The Titanic Mystery- How Could They Miss the Iceberg

The Titanic sank in two hours and 40 minutes. But the real horror began when the ship finally disappeared beneath the surface. People were thrown into the freezing water. It felt like being stabbed by a thousand knives at once. In the first few minutes, the weakest died from cardiac arrest. The rest would survive only another 15 to 30 minutes. That was in water with a temperature of negative 2 degrees Celsius. Today, some museums use tanks filled with water at that same temperature as a frame of reference. Most people can't keep their hand in it for even 20 seconds, even if they lower only one hand. The Titanic was the largest and one of the most expensive ships of its time. It had the most advanced safety features of its time. Yet it sank in its very first accident. Neither its captain nor the crew believed that was even possible. So what was it? An accident or negligence? Why didn't the nearby ship come to help? Why were so few people saved? And most of all, how could they not see the iceberg? Today, I'm going to share with you the story of the unsinkable ship as if it all happened yesterday. Every year, about 1 million migrants make their way to the United States. Airplanes don't exist yet, so most of them hit the high seas, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. And of course, whoever controls this route is sitting on a gold mine. At the time, the steamship was the peak of maritime travel. Year after year, ocean liners get bigger, fancier, and flashier. They get electricity, elevators, and even radios. But of course, all this luxury comes at a price. Running a ship like this means a crew of hundreds of people. British companies start losing money. That's when American businessman John Pierpont Morgan spots a golden opportunity. He wants to buy Cunard Line. Great Britain doesn't want to lose its ships, so it pitches in money to help. In 1907, Cunard Line uses the funds to build two next-gen liners, Lusitania and Mauritania. They reach America in just five days. Cunard Line's main rival was another British company, White Star Line. Joseph Bruce Ismay runs it. He already sold the company to John Morgan, but stays on as a managing director. Ismay isn't interested in racing for speed. It would cost too much time and money. Instead, he decides to stand out in a much flashier way, by building the most luxurious liner the world has ever seen. Ismay pitches the idea to Morgan, and Morgan gives it a green light. A bigger ship means more tickets, and better conditions mean wealthier passengers. And just like that, three liners are born. Olympic, Britannic, and Titanic. The first to launch is Olympic, which sails across the Atlantic successfully. Bruce Ismay is on board to spot every flaw and make the next ship even more spectacular. That next ship? You guessed it, Titanic. Its construction and testing ran from 1909 to 1911. Altogether, they spent a jaw-dropping $7.5 million on the ship. That's about $200 million by today's standards. Over 3,000 workers poured their sweat and skill into the Titanic, turning it into a real work of art. For Ismay, looking good came first. And because he cared so much about appearances, the Titanic even got a fake smokestack just to make the ship look perfectly symmetrical. Working alongside Ismay was Thomas Andrews, the chief designer of the Titanic. And let's just say his to-do list was massive. The new ocean liner wowed everyone with its size. 269 meters long, 53 meters tall, and 28 meters wide. At that time, it was the biggest ship anyone had ever seen. Check it out. Side-by-side with the skyscrapers of the day and even the Egyptian pyramids. The Titanic's power was just as insane. Steam for its turbine and engines came from 29 boilers. Every single day, they burned a mind-blowing 600 tons of coal. But here's the kicker. The Titanic wasn't just big. It was all about safety. The hull was reinforced with extra steel plates. And the ship had 16 watertight compartments with sealed doors ready to keep water out if anything went wrong. Even with all that, the designers never straight up said the Titanic was unsinkable. They used careful, cautious wording. But of course, the press simplified it into a headline everyone loved. Titanic, the unsinkable ship. And the creators didn't argue because, hey, that's some excellent marketing. Another big win for the Titanic, its captain, Edward Smith. At 62, he was a sea veteran through and through. He got all the company's first voyages on new ships, a real pro. This tall, gray-bearded man was the perfect image of a captain. He impressed elite passengers and made everyone