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- [00:00]
Narrator
Out here, there's no one way of doing things, no unwritten rules, and no shortage of adventure. Because out here, the only requirement is having fun. Bank of America invites kids 618 to golf with Us for a limited time. Sign them up for a free one year membership, giving them access to discounted Tetons at thousands of courses. Learn more@bankofamerica.com golf with us what would you like the power to do? Bank of America restrictions apply. See bfa.com golfwithus for complete details. Copyright 2025 bank of America Corporation. It's April 14, 1912, the early hours of Sunday morning. RMS Titanic is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, plowing through the black night at more than 20 knots. Most of the passengers aboard the ship are sleeping soundly, but in her second class cabin on Edeck, Esther Hart is wide awake. Since the ship left Southampton, she's refused to sleep a wink at night, gripped by an irrational fear that something terrible is going to happen. Mrs. Hart kips during the daytimes instead, while her husband takes their daughter Eva around the ship, exploring. Right now, the two of them are sound asleep in their bunks. Mrs. Hart, exhausted from her repeated nocturnal vigils, has forsaken her reading table for her own bunk underneath her husband's. She won't sleep, just rest her head a little. The night is as quiet and still as the previous three have been, only the throbbing of the ship's engines and a gentle creaking noise that she's heard every night of the voyage, too subtle for anyone to not in the bustling daylight hours. But at night even the tiniest noises are magnified. Mrs. Hart jolts upright in her bunk. Was she asleep? She can't be sure, but she's certain she just felt the ship move in an unnatural way. Ben. She hisses. Get up. Something dreadful has happened. Groggily, Mr. Hart slides down from his own bunk to join her. Even in the dark she can see that he's annoyed at being woken. But when she begs him to go on deck and investigate the sudden, strange movement, there's no hiding how terrified she feels. Reluctantly, her husband pulls on his trousers and exits the cabin, taking care not to wake little Eva. Mrs. Hart waits anxiously for him to return. When he does, the irritation on his face has given way to a more patient expression. Everything's all right, he reassures her. The sea is calm. The ship is traveling smoothly. Mr. Hart undresses and climbs back into bed. Within minutes, his wife can tell he's asleep again. She knows perfectly well what he thinks of her the same thing. The rest of the passengers at the breakfast table think that she's a silly superstitious woman obsessed with the idea of impending disaster. Like Cassandra prophesying the fall of Troy, or in this case, the sinking of a so called unsinkable ship. Perhaps they're right. But then Cassandra turned out to be correct. And in less than 24 hours, Mrs. Hart's fears will also come to pass. This time tomorrow, many of those who laughed at her superstitions will be dead and RMS Titanic will be lying torn in half at the bottom of the ocean. From the Noiser podcast network, this is Titanic Ship of Dreams, Part 4. As dawn breaks on Sunday morning, Mr. And Mrs. Hart receive a delivery in their cabin. The latest edition of Titanic's regular news sheet, the Atlantic Daily News. There's a little printing press down on D Deck where the menus for the dining saloons are produced. And when they're not busy laying out the latest offering of consomme Olga or Apricot Bourdalou, the men who work there turn their hands to a bit of journalism. Their daily newspaper is delivered by stewards to everyone in first and second class. It includes the latest news from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as other information of interest to the ship's passengers, stock exchange prices, horse racing results and more. That Titanic can stay so up to date even in the middle of the ocean is testament to the work of the ship's two wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. From their little office on the boat deck, one of the highest spots on the ship, these young men are in almost constant contact with the outside world, either through direct communication with wireless stations on shore or piggybacking messages via other vessels plying the same transatlantic route. Author Tim There was a map of.
- [06:05]
Expert 1
Where all the ships would be that had radio at the time because radio didn't have a range right the way across the Atlantic. So if you wanted to get messages to shore, you would have to jump from ship to ship by saying, hey, can you send this message to America? And they'd say, yeah, okay, I'll tell Fred. And you know, and then it would get there.
- [06:20]
Narrator
The Marconi Wireless Company has placed its operators on dozens of transatlantic vessels. Though Titanic is unusual in having two of the young wizkids on board, they.
- [06:33]
Expert 1
Were the equivalent of, if you like tech geeks today, they were involved in the technology that was cutting edge. They'd all trained together in a place called the Tim Tabernacle. They all knew each other and were mates and they were all quite intelligent, well educated young men who cared about this new technology.
- [06:52]
Narrator
These Edwardian tech bros even have their own professional banter. In their messages they jokingly call each other old man. In fact, Mr. Marconiel most exclusively hires bright young 20 somethings. At 25, Titanic's Jack Phillips is a veteran. He's been working for the company for six years. His assistant Harold Bride is just 22. For these young men, Titanic is a plum assignment. But it's the Marconi Company, not White Star, that pays their wages. And as will prove crucial, they are on board to serve the passengers, not the crew. Most of their time is spent transmitting short messages to family back home or instructions to business colleagues at a rate of nine pence a word. Delivering weather warnings to the bridge is very much secondary responsibility.
