Mr. Lightoller turned over the ship to Mr. Murdoch, the first officer,
at 10 o'clock, telling him that the ship was within the region where ice
had been reported. He also told him of the message he had sent to the
crow's nest, and of his conversation with the master, and of the
latter's orders.
The ship appears to have run on, on the same course, until, at a little
before 11.40, one of the lookouts in the crow's nest struck three blows
on the gong, which was the accepted warning for something ahead,
following this immediately afterward by a telephone message to the
bridge "Iceberg right ahead." Almost simultaneously with the three-gong
signal Mr. Murdoch, the officer of the watch, gave the order
"Hard-a-starboard," and immediately telegraphed down to the engine room
"Stop. Full speed astern." The helm was already "hard over," and the
ship's head had fallen off about two points to port, when she collided
with an iceberg well forward on her starboard side.
Mr. Murdoch at the same time pulled the lever over which closed the
water-tight doors in the engine and boiler rooms.
The master "rushed out" onto the bridge and asked Mr. Murdoch what the
ship had struck.
Mr. Murdoch replied:
An iceberg, sir. I hard-a-starboarded and reversed the engines, and
I was going to hard-a-port round it, but she was too close. I could
not do any more. I have closed the water-tight doors.
From the evidence given it appears that the _Titanic_ had turned about
two points to port before the collision occurred. From various
experiments subsequently made with the steamship _Olympic_, a sister
ship to the _Titanic_, it was found that traveling at the same rate as
the _Titanic_, about 37 seconds would be required for the ship to change
her course to this extent after the helm had been put hard-a-starboard.
In this time the ship would travel about 466 yards, and allowing for the
few seconds that would be necessary for the order to be given, it may be
assumed that 500 yards was about the distance at which the iceberg was
sighted either from the bridge or crow's nest.
That it was quite possible on this night, even with a sharp lookout at
the stemhead, crow's nest, and on the bridge, not to see an iceberg at
this distance is shown by the evidence of Capt. Rostron, of the
_Carpathia_.
The injuries to the ship, which are described in the next section, were
of such a kind that she foundered in 2 hours and 40 minutes.
III.--DESCRIPTION OF THE DAMAGE TO THE SHIP AND OF ITS GRADUAL AND FINAL
EFFECT, WITH OBSERVATIONS THEREON.
The damage done to the ship was as follows: