Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

CHAOS AND PANIC

SILENCE

I was afraid of the sea...

...but I listened to the people who said, "Take the new Titanic."

"She cannot come to any harm."

"New inventions have made her safe."

GASPS AND SCREAMS

He told me that apparently we'd struck something.

BELL RINGS

Iceberg dead ahead!

RUMBLING, ALARM SOUNDS

SHOUTING

I didn't become alarmed.

There was no danger, they said.

WATER RUSHES

BEEPING

I told them to come at once, we were sinking.

Can you imagine the chaos and the fear and the terror

of finding water in your cabin,

and you're in the bowels of the ship?

It makes me panic just thinking about it.

The story of the Titanic is the human condition spread out,

pinned on a board for us to examine.

Then came the terrible cry,

"Women and children! Women and children!"

Marjorie!

Two men lifted me up and put me in a boat.

SHOUTING

It's these small decisions, these little butterfly effect moments,

that change the outcome.

GUNSHOT

It really was every man for himself.

My heart stood still.

Hurry up!

Pull!

If we're going to die...

...best to die gripping something.

It's a split-second decision.

What would you do? What would I do?

It was a terrible sight.

Men swimming, and sinking.

SHIP CREAKS

I'd been brought up to believe in a hell after death.

But now I think I went through a hell that night.

CLOCK TICKS

MUFFLED VOICES

Mr Harvey ordered me to fetch some men down.

I got between 15 and 20.

The engineers put the pumps on.

Those who would have gone off duty stayed on.

Come on! Hurry up!

Right now on the Titanic, there's a red-alert emergency.

Down below in the boiler room, all the crew,

the firemen that would normally be down there,

have been called back on shift

to try to pump out the water that is flooding into the compartment.

Imagine it - there's steam everywhere.

There's the groaning, creaking,

splitting sounds of the ship itself.

It's terrifying.

They are like soldiers going into battle.

With five compartments flooded, the Titanic is going to sink.

They have around an hour and a half

until it's going to disappear below the waves.

They're never going to get all the water out of the ship

but can they hold it back just a little bit longer

in order to save everybody on board?

What I think is unfortunate in Titanic

is that the captain had not established a mechanism

whereby he was getting information

about what the actual damage was in various parts of the ship.

This is something that should have been being worked on much earlier.

As a result, time was lost.

Once you begin to understand that you are really

up against it in terms of time, it goes from,

"We can't save the ship, but can we get the passengers"

"from the Titanic to a rescue ship before the Titanic sinks?"

The captain knows

that the decisions that are made in the coming minutes, hours,

ultimately that will be the decider on how many people

will make it off the ship alive.

Send a call for assistance.

"Send a call for assistance", ordered the captain.

"Which call should I send?"

"The regulation international call for help".

Just that.

Then the captain was gone.

The next moment we sent an urgent distress call.

So in the radio room right now, it's a race against time.

The operators must send out the distress signal -

it's the standard Morse code signal that will tell

shipping in the area

that the Titanic is in trouble and needs help.

These two young men, they're in their twenties,

are now responsible for seeking rescue

for the unsinkable ship, Titanic.

My boats were along the port-side.

My idea was that I'd lower the boats and transfer the passengers.

They would be perfectly safe in that smooth sea

until another ship picked them up.

All right, gentlemen! You know what to do!

Up to this time, we hadn't had a chance for a boat drill

beyond just lowering some of the boats in Southampton.

The crew of the Titanic had been put through a fine sieve,

and care taken that there were no... misfits.

A tap on the shoulder, an indication with the hand

was quite sufficient to set the men about the different jobs.

Clearing the way of boat covers,

holding tight the falls, ready for lowering.

We're not going to see hysteria,

we're not even going to see anxiety at this point,

not least because the information is distorted and fragmented.

Nobody is thinking that the ship is going to sink.

Only Captain Smith really knows the extent of what is happening.

The water, having reached F deck, showed me she'd been badly holed.

Although I knew it was serious,

I'd not a thought that it was likely to prove fatal.

I figured she'd go so far

until she balanced her buoyancy,

and there she would remain.

The captain doesn't share the information he has

with all the officers, that the ship is going down,

and precisely why he hasn't shared it remains a mystery.

It may be a strategy - he doesn't want them to panic.

Maybe it reflects an internal chaos.

He doesn't know who to tell, or when.

The reality is for the crew on the Titanic at this moment,

they have no idea what level of catastrophe they're in -

they just know they have a job to do.

Stop!

Stop! Pull!