- [07:51]
Expert 1
There was an element of a problem of dual responsibilities because they were being paid by Marconi and the passengers were actually paying them to send messages, whereas no one was actually paying them to take, you know, weather warnings to the bridge. Most of the weather warnings were sent to the bridge, but they didn't tend to get the priority that the paying messages got.
- [08:17]
Narrator
On Sunday morning, Titanic's wireless men are playing catch up. There have been some teething problems with their equipment and they now have a huge backlog of messages. The Marconi manual forbids operators from interfering with the machines themselves. That's a job for experienced technicians on shore. But Phillips and Bride have just spent seven hours carrying out repairs.
- [08:43]
Expert 1
I think some of the fixes they made probably wouldn't have been advised by the company, but they were perfectly capable of making do and mending on the North Atlantic. In fact, had they not fixed the radio just before the collision, of course they would have been without it during the collision and it's likely that no one would have survived and no one would have been saved and Titanic would have been like the Mary Celeste and no one would have known what happened to her after she left Ireland on her maiden voyage.
- [09:16]
Narrator
At 9:12 on Sunday morning, Phillips is at his post in the telegraph office when a message comes in from a Cunard liner, a captain Titanic. Westbound steamers report bergs, growlers and field ice in 42 degrees north from 49 to 51 degrees west. A Growler is a small iceberg roughly the size of a grand piano. Extending only a foot or two above the surface. They can be hard to spot. Phillips takes the Coronia's message to the bridge. Not that an iceberg warning is a particular cause for concern.
- [10:00]
Expert 1
In 1912, all captains on the North Atlantic were believed that in clear weather, which they had, that they would be able to see ice in time to take avoiding action.
- [10:13]
Narrator
The coordinates given in Caronia's message won't be reached until this evening at the earliest. In the meantime, Captain Smith has more pressing business to attend to. He's conducting a Sunday service in the first class dining saloon. Some of the hymns are eerily appropriate to a sea crossing. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home. Ironically, Captain Smith's service clashes with the original plan for Sunday morning, Titanic's first and only lifeboat drill at sea. Smith presumably thinks his sermon will be more edifying. Professor Jerome Cherkov There was a lifeboat.
- [11:07]
Expert 2
Drill planned on the Titanic, but that was canceled by Smith, so there was absolutely no practice while the ship was traveling on the transatlantic passage.
- [11:20]
Narrator
Susie Miller you know, to not even.
- [11:23]
Expert 1
Have had a lifeboat drill was just crazy today.
- [11:26]
Expert 2
We just wouldn't tolerate that. Even if you're on a cross channel ferry, you want to know where your muster station is and what the rules are for when things go wrong.
- [11:38]
Expert 1
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- [12:12]
Narrator
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- [12:22]
Expert 2
After an initial dosing phase of 16.
- [12:24]
Narrator
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- [12:33]
Expert 2
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- [13:07]
Narrator
Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about Eglis. Visit eplis.lilly.com or call 1-800-lillyrx or 1-800-545-5979. At 11:47am Phillips and Bride receive a second iceberg warning, this time from Captain Kroll of the SS Nordam, sailing from New York to Rotterdam. Captain SS Titanic Congratulations on new command. Had moderate westerly winds, fair weather, no fog, much ice reported in latitude 4224 to 4245 and longitude 4950 to 5020. Compliments crawl Captain Smith instructs Phillips and Bry to send a reply. Captain Nordam, many thanks. Add moderate variable weather throughout. Compliments Smith. Professor Stephanie Barchewski it was a really.
- [14:12]
Expert 2
Bad season for ice. It had been quite a warm winter and so a lot of ice had broken off of the glaciers in the Arctic and had drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes. You know, everybody knew that, but again, it was something that they thought of as that sort of modern shipbuilding technology had conquered that. You know, maybe 20 years ago some ship disappeared and was never heard from again. And maybe it hit an iceberg, but there's really no record of an iceberg being able to do that kind of damage to a ship. It's always been fine.
- [14:42]
Narrator
Screenwriter Julian Fellowes well, obviously the Titanic.
- [14:46]
Expert 3
Has changed the way we view icebergs, but it wasn't unknown. I had a great, great, great great uncle called William Dorset fellows who was the captain of a ship called the Lady Hubbard, which was sunk by an iceberg in 1817. So it wasn't that nobody thought an iceberg could sink a ship. They knew it could, but they didn't think it could sink a ship like Titanic. They did know icebergs were dangerous and that's why there were iceberg warnings. You know, a big part of the Titanic story is that these iceberg warnings were coming in and they were largely being ignored. And that's where, again, I'm afraid you do come back to Smith.
