What Titanic Survivors Saw When Titanic Was Sinking

Bright Side

Imagine being on the Titanic as it was sinking—survivors described it as both surreal and terrifying. They saw chaos all around them, with people rushing to lifeboats and the ship tilting at a crazy angle. The night was freezing cold, and the only light came from the stars and the ship’s flares. Some survivors recalled hearing the ship’s band playing music, trying to calm everyone down. As the Titanic broke apart and started sinking into the dark ocean, many saw the huge stern rise up before disappearing underwater. It was a haunting scene, like something from a nightmare.  Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00The look out shouts, Iceberg right ahead!

00:05The Titanic strikes the ice.

00:08Water starts flooding in.

00:09Third class passengers are locked up.

00:12There aren't enough lifeboats for everyone.

00:14Panic sets in.

00:16Violins are playing.

00:17The ship sinks.

00:18Well, we all know the story of the movie Titanic like the back of our hand by now.

00:24But what if I told you that Hollywood lied to us?

00:27To tell the real story of what happened that freezing night in 1912, we need to rewind

00:32a bit.

00:35The lookout shouts, Iceberg right ahead!

00:38Yep, that part was true.

00:40Just before 11.40 at night, Frederick Fleet noticed something darker than the sea directly

00:45ahead.

00:46As the ship got closer, he realized it was an iceberg.

00:51The engines were quickly reversed and the ship turned sharply.

00:54Instead of hitting it head on, Titanic scraped along the side of the berg, sprinkling ice

00:59on the forward deck.

01:01If you remember, in the movie, Jack and Rose are having a romantic moment when they feel

01:06the ship shudder after hitting the iceberg.

01:10Everything shakes as if they were in the middle of a light earthquake.

01:14Some real-life passengers reported feeling something similar after the impact.

01:18But according to Titanic survivor Frank Prentiss, it wasn't exactly like that.

01:24He said there was no impact as such and it all felt more like slamming on your car brakes.

01:30The ship stopped and that was that.

01:33Some people even slept right through the collision, confirming that there wasn't such an abrupt

01:37impact.

01:39Mr. Prentiss, curious about what had happened, left his cabin and went out to the deck.

01:44When he got there, all he could see was a little ice on the surface, not the towering

01:49iceberg that Jack and Rose saw.

01:52As we all know by now, the real damage happened below the waterline, where the iceberg had

01:57a jagged spur that slashed a 300-foot gash in Titanic's hull.

02:04Once the crew realized how severe the damage was, they immediately began sending distress

02:08calls to nearby ships, asking for help.

02:11At some point in the movie, the radio operator goes to the captain and says there is only

02:16one ship nearby, the RMS Carpathia, which later ends up rescuing many passengers.

02:23But in real life, there were more ships around.

02:26It's believed that the SS Californian was only about 23 miles away.

02:31This ship might have actually seen the Titanic sinking, or at the very least, seen its rockets

02:36exploding high in the sky.

02:39Yet for reasons we will never fully understand, they didn't try to help.

02:46Let's get back to the story.

02:48Now people need to get off the ship.

02:50At 12.45, lifeboat number 7 was the first to be lowered.

02:54Just like in the movie, women and children were told to go first.

02:58But in reality, some women were hesitant and even refused to get into the lifeboats.

03:04Mr. Prentice said this happened mainly for two reasons.

03:07First, these lifeboats were high and passengers were terrified of the 70-foot drop from the

03:12deck to the ocean below.

03:15And second, most women didn't believe the Titanic would actually sink.

03:19It was called unsinkable after all, so the idea of getting into a lifeboat seemed pointless

03:25at the time.

03:28This mindset probably explains why Eloise Smith, a first-class passenger, recalled that

03:33there was no panic or chaos at first.

03:36Other survivors backed this up, saying that no women or kids were crying.

03:41The one thing that was indeed concerning, at least for the crew, was the possibility

03:46that the lifeboats might buckle under too much weight.

03:50This is one of the theories why the first few lifeboats left carrying only a fraction

03:55of their full capacity.