feel safe. And Captain Smith truly believed that modern steamships just didn't sink. So Captain Smith was gearing up for his final voyage on the Titanic before retirement. Before setting sail, the ship got the official government stamp of approval. Inspectors from the British Board of Trade went over every inch and said Of course, those requirements were already pretty outdated. The Titanic had only 20 lifeboats on board, which could hold a total of 1,178 people. And that's on a ship that could fit three times as many. 3,547 people, crew included. So why didn't anyone freak out about this? It all comes down to these really old maritime laws. Since the late 19th century, big ships only needed 16 lifeboats. But steamships kept getting bigger and bigger. And the rules, well, they never really caught up. Even so, the first Titanic design actually planned for 48 lifeboats. But then the White Star Line bosses went, nah, let's just do 20. And you know why? Extra lifeboats would mess with the look of the promenade deck. Back then, nobody saw this as a problem. Lifeboats were not meant to save everyone at once. They were more like taxis. Here was the logic. New ocean liners were being built with better protection. Wireless telegraphy was now available. If something went wrong, all you had to do was send a distress signal. A nearby ship would change course and be there within an hour or two. Sure, there were fewer lifeboats than people, but that wasn't considered a problem. Make a few runs and everyone would be saved. No one believed the liner could sink that quickly. They thought it would take many hours to go down. Now the swankiest liner in the world is set to go. The plan? Titanic leaves Southampton for New York, with stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland. On board are 1,317 passengers and over 900 crew members. Almost half of the tickets never get sold. Thanks to that minor strike, lots of people postpone their trips. That includes John Morgan, officially because he's not feeling well. Also skipping the voyage are Lord Pirie, head of the shipyard where the Titanic was built. Still, the Titanic is full of big names. The most famous? John Jacob Astor. By then, his fortune had hit $87 million. In today's money, Astor would totally be a billionaire. On board, you'd also spot White Star Line director Joseph Ismay and the ship's chief designer, Thomas Andrews. They are riding along in the maiden voyage to make sure everything works like clockwork. Finally, at noon on April 10th, 1912, the Titanic sets sail. And within minutes, she nearly crashes on her very first day. As this massive liner passes the docked steamer New York, her weight makes the smaller ship bounce up and down like a toy. Eventually, New York's mooring lines snap. The steamer drifts straight at Titanic. Captain Smith notices and yells for reverse engines. The two ships miss each other by just a meter. Talk about a close call. All this drama delays the Titanic's departure by an hour. Passengers react in all sorts of ways. Some shrug it off. Some see it as a bad omen. But the ship finally sails. At the last second, a few out-of-breath stokers dash up with suitcases, begging to get on board and explaining why they're late. But it's too late. They're not allowed on. The stokers are left on the dock, shouting and waving, knowing this could cost them their jobs. For them, this becomes the worst day ever. To really get a feel for the Titanic's layout, let's take a sneak peek inside. And yep, we're slicing the ship in half. So, the Titanic has seven levels. The higher you go, the more your ticket costs. Passengers were split into three classes. First class? Think fancy champagne, oysters galore, and non-stop gossip about stocks. Basically, this is where the business moguls, military big shots, politicians, and actors hung out. In today's dollars, a first class ticket would run anywhere from $5,000 to a jaw-dropping $130,000. You might be thinking, why so pricey? Well, the cabins had super fancy furniture, hairdryers, and even telephones. And the priciest suites? Private bathrooms included. The restaurants had crystal chandeliers, marble columns, and French chefs whipping up gourmet meals. And yes, first class passengers could even hit the gym. There, they met the friendly instructor McCully. He offered passengers all the coolest exercise machines. Rowing, boxing, and cycling. And for the daredevils, there were these funky electric horses for horseback riding. Plus, there was a heated saltwater pool. And all this luxury was run by a team of 500 staff members making sure everything was perfect. Second class was a bit more