- [15:35]
Narrator
In the official inquiries that follow the Titanic disaster, a central question will be what speed the ship was traveling in the run up to the collision, and specifically whether Captain Smith should have slowed down, but at the time, slowing down for icebergs goes very much against the White Star handbook.
- [15:55]
Expert 2
It was assumed by sailors at the time that if you came across an iceberg dead ahead, you would see it.
- [16:04]
Expert 4
In enough time to be able to avoid it.
- [16:07]
Expert 2
Captains didn't slow down or change their routes. They just told the lookouts to be alert. They were getting all these ice warnings. Why not stop? It's unthinkable that they would have stopped. It's just unthinkable. It's unthinkable they would have slowed down. By the kind of sailing conventions of the time. It just looks very, very different. With hindsight.
- [16:33]
Narrator
Titanic might not be chasing the Blue Riband, the prize for the fastest Atlantic crossing. That's very much Cunard territory with their streamlined Mauretania and Lusitania. But White Star are invested in making speedy progress. And it's not just the captain who has his eye on how fast they're going. Shortly after noon, a crowd of first class passengers gathers outside the purser's office on C Deck, just off the grand Staircase. Here, the latest figures are posted daily, giving the distance traveled in the past 24 hours. Some of them are even gambling on the results.
- [17:14]
Expert 1
The speed was absolutely driven by the passengers. You know, they demanded to be there fast, absolutely demanded it. There were sweepstakes being run on how fast the ship was going to go. So I would say the main topic of conversation on Titanic was the speed of the vessel.
- [17:31]
Narrator
The figures posted on Sunday afternoon are impressive. An average speed of 22 knots over a distance of 546 miles. That's a 5% improvement on the previous day. But what about the next 24 hours? So far, only 26 of Titanic's 29 boilers have been lit. With the other three online, she should be able to go even faster.
- [17:57]
Expert 1
She was a very fast ship and they were due to do a speed trial on the Monday morning. My hunch is you've probably done 25 knots.
- [18:12]
Narrator
It's around half past one on Sunday afternoon that one of the most controversial moments in the Titanic story either does or doesn't happen. A conversation between Captain Smith and White Star Chairman Bruce Ismay. First class passenger Elizabeth Lines will later testify that she heard the two men discussing Titanic's speed specifically in comparison to her sister ship Olympic. According to Lyons, Ismay tells Smith, we will beat the Olympic and get into New York on Tuesday. That's a day earlier than scheduled. Lyons describes the chairman's demeanour as dictatorial. It's A claim that has puzzled historians for more than a century.
- [19:03]
Expert 1
Titanic was due to arrive on Wednesday morning, and what they wanted to do was arrive on Tuesday night so that as the mist lifted in New York, she would be on her birth, and then all the press in New York would be like, wow, this Titanic's really fast.
- [19:17]
Expert 2
So there was one eyewitness account that said this. I think most Titanic historians, including myself, have always found it very implausible that they were going to try to dock a ship the size of Titanic in New York at night, right in the dark, essentially, if we think about particularly the quality of, like, electric lighting that would have been available at the time, and also that there would have been a big kind of welcome ceremony arranged for the following morning. So, in fact, it probably would have garnered less publicity, not more, for the Titanic to arrive at night. So all of this seems highly implausible.
- [19:52]
Expert 1
I do believe Elizabeth Lyons, actually, because I think that both Ismay and Smith wanted to have the headlines. They both loved headlines. They weren't racing for the blue ribbon, but the Titanic was in a race and she was racing her sister's maiden voyage. So what they were doing is they were watching the charts and they were looking at where was Olympic on her maiden voyage and where are we? And they were like, great, we're way ahead.
- [20:18]
Narrator
Whatever their aspirations, the relationship between Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay is critical to what happens next and who is to blame for it.
- [20:27]
Expert 1
They'd known each other for years. Smith had known his father, Thomas Ismay.
- [20:33]
Narrator
Does Ismay push Captain Smith to drive the ship even faster on Sunday, just as Titanic is entering a part of the ocean already known to contain icebergs? And if he does, is it an order the captain is bound to follow? In the years to come, Ismay's role on Titanic will be hotly debated.
- [20:57]
Expert 1
Ismay had quite a confusing status aboard Titanic because he was traveling on a first class ticket and therefore was technically a passenger. But of course, as the ultimate boss, he even employed the captain, as it were. He really was also a sort of super captain, or, if you like, another member of the crew. And what we see is we see him flipping between these roles throughout the voyage. So sometimes he's eating in the dining room with the passengers, sometimes he's carrying a message from the bridge. He's walking between these two worlds.
- [21:31]
Narrator
Clifford Ismay, Bruce's fifth cousin and biographer.
- [21:36]
Expert 4
So technically, he was a passenger. Technically, he had no control over what happened on board the ship in terms of navigation, et cetera, et cetera. However, Bruce's mate, like his father before him, always tried to travel on the maiden voyage of any of the White Star alliance ships. What he would do was walk around speaking to the first class passengers, second and third class passengers, and see how they felt about the ship.