03:57Like lifeboat number 7, which only carried 27 people in it, even though it could hold

04:02up to 65.

04:05In total, Titanic had 20 lifeboats, which could carry about half of the 2,200 people

04:10on board that night.

04:12But that didn't happen, and now we know the passengers had no idea there weren't

04:17enough for everyone.

04:19As women were calmly getting into the first lifeboats, musicians headed up to the deck.

04:24Their only goal was to play and keep the passengers calm.

04:28That's a pretty well-known fact, but the real story is that some survivors said they

04:33never saw or heard the band.

04:35No violinists whatsoever.

04:39It's not like Hollywood misled you, though.

04:41The musicians did play for over two hours after the ship had hit the iceberg.

04:46So maybe these passengers were just too panicked to notice the songs or the musicians started

04:51playing later than we think.

04:56Now it's time to talk about the terrible treatment that third-class passengers received.

05:01The movie portrayed the crew as cruel, locking the less fortunate below deck like animals,

05:07giving them no chance to reach the lifeboats and save their lives.

05:11But the official inquiry into the disaster suggested that wasn't true.

05:15I mean, yes, fewer third-class passengers survived compared to those in first and second

05:20class, but there were other factors at play.

05:24Many third-class passengers were reluctant to leave the ship, clinging to their belongings

05:29and had a harder time making their way up from the cabins, which were at extreme ends

05:34of the ship.

05:38Some survivors confirmed that they were not locked up.

05:40In fact, it was quite the opposite.

05:43Mrs. George Wabi, a Lebanese woman traveling in third class, said that when chaos had erupted,

05:49some brave crew members and well-dressed first-class passengers had actually helped her get up

05:54to the first-class deck and eventually onto a lifeboat.

05:59At first, the Titanic was sinking slowly, bit by bit.

06:04Rescuers reported seeing the water rising and hearing pops and cracks.

06:08Then there was a loud boom!

06:11Some said there had been just one explosion, while others described it as a series of smaller

06:16explosions, which they'd thought had been the bulkheads giving way.

06:20And there's also a group of people who said they had only heard a rumbling sound.

06:25So not everyone agreed on the sound they had heard, but one thing is a fact.

06:30By 2.18 in the morning, the lights on Titanic went out, and the ship plunged into complete

06:35darkness.

06:37As the bow continued sinking, the stern rose out of the water, putting immense pressure

06:42on the middle of the ship.

06:44This caused the Titanic to break in two.

06:47In James Cameron's movie, this moment is pretty dramatic, with the ship sinking almost

06:52straight down into the water.

06:55But in reality, the break probably happened at a much lower angle, likely just below the

07:00waterline.

07:01Even so, it tilted enough that people couldn't stay on their feet and started sliding into

07:06the water.

07:09One interesting thing is that it wasn't until the wreckage was found in 1985 that it was

07:14finally confirmed the Titanic had broken apart.

07:18Up until then, survivors had given conflicting stories.

07:22At least eight survivors claimed they had seen the ship split.

07:26Emily Ryerson, a first-class passenger, described it as if the Titanic had been sliced in half

07:32with a knife.

07:34But there was also a small number of witnesses that insisted Titanic had gone down intact.

07:40At the time, this theory was more accepted because most people still didn't believe that

07:45the supposedly indestructible ship could break in half.

07:50So why the conflicting reports?

07:53Okay, so what you don't see in the movies, for obvious reasons, is how incredibly dark

07:58it was when the tragedy happened.

08:00It was like being in a room with no light, where you can only make out shapes and shadows.

08:05That's what it was like on the lifeboats.

08:08This means passengers couldn't really see what was happening.

08:12And most of those who were close to the ship either lost their lives or were too focused

08:16on trying to survive to pay attention to the details of the wreck.

08:21Although James Cameron's film didn't fully capture how terrifyingly dark the disaster

08:26truly was, the 2012 TV series, Titanic, did a better job of showing the pitch-black horror

08:33of that night.

08:35Even then, the reality was much darker and more terrifying than either of these two productions

08:40could portray.

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