low-key. It carried British engineers, merchants, clergymen, journalists, and doctors. Not as flashy as first class, but still super comfy. Nobody at home had anything like it. Tickets up here cost $2,000 in today's money. Third class often gets called the poor man's class. But that's kind of unfair. Tickets weren't cheap, up to $1,000. Some passengers spent their last pennies just to chase a better life in America. Most were immigrants from Ireland or Scandinavia, escaping food or job troubles back home. But third class also included regular folks who simply could afford a trip. A mix of clerks, waiters, farmers, nurses, you name it. On the Titanic, someone actually cared about their comfort. Third class passengers got good food, clean and cozy cabins with their own sinks. And the best part? They didn't have to worry about a thing. They could just relax and have fun. The vibe in third class spaces? Like a full-on party. There was a piano in the lounge with dancing and singing going on late into the night. And the corridors echoed with the sound of lively Scottish bagpipes. Of course, it was still third class. Grates separated it from the upper decks. Passengers here couldn't mix with first or second class. This was an official rule by the American authorities to keep diseases from spreading. But honestly, that was a tiny price to pay compared to the epic level of service these passengers were getting for the first and probably last time in their lives. For the first three days of the trip, the sea is totally calm. By then, on April 14th, things start to get interesting. The Titanic gets its first ice warnings along the route. The ice is marked on the map. But Captain Smith isn't too worried. He keeps the speed up. Back in 1912, big ships just didn't freak out about ice. Over the decades before, there had been iceberg collisions, but the ships didn't sink. They'd hit the ice bow first. The watertight compartments held strong and the ships keep cruising. So basically, up until now, no huge ocean liners had ever sunk from hitting an iceberg. Or at least, we didn't know of any. Sometimes ships just disappeared. Before radio, figuring out what happened was nearly impossible. Anyway, the Titanic's radio station is buzzing all day with six or seven ice warnings. Two operators are on it. Senior wireless officer Jack Phillips and his sidekick, Harold Bride. Radio operators on ships had a special status. They didn't answer to the captain. Phillip and Bride wear the Marconi Company uniforms, not White Star Lines. Their main jobs? Sending passenger telegrams and bringing in the latest news from the continent, which later shows up in the ship's newspaper. But in 1912, radio rules were basically non-existent. The airwaves were jam-packed with dozens of signals all fighting over space. So picture this. If two ships were sailing just 10 kilometers apart, their signals would be so loud they'd drown out everything else. In situations like that, radio operators didn't hesitate to snap at anyone getting in their way. They had tons of work, often barely squeezing in lunch. And all this for a pretty modest paycheck, $500 to $600 a month in today's money. Still, the Titanic's radio guys faithfully passed along the first ice warnings to the captain. But nobody seemed shocked, because the ship was heading straight into what sailors called Iceberg Alley. Every year, massive chunks of ice break off of Greenland. And 1912 had more than ever, thanks to some seriously warm weather years before. Passengers had no clue and were just enjoying the trip. Then April 14th rolls around. The sky is clear and visibility is great. The only thing passengers notice, it's getting chilly. By evening, the temperature drops almost to freezing. Meanwhile, the Titanic's radio room is a total whirlwind. Senior operator Jack Phillips has just wrapped up a six-hour repair on the transmitter. Everything works now, but here's the catch. He has to send a mountain of passenger telegrams that piled up while he was fixing things. He can only reach land at night, because that's when the signal is able to travel far enough. But first-class passengers, they expect instant delivery. Yeah, Phillips had his hands full, big time. At 9.30pm, while he's digging through telegrams, the radio picks up a message from the steamer, Masava. Saw much heavy pack ice in great number large icebergs. Also field ice. Weather good. Clear. Phillips quickly fires back, Acknowledged. Thank you. And then dives right back into a mountain of passenger telegrams. The radio operator on the Masava is waiting. He knows that a message of this level deserves a direct reply from the