There are 2,208 passengers on board.

They won't all fit on the lifeboats

so the life boats will have to do shuttle runs -

take passengers to the rescue ship,

come back, and then take the next lot of passengers.

It's physically possible for them to save all the passengers,

but they have to do it in an orderly fashion,

and the people who are going to go first are those whose rooms are

closest to the boat deck, and those are the first-class passengers.

In this emergency plan,

the wealthy and the powerful have an innate advantage -

they are top of the list.

Suddenly, orders came down.

Everybody to the boats.

All stewards and stewardesses were on duty in their sections

to assist and direct people.

I continued through my section, trying to reassure,

reminding people to put on warm clothing,

take blankets and valuables.

Violet Jessop is a first-class stewardess.

She's 24 years old, she's the youngest stewardess on board.

The first-class stewards and stewardesses really are

the ones who are responsible

for making this evacuation process happen.

They have to demonstrate extraordinary self-control

and put these other people first.

Of course, we reiterated from room to room

that it was just a precautionary measure.

Everywhere, I found...

...extraordinary calmness.

People who had been asleep

were dressing, fumbling sleepy-eyed with buttons...

They were...

They were unemotional,

probably thinking, as I did, that it was all too fantastic.

The first-class passengers have invested financially.

They've spent a lot on their tickets.

They've invested psychologically in this being safe and luxurious,

and they therefore cannot believe that it can be anything but that.

It's such a leap of imagination

to go against everything they've internalised about this experience

and start to believe that something might be going wrong.

KNOCKING

A steward knocked at the door.

"Sorry to alarm you, madam, but the captain's orders"

"are that all passengers should put on life belts."

We laughed and joked as he helped us.

Thank you.

"Wrap up warmly. We may have a little trip for an hour or so

"in one of the lifeboats".

Very fetching, isn't it?

Cosmo was so brave to try and keep us in good spirits,

making a bad jest as to how unappetizing we both looked

in those sickly white life preservers.

Lucy - Lady Duff-Gordon - is one of the most prominent people on board.

After divorcing her previous husband

she managed to build up her business,

which is a fashion design house,

into a multimillion pound enterprise -

and this is a time when many women don't even have bank accounts.

So she's obviously extraordinary.

She's very resourceful, and that will come to be important.

I put on a heavy crepe scarf.

I wore the big squirrel coat.

I brought my little velveteen ring bag.

It all looked so pretty.

Just like a bedroom on land.

It didn't seem possible there could be any danger...

...but a vase of flowers on the wash stand slid off

and fell to the floor.

VASE SHATTERS

Slowly, people started,

some joking, taking their time about it.

To those few who showed concern, a reassuring answer was,

there are plenty of boats in the vicinity,

they'll be with us any moment now.

TELEPHONE RINGS

I heard the crow's nest report a light on the bow.

I went on the bridge right away and found this light.

It was two masthead lights of a steamer just below the horizon.

You could not only see her lights with the naked eye,

you could see the lights of her portholes.

So, Boxhall can see the nearest ship to the Titanic,

which is the Californian.

She's very close by - about 14 miles.

The Californian had already communicated with the Titanic

earlier that evening

that she was going to spend the night in the ice floe

because it was too dangerous to continue.

But the Californian would be able

to reach Titanic before she sinks.

Captain Smith, we've spotted a steamer on the horizon.

I told the captain about this ship.

He said, "Tell them to come at once. We are sinking."

After the signal had been sent out...

...the ether seemed to be dead.

No reply came through.

Californian isn't picking up any signals.

The radio operator has gone to bed, not because he's negligent

but because he's allowed to go to bed.

There's no duty to stay in the radio room all night,

and many ships did not ask this of their operators.

But then suddenly a chance message comes in

from a wireless operator on another ship, the Carpathia.

I was about to retire.

I'd taken my coat off.

I should have been turning in in about ten minutes.

I called The Titanic...

...and its only answer was, "Struck a berg."

"Come at once."

We told her our position and said we were sinking by the head.

I asked him if he intended me to get the ship turned round immediately,

and he said "Yes, quick."

The operator went to tell his captain.

The Carpathia is a transatlantic steamship.

She's fast, but she's going in the other direction.

Jack Phillips hears that the radio operator

is going to tell the captain that Titanic is in trouble.

The captain of the Carpathia

will then make the decision about what to do,

and that usually means to turn your vessel towards the ship

that is in distress.

That's the rule of the sea.

So, here is a chance of rescue.

As long as Carpathia is able to get there in time.

We are loading the lifeboats.

