Captain Smith was on the bridge in the moments following the collision. His skin must have matched his white beard when he was told that they had struck and iceberg. All those warnings. All those chances to slow down, be more careful. But now the damage was done. It was time to see just how bad that damage was. Smith called for the ship’s carpenter to sound the ship. When the carpenter reported nothing unusual, Smith decided that he and Thomas Andrew needed to inspect the damaged areas and make an assessment of their situation. Upon seeing the flooding in the forward holds, Thomas Andrews noted that it had been less than ten minutes since the collision and already the water had risen fourteen feet above the keel. He surmised that the iceberg must have ripped a gash in the hull about three-hundred feet long. Boiler room No. 6 was flooded with eight feet of water. The ship could sustain, at the very most, flooding in the first four compartments. But the first six had been breached. At the rate of flooding they were seeing, as each compartment flooded, the water would spill over the tops of the bulkheads and into the compartment behind it. As the bow grew heavier and heavier with the weight of the water, it would sink lower and lower until all the compartments were filled. Titanic was doomed. It was a mathematical certainty to Andrews. His creation would soon be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. He estimated that the ship had "…an hour, maybe more."

     Captain Smith immediately orders the boilers shut off and goes to the wireless shack. As the boilers are shut off, the noise of escaping steam stirs any passengers who have not yet noticed the commotion. In the wireless room, Smith orders Bride and Phillips to send out CQD; the distress call (Smith would later tell them to change to SOS, a new distress call). He tells the two men that they have struck and iceberg and are sinking, then returns to the bridge. I imagine at this point that the messages Jack Phillips had received and ignored weighed heavily on his mind. His incompetence and gross negligence had doomed more than hlaf the people on the ship, including himself...

     Numerous ships hear Titanic’s distress call, but few are able to assist. Among those that received Phillips’ pleas for help were Mount Temple (49 miles away), Frankfort (153 miles), Birma (70 miles), Baltic (243 miles), Virginian (170), and Carpathia (58 miles). Titanic’s sister ship Olympic also received the distress call, but at 500 miles away could be of little assistance. The other ships sent word that they would try to assist. Carpathia had the best chance of reaching Titanic first. Although not as close as Mount Temple, she was south of Titanic’s reported position of latitude 41.46 North by longitude 50.14 West and had open sea to traverse. Mount Temple was northwest and there was field ice blocking her path. Carpathia signals that she is altering course and making full speed but could not reach Titanic for atleast four hours.

     About 12:25AM, the seaman’s quarters, 48 feet above the keel, are flooded. The order is given to begin loading the lifeboats with women and children first. A handful of crewman are to man the oars and rudder of each lifeboat. Fifteen minutes later, the first boat to leave, No. 7 on the starboard side, is launched with only 28 people aboard; it can carry 65. At this point, most people are hesitant to leave the safety of the ship for a tiny little lifeboat. The danger facing them is just not apparent yet. Only a handful of people even notice that the deck had begun to tilt forward. Many still speak of Titanic’s reputation of being "unsinkable" and scoff at the idea of leaving the ship. As a result, the frustrated crewman loading the boats have a hard time filling the boats. When boat No. 6, on the port side, is lowered, it also contains only 28 people. At the same time, starboard boat No. 5 is lowered with 41 people aboard.

     At 1:00AM, starboard boat No. 3 is lowered with only 32 people aboard. 11 of these are crew. Ten minutes later, starboard No. 1, capable of carrying 40 people, is launched with 12 people aboard! Port-side No. 8 is lowered at the same time with 39 people aboard. By 1:15AM, the ocean has reached Titanic’s name on her bow, and the ship listed heavily to port. The tilt of the deck grows much steeper and it is obvious to everyone that the ship is indeed going down. The lifeboats begin to leave fully loaded. At 1:20AM, starboard boat No. 9 leaves with 56 people aboard. As the lifeboat rows away, Titanic rolls and begins listing to starboard.

     From about ten minutes after midnight to nearly 2:00AM, on the Leyland liner Californian, some 10 to 19 miles away, the crew had noticed the lights of a large steamer come up from the southeast. A number of attempts to reach the steamer via Morse lamp fail and even when white rockets are observed, no attempt to wake the wireless operator is made. About 2:15AM, they lose sight of the large liner and assume that it steamed off to the south. The crew of Titanic had also seen the smaller vessel and had attempted to contact her via Morse lamp.