captain, but the Titanic's captain stays silent. And here's the really frustrating part. Even though every ship had a rule that navigation messages were top priority, the Titanic just ignores it. And of course, it happens at the absolute worst possible moment. The last iceberg warning shows up on the ship at 10.30pm. It's sent by radio operator Cyril Evans from the steamer, Californian. He's drifting right at the edge of the ice field. Practically waving hello at the Titanic, Cyril sends, Hello old man, we've stopped. Ice is all around us. Here are the coordinates. The Titanic's operator cuts him off. Keep out. Shut up. I'm working Cape Race and you're messing things up. This kind of banter between radio operators was pretty normal, so nothing shocking there. But in this case, both guys messed up a little. I mean, hello old man? Who starts an important warning like that? Sounds more like a bored buddy trying to chat during their shift. Important messages were supposed to be sent with the prefix MSG. But Evans didn't do that. He had a long, exhausting day too, working a whopping 15 hours because there were no other radio operators to take over. So after Phillips's sharp reply, Evans just throws in the towel and heads to bed. Still, it's not like the captain and crew of the Titanic were clueless about ice. Not long before the Californian's warning, the Titanic had another run-in with a ship, the Rappahannock. It barely got out of an ice flow, even scraping it's stern. When the two ships were close, the captain of the Rappahannock sent a morse message to the Titanic. We just passed through an ice field between icebergs. The Titanic replies, But even after that, nobody slows down. The First Officer William Murdoch and Second Officer Charles Lighttrawler figure any iceberg would be spotted from miles away. Sailors would see it, report it, and the Titanic would just steer around it. Here's the catch. That night, icebergs were barely visible. There was no wind. See, wind creates ripples. Tiny waves that make white foam around an iceberg. Lookouts could normally spot this foam easily, realize there's an iceberg nearby, and then report it. With that foam, even black icebergs could be seen. Those older icebergs that have flipped and show their dark underwater side. Black icebergs are especially sneaky because they blend into the dark water and sky. The stars were out by the thousands in a cloudless sky. The moon was nowhere to be found. It was in a waning crescent phase and had just vanished below the horizon right before the crash. Paradoxically, there was the worst part. It led everyone to believe the visibility was perfect when, in reality, it was a trap. Captain Smith and his officers didn't see the danger, so Titanic didn't slow down. Everyone was confident that an iceberg could not sink an ocean liner. Captain Smith calmly heads to his cabin. Second officer Lightoller asks the watch crew to keep a careful eye on the water, but none of the senior officers are ever told about the warning from the Masaba and the Californian. The captain has no idea Titanic is barreling straight into an ice field. 1139 pm. Two sailors, Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, are squinting into the dark horizon. It's quiet. Almost too quiet. Suddenly, Fleet spots something ahead. He stares for a moment, trying to figure out what it is, and then yells, Ice! Right ahead! Fleet slams the bell and raises the alarm. The same time, he grabs the phone and tells 6th officer James Moody, Iceberg! Right ahead! Thanks. Moody answers calmly, passing the message to 1st officer William Murdoch. Murdoch is at the wheel and shouts, Full astern! Now the Titanic tries to steer around the iceberg, like a giant trying to dodge a speed bump. At the same time, Murdoch closes the watertight doors in the cargo holds. But for 30 more seconds, the Titanic keeps sliding forward on sheer momentum. Then the bow suddenly swings to port. The sailors finally see it. The iceberg is massive, towering over the bow like a frozen skyscraper, and getting closer fast. For a moment, it looks like the Titanic might just squeak by, but then the ship shudders ever so slightly, and a long, eerie scrape groans from below. Ten seconds later, silence. The iceberg drifts away. The steel plates of the Titanic's hull hold up, but the cheaper iron rivets, where corners were cut, don't. They scrape, seams split open, and along the starboard side, 91 meters, cracks appear. Water rushes into five of the 16 compartments, and the Titanic can only survive with four compartments flooded. Water pours into the ship, about seven tons every second. Soon, the captain shows up