A few hours later, at 11:39pm, the lookouts spotted the iceberg dead ahead (curiously enough, the lookouts binoculars went missing that night, just a few hours before disaster. No one knows where they went to this day. Could the binoculars have saved the Titanic?).

Once the iceberg was spotted, lookout Frederick Fleet run the alarm bell three times, and telephoned the bridge, who then tried to slow the titanic down. As that was happening, the officers tried to turn the massive ship, hoping to avoid the iceberg all together. and slowly, the Titanic started to turn.

Interestingly enough, if they had let the Titanic hit the iceberg head on, it would have caused less damage. The ship was going too fast to be able to clear the iceberg in the time it needed, and so the titanic ended up getting her side scraped, causing a hole in her starboard side (right side of the hull, right below the waterline). 

The first area to be damaged was the boiler room No.6. They had just received the order to stop, when the icy water broke through, and began to fill the room. Only 2 men made it through the watertight door. The third had to climb up a ladder to escape.

Cap. Smith got the news immediately, as he was in his cabin, resting. He felt the Titanic crash, and raced to find what had happened. 

At first, everyone thought it was some big joke. some of the male first class passengers were reported by eyewitnesses, to be throwing around chucks of ice as if it were a football! Some, such as Thomas Andrews, didn't even notice that a collision had occurred during that time. No one thought they were in any immediate danger. 

While everyone thought it was a joke, the watertight compartments were filling up fast. Capt. Smith and his right hand man, Chief Officer Wilde, were running out of options. They found Andrews, and told him of the news. Capt. Smith asked him what could be done, and Andrews calculated that they were doomed. 

The Titanic would sink. 

After the conversation with Andrews, Capt. Smith had Officer Wilde start preparing the lifeboats. 

How did the passengers find out? How to tell people without them panicking? 

Stewards calmy came around to the first and second class passengers, and asked them to put on their life jackets, and come to the main deck. No one had to tell passengers down in third class. Their rooms were filling with the freezing saltwater.

As everyone gathered onto the top deck, no one seemed worried. Some people were even annoyed that the stewards had woken them from their beds to stand in the cold night air. Most were not dressed warmly enough, and a few returned to their rooms. No one believed the Titanic was sinking. 

Lifeboat No.7 was the first lifeboat to be lowered into the water. It only had 19 aboard, even though its capacity was 65. No one wanted to leave the big, warm, bright boat to go and float aimlessly into the dark, cold North Atlantic ocean. 

The first rockets were fired at 12:55am. Only by 1;15 did people realize what danger they were in, and the lifeboats started to fill quickly.

After all the lifeboats had been sent out, it was then that reality started to set in. Everyone went quiet. 

At around 2:05am, Capt. Smith came to the wireless room and relieved Phillips and Bride, the two wireless men, from their duties, telling them they could do no more, and that it was every man for himself. Phillips kept sending out messages.

The orchestra that was on the Titanic, much like Father Byles, decided to stay, and played calming hymns and songs for the people left behind. The men down in the boiler rooms were able to keep the lights on until two minutes before she sank, giving up their chances to survive for others.

Soon, the Titanic started to stick up out of the ocean, and people began to throw anything they could find overboard into the icy water below. It was either jump, or be sucked in when the Titanic went down. 

As the stern of the Titanic began to rise, people began to jump. Just as the ship was almost vertical, she broke in half, and went crashing into the water below. 

After the Titanic broke, right half of her stayed afloat, and then sank. It was then that the screams of those in the water started. The water was 28 degrees above freezing. People could only last from 15-20 minutes in the water before they froze to death.

The survivors of the Titanic cannot remember what was more terrifying- when the screams started, or when they stopped. 

Thankfully, Phillip's messages worked. Just not in time. After a horrifying night, the Carpathia came to the rescue at 3:30am after steering around six icebergs. The rescue operation took over four hours, but by 8;30, all surviving Titanic passengers had been rescued.