INTRODUCTION ICEBERG RIGHT AHEAD Lookout Frederick Fleet stared into the darkness from the tiny crow's nest high above the deck The Titanic was making good time slicing through the calm cold water of the North Atlantic Ocean But it could be hazardous to travel so rapidly at night Fleet and his fellow lookout Reginald Lee knew they were passing through ice infested waters The ship's safety depended on their vigilance in spotting icebergs Stars sparkled in the clear air but the moon was a tiny sliver on the evening of April 14 1912 and offered no light to aid the men in their observations Fleet detected a faint haze on the horizon Usually a pair of binoculars was kept in the crow's nest to help the lookouts see distant objects But the binoculars had been missing throughout the four days of the journey 6
At almost 1 40 PM Fleet noticed a mass that stood out in the darkness of the water It didn't seem large from his perch about the size of two tables shoved together he reckoned But it blocked the ship's pathway and grew rapidly bigger as the Titanic advanced A feeling of dread came over Fleet as he reached for the alarm bell There is ice ahead he informed Lee tersely He rang the bell three times as a sign of approaching danger Then Fleet put in an emergency telephone call to the bridge the area from which the captain charts the course of the ship What do you see asked a voice matter of factly Iceberg right ahead Thank you The phone disconnected Fleet had done everything he could with mounting anxiety he watched the iceberg loom closer and closer The two lookouts steeled themselves for impact With only seconds to spare the ship began to change its course Fleet and Lee watched the mountain of ice slip by off the starboard right side of the ship It seemed as if the Titanic might travel on safely Then a harsh scraping sound followed by an unusual silence alerted them that something was wrong after all Others heard the noise and felt a slight jolt Just a little vibration one passenger would later recall Iceberg Right Ahead 7 Another remembered a sensation Like rolling over a thousand marbles The Titanic's captain Edward Smith hurried to the bridge What have we struck he demanded
Anticipating his captain's commands First Officer William McMaster Murdoch had already rung the warming bell and ordered the watertight doors deep in the ship's hull to be closed All seemed normal on the upper decks of the ship But what about the levels below Captain Smith sent his fourth officer Joseph Boxhall to investigate Hurrying toward the bow front of the ship Boxhall descended as far as the lowest passenger level Although he did not find any damage he soon began to gather alarming reports from people who had been below The ship is making water carpenter John Hutchinson told him Jago Smith a mail clerk looking for the captain had equally bad news The mail hold is filing rapidly Meanwhile Thomas Andrews the managing director of the shipyard that built the Titanic had come onto the bridge He knew more about the ship's structure than anyone else on board Together Captain Smith and Andrews set out on their own tour to assess damage The collision with the iceberg had taken place below the waterline The pressure had caused metal plates to buckle and rivets holding the plates together to pop 8 ICEBERG RIGHT AHEAD
Five forward compartments at the bottom of the ship were flooding rapidly Although watertight bulkheads separated the ship's lowest compartments Andrews knew these walls were not tall enough The water would rise and spill over them into other areas Quietly Andrews broke the news to Captain Smith The Titanic was doomed How long have we asked the captain An hour and a half replied Andrews Possibly two Not much longer Edward Smith was a seasoned veteran perhaps the most respected captain of the White Star Line the shipping company that owned the Titanic Crew and passengers alike appreciated his thirty two years of experience and his steady courteous manner Some frequent travelers even said they would only sail on a ship captained by Smith Recently Smith had successfully dealt with two accidents on the Olympic the Titanic's sister ship But he had never faced a catastrophe of the magnitude before him with grim determination he began preparations to evacuate the ship Roused from sleep or from card games and conversation many passengers were more confused than alarmed The huge Titanic seemed solid and safe the water below dark and forbidding Pointing to a lifeboat American millionaire John Jacob Astor told his wife We are safer here than in that little boat Other passengers seemed to agree The Titanic had been built to be the largest safest ship in the world It was as long as four city blocks and as tall as an eleven story building Newspapers touted the vessel as unsinkable The New York Times went so far as to call the Titanic and other sturdily built ocean liners so secure against loss by collision that even after the most violent shock they will be kept afloat But as water continued to rise in the Titanic people realized the seriousness of their situation The ocean liner did not have nearly enough lifeboats for the more than two thousand people on board Under captain's orders the crew followed the time honored practice of women and children first But some women refused Iceberg Right Ahead