at the wheel. Murdoch reports the iceberg. Smith orders Thomas Andrews, the chief designer, to be called. Nobody's better equipped to grasp what's happening than him. Together, the captain and Andrews head down into the lower decks to inspect the damage, sneaking along the crew stairs to avoid scaring anyone. Andrews takes it all in, then turns to the captain. The Titanic will stay afloat for at most an hour and a half. We're doomed. On the upper decks, things are calm for now. Some passengers stir from the light jolt. A few peek out of their cabins to see what's up. Then the Titanic comes to a full stop, and that's when the nerves start buzzing. Elizabeth Schutt, a first-class passenger, asks an officer, Did something happen? Are we in danger? He replies, Not that I know of. But later, Elizabeth overhears him whispering to someone, We'll hold out a little longer. Some passengers wander out onto the deck, but they don't see anything too exciting, just a few little chunks of ice floating by. Millionaire John Jacob Astor heads back to his cabin and tells his pregnant wife the ship bumped into an iceberg, but he shrugs it off. No big deal. Down on the lower decks, things are a whole different story. The jolt was strong enough to knock off a tray of pastries from the stove. The real shock? The Stokers felt it the most, since their cabins are right up in the front of the ship. They wake up with a start and dash to the boilers. They're thinking, if that icy water hits us, boom. In boiler room number 5, a crew of 15-20 Stokers manages to shut down the boilers just in time. But then, surprise. A fresh wave of water crashes in. Sailors sprint for the exit, barely making it out alive. Everyone gets out except one guy, mechanic Jonathan Shepard. Just 15 minutes before, he slipped and broke his leg. His mates had left him in a corner. But when the water came, they bolted, completely forgetting him. By the time they remembered, it was too late. The boiler room was totally flooded. Titanic's engineers fire up the pumps to try to keep up with the flooding. But the water's coming in 10-15 times faster than they can pump it out. Meanwhile, the backup generators kick in so the lights stay on. At 1.40am, the Stokers in the last boiler rooms are told to pack it up and head to the upper decks. The engineers? They're still hanging tough at their stations. Captain Smith finally realizes the Titanic can't be saved, and orders the crew to start evacuation. Meanwhile, water is creeping from one compartment to the next, slowly filling up the ship. The Titanic tilts forward just a little at first. As I said, the ship had only 20 lifeboats, enough for 1,178 people. And here's the kicker. None of the passengers had any idea. On top of that, the sailors got the evacuation rolling, slowly and a bit chaotically. They're just not ready for this kind of emergency. Captain Smith heads down to the radio room, and orders the wireless operators to send a distress signal to any nearby ships. Phillips sends out the old signal, CQD. It means come quick, danger. But the junior operator, Bride, suggests trying the newer SOS signal. This signal was introduced four years ago, but most sailors weren't really using it yet. Bride even seems to joke a little. Hey, this is a new signal. Maybe your last shot to catch it. And just like that, Titanic becomes one of the very first ships ever to send an SOS. The signal gets picked up right away by several ships. The German steamer Frankfurt. Two British ships, Carpathia and Mount Temple. And the Russian, Burma. Even Olympic, Titanic's twin, catches it. But nope, it's way too far to make it in time. Meanwhile, the other nearby ships change course and start heading straight to help. All except the Californian. Even though it's the closest to Titanic, just 15 to 30 kilometers away. And here's the kicker. The Californian's only radio operator, the same guy who warned Phillips against the ice field, is out cold after a long shift. So Titanic's SOS never even reaches him. But Californian still has a shot at noticing something's up. That night, its sailors spot lights from a mysterious ship on the horizon. And they know the only ship nearby is Titanic. Titanic sees the Californian's lights too and fires white signal rockets into the sky, basically shouting, Hey, over here! On Californian, they think they're just seeing meteors. Then the flashes keep coming. And at 115, the crew reports them to Captain Stanley Lord. The captain orders a response back to the Titanic. The sailors flash lights and use the searchlight, but still no answer. Californian noticed the Titanic slowly drifting away, so they give up