How Many Icebergs did the Titanic Pass?

At daylight the survivors could see icebergs in every direction and this gives us a clear indication as to how dangerous the region around the Titanic was. e.g.


4th officer Boxhall


"I heard the water on the ice as soon as the lights went out on the ship.....A little while after the ship's lights went out and the cries subsided, then I found out that we were near the ice......I heard the water rumbling or breaking on the ice. Then I knew that there was a lot of ice about; but I could not see it from the boat."


Q - I understand you to say that you could not see any of those icebergs until dawn, but that you heard the lapping of the water against the icebergs?

A - Yes, that is what I said.



The Titanic was well inside the reported iceberg zone that night and ships had reported icebergs on both sides of her. The SS Mesaba plotted a large rectangle on the chart that was infested with icebergs, and as author Walter Lord said, "Turns out the Titanic was already in that rectangle!"


2nd officer Lightoller said he knew nothing of that message and said if he had received the Mesaba message he would have immediately stopped the engines.



The Carpathia was South East of the Titanic and turned up and raced to Titanic's rescue. During the night they passed at least half a dozen icebergs. As Captain Rostron pointed out - "We were passing icebergs on every side and making them ahead and having to alter our course several times to clear the bergs." So this gives us some idea of how infested the area was.



Now we come to the iceberg that survivors saw. Quartermaster Rowe was stationed at the stern and he believed the fatal iceberg was less than 10 feet away when it passed the stern. So we know the fatal iceberg was very close to the ship's side and would have passed the portholes like a flash.


Yet.....


Mr. Harder told the US Inquiry - "When I went to the porthole I saw this iceberg go by. The porthole was closed. The iceberg was, I should say, about 50 to 100 feet away."


Mrs. Clark said - "I knew something had occurred out of the ordinary and looked out of my stateroom porthole, and it seemed to me that we were passing another ship, but this may have been ice in the near vicinity."



This clearly was not the same iceberg seen by Rowe.



In the Titanic book: Eyewitness accounts, Lady Duff Gordon said:


"The night was perfectly clear. We had watched for some time the fields of ice. There was one just before I went below to retire. I noticed among the fields of ice a number of large bergs. There was one which one of the officers pointed out to me. He said that it must have been 100 feet high and seemed to be miles long. It was away off in the distance. I went to my bedroom and retired."



Survivor Abraham Hyman said:


"They were looking about and admiring something, and so I looked and I saw what looked like a big pile of ice that was glistening under the stars.......as I watched I saw the boat go to one side as if it was avoiding something, and I saw a very big iceberg right in our path. But we were surely going a safe distance away from it, (Was that the same iceberg seen by Harder and Mrs. Clark?), and so I was not frightened and nobody else was either. We got pretty nearly opposite the iceberg when there came a tearing sound and the boat listed a little to one side. (Fleet felt the ship keeling over to port as the iceberg passed by). I heard some of the sailors talking and heard them say that the ship had struck a spur of the iceberg that jutted out a long distance, and had slid upon it, hurting her keel."



Lookout Fleet drew a sketch of the iceberg that he saw. He told Lightoller he saw it far away and his sketch shows it far on the horizon and already on the starboard side. The is interesting because the lookouts said the ship was already turning before they even reported it on the telephone and Boxhall said the collision happened just a moment after he heard the order to turn.



Fleet's sketch (iceberg in the distance on the starboard side)


http://imgur.com/a/6w2gt




This certainly gives us the impression that Murdoch saw this huge iceberg, turned the ship, and accidentally struck a second iceberg that was much closer and harder to detect, and the iceberg seen in the sketch is the one that Harder and Mrs. Clarke witnessed passing the ship far on the starboard side.



Wireless operator Harold Bride was paid $1,000 for his account. He said: "The Captain told us we had been struck amidships, or just aft of amidships."



That is interesting because that is where the iceberg was seen by witnesses who looked over the side. Boxhall said the Captain went to the bridge wing to see the iceberg go by. If the fatal one had passed into the darkness behind the ship within seconds he could not see it because of the emergency boat that was hung over and the starboard side and blocked his view of that iceberg, and he would have mistaken the other iceberg that others survivors saw as the fatal one.



To get a good idea of the timing. The Titanic was speeding roughly at 21/22 knots when the collision occurred and the order was given to stop engines. In a matter of seconds the iceberg would have passed the ship and disappeared into the darkness. It would have taken a considerable time to slow down the ship to a crawl. Yet after that lengthy time, this is when survivors saw a large iceberg beside the ship.



Survivor Alfred Shiers



Q - How soon after you felt the striking of the iceberg did you see it away on your quarter?
A - About four or five minutes.

Q - Where was the berg away from you? On the port side or the starboard side, or ahead, or where?
A - On the starboard quarter, off the stern.

Q - How far was she from you do you think?
A - About two ships’ length from where I stood.

Q - When you saw the berg could you judge whether your ship was stopped or going ahead?
A - When I looked over the side there was a slight way on her. She was moving, but not much.

Q - You were moving through the water?
A - Yes, but not much.

Q - At that time had the ship any way on her?
A - A slight way.

Q - And you could see the surface of the sea?
A - Yes.

Q - Could you see the glitter of it?
A - I saw the phosphorous that was coming up in the water.

Q - You thought you could discern there were some slight motion?
A - Yes.



Charles Hendrickson



Q - Were you awakened by the shock?
A - No.

Q - Who woke you?
A - One of my mates in the room pulled me out. I was dead to the wide. Dead asleep.

Q - When he woke you up, did you go on deck?
A - Yes.

Q - You came up very quick?
A - No, I walked up behind the others who were walking up.

Q - Did you see the iceberg?
A - Yes.

Q - Where was it?
A - Just abaft the engine room when I got on deck. When I got on deck first I saw a lot of ice on the deck, and I looked out and saw an iceberg astern just abaft the engine room. (same location seen by the others next to the ship).

Q - Had the ship nearly stopped then?
A - She was stopped.




Joseph Scarrott heard the bell ring in the crows nest. He said about 8 minutes later he felt a rumble in the ship and said it felt like the engines were going full speed astern. He then went on deck and saw an iceberg beside the ship.


"I saw an iceberg that I took it we had struck. It would be abaft the beam then. Abaft the starboard beam......Her stern was slewing off the iceberg. Her starboard quarter was going off the icebergs, and the starboard bow was going as if to make a circle round it."

(Note: he said 'icebergs')

The Inquiry noted this as well and asked him: Q - I want to ask you about the two icebergs. (But they immediately changed the question before it could be answered.)



At daylight the survivors could see icebergs all around them and particularly noted two large icebergs very close, between them and the Carpathia and how one of them had a piece broken off. It would be interesting to know if the Titanic had collided with more than one iceberg. Survivors said the ship stopped and then went ahead again. Perhaps they missed the first iceberg and struck the second one! Survivor Gretchen Longley was reported to say that 2 icebergs had passed her porthole window. When Lightoller went on deck and saw the Captain and Murdoch looking over the port side and starboard side bridge wings. Perhaps they were concerned that ice was passing them on both sides the same as the Carpathia.



Quartermaster Olliver saw an iceberg that was blue and higher than the boat deck, while Boxhall saw an iceberg that was so low in the water that he described it as a growler barely any higher than the C-deck railing.


With so many reports of the iceberg(s), how many do you think the Titanic passed? Do you think they attempted to avoid one, only to strike another? The story of the Titanic is something that will always intrigue future generations.