Women and children only! Women and children only!

Although we'd been warned by the stewards

to be going away in a boat, it didn't seem possible that all this

could actually be happening.

There was the strangest scene.

People bundled up in odd clothes, boarding lifeboats in the night.

LOW VOICES

Few seemed to want to brave the dark sea in an open boat.

Any more? Any more women? Any more children?

And it was only after considerable coaxing that many went at all.

People don't want to get in.

Why would you want to get out of your warm bed

and go in a lifeboat in the freezing water when there's no problem?

You wouldn't.

This is like a really annoying fire drill at school

and everybody says, "No, I'll just stay here until it's finished."

At that point in time, the general public weren't really trusted.

Keeping people in ignorance was considered better,

and we know that today that actually people will respond much more

sensibly in an emergency if they do have some information.

That information was completely lacking at this point on Titanic.

Women and children only! Women and children only!

We were just walking forward

when a sailor tried to drag me away from Cosmo.

The officers called for women and children.

Madam?

So, Captain Smith has ordered that women and children

should be evacuated, and they should be prioritised.

On the port-side, the second officer, Officer Lightoller,

interprets it as women and children only.

The consequence of this is that if you are a family

turning up on the port-side,

you will be separated,

and the men will not be allowed on the lifeboats.

Saving the lives of women and children

comes from deep in the Edwardian mindset.

Women at the time are seen as having a kind of childish status.

I mean, this is before they've been allowed to vote.

And they are perceived to have a physical and mental weakness

that means that men have to be their protectors.

Please step back, sir. Please step back.

I had no such ideas about my husband.

It would have been too awful to have been alone.

Every time Officer Lightoller prevents a man

from getting into a lifeboat,

there is the possibility that his wife won't go,

that they will stay on board the ship.

So, he's actually potentially endangering

the lives of the precise people he's being told to prioritise to save.

PULLEYS RATTLE

In a great emergency like that,

where there were limited facilities,

could you not have put more people into boats?

I did not know it was urgent then.

I had no idea it was urgent.

You did not know it was urgent?

Nothing like it.

INDISTINCT VOICES

Lightoller wants to do a good job, clearly.

Maybe if he'd known the ship was sinking

he would have allowed men in to fill up the spaces in the lifeboats...

...but because the captain was withholding information,

people like Lightoller can't do their job properly,

and this will have disastrous consequences.

What one wants is to have a very good relationship,

a band of brothers.

When you've got that, you must keep them informed

of what's going on, and what we call nowadays Mission Command -

in other words, you let them know what you want to achieve overall -

you tell them all the facts, and then you let them get on with it.

I think that Captain Smith was overwhelmed

by the enormity of what was happening,

and was not really grasping it and taking charge.

Any more women and children?

The operator returned and told us

the Carpathia was putting about and heading for us.

Our captain had left us at this time.

Phillips told me to run and tell him what the Carpathia had answered.

I went through an awful mass of people to his cabin.

The decks were full.

I came back and heard Phillips giving the Carpathia directions.

He told me to put my clothes on.

Until that moment, I forgot I wasn't dressed.

I went to my cabin and dressed, and brought an overcoat to Phillips.

He was very cold.

I slipped the overcoat on him while he worked.

Imagine the relief in the radio room.

Carpathia has answered the distress call, is coming their way.

But, although she's going as fast as she can,

she's having to go through the same ice field

where Titanic has foundered.

She's four hours away,

and Titanic isn't going to stay afloat that long.

The nearest ship to Titanic is the Californian,

but the radio operator is still asleep.

Nobody is aware of any problem on the Titanic.

The crew of the Titanic have to think on their feet,

so they start to use Morse lamps

and send a signal using light, rather than sound.

The ship was close enough, I thought,

to read our electric Morse signal,

so I signal led it.

I told her to come at once, we were sinking.

The captain was with me most of the time we were signalling.

I would signal with the Morse,

and then go back and look at the ship.

I cannot say I saw any reply.

In a crisis, you just have to increase your chances of survival.

Survival is all about probability.

You know, throwing as much muck at the wall as possible

and seeing what sticks.

Then we started sending off these distress rockets,

the quartermaster and I on the bridge.

They go right up into the air and throw stars.

Right now, the water is rising up through the body of the ship.

The waterproof bulkheads only went up to a certain level,

and by this stage, water was tipping over bulkheads

and cascading into the next compartment.

So, compartment after compartment was being filled by water.

And, as this mass of water breaches the bulkheads

it starts flowing back on itself,

making cascades and waterfalls coming down the narrow staircases.