- [22:09]
Narrator
Ismay's ambiguous position harks back to an old White Star tradition started by his father four decades earlier. In 1872, Thomas Ismay received a complaint from a passenger on his ship, Oceanic. In response, he sent one of his men undercover to find out what life was really like on board.
- [22:31]
Expert 4
These days, we'll call them a secret chopper. It wouldn't be listed as part of the White Star Line. It would be listed as a passenger. He did find a few problems. So as soon as Thomas learned of these problems, he immediately had them rectified and issued letters to all of the captains of the White Star Line advising them of the problems that they'd found. Also upgrading certain parts of the ships as well.
- [23:00]
Narrator
Obviously on Titanic, Bruce Sismay is hardly traveling incognito. He's one of the most recognizable faces on board, but he is making it his business to chat with as many passengers as he can. A detached, awkward man, Ismay is not a natural conversationalist, but he shows flashes of compassion and kindness. He's already had one couple, Emily and Arthur Ryerson, upgraded to a better cabin when he learned the reason for their last minute voyage. The Ryersons are rushing home to New York to arrange a funeral for their son, Arthur Jr. Who died in a car crash six days earlier. On Sunday afternoon, after finishing up with Captain Smith, Ismay spots Emily Ryerson seated outside the companionway on A deck. His attempt at small talk is typical awkward. We are in amongst the icebergs, he tells her cheerfully. To prove his point, Ismay plucks a wireless message out of his pocket, one that Captain Smith gave him to look at during the conversation overheard by Elizabeth Lyons. The message is from another White Star liner, the Baltic Greek steamer Athena reports passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice today.
- [24:20]
Expert 2
He's kind of showing off this new technology of radio that they have on board that, you know, he can actually get these messages that, you know, they've never been able to do this before. He's sort of showing them off to passengers, right, to say, hey, look, you know, we're going to be entering an ice field soon. Isn't that exciting? And I think some of the passengers are like, are we going to slow down? He's like, of course not. We're not going to slow Down.
- [24:41]
Narrator
The message from the Baltic isn't the only iceberg warning that's come in. That afternoon, at 1:49pm, Harold Bride picked up a transmission from the America, reporting that they'd just passed a pair of large bergs. There was no MSG or Masters Service gram attached to it, the prefix that means a message should be brought to the captain's attention, so Bride never passed it on to Captain Smith. At a quarter to six that evening, Titanic changes course. The ship has reached the corner, the point where the northern and southern Atlantic shipping lanes diverge. At this time of year, all vessels will be taking the longer southern route, the one that's supposed to be free of icebergs. But even on the southern route, it's getting colder. Titanic's outdoor spaces have been all but abandoned as passengers throng to cozier spots indoors. Someone who has braved the chilly evening air is journalist Edith Rosenbaum. She's on the boat deck, taking in the stunning view off Titanic's bow. She vividly describes what she sees that evening. The foam whirled in a great cascade, made blood red by the rays of a setting sun. It looked like a crimson carpet stretching from the ship to the horizon. By 7pm, the sun has disappeared altogether and Edith Rosenbaum has retreated inside. As the light fades, First Officer William Murdoch orders the forecastle hatch to be closed. The glow from the hatch is making it hard to see what's ahead. Out on deck, the temperature has dropped to 6 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, eight decks below, things are hotting up. Titanic's last three boilers are ready to come online. They've been gradually warming up over the past few hours. Now the time has come to connect them to the engines.
- [27:08]
Expert 1
The boiler rooms were several decks deep and they occupied the area of the ship on top of what we call the tank top, and underneath that, you had the bilges and things like that. So, in other words, it's the lowest deck that there is on the ship, but going up several heights of decks to accommodate the size of the boilers, and then towards the stern of the ship, you had the engine room proper, if you like, and that's where these two giant reciprocating engines were.
- [27:35]
Narrator
Down in the bowels of the ship. Men like my Great Uncle Jimmy McGann are hard at work. My brother Steven has researched Jimmy's story.
- [27:45]
Expert 4
It was a filthy job. They would do four hours on, I think, real backbreaking work, then they would take four hours off, then they might be on standby. It was a very strict rota. So you'd go back to bed exhausted. You wouldn't know where you were, what time of day it was. You'd wake up again, they'd call you beforehand and you'd go down. They had a bell, which. A bit like that great scene in Ben Hur with the Roman galley, with the galley man banging the drum. They literally used to run by a metronome. So they would then be forced if it was full steam ahead. As it was, they would have to work to an ever more rapid noise.
- [28:24]
Narrator
As a trimmer, Uncle Jimmy's job is to bring the stokers who feed the giant furnaces a constant supply of coal.
