Back in 2000 one of the key concepts presented in my first book on the subject, "Last Log Of The Titanic" was that the ship actually grounded on the iceberg and did not sideswipe it. A year later Parks Stephenson and I co-authored a white paper entitled "on the Grounding of Titanic." It was presented to the Marine Forensic Panel of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. The text of this white paper is available online at
Grounding of the Titanic
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GENERAL OBSERVATIONS BY SURVIVORS:
Going over that paper, I've pulled out a few items salient to this discussion. First, there is plenty of testimony that makes the accident sound more like a grounding (running over something like an iceberg) than a sideswipe. Here are some of the general observations of passengers and crew who described the event.
Second Officer
LIGHTOLLER -- (officers quarters) It is best described as a jar and a grinding soun. There was a slight jar followed by this grounding sound...naturally, I thought it was from forward...[the grinding] noise lasted a matter of a couple of seconds
Seaman J. SCARROTT -- (Seaman's Mess) I did not feel any direct impact...Not as if she hit anything straight on, just a trembling of the ship.
Passenger Mrs. J. S. WHITE -- (Cabin) It did not seem to me that there was any very great impact at all. It was just as though we went over a thousand marbles. There was nothing terrifying about it.
Lookout (off duty) G. SYMONS -- (Forecastle) What awakened me was a grinding sound on her bottom. I thought at first she had lost her anchor and chain, and it was running along her bottom.
Third Officer PITMAN -- (Officers Quarters) A noise...I thought the ship was coming to anchor.
Seaman W. BRICE -- (Seaman's Mess) It was not a violent shock...not a bad jar...a rumbling noise...for about 10 seconds; somewhere about that...
OBSERVATIONS BY ON DUTY CREW:
Now, let's look at the testimonies of crew who were directly involved with the accident. Quartermaster Hichens was at the wheel during impact. His vision was blocked by the night shutters, but he could still hear and feel the event. Note the specific terminology he used. Hichens said the ship was "crushing" the ice. This would indicate he thought the ship rode over the ice and the weight of Titanic was at work damaging the iceberg. Hichens knew the difference between that and a sideswipe. He would also have been able to see the swing of the bow to port caused by a pure sideswipe, which he did not describe. As to the sound, he was quite specific that it came not from the side, but from the bottom.
Quartermaster HICHENS -- (wheelhouse) During the time she was crushing the ice, we could hear a grinding noise along the ship's bottom.
Two men literally bird's eye views of the accident. They were the two lookouts, Reginald Lee and Frederick Fleet who looked down on events from the crow's nest. Neither man described anything close to a sideswipe, but Lee's testimony is particularly germane. He thought the ship might escape, but then noted there was ice jutting out from the berg under the surface. He also noted a peculiar movement of the mast on a night when the sea was dead calm.
Lookout LEE -- (crow's nest) It seemed almost as if she might clear it, but I suppose there was ice under water. ...The ship seemed to hell slightly over to port as she struck the berg...avery slightly to port as she struck along the starboard side.
Sliding over an underwater portion of the berg would have raised the starboard side. This lifting was not so obvious inside the hull, but the height of the crow's nest above the keel would have accentuated the lifting and made it quite noticeable. There may be corroboration of Lee's observation from a passenger in the first class smoking room, Hugh Woolner. Note the way he described the accident. The "slight twist" in his testimony could well have been caused by the lifting of the starboard bow as it rode over the iceberg.
Passenger H. WOOLNER -- (smoking room) We felt a sort of stopping, a sort of, not exactly shock, but a sort of slowing down; and then we sort of felt a rip that gave a sort of slight twist to the whole room.
-- David G. Brown