Third-class passengers in the bowels of the ship are at most risk.

They were really left in the dark.

They are... wading through water.

They're not aware of what's going on -

the rescue mission going on in the upper decks.

They had to work it out themselves.

My husband had left some money in our cabin,

and there were all our clothes

and things that we were taking to America.

Celiney is from Hardine, which was in Lebanon,

and she is a newly wed bride,

and her older husband is taking her to live with him in America.

They are caught between going up to the higher decks

and the desire to keep their belongings.

It's easy to underestimate

just how important things are to a migrant,

to someone who's leaving home forever.

Do you want to arrive in New York destitute with nothing to your name,

nothing to pay for a room?

Of course not.

We returned to try and get our clothes,

money and jewellery.

We started down for them...

...but the water on our deck was waist deep.

We never got there.

Depending where you are in the ship right now,

you're going to start seeing a lot of water -

the third-class passengers in particular.

Water in any quantity is terrifying because you can't push it away,

you can't fight it.

People are now seeing evidence with their own eyes -

it's not rumour, it's not gossip,

it's not even that they're waiting to be told -

they can see, feel that there is a problem.

By this time, the ship seemed to have tilted forward a little...

...and we heard queer noises,

as if the ship was being pulled about.

SHIP CREAKS AND GROANS

Charlotte Collyer is a second-class passenger.

She's travelling with her husband Harvey

and her eight-year-old daughter, Marjorie.

Charlotte has health issues.

She has tuberculosis, so she's eager to find a new climate for her health

as well as whatever economic benefit they might get from migrating.

Whilst this whole hour has passed

in which the first-class passengers are being evacuated

they were told to stay in their cabin.

They are sitting there and worrying,

and no-one is telling them anything.

Suddenly we heard people

running along the passageway in front of our door.

Their feet... reminded me of rats scurrying.

I could see my face had grown very white.

My husband stammered when he spoke to me.

He said we had better go on deck and see what's wrong.

Marjorie.

We just need to get up. Come on.

For anyone that was feeling confused or was just following the rules,

it's very clear something major is now happening.

It's going to be terrifying,

especially if you're a parent with a young child.

When we went on board the Titanic,

every possession was with us.

Neither of us took any belongings from the cabin.

My husband even left his watch lying on his pillow.

I had a big dolly that I got two Christmases before

and we were in such a hurry that I left it behind.

I cried for my dolly, but we couldn't go back.

When we reached the deck,

there was a great many people.

Some of them were crying.

I was crying for my doll but nobody could go back and get it.

It's just a precaution, OK?

An officer said we should put on life preservers,

so Mother put one on me,

and then fastened one around herself.

Papa put one on too.

Chin up.

My husband stepped over to an officer

and asked him a question.

-Excuse me? -Yes, sir? -What's going on?

I heard him shout back,

"Keep calm, there's no danger."

Nobody is telling anybody what's going on.

The captain knows. A few of the officers know,

but it's important to keep this away because of panic.

But now, because of the noise,

the tilt, people are realising that something is wrong.

SHOUTING

HISSING

All the water that had been thrown on the furnaces

was just making the stokehold thick with steam.

Mr Shepherd was walking across in a hurry to do something...

MAN SCREAMS

...and he fell down the hole and broke his leg.

SHOUTING

We lifted him up and carried him.

BANGING

There was a knocking noise.

All at once, I saw a wave of green foam tearing between the boilers.

A rush of water came through.

I never stopped to look. I just jumped for the escape ladder.

A huge wave of green water comes flying through into the room

because the coal bunker has been gradually filling up

and filling up and filling up with the pressure.

And then it bursts, and suddenly it's all over them.

Another engineer, Jonathan Shepherd,

has already slipped and broken his leg,

so he can't escape this wall of water.

And he's the first casualty to die on the Titanic.

I went up the escape and into the main alleyway.

Titanic was sloping down by the head.

Water was coming down the alleyway from forward.

Now that boiler room five is filled with water,

the engineers realise that all their efforts are futile.

There's no point pumping it out any more -

it's coming in faster than anyone can manage it.

This is a moment of terror and certainty.

Perhaps this is the first moment

where these brave men realise that the ship is going to go down.

All passengers upstairs at last, I...

...I returned to my room.

I began tidying up,

folding my nightgown,

putting everything in its place.

There was... There was no sound.

Titanic might have been in dock and all the crew gone home.

I saw Stanley at the door watching me,

and he... he almost shouted at me as he seized my arm.

