeboats, A and B, remained more or less in situ, but it was the Titanic that moved relative to them, as follows:

There are some objections to this. Quartermaster Rowe reported that the mystery light he was watching was 1/2 point on the port bow when he first saw it, and 2 points when he left the bridge (approximately 2am). The Titanic was therefore twisting to starboard, not to port at this time? A possible clue might be found in the writings of Thayer on April 23rd, 1912 to Judge Long, father of his companion, Milton Long. Thayer wrote that sometime between the departure of boat C, and him leaping from the ship, the "Titanic", which had a list of at least 10 degrees, "straightened up on an even keel." Yet, a very short time later, Long was reported to have slid down the side of the ship. How could he do this unless there was a list to port? The Titanic, if these two facts are accurate, must have become very unstable, perhaps leading to the twist to port?

Another conflict is the direction of the Titanic's bow on the sea-bed. It now faces approximately NNE. If the ship did twist to port, it would have pointed in a north-westerly direction. An obvious discrepancy. The "Discovery Channel" did tests on a model of the Titanic's bow in a watertank in the 1990s and determined that the ship's bow did not deviate from its heading on the surface. There are problems, though, one of which is the model was not tested with any port or starboard list. Without further testing it is impossible to say for sure if this would affect the trajectory of the bow on the way to the bottom.

Titanic researcher Sam Halpern is scpetical though; "With the bow submerged and still connected, there is no way that that could happen. However, with a list to port being carried, the bow plunging forward and downward might have produced a twist to port in the process especially is the break started on the starboard side. It does not seem so much as the boat moving over the submerged bow but the bow twisting somewhat underneath as it was breaking off from the stern. "

The final plunge

A number of survivors on boats A and B reported that the stern of the Titanic cork-screwed to port before it went under. There are also indirect suggestions that this happened too: Lightoller reported thinking that he saw the propellors, and Wennestrom wrote that he saw someone lowering themselves on the log-line next to the rudder. How could he have seen this if he now wasn't near the stern? (Cynics might argue that it was so dark, how could he see anything anyway?)

It is surprising that boats A and B, which started near the front of the boat deck could have wound up so far aft. Even the wash generated by the falling funnel(s) can't account for this. Thayer and others provide the answer: in addition to the Titanic plunging down, it was also plunging forward. The result of this was the huge wave that surged along the deck enveloping those rushing aft. When Thayer clambered on top of boat B, he was somewhere in the vicinity of the 2nd funnel. Gracie and Collins were also in the area of the 2nd funnel when they were sucked down. They wound up on boat B too. Another mechanism may have played a part for these boats drifting aft too: Frank Prentice once noted that debris from the ship had drifted to the stern; and Ricks, had injured himself by falling onto this floating flotsam.

Whether the "stern twist" is connected to the theory proposed above (that the Titanic herself twisted around in the water) is unknown. It is tempting to speculate that the bow, perhaps connected for a while by the double bottom, yanked on the detached stern, pulling it round. But by this time, the bow would surely have had so little buoyancy, it would not have lingered on the surface.

The stern "twist" (for want of a better moniker) would have a significant impact on the lifeboat occupant's view points. Boats that were once broadside (5 and 7) would now get more of a stern view of the ship, hiding the area of the break. This would explain why only one of the people from whom I have accounts (Olliver) mentioned that the Titanic had broken apart, and even then his language was cautious ("in my idea") perhaps indicating that he had deduced the splitting rather than seeing it. This tends to let Pitman "off the hook" in his non-break-up testimony; his rejection of the observation that the stern came back level with the sea, only to rise again can be attributed to the angle from which he saw the Titanic, plus the intense darkness.

Boat 4, which Lamp Trimmer Sam Hemming had seen on the port quarter, would now get a better broadside view of the Titanic. It would be interesting to find other accounts of boats that had seen the Titanic stem on (boats 8 and C, and perhaps boat 6) to see if they later on reported seeing things that previously had been invisible to them - such as port holes which could only be seen from the side, not the front.

"The Big Splash"

James Cameron's 1997 movie depicts the broken-off stern crashing down to the surface of the sea, generating a huge splash. None of the witnesses described here mentions seeing it, hearing it, or being soaked by it. Although the reasoning behind Cameron's imagery is logical, it simply did not happen. So, what happened? A massive structure, let loose and falling unhindered, can't simply fall back into the sea so gently that it passes without any mention of the noise etc. it would undoubtedly cause. That is, unless something happened to hinder its free-fall back to the sea. I believe that a restraining force, perhaps some last vestage of the shell plating or internal decks, remained intact long enough to prevent the stern falling back unhindered; then, after a while, the tolerance would be exceeded and these restraining structures would part.

The Rise of the Boatdeck

I am grateful to researchers George Behe and Tad Fitch for pointing one long overlooked aspect of the sinking, namely that before the big surge occurred that rushed along the boat deck, enveloping those people unfortunate enough to be in its path, the forward boat deck actually rose. I can offer no explanation for this. George Behe told me, "Whereas you suggest that Richard Williams was washed far aft by the wave that swept the Titanic's foredeck, I think the evidence shows pretty conclusively that the foredeck did indeed rise slightly after it first began to submerge and that the "big wave" came afterwards. Eugene Daly and William Mellors both described this same "rising" of the foredeck and made it clear that they were both still located beside the unlaunched collapsibles when this "rising" took place. I can't quite explain the reason for this rising, but I'm 99% certain that it happened just as these three men described and that Williams wasn't washed back to the position of the second funnel as you suggest." Tad Fitch agrees; "I agree with George regarding Richard N. Williams, in as much as that his accounts seem to match up with the forward area of the Boat Deck, and not the second funnel. Williams mentions the Boat Deck plunging then rising again slightly. Eugene Daly mentions this in his account transcribed by Dr. Blackmarr on the Carpathia, and William Mellors also mentions it, and all three were near the Bridge/Collapsible A at the time."

Interestingly, as partially recounted above, Thayer remarked that the Titanic seemed to come back on an even keel before presumably developing a list that enabled his friend to slide down the hull. Before all this, Thayer had noted that the list was so bad that he thought the Titanic would capsize. It is remarkable, to this author, that such a major list could be corrected. The timing of the "foredeck rise" fits in with Thayer's "even keel" observation. Was the "rise" a perception caused by one side of the Titanic rising relative to the other?

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