All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S01E02.720p.WEB.h264-BAE

Titanic.

Its very name evokes a chill.

And the tale of its sinking is
legendary.

Captain Smith was the man of the hour, a
hero of the era.

You have crew who were the best that
White Star could offer.

There were stories of heroism, the way
the band played until the end.

But are these stirring tales of a heroic
captain and crew actually true?

Since the tragedy, Titanic historians
have sought to acquire the personal

of Lord Mersey, the man charged in
Britain with investigating the disaster.

His private journals may hold the
answer.

Now, for the first time since 1912,
these critical documents will be

revealed.

108 years later, here we go.

Will this information alter the accepted
story of how and why Titanic sank?

They didn't think that they would need
to have lightboat drills.

Titanic told them to shut up and go
away.

Nearly the entire response was
completely improvised.

Californian could have galloped to the
rescue like a fifth gavelman.

What new light can the contents of this
box shed on one of history's most

enduring disaster?

April 17, 1912.

Two days since Titanic's demise.

The Mackie Bennett, a 269 -foot cable
repair ship in service since the 1880s,

is dispatched from Halifax, Nova Scotia,
on a grim task.

Sail into an icy hell and retrieve
Titanic dead.

Richard McMichael is a historian at the
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in

Halifax.

As you can imagine, this is a
nightmarish situation.

The crew's main role is to repair
sections of damaged transatlantic cable.

There's nothing in the job description
about fishing women and children out of

the icy waters of the North Atlantic.

Mackie Bennett's journey takes 36 hours,
and...

When they enter the death zone, they
find several hundred corpses.

Men, women, children.

Fifty -one we have taken on board today.
This is the first day out.

The sea still seems strewn, with the
exception of ourselves and the bosun

as the only living creature here.

Put yourself in the position of these
men.

One day alone, Mackie Bennett recovers
128 bodies.

127 men, one woman.

There are photographs that exist of
those people being buried at sea. Very

solemn just to look at.

And then they would keep a log in real
time.

8 p .m. The tolling of the bell summoned
all hands to the forecastle.

as the weighted body plunges into the
sea, there to sink to a depth of about

miles. Splash, splash, splash.

As the gruesome details of Titanic's
fate filters back to both continents, a

horrified public demands answers.

Mark Chernside is a maritime historian
and author of ten books on British royal

mail ships.

It was such a huge disaster, the
questions were rightly being asked about

the largest and most luxurious ship in
the world could possibly sink during its

maiden voyage and with such a
catastrophic loss of life.

There was such public interest in what
had happened that the British government

determined that they needed to appoint a
rep commissioner.

Lord John Charles Biggum, 1st Viscount
Mersey, is a well -connected barrister,

judge, and politician.

And he's chosen for a monumental task.

Find out exactly what went wrong on
Titanic.

Charles Haas is an historian, author,
and president of the Titanic

Society.

Lord Mersey was bringing to the table
considerable legal knowledge, hopefully

sense of fairness, a sense of balance,
all of the things that a judge, if you

will, needs to have.

The thing that we have to keep in mind,
however, is that the investigation in

England was a Board of Trade
investigation, which means that

the very...

organization that had allowed Titanic to
go to sea is now investigating itself

to some degree.

Across 36 days of testimony from nearly
100 witnesses answering

25 ,000 questions, an exhaustive inquiry
comes to a close.

While the report's final conclusions do
levy criticism, Some observers wonder if

the hundreds of pages of notes Lord
Mersey took in his private journal

the trial and stored in a leather -bound
box go much further than his public

pronouncements.

After a century tucked away in their
private family archives, Lord Mersey's

estate has agreed to share the contents
of the box publicly.

Some judges think out loud.

Lord Mercy did not think out loud. Lord
Mercy thought on paper.

And it's only now that we get to see
what some of his private thoughts were.

My name is Ned Bigham, and I'm the fifth
Viscount Mercy.

My great -great -grandfather was...

John Charles Bigham, Lord Mersey.

I don't think anyone has actually sat
down and gone through the box or the

materials and said, what exactly have we
got here?

What is its significance?

It's just sat there for all these years.

So, 108 years later, here we go.

For the first time in recorded history,
we're going to open the box.

Mersey's drawings, observations and
ruminations will be examined by several

renowned Titanic experts who will
explain the significance of this lost

evidence.

And through the lens of this new
information

Titanic's journey will be reconstructed,
beginning with problems that arose

before she set sail.

The early part of the 20th century, the
United Kingdom was clearly a world

power. Its influence stretched literally
around the world.

The shipping industry is front and
center in terms of the importance to the

country and, for that matter, to the
world.

One of the most dominant shipping
companies of the day is Britain's White

Line.

Founded in 1845, White Star made its
fortune delivering the Royal Mail, while

also providing top -flight passenger
service.

The extra size of these ships enabled
White Star to increase the number of

-class passengers that were carried and
have even more luxurious first -class

accommodation than the world had
previously seen.

And White Star's newest steamer is the
most luxurious, Titanic.

But the massive ship, at more than 882
feet long, weighing more than 46 ,000

tons, and costing more than $180 million
in today's dollars, has a major problem

few people remember today.

With the departure date in April fast
approaching, half the cabins are empty.

So White Star makes a fateful decision.

It brings famed Captain Edward Smith out
of retirement to shore up ticket sales.

I mean, if you want to hire somebody,
central casting, to be captain of an

liner in the early part of the 20th
century, it's E .J. Smith, whether or

knew how to run a boat or not. It
doesn't matter. He just looks the part.

Edward Smith was one of the captains who
played up that sort of ship's captain

thing, invited the rich and the famous
to the captain's table, hence his

nickname, the Millionaire's Captain.

When April arrives, Titanic, with Smith
at the helm, is ready to sail.

But the Millionaire's Captain also
brings plenty of baggage with him onto

spit -shine deck of the Titanic.

Inside Lord Mersey's box is a red
leather journal that he kept by his side

throughout the inquiry.

He used it to write down his notes and
discoveries.

On page 114, there's a notation
referencing that most of Titanic's crew

on the Olympic.

Why did Mersey think this detail was
important?

In 1911.

Captain Smith and his fellow officers,
who later served on the Titanic's doomed

voyage, crewed Titanic's sister ship,
the Olympic, on her maiden voyage.

While docking in New York, the Olympic
collided with a tugboat.

Then, three months later, Smith's
Olympic did something far worse.

In 1911, the Olympic was leaving
Southampton,

British naval cruiser Hawk was in the
vicinity.

Somehow the Hawk managed to collide with
the Olympic in the stern.

Olympic was severely damaged and she
experienced flooding.

Smith is on the bridge and therefore in
charge of the vessel.

Titanic left Southampton on the 10th
April 1912.

It was a bit of a gusty, cold day, by
all accounts.

It was a proud moment for White Star.

She came out of the dock, went round to
the left, and then proceeded down the

river.

And all the indications were that
Titanic was set for a successful maiden

voyage.

As hundreds of well -wishers arrive
dockside to cheer Titanic off, the

reputation precedes it.

Both the press and White Star espouse a
perception of invincibility.

But who could blame them?

Titanic is spectacular.

6 ,600 tons of coal powers massive 17
-foot propellers.

The ship is the length of two and a half
foot long fields and can ferry 3

,547 passengers and crew.

She is the largest man -made moving
object on Earth.

For the passengers on board, the first
four days of the journey are euphoric.

That's especially true for the wealthy,
soaking in their world -class

accommodations.

When Titanic comes out, it was actually
referred to as the millionaire special

because it could not be imagined that
someone would be able to spend that much

money on a transatlantic crossing.

If you look at the best accommodations
in the ship, $4 ,350 for

a crossing, that's the equivalent of 10
years' salary to an average American in

1912.

The first -class price tag is steep, but
it comes with perks.

Among them is access to Titanic's state
-of -the -art Marconi wireless system.

The Marconi...

This was modern technology for a modern
ship.

And so part of the whole idea was this
sort of showman thing. You were there,

you were rich, you were powerful, you
were right at the edge of modern

technology. And you could send messages
to tell your friends in New York or

London or Paris what you were doing.

These were young men on ships, tapping
away on a Morse code player.

They were using lots of slang and lots
of rather sort of relaxed way of talking

to each other.

The fellows that worked in the wireless
rooms on board ship were not part of the

crew. In most cases, they were employees
of the Marconi company.

The Marconi operator's independence has
a glaring risk.

If people were being employed by Marconi
to send messages on behalf of private

passengers, did they then perhaps omit
to look at the safety messages?

It could have been their priority.

Titanic will end up receiving 21 ice
warnings via Marconigram on its four

at sea.

But Captain Smith, like many
transatlantic veterans, is skeptical of

technology.

Someone who's sailed back and forth
across the Atlantic for so long without

aid of any sort of technology didn't
really take something like wireless very

seriously.

Another thing Captain Smith might not
have been prepared for, the lifeboat

situation.

While White Star fitted Titanic with 20
lifeboats, four more than were required

by regulation.

It still isn't enough for a ship this
large.

At full capacity, Titanic's lifeboats
could hold just half of the ship's 2

passengers.

While that fact is well known, Less
known is that, according to the

Smith and crew may not have trained
sufficiently with the lifeboats they did

have.

Titanic's lifeboats were raised and
lowered with a new crane system called

Welland Davids.

Dave Brown is a Titanic historian and
retired commercial ship captain.

The crew, they were all certified
seamen, but...

The only thing that they didn't have a
lot of experience with is Well and

Davits, which were fairly new and coming
online.

As Sunday, April 14th dawns, four days
into Titanic's maiden voyage, the crew

scheduled for a routine lifeboat drill.

Though his men are new to Titanic and
her lifeboat apparatus,

Captain Smith cancels the drill.

I cannot say why Captain Smith failed to
do that. At a bare minimum, he could

have detailed one of the lower -ranking
officers to walk from boat to boat and

check the lines and check, you know, any
pulleys had been greased or whatever

was necessary.

But, you know, he didn't even do that.

During the inquiry, a Titanic lookout
named Archie Jewell testified that

although they tested lifeboats before
leaving Southampton, There were only two

boats lowered away out of 20, and they
were not even put into the water.

In his private journal, Mercy notes this
unusual.

When Lord Mercy wrote in his journal and
found that to be unusual, indeed it

was. You really need to have a lifeboat
drilled.

They didn't think that they would need
to have lifeboat drilled.

And this goes back to hubris. Why bother
having lifeboat drills when the ship

simply can't sink?

April 14, 1912. Early evening.

It's moonless and the seas are eerily
calm.

Titanic is steaming towards the Grand
Bank in the North Atlantic.

At a brisk 22 knots, or 25 .5 miles per
hour.

At 7 .30 p .m., Second Officer Charles
Lightoller raises his sextant.

In the era before GPS, this device is
used to plot a ship's position.

According to information in the Mersey
Box and other sources, this moment

initiates a series of fatal errors.

The sextant was the critical instrument
of navigation.

When you look through the telescope, one
side sees the horizon.

The other side here sees...

the sky.

So if I put it up like this and I adjust
it, what I'm going to do is I'm going

to bring the celestial body down till it
sits on the horizon.

I call out, Mark.

And then the guy who's got the hack
watch writes down the exact moment of

hack. When Light Hauler took this
reading at 7 .30, he either was

wrong or the hack watch was off by a few
seconds.

A sextant in conjunction with a hack
watch and a nautical chronometer can

accurately determine a ship's position.

But if the officers taking the readings
make a mistake, the ship can veer off

course.