trying to reach it. But the awful truth, Titanic isn't drifting. It's sinking. Captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, is one of the few who really knows the truth. Over 1,000 people are definitely going down with the ship, even if everything goes perfectly during the evacuation. At some point, the captain just freezes. Around 1220 AM, the second officer, Lightoller, walks up to him and boldly says, I commenced lowing the boats, women and children first. Smith just nods quietly. On the port side, Lightoller takes charge of the evacuation. On the starboard side, Murdoch. But here's the thing. They see the evacuation order differently. Lightoller only lets women and children on, so the first lifeboats go down half empty. Yeah, seriously. Murdoch, though, loads women and children first, and if there's extra room, men can hop in too. At the same time, none of the officers really know how many people a lifeboat can hold. The first boats carry only 28 people each, even though 65 would have fit. Crazy, right? To keep panic from spreading, Captain Smith orders the ship's orchestra onto the deck. The musicians start playing classical tunes, which makes this chaotic evacuation weirdly whimsical. Passengers near the lifeboats, mostly first and second class, aren't exactly rushing off the ship. From where they stand, it doesn't even look like it's sinking. There's lights, music. Who wants to leave all that to climb into a tiny boat into freezing water? In third class, people are just as confused. Stewards don't explain why they need to evacuate. They just hand out life jackets and ask women and children to head upstairs. But most won't move without the men. Meanwhile, somewhere between the third class cabins, the ship's translator is completely overwhelmed. He can't answer the dozens of questions flying at him in every language imaginable. And about those locked gates you've seen in movies? Not real. Third class survivors confirmed that nobody was trapped. At 125 AM, the Olympic sends Titanic its coordinates and asks if we can meet up. Titanic replies, We're loading women and children into lifeboats. But honestly, no one. Not other captains. Not the passengers. Really believe there's a disaster happening. Only when the bow is sinking deep into water that people finally start taking it seriously. Then, with way more urgency, they climb into the lifeboats. John Jacob Astor's young wife is already in a lifeboat. The millionaire politely asks second officer Lightoller if he can join her, since she's pregnant. But Lightoller sticks to the rules and says, No sir, women and children only. Funny enough, no one had actually given that order. It was more about doing what felt morally right. For now, passengers are surprisingly calm. No chaos, no shouting. Just everyone waiting their turn and following instructions. Even until the very end, there's this tiny spark of hope that everything will magically turn out fine and help will swoop in. But time ticks on and nothing changes. The crowd is still huge, but lifeboat spots are disappearing fast. Some people just can't wait any longer and jump into the lowering boats. Few brave, or maybe foolish, men try to push through the crowd, but they get shooed back at gunpoint. By 2am, lounges, halls, restaurants, cabins, and corridors are practically empty. Only a handful of first class passengers wander into the smoking room to play cards. But then their tables tip so badly the cards go flying everywhere. By 2.05, Titanic lowers its very last lifeboat. Five minutes later, a steward peeks into the first class smoking room. In the midst of the huge, empty hall, he spots Thomas Andrews himself. A life vest lies nearby, and Andrews stares blankly at one of the paintings. The steward gently asks, Mr. Andrews, don't you want to try and save yourself? But the chief designer doesn't even blink. He just stares. The steward quietly slips out. A small group of millionaires on deck sticks together. They chat a little, but mostly it's quiet. Heavy, tense silence. John Astor paces nervously. At that moment, he had enough money to buy 10 ships the size of the Titanic. Yet all that cash couldn't save him now. Captain Smith makes his last visit to the radio room and says, Gentlemen, you've done your duty to the end. From this moment, every man for himself. But the radio operators keep sending SOS signals, going all out until water finally floods the room. Only then do they leave. Around the same time, the mechanics pop up on the boat deck. They've been working like superheroes behind the scene, keeping the electricity running and the pumps churning. Thanks to these unsung heroes, the