Titanic: The Novelization (110th Anniversary Edition)

The Collison

At 11:39, Lookout Frederick Fleet sighted an iceberg shaped like the rock of Gibraltar about less than a mile away. The exact size of it was about 150 to 200 feet. The berg might have been "blue" or "black" ice, meaning that it had become top-heavy and flipped over in the water, presenting its dark underside. By starlight, such an iceberg might well be invisible from a distance. Blue ice could often be recognized by the rank smell of thawing vegetation or marine life that had been frozen into its underside, as Lookout Reginald Lee had noticed such a smell after he and Fleet saw it.

"There is ice ahead," he whispered in disbelief.

In an instant, Fleet rang the warning bell three times and shifted to the starboard side of the crow's nest to get to the phone.

It was Moody who picked up the phone.

"Is someone there?" asked Fleet.

"Yes. What did you see?" Moody responded.

"Iceberg, right ahead!"

"Thank you!" he turned to Hitchens, adding. "Iceberg, dead ahead!"

Murdoch saw the berg for himself and shouted into the wheelhouse.

"Hard a-starboard!" he ordered Hitchens.

Even though he couldn't see the obstruction in front of him due to the wheelhouse windows being shuttered, Hitchens immediately turned the helm hard over, hoping to swing the stern to port, away from the berg.

On quick feet, Murdoch ran into the bridge and signaled the engine room telegraph to "Stop".

In the engine room, Engineer Bell was warming his soup on a stove when he noticed the indicator on "Stop". Without even knowing what was going on above, he yelled to crew: "ALL STOP!"

The engine room responded to the signal as quickly as they could, scrambling madly through the catwalks. They knew what was required of them. Any protocol for disaster would see to it that the most important task was to save the ship from further damage, which they would do by starting the pumps and venting the full head of steam. Their next step would have been to repair the initial damage, had any such thing been possible.

In Boiler Room Six, Stoker Barrett reacted to the signal as well. Second Engineer James Hesketh took notice of the red warning light and the indicator on stop. He couldn't sense any danger, but Barrett did.

"Shut all dampers! Shut 'em!!"

At his command, everyone closed the dampers and tried to extinguish the steam. Back in the engine room, Engineer Bell had cut the flow of steam, stopping the engines. Everything came to a complete stop. The crew sighed in relief, hoping that whatever danger was above was over.

But in reality, it was far from over.

Fleet was impatient.

"Why aren't they turning?!"

Murdoch was looking for hope.

"Hard a-starboard, the helm is hard over!" Hitchens shouted from the wheelhouse.

Murdoch watched the burg growing...straight ahead. The bow finally started to make a turn for the left. His jaw clenched as the bow turned with agonizing slowness. He held his breath as the horrible physics played out.

Some nautical experts theorize that Titanic might have had a better chance if Murdoch had simply ordered full-speed ahead as the bow swung to port. The precise maneuver that he hoped to accomplish in such a tight space was out of the question with a vessel whose length was over one-sixth of a mile. To make matters worse, he couldn't understand that by stopping the engines, he had interrupted the flow of water across Titanic's rudder. This made the rudder much less useful for accurate steering at a time when the ship needed to turn immediately.