If you're off by a minute of time is a
mile of latitude.

It can grow very big.

While historians have long suspected
that Titanic was lost in route, proof of

the navigational errors has been
elusive.

That's because Titanic's logbook, the
equivalent of a black box containing

on every important decision of a ship's
journey, has never been found.

Typically, it was put in a waterproof
bag, sealed, and the highest -ranking

officer would take it onto the lifeboat.

Theoretically, you carry all the records
off the ship.

But a captain who knows that he's got
some information that he would rather

disclose will probably throw five pounds
of rocks in the bag and throw it

overboard, you know.

Despite 25 ,000 questions across a month
of testimony, Lord Mersey's private

box doesn't contain a single reference
to the missing logbook.

There may be something in there that
Captain Smith didn't want the world to

about.

It could have been something damning to
the White Star Line and the Board of

Trade.

We don't know.

Months before the inquiry, steaming
through the North Atlantic, Titanic is

only lost, she's heading into danger.

Throughout the day on April 14,
Titanic's Marconi operators received

news from other ships in the area.

Titanic did receive a series of ice
warnings from ships that lay ahead of

path. These ice warnings were fairly
specific in terms of latitude and

longitude.

They were taken to the bridge.

and the position was noted on a
transatlantic chart, and there it could

examined by each shift of officers as
they came on duty.

Almost like some sort of music creeping
up in the background are these messages

from other ships saying, be careful,
there's danger ahead.

Nineteen and a half miles due north from
Titanic, the SS Californian, a

freighter bound for Boston, sees an ice
field around 7 .30 at night.

Her skipper, Captain Stanley Lord, isn't
about to take any chances.

So the Californian stops in ice. He
realizes it's dangerous.

The wireless operator sent a message to
tell people that ICE was around.

Titanic didn't say, thank you very much,
I'm very glad you told us about this.

They told them to shut up and go away,
effectively.

They were busy sending private messages.
They didn't want to know about it.

While Captain Lord hunkers down in the
ice field, to his south, Captain

Smith powers Titanic ahead with his
engines.

steaming at near capacity.

In his final report, Lord Mersey does
note Titanic's excessive speed, and in

private he expresses grave concern.

Within Mersey's box, tucked inside his
journal, he writes that there was no

reduction of speed, and then Mersey
points it out again.

Okay, so now this is interesting.

B, 21 knots.

And never reduced up to time of
collision.

Notwithstanding, wary that icebergs in
vicinity and that she would be likely

to meet them.

They were traveling at 21 knots, which
is practically full speed for the

Titanic.

This was at night.

This was in an environment where they
knew that there was ice.

We don't need to reduce speed.

We're not going to have any issues with
any icebergs that we come across because

we're Titanic.

After all, it is unthinkable, isn't it?

Sunday evening, April 14, 1912.

Under the command of Captain Edward J.
Smith.

Titanic is just past the midpoint of her
journey to New York.

Steaming at nearly full speed, she's
scheduled to arrive on time Wednesday

morning at White Stars Pier 59 along
Manhattan's west side.

Nine other ships are also traversing the
North Atlantic, heading west and east

along the same shipping lanes.

But just south of the Grand Banks, the
ice field looms, four miles wide and

extending north and south as far as the
eye can see.

As each ship hits the danger zone, they
sound the alarm.

Wireless messages were sent by ships who
were traveling in the same waters, and

they were alerting each other to
potential risks.

They thought it was dangerous, and they
let the other ships know around them.

We know the Titanic received these
messages.

We know they acknowledged some of these
messages, too.

It should have been taken seriously.

The Marconi messages not only reveal
where the ice is, they also contain

important details on how big and
dangerous the icebergs are.

Kristen Seremgaard is the commander of
the International Ice Patrol.

She's familiar with the types of
icebergs the ships might have reported.

There's flows formed from frozen
seawater.

There's a growler, which is about the
size of a piano.

And then all the way up to what we call
a very large iceberg. It's over 200

meters.

In Titanic's day, just like now, hitting
an iceberg could rip a ship apart and

endanger the passengers.

A fact that wasn't lost on Lord Mersey
in his black box.

Inside his journal, Mersey hones in on
two specific ice warnings that reached

Titanic.

Two vessels informed her.

Iceberg. Growlers.

Lord Mersey drew some images, things
that the Titanic clearly would have

on its way to the big monster iceberg.

That also should have given the Titanic
some pause. It would have warned them

that things were getting bad.

Lord Mersey also scribbles down that the
temperatures were falling and that this

to indicate ice.

And then, finally...

And perhaps most crucially, he notes and
underlines, no reduction of speed.

This was obviously very significant for
him. Quite understandably, he was asking

the question, why didn't they slow down?

If we didn't have this journal, we
wouldn't have known that Lord Mercy was

taking in all this information and
clearly recognized the problems.

It was getting more and more towards
criminal negligence in this case.

Historians have spent countless hours
deliberating this question.

Why didn't Captain Smith slow down?

One theory centers around the behavior
of one of Titanic's most influential

passengers,

J. Bruce Ismay.

Ismay was the chair of the White Star
Line. It was his role to run it and grow

it into the 20th century.

On White Star's pride and joy, Ismay
reigned supreme, hobnobbing with wealthy

passengers and keeping tabs on Captain
Smith and his crew.

Ismay is on deck around 2 p .m. when
Titanic receives an ice warning from the

Baltic.

Another White Star -owned ship about 230
miles to the east.

What happens next would give fodder to a
century of conspiracy theory.

And it's a moment Lord Mersey also
focuses on.

There was a paper -written Marconigram
delivered to Captain Smith that he

to Bruce Ismay that Bruce Ismay took,
stuck into his pocket.

Why did Captain Smith give Bruce Ismay
the telegram?

Mersey references Ismay's own testimony
from the British inquiry.