- [28:32]
Expert 1
They were core trimmers because they literally trimmed the coal from the bunkers at the sides of the ship and then fed it into the boilers. And if they trimmed it unevenly, then the ship would actually develop a list, because Titanic used 600 tons of coal a day. So the trimmers worked wheelbarrows and actually went from the bunkers, collected the coal and then wheeled the coal to the stokers, who would then shovel it into the hot furnace. Extremely hot work, Very dusty, very physical work.
- [29:07]
Expert 4
They did such a troglodyte job, you know, life for a black ganger down in the engine room. Many of them were stark naked in the room because it was so hot. There'd be gangly bits everywhere because it was, you know, nobody cared. They would absolutely not meet and frighten the ordinary paying passenger. But also, when they're working, they're really working. There's no food bricks for hours on end. What used to happen was the scraps of food from the first and second class tables would be put into a sort of big dump, a mix of food, and they would eat it to keep their. To keep their calories up. So they'd send it down to the black gang. But no, they weren't allowed to see them. No one was supposed to see these beasts.
- [29:57]
Narrator
And it's not just food breaks that men like Uncle Jimmy don't have time for. When you're on duty, there's no time to pop to the toilet either.
- [30:06]
Expert 4
They used to defecate on their shovels and shove it into the furnace. That's what they used to do. You know, it's not. It's not delicate when you're doing family history. This isn't Brideshead Revisit. The Megan story isn't pedigree stuff, you know, But I love this kind of detail.
- [30:30]
Narrator
While men like my great uncle toil away on the lower decks, Titanic's richest passengers are Living the high life.
- [30:39]
Expert 2
For first class, for example, you had a swimming pool, indoor swimming pool, which was new for ships that hadn't been around before. You had the gym, you had squash courts, you had all sorts of leisure facilities. Veronica Hinkey these people in first class were the super, super wealthy at the time that the Jeff Bezos of the time, and many of them were the kind of wealth that we can't even imagine their lifestyles were palatial. Life on board Titanic for those few days seems to have been like a big party definitely for the first class passengers. They were all sizing each other up to begin with. A lot of them were, you know, coming back from business trips from London back to New York. So, you know, there was a kind of pecking order even amongst the first classes as to, you know, who was the most important there. There was a lot of networking going on.
- [31:40]
Narrator
For many travelers, Titanic is not just a booze cruise, but a schmooze cruise. And the pecking order among the richest guests is a complex one.
- [31:55]
Expert 3
It wasn't that all these people were the same and they all came from the same club. They didn't. Any more than everyone in first class today on an airliner is someone you want to have to dinner next Thursday.
- [32:09]
Narrator
First class on Titanic is dominated by wealthy Americans. Richest of all is John Jacob Astor iv, a man whose family have topped the New York rich list for generations.
- [32:23]
Expert 3
His ancestor, the first John Jacob Astor, built his first fortune on fur, which was then a very important ingredient in fashion. And he made a very, very large sum of money.
- [32:38]
Narrator
By the turn of the 20th century, the Astors have amassed a vast property empire, including the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel on Fifth Avenue. John Jacob IV has grown up in the lap of luxury, but all the privilege in the world has done nothing to protect him from scandal.
- [32:57]
Expert 3
His mother had built this enormous palace for herself. So he was then living in a house, you know, not much smaller than Buckingham palace, with a ballroom on the back. And he had this tremendously socially active wife who was very good looking and a great leader and a clever woman and everything was ticketboo until he fell in love with his second wife, Madeleine, who was very much younger. She was about 18 and nobody could believe that he was going to divorce his very prominent and important wife for this sort of slip of a girl. That is exactly what he did.
- [33:43]
Narrator
Shunned by New York society, Astor and his new wife have been lying low, taking an extended honeymoon across the pond.
- [33:53]
Expert 2
He's sort of gone to Europe for a while to Kind of escape the press hostility. And then they're actually, you know, finally decided that it's gonna be safe to come back to New York, that they can come back and at least, you know, begin to get kind of out from under the scandal that's been surrounding him with this young wife.
- [34:09]
Narrator
One first class passenger, unfazed by the Astor's scandalous reputation is Margaret Brown, a woman who struck it rich much more recently when her husband developed a new technique to mine for gold. The so called unsinkable Molly Brown will become the subject of a 1960 Broadway musical. So no prizes for guessing whether or not she survives the disaster.
- [34:35]
Expert 3
The unsinkable Molly Brown was quite a character. I mean, she wasn't at all well received by American society. You know, they thought she was ghastly, but ghastly or not, she was unsinkable and she got what she wanted and she made her life for herself and I think we love her for it.
- [35:00]
Narrator
On Sunday evening, the Astors are joined for dinner by Ida and Isidor Strauss, the elderly owners of Macy's department store. They've forsaken the sprawling first class dining saloon for the more intimate a la carte restaurant just a few tables over. Another top draw dinner party is in progress. This one has been scheduled to celebrate Captain Smith's upcoming retirement, and it's very much invitation only. The hosts for the evening are George Widener, heir to the largest fortune in Philadelphia, and his socialite wife Eleanor. And aside from their guest of honor, Captain Smith, they've been joined by the great and good of Titanic's first class.