lights on the Titanic stayed glowing almost until the very end. And those pumps, they bought the ship an extra hour. A golden hour that gave more people a shot at survival. Tragically, though, none of the mechanics made it. They never reached the lifeboats. In the final minutes, the Titanic's lights start to fade. At 2.17am, they flicker one last time and poof, they're gone. The remaining passengers dash to the highest point on the ship, the stern. But hang on. Holding on there is nearly impossible. Many slip and tumble down. Some make the terrifying jump into the icy water. By 2.20am, the stern is almost straight up. And then the Titanic splits apart and plunges to the bottom. After that, all that's left are the screams and cries of hundreds of people in the water. The lifeboats drift further and further away. Few dare to turn back. The survivors are terrified someone in the water might tip them over. On one of these lifeboats, which eventually flips over, 30 people are crammed in like sardines. Among them is 2nd officer Charles Lightoller. A huge wave threw him into the ocean and somehow he made it. The junior wireless operator, Bride, ends up there too. Sadly, Phillips didn't make it. Others swim towards this overturned boat, desperate to grab on, but they're pushed away with oars. One passenger who had been on the boat remembered, I did not hear a single reproach. To our refusal, the brave men responded, All right, good luck boys, and God bless you. Was that really true? Or just a way to make sense of it all? We'll never know. What we do know is this. Survivors rarely wanted to talk about those who didn't make it. Only 2 lifeboats returned to the wreck, picking up a few more lucky souls. And after 15-20 minutes, the screams in the water slowly faded. The water was icy, and people couldn't survive long in it. Even those in lifeboats shivered in the cold. They waited, counting every single minute, hoping rescue would come. Meanwhile, the Californian was still the closest ship, but they had no clue what just happened. The Mount Temple, also nearby, was stuck in ice, and all the other ships were too far away to help. The last hope? The steamship Carpathia. She was racing to the disaster site at full speed. Carpathia. A modest little ship, maxing out at just 26 kilometers per hour. Sounds slow, right? But here's the thing. It's sailing half-empty. So when the ship picks up the SOS from the Titanic, Captain Arthur Rostron jumps into action, kicking off a full-on rescue mission. To squeeze out every last bit of speed, he shuts off the heating in hot water. Every stoker works non-stop, and thanks to their hard grind, Carpathia hits a record-breaking 32 kilometers per hour. Not bad for a little ship. The Titanic passengers and the lifeboats don't know who's coming to save them yet. But radio operator Bryde, sitting with Leichthaler on an overturned lifeboat, offers a glimmer of hope. He says it's probably the Carpathia. And just like that, spirits lift a little. Finally, at 3.30 AM, the lights of Carpathia twinkle on the horizon. Sunrise hits, and the survivors see the sea around them scattered with icebergs, some towering a jaw-dropping 60 meters high. That Carpathia didn't crash into them? Absolutely miraculous. Credit goes to the captain and his skilled crew. At 4.10, the ship reaches the first lifeboat. On deck, people are wrapped in blankets and led to the dining hall, where hot food and tea are ready. But here's the thing. Most of the rescued climb back onto the open deck. They're hoping, praying to spot their loved ones. And yes, a few joyous reunions happen, but mostly, there are tears. When the last survivors are brought aboard, even Captain Rostrom feels a pang of disappointment. He rescues just 706 passengers, far fewer than the 2,000 he had hoped for. As the Titanic sinks beneath the waves, the captain of the Californian wakes up. He immediately sends someone to rouse radio operator Evans to find out what happened to the ship they saw that night. And just like that, he learns the shocking truth. The Titanic has gone down. Californian sets off to rescue survivors. But only arrives after Carpathia has already picked up the last passengers. Then, Carpathia heads for New York, while Californian continues the search. But all they find are scattered wreckage and bodies. Everyone knows, many more lives could have been saved if Californian had acted sooner. On Carpathia, nobody's celebrating. People are crushed. Arguments break out here and there. Women who lost their husbands blame the men who survived. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Line, gets the brunt of the anger. He'd made it into one of the last lifeboats. But just two days later, on April 18th, Carpathia arrived in New York. Of the 1,500 who perished, just over 300 bodies were recovered, while the rest were either swept away by currents or dragged to the ocean floor with the Titanic. The official investigation kicks off. Separate inquiries in the US and Britain. Eventually, they announce five main causes of the disaster. First, the weather. That night, the moon was nowhere to be seen. The sea was calm, like glass, so the iceberg was spotted way too late. It was nearly invisible in the dark. Visibility was terrible. Honestly, what were they supposed to see? The second reason? It's all about how the ship got hurt. Poor quality rivets got even weaker in the freezing cold and couldn't withstand the impact. The Titanic tore open six narrow gashes along her starboard side. And boom, that was enough to flood five compartments and start pulling the ship down. The third reason? Speed. The Titanic ignored all those iceberg warnings and just didn't slow down. Maybe, just maybe, if she'd cruised a little slower, she could have swerved around that giant block of ice. Then there's the fourth reason. Officer mistakes. First officer Murdoch tried to break and dodge at the same time. But experts say 37 seconds, that's not nearly enough time for that kind of stunt. The Titanic might have had a better shot if she'd gone head-on into the iceberg. The bow would have crumpled like a soda can, but the rest of the ship might have floated. Only the first compartments would have flooded. And the last reason? Ignoring the final ice warning. Radio operator Phillips never passed it up to the captain. Though honestly, we'll never know what Captain Smith might have done if he had. Trouble wasn't just on the Titanic. The Californian was hanging out nearby too. Captain Stanley Lord would resign after this and spend the rest of his life trying to clean up his image. But the media? They picked the wrong guy to blame. They went after Joseph Ismay, mainly because he made sure he survived, while most of the people responsible for the ship didn't. On top of that, he got accused of pressuring Captain Smith to push the ship faster. Even though, spoiler alert, none of that was really proven. Later they even found a letter asking Smith not to race the other ships. Still, Ismay left his job anyway. On the night the Titanic sank, Philip Franklin, vice president of White Star Lines, said these words. There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable, and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers. Unfortunately, we already know what those inconveniences really meant for the people in the freezing water. The most horrifying possibility is that some people may have still been inside the liner itself as it went down. The bow of the ship sank first, but the stern remained partially sealed off even after the breakup. So-called air pockets formed inside it, and if people were trapped there, what were they about to face? They would have been left in complete darkness. As the ship descended, the pressure kept rising. Their ears would have started to pop. Breathing would have become harder and harder. Even hundreds of meters down, those air pockets may still have existed. But around 30 seconds after the stern slipped beneath the surface, people in the lifeboats heard something from below the water that sounded like an explosion. It was the sound of an implosion. In simple terms, it is also a kind of explosion, but inward instead of outward. An implosion happens when the pressure outside becomes so powerful that it crushes everything inward. The same thing happened to the Titan Submersible a few years ago when it was trying to reach the Titanic wreck site. Even if anyone had still been alive, they would have felt nothing. It all happened in less than a second. For many years, no one knew where the Titanic lay. Then, in 1985, it was found at a depth of 3,800 meters. In 2022, Magellan LTD fully scanned the wreck using underwater drones. 715,000 images collected over 200 hours were turned into a detailed 3D model. These images matter because they may be all that remains once the Titanic is completely gone. And it will disappear for sure. Underwater currents, corrosion, and bacteria are already slowly destroying the liner. According to scientists' estimates, by the end of this century, the Titanic will be gone beneath the sea. And that's the story. If you enjoyed it, be sure to like and subscribe. If there's a time in history you'd like to see us cover, be sure to leave us a comment below. This has been Yesterday. We'll see you next time.