Question Most survivors couldn't hear or feel the collision with iceberg. Why is that?

[Curiosite]

I've read a few accounts, and each one of them stated that there was "no sound" or "just a light sound". Honestly, I'm confused. Why would the ripping of the hull by massive knives of ice not be heard or felt?

 

[Robert T. Paige]

Not having seen

I've read a few accounts, and each one of them stated that there was "no sound" or "just a light sound". Honestly, I'm confused. Why would the ripping of the hull by massive knives of ice not be heard or felt?

Probably (just a guess) their cabins were so far apart from the colission area that the sound was muffled.

 

[Scott Mills]

I've read a few accounts, and each one of them stated that there was "no sound" or "just a light sound". Honestly, I'm confused. Why would the ripping of the hull by massive knives of ice not be heard or felt?

This fact lends some credence to the grounding theory; however, what it really tells us that Titanic made very little contact with the ice--truly a glancing blow at best; maybe a better way to put this is the contact between Titanic and the ice was not enough contact cause a sudden change in Titanic's momentum. If it were, people would have noticed. They would have been thrown from their beds and bunks, and there would have been dozens (more really) cases of broken bones and other collision related injuries.

Unfortunately, the contact was still enough to fatally, or nearly fatally, damage Titanic's hull.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

massive knives of ice

It was a glancing blow along the side. And ice does not cut like a knife. Hull plates were bent and rivets popped off allowing water to enter the hull through the seems.

 

[Manuel93]

Molly Brown said she was thrown out of her bed when the ship hit the iceberg but I feel like it was an exageration...

 

[Scott Mills]

She is the only person I know of who made such a claim. In other words, I suspect you are correct. Most of the people on Titanic did not feel it all, and the ones that did described it most often as a shudder or shaking reminiscent of a ship losing a propeller blade; and no one is being thrown out of bed by the loss of a propeller blade.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Molly Brown

She was actually known and called Margaret Brown or Mrs J.J.Brown, never Molly. That name was created after she passed on.

 

[Jeffrey Alan Dahl]

One passenger named Charles Edward Dahl claimed he was thrown from his bunk in his storie to the Ward County Independent.

 

[Steven Christian]

Molly Brown said she was thrown out of her bed when the ship hit the iceberg but I feel like it was an exageration...

I know hollywood movies aren't factual but didn't one of them have her playing cards when they hit the berg?

 

[Aly Jones]

Since most ( if not nearly all) 3rd class male passengers died that night, we will never know for sure. Male 3rd class passengers were housed in the bow section of titanic.

The off duty officers that night woke up to a slight bump. Officers were more far away from the impact then 3rd class men but closer then Mrs Margaret Brown.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Since most ( if not nearly all) 3rd class male passengers died that night,

Lets stop spreading false information. First of all, a higher percentage of 2nd class men died, 92%, than 3rd class men, 87%. And 67% of 1st class men died. The number fatalities for women passengers are: 3% of 1st class, 13% of 2nd class, and 50% of 3rd class.
(All percentages rounded to whole numbers.)

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

Since most ( if not nearly all) 3rd class male passengers died that night, we will never know for sure. Male 3rd class passengers were housed in the bow section of titanic.

Actually it were the crew (firemen, stokers, trimmers who were at the bow before 3rd class passengers.

The off duty officers that night woke up to a slight bump.

It was only 3rd Officer Pitman who woke up due to sound of collision as he said. 2nd officer Lightoller had not fall alseep by that time and 5th Officer Lowe did not noticed anything about the collision.

 

[Scott Mills]

Lets stop spreading false information. First of all, a higher percentage of 2nd class men died, 92%, than 3rd class men, 87%. And 67% of 1st class men died. The number fatalities for women passengers are: 3% of 1st class, 13% of 2nd class, and 50% of 3rd class.
(All percentages rounded to whole numbers.)

Correct, and the high death rate among the men had everything to do with social norms circa 1912. These social norms were rigidly and overtly enforced by men like Lightoller on the port side of Titanic during the evacuation, but also they were enforced in the minds of the men all over Titanic, as they saw it as their social 'duty' to allow women and children to be evacuated at their expense.

 

[Michael H. Standart]

The closer you were to the point of contact, the more likely you were to notice something. People up in the first class accommodation hardly felt a thing for the most part, but for those closer, say in the crew berthings and the forward 3rd class, they knew about it at once.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

I am personally extremely skeptical about the very few claims about being thrown out of a bunk. It seems there are always those that have a flare for the overly dramatic.

 

[Ioannis Georgiou]

I am personally extremely skeptical about the very few claims about being thrown out of a bunk.

Especially when there ware some who were far away from the area of impact who claimed it too.

 

[Steven Christian]

Especially when there ware some who were far away from the area of impact who claimed it too.

Yeah I would agree with that. From my limited experiance living aboard ship the foward berthing compartments were a lot worse than the aft ones. They were a lot noisier and when in rough seas they seem to get it worse as far as the shuttering and impacts when wave crashing. Of course the conditions were different and it might be apples to oranges and all that but I think the same physics apply. I remember going on my rounds and saying how it sucked up foward for the guys up there compared to us in the back and lower in the ship.

 

[Nerea90]

I’m reading “Guide to the Crew of the Titanic“ by Günter Bäbler right now and it says: “The accommodation for the greasers was on the starboard side in the very tip of the bow on G-deck, exactly where the Titanic collided with an iceberg. It is impossible the greasers would have slept through it. The survival rate amongst the greasers was 12%. (...) Most of the bunks were against the outer hall wall. A slight buckling of the hull at the side by only a few centimeters could have jammed the narrow dormitory door and only exit, trapping the greasers who survived the collision. The portholes had a diameter of only 23cm, insufficient for a man to pass through. If the door was jammed, the greasers had only a few minutes until their accommodatio filled with sea water”.

So I guess it would depend on where you were located.

 

[Samuel Halpern]

“The accommodation for the greasers was on the starboard side in the very tip of the bow on G-deck, exactly where the Titanic collided with an iceberg.

Not quite "the very tip of the bow." The greaser's accommodation was aft of watertight bulkhead A on the starboard side. Ahead of bulkhead A was the chain locker for the anchors and ahead of that was a store room compartment which was at the very tip.

 

[TimTurner]

In addition to what's already been said:
1. Most passengers were asleep at the moment of impact.
2. Many passengers might be unfamiliar with a ship at sea and wouldn't feel or hear the difference for lack of experience.

The greasers indeed were not in the very tip of the bow" (coincidentally I was modeling this very compartment tonight) the greasers were actually above the (probable) 2nd impact site by about 10 feet. The bow of the Titanic didn't plow into the iceberg head on, and it would seem most of the damage occurred aft of where the greasers bunked. Some 3rd class passengers on G deck were likely closer to the collision point than even the greasers.

Also for consideration: Titanic was a big ship. It would have acted a lot like a big crumple zone, absorbing much of the impact. This would have deadened the impact for most people. At the same time, certain ship structures and sympathetic vibrations could have enhanced the force of impact in very specific parts of the ship. So, while it isn't terribly likely, it is within the realm of plausibility that some people were "thrown out of bed" while others felt "nothing".