On page 222, Ismay underlined, Captain
handed me the Baltic message,

which Ismay held on to for a while. So
this is obviously quite significant for

Lord Mersey.

Why would Ismay have stuck it in his
pocket?

Was there something he didn't want the
bridge crew to see?

Did he not want them to slow down?

He didn't want the Titanic to be late.
The press would be waiting on the docks.

People would be there waiting.

There have been theories that Ismay was
keener to get there on time than to get

there safely.

Captain Smith asked Ismay for the ice
warning back.

that Sunday evening so that he could put
it in the chart room.

The Baltic message is posted alongside
the six other ice warnings received

throughout the day.

Then, at 9 .20 p .m., Captain Smith
heads to his cabin to go to sleep,

command to his senior officers.

The North Atlantic was extremely calm as
they went into Suntown and into the

night. That made it more difficult to
find the iceberg.

You can't see it.

If it's very calm out, there's no waves
breaking on the edges of the iceberg.

You're not going to even see that it's
there.

The lookouts are above the canvas dodger
of the lookout's nest.

Their face is being whipped by a 25
-mile -an -hour cold wind, which

could cause tearing to take place, which
in turn could hurt their vision.

At precisely 11 .39 p .m., Crow's Nest
lookout Frederick Fleet spots the

gigantic dark mass.

He strikes the lookout bell three times.

Fleet lunges for the telephone, reaching
6th Officer James Moody on the bridge.

Iceberg, dead ahead!

When you're traveling at 21 or 22 knots,
and you see Iceberg dead ahead, there

wasn't enough time to turn.

It was already too late.

The ship was doomed.

April 14, 1912.

RMS Titanic has been at sea for four and
a half days.

At 11 .39 p .m., 375 miles off the coast
of Newfoundland, Titanic's

seven ice warnings received throughout
the day are no longer a warning.

They're a frightening reality.

With the iceberg spot 1 ,500 feet ahead,
and with Titanic bearing down on it at

26 miles per hour,

First Officer William McMaster Murdoch
has less than 45 seconds to determine

the fate of thousands.

He says, hold the port.

Murdoch signals the engine room. Ring,
ring, ring.

But by the time Murdoch makes his
desperate maneuver, the iceberg is

At reportedly 60 feet high, it's even
with Titanic's crow's nest.

And its estimated 400 -foot length is
greater than a football field.

Scientists say it could have weighed up
to 1 .5 million tons, the equivalent of

15 fully loaded aircraft carriers.

The iceberg packs the punch of a granite
mountain.

When you compress carbon under pressure,
you get this very strong diamond, and

that's kind of the similar concept of
compressing the fresh water into a

that forms an iceberg.

Dense glacial ice has a much higher
probability of causing significant

a ship.

At 1140 p .m., Titanic makes contact.

The iceberg scrapes along her starboard
side for eight seconds,

gouging the double -bladed steel hull.

The collision takes place, opening its
side to the iceberg so it can cut into

like a tin of sardines.

The forward compartment, three cargo
holds, and two engine rooms are blown

and the frigid sea pours in.

Meanwhile, some 90 feet above, those
first -class passengers still awake

an ominous glimpse into their fate.

When the iceberg struck, they felt
something, but they weren't sure what it

and they went to the portholes of the
ship and actually saw pieces of ice

off the iceberg onto the deck through
the portholes.

Moments after impact, First Officer
Murdoch orders full stop, and

he engages Titanic's high -tech
watertight doors.

Down in the tank top level.

Bells started going off and doors
started closing.

It must have sounded pretty much like
the hammer to hell down there.

Murdoch did not know whether there was
damage or not.

He's just got to close the watertight
doors and then find out.

That's all he can do.

Murdoch's decision to seal the doors is
rooted in ship science.

When activated... The watertight doors
keep Titanic from foundering by walling

off the flooded areas from the rest of
the ship.

We want to close them so the water
doesn't escape and make the ship bow or

heavy. We want to stop the water from
coming in and spreading.

The head of the British inquiry trains
his investigative eyes on those crucial

first minutes after the doors are
activated.

Lord Mersey learns that some of the
watertight doors were then manually

by crew to move around hoses and pumps.

But he notes and underlines that the
doors were then all left open.

Lord Mersey obviously thought that was
important that no one ever requested the

doors to be re -closed.

He certainly recognized the fact that
there were some problems here.

Captain Smith, who had gone to sleep for
the evening at 9 .20 p .m., suddenly

snaps to attention.

He felt a cathode and heard the ship's
engine bells ring.

I can't imagine what that must have done
to his heart rate.

Smith rushes to the bridge.

He asks First Officer Murdoch what they
struck.

An iceberg, sir.

Murdock replies,

Smith's first priority upon arrival at
the bridge is to immediately send down

people to determine just what's going on
down below. How bad is it?

In testimony, Fourth Officer Joseph
Boxhall recounts that he did not find

damage.

With Boxhall's assessment in hand,
Captain Smith issues an order to the

room. that causes Lord Mersey to sit up
and take notice.

An order that flies in the face of what
we think we know about Titanic's story.

According to history, Titanic hit the
iceberg.

The crew shut the watertight doors, and
the ship came to a dead stop.

But is that what really happened?

Lord Mercy wrote down during Frederick
Scott's testimony that the ship was

ordered half speed ahead and then stop
and ahead.

What was all this?

Captain Smith may have been trying to
speed up in hopes that things really

weren't so bad.

There may have been some talk about
moving ahead to try and calm the

letting them think that the ship is
moving normally.

For 20 minutes, Smith decides to keep
the ship.

pressing forward at half speed instead
of coming to a full stop.

Moving the boat forward was something
that increased the influx of water and

a very dangerous, if not disastrous,
thing to do.

If there were openings in the hull,
you'd push them open more. Any

you would exploit them.

If we start moving through the water and
there is damage of some sort on the

starboard side of the ship, Any forward
motion is going to increase the water

flow through that crevice and might have
an effect on how quickly the ship

sinks.