- [35:45]
Expert 2
The Widener dinner party was attended by the Thayers, the Carters, President Taft's aide, Major Archibald Butt, and Clarence Moore, who was a traveling master of hounds that was well known at the time. There are no menus that survive, so we don't know what they had to eat that night, but we do know that it was a very beautiful setting. As all of these restaurants were in first class.
- [36:14]
Narrator
Footing the bill for such a meal is quite an undertaking. Fortunately, the Wideners have deep pockets.
- [36:21]
Expert 2
One thing of note about Eleanor Widener is that she had three necklaces with her on board the Titanic which were worth $700,000. This is in 1912.
- [36:33]
Narrator
Not for nothing is Captain Smith known as the millionaire's captain. His years of service to the White Star fleet have seen him mingle with some of the world's wealthiest people, and all of them seemed to love him.
- [36:47]
Expert 1
He was the most experienced captain on the North Atlantic. He was quite a good looking man with a big gruff sort of moustache, which was typical of captains at the time. And yet he spoke in very hushed, very calm tones. He had sparkly blue eyes and passengers loved him. They would change their passages to actually sail with him. He was urbane, he was sophisticated. He could talk about all the court cases of the day, you know, with the wealthiest people of the day.
- [37:16]
Expert 3
I think he was a very congenial figure. I think he was good fun and chatty and he rotated the first class passengers around so he got to know them all and he sat with them all and he was very pleasant. But of course his job was to sail the ship. His job was not to keep the passengers happy any more than it would be to load the lifeboat. That wasn't what he was there for. He was there to sail the ship.
- [37:48]
Narrator
This episode is brought to you by State Farm.
- [37:51]
Expert 1
You might say all kinds of stuff.
- [37:53]
Narrator
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- [38:14]
Expert 1
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
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Narrator
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Expert 1
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Narrator
Join for free today Lowe's we help you save. Exclusions More terms and restrictions apply. Program subject to terms and conditions. Details@lowes.com Terms Subject to change a little before 9pm on Sunday, Captain Smith does return to the bridge, but not for long. He has a brief conversation with Officer of the Watch Charles Lightoller. Lightoller is an experienced sailor with quite the personal history. He's been shipwrecked in the Indian Ocean, worked as a cowboy in Canada, even walked the American railroads as a hobo. He's a hard knot, but also an extremely competent officer. By now, the air on Titanic's bridge, which is open to the elements on both sides, has dropped to just one degree above freezing. And that's not the only thing that's happened. While Captain Smith was dining with the Wideness telegraph operator Harold Bride has received yet another iceberg warning. The sixth of the day so far. This one is from Captain Lord of the Californian. Three large bergs five miles southward of us. Titanic's lookouts haven't spotted any icebergs, but in these conditions they aren't always easy to make out. It's a still cold night. No wind. That means no ripples at the base of the bergs. One of the usual giveaways. Lightoller doesn't like it. He tells Captain Smith as much. But Smith seems relatively unconcerned. If it becomes at all doubtful, let me know at once, he tells his second officer. I'll be just inside. He then retreats to his cabin, leaving Lightoller in charge. On the bridge.
- [40:31]
Expert 4
There was talks that Captain Smith may have been drunk at the time that Titanic hit the iceberg. While he was in his cabin. He was retired. But I don't believe for one moment that he was drunk. He will have had a drink with the passengers, there's no doubt about it. Maybe had a couple of drinks. But one might say the commander of the ship is always in command, even when he's off duty. That was one of the stipulations in the White Star Line handbook that sobriety must be maintained at all times by all members of the crew, especially the captain. They had to be congenial with the passengers. And it would be very rude of the captain to refuse to drink with them, I guess. But exactly how much weather would influence the captain captain's decision making at sea? I think any captain worth his salt would have avoided putting himself in that situation.
- [41:26]
Narrator
Knowing what we do now, it's hard not to question Captain Smith's judgment. But by the standards of 1912, it's unclear whether he actually does anything wrong on Sunday evening.
- [41:39]
Expert 4
In hindsight, you'd say they should have stopped dead on the night. They didn't. If they had, then obviously it would have been a totally different story. But I think he just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
- [41:52]
Expert 2
It's hard to point to anything that Captain Smith does or doesn't do that is radically different from any other captain at the time. You know, if something's working against him, right, it's his long experience. Experience can be a great thing. It can, you know, teach us all kinds of things about what to do and what not to do. In his case, I think it did breed a certain complacency, right, that he'd always done things in this way and he was going to continue to do them this way. But I don't think a younger captain probably would have behaved particularly differently. I think what he does is very standard practice of the time. So it's that standard practice we probably need to criticize and not anything that Smith does or doesn't do.
