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.