With precious minutes ticking by,
Captain Smith summons Titanic's

to sound the ship, a nautical term for
assessing a ship's seaworthiness.

When the report came back to Captain
Smith, it wasn't a very good one at all.

Lord Mercy made a note of that fact in
his journal.

Carpenter is said to have reported seven
feet of water in a few minutes.

At that point, the damage was already
done. The ship was doomed.

But Lord Mercy may have been taking more
note of that fact than Captain Smith

was.

It should have led the captain to other
choices.

For instance...

immediately lowering those lifeboats,
putting everybody on those lifeboats

he possibly could.

Then, shortly after midnight, 22 minutes
after hitting the iceberg, Thomas

Andrews, Titanic's chief designer,
arrives grim -faced on the bridge after

surveying the deck below.

Titanic, Andrews says, has only two
hours left.

Captain Smith seems really overwhelmed
by it all, almost to the point of a

paralysis taking place.

Here's a guy at the end of his career,
retirement is in sight, and everything

that he had achieved in 30 -some -odd
years with the White Star Line is now at

risk. And not only that, he is at risk,
along with 2 ,200 other people.

After the collision, the amount of water
flooding into Titanic was fatal.

The flooding was far beyond the capacity
of the pumps to keep up with.

They struggled to even flow it down, and
Titanic was simply doomed.

25 minutes after the collision.

Captain Smith orders his senior
officers, Murdoch and Lightoller, to

lifeboats, which can only hold half of
the more than 2 ,200 lives on board.

Worse still, as Lord Mersey noted during
the inquiry,

the crew is unfamiliar with the
lifeboat's state -of -the -art train

They cancelled the drill earlier in the
trip.

Regardless, They're now faced with a
thankless task, having to spread the

We can be given a warning. Somebody can
walk up to us and say, this ship is

sinking. But if we look around and see
it looks like we're floating just fine,

then we question that warning that we've
been given.

We actually need to see that the ship is
sinking to see that something is wrong.

Though his passengers may not have
believed the warning, Captain Smith is

aware of the slow -motion catastrophe
unfolding around him.

He makes a beeline for the Marconi
wireless room and its operators, 25

-old Jack Phillips and 22 -year -old
Harold Brahe.

Who else can he turn to other than these
two wireless operators who suddenly are

his only source of help?

This was now their only lifeline if
we're contacting the outside world.

And Captain Smith must have wondered
perhaps this was the miracle that would

rescue him.

Of course, Smith has no idea that Light
Toler's erroneous sextant reading from

earlier in the evening places his ship
at a different position than the

coordinates he's sending out for help.

Still, the SOS fans out, and some ships
respond instantly.

Putting about and heading for you,
replies veteran Captain Arthur Rostron

SS Carpathia, 58 miles away.

Despite having 740 passengers of his
own, he lights up his coal burners, and

sets a course for Titanic's position.

Meanwhile, on board the Californian,
about 20 miles north of Titanic and the

closest ship to her, Captain Lord has
stopped down in the ice field, and the

Marconi is switched off.

In those days, The fellows that worked
in the wireless rooms on board ship

clocked off at a certain time.

At that point, the Californian was deaf
to the world. He didn't know.

With the Californian hunkered down for
the night, across the same ice field, a

chaotic scene is unfolding on Titanic.

More than an hour after the collision,
the first of Titanic's lifeboats begins

lowering into the sea.

Around 12 .45 a .m., Captain Smith gave
an order, and that order was to load the

lifeboats with women and children.

This leads to the next revelation from
inside Lord Mersey's box.

During the British inquiry, Mersey makes
a note in his journal referencing the

testimony of Second Officer Light
Holden, who says that he didn't load the

lifeboats to capacity because he worried
the new Davids wouldn't hold the

weight.

Obviously, Second Officer Lightoller had
to have some excuse for not loading the

lifeboats to full capacity.

That was his excuse. I can't believe
that Lord Mercy would have bought it.

Ultimately, Mercy did not. In his final
report, he discovers there are a number

of explanations why the lifeboats
weren't full.

Specifically, he writes that
Lightoller's worry about the weight

unfounded apprehension.

The fact is that lifeboats went into the
water with less than a full capacity.

Those crewmen should have been pulling
people by their collars to put them into

the lifeboat.

As Officer Murdoch fires the first of
eight distress rockets into the night

the makeshift evacuation continues.

On deck, confusion reigns.

Dr. Samantha Montano studies human
response to disaster.

In 1912, there was no formal emergency
management in the way that we have it

today.

Because there was that lack of training,
that lack of planning about what to do

in a situation like this, nearly the
entire response was completely

With Titanic's bow sinking lower, And
the stern slowly rising against the

blackness of the sea, the panic begins.

The remaining passengers of all stations
surge towards the few remaining

lightboats.

It's life or death.

We do see more of that panic. It tends
to be when people feel the threat is

imminent. There is still a chance of
escape, but that chance is dwindling.

With the window of escape closing fast,
White Star Line's chairman, Bruce Ismay,

makes his way across the deck towards
one of Titanic's few remaining

One of the crews says, Mr. Ismay,
there's a space in this boat, and

a split second to make a decision.

When the opportunity presents itself, he
gets into the boat.

Ismay is one of many men who displaces
women and children during those last

desperate minutes.

Lifeboat 15 was one of the last
lifeboats to be lowered on the starboard

and the vast majority of its occupants
were men.

It opens the question as to why there
weren't more women and children in the

lifeboat.

Inside the box... Mersey notes his
concern.

Here's another interesting section.

This is May the 10th, and it's a
testimony by

Samuel Rule, who was a steward, talking
about the lifeboats, and in particular

talking about lifeboat 15.

68 who were saved, who went in the
lifeboat, were made up of 61 men, double

underlined, and seven women and
children.