     At 1:30AM, signs of panic began to manifest in the crowd of passengers now on the Boat Deck. As port-side boat No. 14 is lowered with 60 people aboard, Fifth Officer Lowe, who is in the lifeboat, fires three shots from his revolver down the side of the ship to prevent people from jumping into the already full boat. In the wireless shack, Jack Phillips’ distress calls are becoming more desperate; "We are sinking fast" and "Women and children in boats. Cannot last much longer." At 1:35AM, port-side No. 16 is launched with 50 people. Starboard boat No. 13 leaves at the same time with 64 people, mostly Second- and Third-class women and children. As No. 13 reaches the water, the jet of water coming out the condenser discharge pushed it back under the rapidly descending No. 15, which is packed beyond capacity with 70 people. At the last second, No. 13 is cut free and pushes off.

     The last starboard boat launched, collapsible C, leaves at 1:40AM with 39 people aboard. Bruce Ismay is one of them. Most of the forward boats are gone now and the crowd of passengers moves aft. The forward well deck is now awash. The last call from Titanic is heard by Carpathia; "…engine room full up to boilers…" Port-side No. 2, capable of holding 40 people leaves, but because the passengers have all moved to the stern, she carries only 23. At 1:55AM, port-side No. 4 departs. Capable of holding 40, it leaves half filled. Five minutes later the ocean is only ten feet below the Promenade Deck. Collapsible D, with the exception of the collapsible boats still lashed to the roof of the officer’s quarters is the last boat left. It has room for 47 people. To prevent a rush on the boat, Commander Lightoller waves his revolver in the air and has the crew lock arms and form a circle around the boat, allowing only women and children to board. The boat is lowered at 2:05AM with 44 aboard. Titanic's forecastle, the forward most bow, sinks. The tilt of the deck now makes standing difficult. At 2:10AM, Captain Smith tells Jack Phillips and Harold Bride that they have done their duty and are released. "Save yourselves," he tells them, "that’s the way of things at a time like this." Phillips continues to send distress calls although the batteries are far too weak at this point for any ships to hear his calls. No doubt he felt a guilt no one can imagine and was determined to man his key until the end.

     At 2:17AM, Captain Smith calls out to the crew "You’ve done your duty, men. It’s every man for himself." Smith then returned to the bridge. He was never seen again. Thomas Andrews is spotted in the First-class smoking room, staring off into space. As Titanic’s bow plunges, the water reaches the boat deck and washes the entangled collapsible B off the roof of the officer’s quarters upside down. At the stern, Father Thomas Byles hears confession and gives absolution to over a hundred Second- and Third-class passengers. At this point, Titanic’s stern is hoisted high into the air. Many people jump overboard. The forward funnel collapses, crushing several people in the water. The wave created by the falling smoke stack washed collapsible A clear. Although it is upright, it is swamped badly and overloaded as several people try to climb aboard. They are kept back by those already in the boat.

     At 2:18AM, an indescribable roar is heard as all moveable objects inside the ship crash forward. The stern is high in the air and over 1,500 people cling to the railings, ventilation ducts and anything else that is bolted down. The ship’s light dim to an eerie orange, blink twice and then go out, plunging the night into darkness. A sound that some described as a combination of cannon fire, breaking glass and wrenching metal could be heard. Many people later testified that as this noise shattered the darkness, Titanic snapped in two between the third and fourth funnels, the bow half sinking while the stern section settled back into the water on an almost even keel.

     The stern section rights itself only briefly. As it fills with water, it again rises up out of the water into a nearly vertical position. It stands on end for several minutes, the only sound to be heard was the wails of those still onboard, falling into the ocean or those already in the water. The stern then began to sink straight down. Accelerating as it went, it plunged into the ocean and was gone. Titanic was gone. The time was 2:20AM. In the spot where the ship had been moments earlier, more than 1,500 people now thrashed about amidst the wreckage, moaning and calling out for help as they slowly froze to death in the frigid North Atlantic. The water temperature was a mind-numbing 29 degrees. In water that cold, the human body cannot sustain life for more than a few minutes, depending on how heavily clothed a person is. Those in the lifeboats knew that they could not go back. They would surely be swamped. All they could do was sit and listen as their loved ones died slow, agonizing deaths. Soon the wails ceased and the night was silent. Overhead the bright stars filled the dark sky. Those who survived waited to be rescued.