- [42:32]
Expert 4
Every action I undertook was within the guidelines of the White Star Line. The rule was that if a ship was in the vicinity of ice, it should proceed at its normal speed or maybe even increase speed to get out of that area as quickly as possible.
- [42:53]
Narrator
Having signed off for the night, Captain Smith is relaxing in his cabin just metres away from the bridge. Meanwhile, down below, a number of lively events are taking place. There's an Irish party in the third class dining room on F deck with music courtesy of pipe player Eugene Daley. And two floors above, a more sombre gathering. The second class dining room is playing host to a hymn service organized by Reverend Ernest Carter. It is Sunday after all.
- [43:31]
Expert 2
A nearly 100 passengers came to the service and sang. And what was really ironic is the songs that they ended up singing were almost, in hindsight, telling of what they would experience later that night. Probably the most coincidental is for those in peril on the sea Eternal Father strong to save whose arm hath bound the restless wave who bidst in the mighty ocean deep Its own appointed limits keep oh, hear us when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea. All of these songs you know, as you look back on that hymn service and the fact that it was within a few hours of what they were going to experience was really remarkable.
- [44:27]
Narrator
Though nobody has seen one yet. Titanic has been sailing past icebergs for over an hour ever since Captain Smith was at dinner with the wideness. The lookouts in the crow's nest can smell them. The telltale mineral odor that signals a berg is nearby. First class passenger Elizabeth Schutz has noticed it too. She remembers the sinister aroma from a visit to the Eiger glacier in Switzerland. By now the temperature on deck has dropped below freezing. There are ice crystals forming on the portholes of empty, unheated cabins as well as around the lamps at the front of the ship. The effect is strangely beautiful.
- [45:16]
Expert 1
Quartermaster Road said you could see whiskers around the light, which means little ice crystals floating in the still air, which made beautiful rainbows around all of Titanic's deck lights. Another point while we're talking about the incredible beauty and majesty of that night is that there was a lot of phosphorescence in the water. So as Titanic plowed on to her destiny, if you like, on this black ocean that was absolutely calm, there was a Green V shape, almost like geese flying if you like, but a green V coming out from her bow.
- [45:53]
Narrator
At 9:52pm, Titanic's wireless room receives another warning. It's from a freighter. The SS Masaba saw much heavy pack ice and a great number large. Iceland wireless operator Jack Phillips is too busy to take it to the bridge. He's still trying to clear his backlog of passengers messages. He puts it under a paperweight to deal with later. At 10pm, the pipe party down in steerage wraps up. The stewards arrive to turn off the lights. Most of the third class passengers go to bed in first class. Meanwhile, lights out won't come for another hour and a half. Actress Dorothy Gibson is in the reading and writing room on Adec, enjoying a game of bridge with her mother and a couple of New York bankers. At 10 past 11, Jack Phillips receives another message on the wireless. It's the Californian again, the same ship that issued an iceberg warning two hours ago. Now the Californian's Captain, Stanley Lord has been forced to stop for the night. His path is blocked by an impassable ice field. But when Lords wireless operator Cyril Evans tries to communicate this to Titanic, he receives short shrift from Phillips. Titanic's chief Marconi operator has recently established communication with the shore station at Cape Race in Newfoundland. He has the volume on his headset turned up to the maximum.
- [47:34]
Expert 1
They had just been able to make contact with America for the first time since leaving Europe, 400 miles away and it was very faint. So then when this ship, the Californian, comes in. Hey, I'm stopped in ice. It blasts Phillips's ears off.
- [47:52]
Narrator
Annoyed, Phillips taps back a reply.
- [47:56]
Expert 1
He says, kaom. And what that means is keep out, old man. So it's been translated in modern parlance to be shut up. But it wasn't. It was banter between two young people. He didn't know the importance of the message. It blasted his ears off and in the haste of the moment, he just said, keep out, old man.
- [48:12]
Narrator
K O O M. Suitably chastened, Evans does as he's told. Twenty minutes later, he shuts down his machine for the night and goes to bed. The Californian's final message never makes it to Titanic's bridge. It lacks the emergency MSG prefix, so Philip sees no need to pass it on. He goes back to his own passenger's messages instead. Don't miss your chance to spring into deals at Lowe's right now. Get a free 6060 volt Toro battery when you purchase a select 60 volt Toro electric mower plus buy three 19.3 ounce vegetable and herb Bonnie plants for just $10. It's time to give your yard a grow up Lowe's we help you Save valid through 423. Selection varies by location while supplies last. Discount taken at time of purchase. Actual plant size and selection varies by location. Excludes Alaska and Hawaii.
- [49:12]
Expert 2
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities.
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Expert 1
So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you.
- [49:26]
Expert 2
To Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms@mintmobile.com we tend to think.
- [49:44]
Narrator
Of Titanic as hitting a random rogue iceberg. In fact, she's sailing through a sea of them and they're creating an unusual microclimate.
- [49:56]
Expert 1
There were about 200 icebergs in a giant circle 360 degrees around Titanic when she sank. And a lot of the bergs were more than 200ft high. So what you have to imagine is any warmer air is just blowing over the top of all these bergs and inside you've got this little microcosm of a mill pond that's freezing with still air. And of course this barrier of ice all the way around really protected the environment.
- [50:22]
Narrator
Titanic curator Klaas Joranwetterholm the ocean that.
- [50:27]
Expert 1
Night was so absolute still, there were.
- [50:29]
Expert 3
No clouds, no nothing, no waves breaking against the iceberg summit.
- [50:34]
Narrator
You could hardly see where the ocean.
- [50:37]
Expert 3
Ended and the sky started. It was as if the nature had prepared this big drama with an enormous.
- [50:46]
Narrator
Ocean liner, as if it was floating.
- [50:49]
Expert 3
Over glass and then meeting its enemy.
- [50:53]
Expert 1
Even though there was no moon, the stars were extraordinarily bright. People said that you could read your watch by the starlight, you could see the whole Milky Way. Someone said there were more points of light than there was black between them. And actually, not only could Titanic's funnels be seen when her lights went out silhouetted against the stars, but even her mask have thin masts all the way up could actually be seen as blocking out stars. It was a night almost where you're looking at the universe.
- [51:29]
Narrator
Beautiful it may be, but these strange conditions are also highly dangerous. And at the time of Titanic's Maiden voyage. They're poorly understood. In fact, it's not until relatively recently that experts have managed to piece together an exact account of what happened, atmospherically speaking, on 14 April 1912, an account that helps explain what caused the sinking of Titanic. So far in this series, we've followed the famous ship all the way from Belfast, via Southampton, Cherbourg and Queenstown, and most of the way across the Atlantic Ocean. But now we need to consider the movement of the iceberg as well, because it, too has been on a journey.
- [52:18]
Expert 1
There had been quite a warm winter in the Arctic in 1911, and a lot of ice had come out of Baffin Bay and was actually sort of marooned, if you like, along the shore around Newfoundland. And then what happened was there was quite a high tide, and what happened was that the high tide lifted all the icebergs and then they suddenly floated in a giant rush down the Labrador Current.
- [52:46]
Narrator
The Labrador Current flows down the east coast of Canada and out to sea where it meets the warmer Gulf Stream.
- [52:54]
Expert 1
So what happened was the cold water flowed a bit like a cold snake wriggling over the hot desert floor. That's how the Labrador Current that was freezing, flowed over or into the Gulf Stream, but without mixing. When you get very, very cold water of the type I've been describing, you get the opposite of a desert mirrors. So in the. In the desert, the surface is very hot and light travels faster along the surface and slower in the colder air slightly higher up. And that causes the light beam to bend upwards. And what that means is it brings a sliver of the sky, bends it down and sort of paints it on the ground in front, front of you. And then it's your brain that actually thinks it's water. The exact same things happens, but in reverse, when it's very, very cold on the surface. So what happened is, as you get into this very, very cold Labrador Current area, the light, instead of bending upwards and showing you the sky, it bends downwards around the curvature of the earth and shows you a bit more beyond the horizon. It. It has the effect of raising the horizon slightly. What they started to see when they got into the Labrador Current was a very thin layer of what looked like haze, a band of haze all around the horizon. It had the effect of camouflaging the iceberg. And so this little band of haze all around the horizon just meant they probably picked up the berg, I don't know, 15 seconds, 20 seconds later than they would otherwise have done.
- [54:34]
Narrator
It's not much, but those few seconds could be enough to make all the difference. At 11:39 on Sunday evening, all is quiet on RMS Titanic. Captain Smith is asleep in his cabin, as are most of the passengers on board. On the bridge, First Officer Murdoch has taken over from Lightoller. So far, it's been an uneventful watch. But then suddenly, a harsh sound pierces the cold night air. Three dings from the bell in the crow's nest, as clear as day. Murdoch's blood runs cold. He knows what that signal means. The lookouts have sighted an obstacle dead ahead. In the next episode, Murdoc takes evasive action attempting to swerve around the iceberg as Titanic sustains multiple hull breaches. Water starts flooding in and the ship's two Marconi operators broadcast their first ever sos. That's Next Time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Titanic Ship of Dreams right now without waiting by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description to find out more.
- [56:29]
Expert 2
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Expert 1
It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost. Their designer quality frames start at $95 including prescription lenses plus scratch resistant, smudge.
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Expert 2
Resistant and anti reflective coatings and UV.
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Expert 1
Protection and free adjustments for life. To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses, or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you, head over to warbyparker.com that's warbyparker.com.