This was an age in England where honor
and chivalry prevailed.

Now at the end, 61 men are in a sense
rushing to get into this lifeboat with

only seven or so women and children who
may have been left.

How could that possibly be? What
happened to the women and children first

all? Was it a case that men had rushed
to boats?

with the ship minutes from sinking.

Titanic's eight -member band, under the
direction of Wallace Hartley, segues

into a rendition of Nearer, My God, to
Thee, all while the last of the

lifeboats are launching.

One of the last orders attributed to
Captain Smith was poking his head into

wireless shack and basically telling
Phillips and Bride it's every man for

himself, boys.

He knew of the magnitude of the tragedy
that was going to unfold when the ship

sank. Some of the firsthand accounts say
that he goes to the bridge, locks

himself in, waits for the tide to come
in.

Titanic's bow submerges, and the stern
rises nearly perpendicular to the water,

its propellers completely aloft.

Just then, the once mighty, unthinkable
Titanic splits in two.

and slides into the icy depths.

For many of the thousand -plus free
-falling victims, the end, while

and violent, is also swift.

Some of these people may have been
injured, hit by falling objects, hit by

lifeboats. battered by the sinking of
the ship.

If the person gets submerged, they're
going to get a lung full of very cold

water, and they're going to drown almost
immediately, and they're going to die.

Those who survive the smack into the sub
-freezing ocean experience excruciating

pain.

Second Officer Charles Lightoller would
equate it to a thousand knives driving

into the body.

Shia Hrabowski is a medical legal
investigator and forensics consultant.

That makes sense because extreme cold is
going to feel like extreme heat.

At 28 degrees, there's a physiologic
response that happens, also known as a

shock reflex.

And that's followed by repeated, very
rapid gasping.

You know, your brain is saying, hey, get
me out of this water.

and your arms are just laying there at
your side because they're no longer

your voluntary control.

I remember talking to a survivor, Eva
Hart, and her saying, Charles, it was

the screams that unhinged me.

It was the silence that came afterwards.

when the cold had done its work.

It gives you an idea of just how deadly
this exposure was.

Because of the 1 ,500 or so people that
perished, we can assume that hundreds,

perhaps, could have been rescued.

Only around 40 or so people were pulled
out of the water and survived.

Those 40 are picked up by two lifeboats
that turn back for them.

They are the only ones out of 20
lifeboats to do so.

Another boat, lifeboat number one, turns
away from the victims in the water

despite having enough room for them.

Here's an instance where a lifeboat left
with only 12 people. Instead of 42, the

boat could have easily gone back and
picked up others.

When a crewman on lifeboat number one
urges everyone to turn back, two first

-class passengers, Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon
and his wife, Lady Duff Gordon, refuse.

Sir Cosmo decides to give the crew five
-pound notes.

It certainly didn't smell too good.

The Duff Gordons were called to the
British inquiry to testify, and of

they simply denied they were driving.

the crew not to go back and rescue
others

the duff gordons are the british

inquiry's only testifying passengers

as

titanic sinks to the bottom rms
carpathia is less than 30 miles away and

to the rescue

Captain Rostrand, he went charging off
in the middle of the night into an ice

situation that had already sunk the
world's largest ship.

Rostrand became the hero of the day.

What did he do? He risked all those
people's lives.

The sun was about to come up over the
horizon when he found the lifeboats.

And so they brought on as many of the
survivors as they could find, responding

in a human way to the suffering of
people around them.

One boat to come alongside was the boat
that carried Lightoller, and he was

immediately escorted to the bridge.

And Rostron said to him, where is the
Titanic?

And with his voice cracking, Lytola
said, she's gone down, sir.

As the morning sun arcs over the
horizon, the last of Titanic's lifeboats

paddles up alongside Carpathia.

Escorted on board is White Star
President J. Bruce Ismay.

quaking from the cold.

For the owner of the ship to come home
in a lifeboat seemed shameful.

He was immediately accused of cowardice
and seen as being someone who had failed

to stand by his captain, stand by his
ship, stand by his passengers.

The ship that made his name was now
threatened to ruin his name.

Ismay was in such a delicate frame of
mind.

That the surgeon of the Carpathia put
him on opiates to ease the pain

Rostron

set sail for New York where Carpathia is
expected on the evening of April 18th

Meanwhile Titanic's Marconi operator
Harold bride is plucked from a

lifeboat and dispatched to the wireless
room An anxious world awaits.

A ship containing some of the richest,
most powerful, best -known people in the

world had sunk.

Everyone wanted to know what had
happened.

The President of the United States
wanted to know about his friends who

board ship.

What happened to Colonel After? What
happened to Benjamin Guggenheim?

The rest of the world was screaming at
the Carpathians to let them know what

happened to the Titanic.

And they chose to rebuff information,
and they chose not to answer.

But that doesn't stop a now lucid Bruce
Ismay from sending a cryptic message of

his own to White Star offices in London.

Titanic crew aboard Carpathia should be
returned home earliest moment possible.

Suggest you hold Cedric sailing.

Yamsi.

I think the use of the reversal of the
names, let's say Yamsey rather than

Ismay, it might now look rather
suspicious and you wonder what's going

Ismay sent this message, have all the
crew taken back to the UK so that there

could be a debriefing and to come up
with a unified story.

So if there was an inquiry, everyone
would be singing from the same page of

hymnal.

You've probably got 20 to 25 crew
members who really have stories to tell.

You want to get them back to Blighty.
You want to find out what those stories

are before the Americans can get to
them.

After rescuing the last of Titanic 705
traumatized, grief -stricken survivors,

Captain Rostron's Carpathia set the
course back from where she started, New

City.

But on board, White Star President J.
Bruce Ismay is becoming increasingly

panicked.

It doesn't take an Einstein to figure
out that if you just sunk

the biggest ship in the world with a lot
of people dying, that there's going to

be a reporter or two around when you get
to the dock.

There's that editorial cartoon of Ismay
looking like a maniac in a lifeboat

filled with nothing but grieving women.

And, of course, the byline is Jay Brute
Ismay instead of brute.

In Washington, William Alden Smith, a
hard -charging senator from Michigan.

is gearing up to lead an American
inquiry into the sinking.

It's set to begin the day after
Carpathia's arrival in New York.

So Ismay is desperate to dash back to
London.

He thought, let's just get out of here.
Let's get everyone back home. We don't

want to get caught up in this because
this isn't going to look good.

But unfortunately for him, Senator
Smith's plans put a stop to that.

Turns out Senator Smith was tipped off
by the U .S. Navy, which intercepted

Ismay's telegram.

So Smith prepares subpoenas to give to
Ismay and Titanic officers upon arrival

in New York on the evening of April
18th.

Lining the banks of the Hudson River
were 100 ,000 people from the battery

the way up to the White Star Line pier
at West 14th Street.

All of New York's policemen had been
summoned to patrol the crowds because

people knew this was going to be mayhem.

As Carpathia snakes its way up the
Hudson, a tugboat filled with

follows the ship to Pier 54.

The flash of cameras lights up the sky,
revealing

Carpathia's deck crammed with terrified
passengers.

For those without knowledge of what had
become of their loved ones, the hurt,

the pain of Titanic's loss was
continuing and maybe even

deepening what became of my father, what
became of my husband.

The terrible fate of all those men,
women, and children is all too evident.

The crew of the cable repair ship Mackey
Bennett, joined by the SS Minia, have

completed the grim task of recovering
over 300 bodies, 116 of which

were buried at sea.

On April 26th, the Mackey Bennett steams
back toward Halifax.

For the living, the voyage is surreal.

The wind and motion of the ship causes
the tarpaulins to rise and fall,

producing the illusion that the bodies
have come to life.

Must have been absolutely horrific for
the crew because you're walking around

doing your daily duties and of course
you turn your back and the next thing

turn around the canvas is blown out over
slightly and you can see an arm exposed

and then you sort of tuck that arm back
in.

How more nightmarish can this get?

The arrival of Mackie Bennett in Halifax
on April the 30th was a huge deal.

All the church bells in Halifax ring a
death knell for the Titanic victims.

There's a fleet of horse -drawn hearses.

waiting at the dock to take the bodies
off to the Mayflower Curling Club

to be processed, to be identified.

And that's just one more surreal touch
to add to the whole thing.

With nearly 200 distended corpses laid
out on the curling rink height,

each body is tagged, numbered,

noted.

This is Fairview Lawn Cemetery here in
Halifax, and for 121 of Titanic's

passengers, this is where the maiden
voyage ends.

This whole series here of headstones
have one thing in common. No names. Just

died April 15th, 1912.

For every identified body in Fairview
Lawn Cemetery, there's two that are not.

This is all classes and walks of life
represented from Titanic, and that

volumes as to the tragedy of Titanic.

While the dead are being brought to
Halifax, 600 miles away in New York

the next phase of the spectacle is
beginning.

In a packed ballroom in the Waldorf
Astoria, a day after the Carpathia

Senator Smith gavels in the United
States inquiry, a moment not lost on his

counterpart in Britain.

Inside Lord Mersey's personal papers are
two copies of the official United

States Senate inquiry into the sinking
of RMS Titanic.

The hearings start on April 19, 1912,
two weeks before the British inquiry.

The American inquiry is like a three
-ring circus, and you have Senator Smith

from Michigan who is doing his utmost to
make Bruce Ismay look like the worst

villain since, you know, Pontius Pilate
turned Jesus over to the Romans.

Ismay is the first witness called, and
his testimony is damning.

He claims that he was just a voluntary
passenger, and that no one else was on

deck when he decided to save himself.

Senator Smith roasted Ismay left and
right and condemned him in the speech

he gave before Congress.

The vitriolic American attack on Ismay,
a leader in the shipping industry,

crosses the line.

The United States inquiry is seen as an
affront to honor and a threat to

Britain's national interests.

This wasn't just a ship.

The Titanic was the pride of Britain.

It was very important for the British
government that Britain's maritime

interests weren't threatened as a result
of the Titanic disaster.

When Lord Mersey is selected to lead the
British inquiry into the Titanic

disaster on April 22nd, 1912, he's
celebrated as a man of integrity.

We have a copy of the Daily Mail, which
is

Wednesday, April 24th.

1912, and it's got a little piece on
him, a man who fears nobody, Lord

As a barrister, he earned the nickname
the Little Terrier of Toxteth for his

sort of dogged determination to extract
the truth from those he was cross

-questioning. I think for him, the
Titanic must have been an opportunity to

really get to the bottom of, you know,
this appalling tragedy.

As the fallout from the hard -hitting U
.S. inquiry continues to rain down on

Great Britain, the eyes of the world are
on Mersey.

He awaits his turn on the dais.

He knew what his position was.

He knew what he had to do.

He knew what his charge from the crown
was in terms of getting to the bottom of

the disaster.

The British inquiry begins on May 2nd,
1912.

During its first week, many of Titanic's
surviving crew members testify.

Soon, though, the focus turns to another
ship entirely.

The Californian. The ship that didn't
hear Titanic's distress calls because

they'd turned off their wireless and
gone to bed.

Inside his personal box, Mersey's copy
of the American Inquiry contains the

bruising examination of its captain,
Stanley Lord.

Stanley Lord has really posed these
difficult, difficult questions.

Captain Lord's testimony in the American
Inquiry would probably serve as a kind

of a pointing tool as to where Mersey
might go further.

Lord Mersey wanted to investigate how
far Californian was from Titanic

and what action could Californian have
taken in order to

try and rescue Titanic's passengers and
crew and come to Titanic's assistance.

Earlier, the Californian was 19 and a
half miles north of Titanic's position

when it saw the ice field and
telegraphed the warning.

The wireless operation on board the
Californian sent a message.

We're here. We're stopping. It's
dangerous.

And it was received by the Titanic as
almost like an aside.

They were told to shut up.

The wireless operation on board the
Californian then went to bed at the end

his day. And at that point, the
Californian then was cut off from the

world.

Captain Lord was now finding himself
amongst all these powdered wigs in

London, far from the sea as you can get,
and he's being grilled mercilessly.

Captain Lord asserts that his ship was
30 miles from Titanic when she sank.

But separately, Californians crewmen
testify that they were close enough to

ship lights and flares.

that could have been Titanic.

These witnesses made the inquiry think
that they were inside the Titanic and

failed to act. It was a very serious
accusation.

Among a stash of saved letters in Lord
Mersey's box is one from Rear Admiral

Arthur Gough Telford, a naval assessor
and senior legal advisor to Mersey

the inquiry.

Rear Admiral Cawthorpe is really
throwing doubt on the whereabouts of the

California. Obviously, this was a very
hot topic for the inquiry, and the guilt

or innocence of Captain Lord depended
very much on it.

Gough Cawthorpe writes Mersey a
passionate letter refuting Captain

testimony that he was too far away to
mount a rescue.

There is a strong presumption that
Californian...

was not where she says she was. So he's
casting doubt on the assertion made by

Captain Lord, who clearly stated that
the California was well out of range of

the Titanic.

What does this do?

This now tells Lord Mercy that what he
heard may not be accurate, even if he

found Stanley Lord to be credible.

When Lord Mersey issues his final
judgment on July 30th, 1912, he blames

collision on excessive speed with the
disaster compounded by a lack of

lifeboats.

Despite concluding that Titanic's
Captain Edward Smith made a very

mistake, Lord Mersey states that it is,
in my opinion, impossible to fix Captain

Smith with blame.

However, Mersey's final report did take
aim at the Californian,

concluding that Captain Lord could have
come to the assistance of the Titanic.

Had she done so, she might have saved
many, if not all, of the lives that were

lost.

Captain Lord, he was blamed for not
doing enough.

The personal impact on him was probably
stronger than the financial

impact of it.

He tried to clear himself, but time ran
out on him.

Californian could have galloped to the
rescue like the Fifth Cavalry.

Since Titanic's demise in 1912, a
century worth of historians have sought

to Lord Mersey's innermost thoughts,
wondering whether they differ from his

public pronouncements.

The notes in his journal were kept
private throughout the years until now.

If we didn't have these notes, we
wouldn't have known.

that Lord Mercy was taking in all this
information and clearly recognized the

problems.

After a careful review, it's clear.

His final public judgment largely
matches what is in his private box.

There exists no evidence to prove Lord
Mercy was compromised in any way.

In the view of many historians, Lord
Mersey's inquest was fair, his judicial

responsibility uncompromised.

The British inquiry was not a criminal
trial.

No one ever went to jail, and there were
very few lawsuits filed against White

Star or the Board of Trade.

And so, with Captain Smith going down
with his ship, and his crew largely

absolved, Popular perception of the
disaster has been opened to

Many who have retold Titanic's story
have latched on to the narrative of a

tragic act of God.

But Mersey knew better.

Mistakes were made, and more than 1 ,500
men, women, and children lost their

lives.

While the story of Titanic never faded,
the ship itself disappeared from view.

And then, seven decades later, a final
piece

of lost evidence emerges.

In 1985, oceanographic explorer Robert
Ballard made the discovery of a

Ballard spots Titanic's boilers, its
tell -tale bow,

and confirms something equally
significant.

When Titanic was finally found, its
position was about 13 miles from where

was reported to be.

The discovery of Titanic's position on
the ocean floor may speak to one last

mystery. Could its passengers have been
saved if only SS Californian had

heard her distress call and come to the
rescue?

Maybe not.

When Titanic hit the iceberg, her
Marconi operators sent out an SOS, but

gave the wrong location.

because Titanic officers had taken a bad
sextant reading earlier that evening.

Carpathia was only able to find
survivors because her crew had seen a

fired from one of the lifeboats.

The absolute miracle that night was that
in going towards the distress position,

which we now know is not accurate at
all, that the Carpathia stumbled into

place where the lifeboats were.

Does this exonerate Captain Lord of the
Californian?

Had he steamed immediately to the
location of the SOS, he would have found

nothing.

Years later, the British government
reassessed the role of Californian in

disaster.

In 1992, there was a subsequent inquiry
that exonerated the captain.

Even if the Californian had left
immediately on receipt of the first

message, it could not have arrived in
time to make any difference.

Today, the Titanic lies in an eerie
state of decomposition.

rusting on the bottom of the Atlantic.

But it's still as mesmerizing and
captivating to the public as it was 108

years ago.

We're fascinated by the Titanic because
it is like a myth. It's like something

from a biblical story.

It contains greed, human ambition,
vanity.

This vast, modern and beautiful ship
full of hope and ambition collided with

fate in a spectacular way.

Although this was an accident, it was
clearly an avoidable one.

The crew didn't steer away from the
iceberg.

They didn't reduce the speed. They
didn't load the lifeboats like they

have.

Many more lives could have been saved.

The Titanic is the one event that the
last century will always be remembered

for.

It's the combination of pride, hubris,
playing fast and loose with the

regulations of the time.

And it's an incredibly tragic event the
world will never forget.

Lord Mersey's British inquiry led to
crucial shipping industry changes across

the globe.

Adding more lifeboats to passenger
ships.

24 -hour radio communications.

and the formation of the International
Ice Patrol, to name a few.

106 years after it was created, no ship
heeding the warnings of the Ice Patrol

has struck an iceberg.

Titanic's legacy lives on.