"My God! Don't you realise this ship will sink?"

"You have to follow the rest upstairs as quickly as possible."

Sinking.

The word... repeated itself without fully...

...fully entering my understanding.

My mind could not accept

that this super, perfect creation

was to do so futile a thing as sink.

Of course Titanic couldn't be sinking.

CREAKING

CLAMOURING VOICES

Suddenly there was a commotion near one of the gangways

and we saw a stoker come up from below.

All the fingers of one hand had been cut off.

Blood was running from the stumps

and was spattered on his face and clothes.

It brought up a picture of smashed engines and...

...mangled human bodies.

I went over to speak to him.

I asked him if there was any danger.

"Danger?!"

"I should say so! It's hell down below."

"This ship will sink like a stone."

At this moment, I...

...got my first grip of fear.

Those in charge herded us towards the nearest boat.

Then, above the clamour came the terrible cry,

"Lower the boat, women and children."

Folks, women and children only!

That's women and children only!

Someone was shouting these last few words over and over again.

Women and children only! That's women and children only!

Women and children only!

Women and children only!

It might be that Lightoller has this kind of rigid view

of the world - he's come in with a set of rules.

It might be that, under this stressful situation,

it's the only way he can function.

He can't cope with more information and more decision-making

so he just sicks to this one option.

Women and children only!

Cosmo pleaded with me,

while three or four boats were launched but I refused.

I only said, "Promise me that whatever you do

"you will not let them separate us".

And I clung to him.

He saw that there was no use resisting me.

Women and children only!

"We'll go round to the starboard side," Cosmo said.

"It might be better there."

One of the pivotal facts about the loading of the light boats is this -

there are different protocols on each side of the ship.

On the starboard side, Officer Murdoch's approach

is more pragmatic, it's more flexible.

It was better,

for although there were crowds, there was no confusion.

The lifeboats were being quietly filled.

If you emerge on the starboard side,

then Officer Murdoch might well allow

the men to join the women and their children if there are spaces left.

So, there's Murdoch allowing men to fill up the spare places. Why not?

Murdoch doesn't want to split families up.

Murdoch, I think, probably had a sense of wanting to preserve life.

And Lightoller had a stricter, more patriarchal view, perhaps,

of men should sacrifice themselves for women and children,

but the fact that it was happening on the same ship at the same time

shows just how vague this policy was.

So, it matters very much which side of the ship you're on,

if you're a man.

FLARE BURSTS AND CRACKLES

I was walking up and down the bridge.

Saw white lights in the sky in the direction of this other steamer.

I thought perhaps the ship was in communication with some other ship,

or possibly signalling to us to tell us she had big icebergs around her.

It didn't occur to me the ship was in distress.

I just thought they were white rockets, that's all.

It might have been anything.

We called her up repeatedly on the Morse lamp

and received no answer whatsoever.

Some people say she replied to our rockets and signals

but I didn't see any of them.

We'll never know why there was miscommunication

between the Californian and Titanic.

There seems to be some confusion about the colour of these rockets.

Were they distress signals?

It's also possible that Boxhall didn't see

Californian's Morse lamp reply

because there's something strange

about the atmospheric conditions that night.

You've got this weird effect of warm air underneath

and colder air on top, which is creating a kind of mirage effect.

Shapes are being distorted in the darkness.

A chance her captain missed.

He could have laid his ship right alongside the Titanic

and taken practically every soul on board.

However, he didn't.

This must be the bitterest blow

for those people who could see the ship nearby.

I don't think it was bad favour, I don't think it was negligence.

I think everything conspired that night

to go against Titanic's chances of safety and salvation.

Because the early lifeboats went out half full,

there are now only about 900 places left on the lifeboats,

and more than 2,000 people on board the ship.

If people don't get onto a lifeboat they will go down with the Titanic.

Suddenly we saw some sailors who were launching a little boat.

It was the captain's special boat.

Lucy Duff-Gordon knows that she needs to get off the ship.

This is the moment to take one of those spaces.

My husband asked the officer if we might get into it.

We were helped in,

followed by two American men who came up at the last minute.

There is something here about being in the right place at the right time

but also seizing the opportunity,

and having the confidence to do so.

I think that class probably had a huge impact

on people's sense of entitlement to safety, to rescue.

You probably did assume that if you'd bought a first-class ticket

then that would buy you survival.

They are people who are important in the world.

They see themselves as having more value than people in steerage,

and there they are as a couple, sitting safely in a lifeboat.

I shall never forget how black and deep the water looked below us.

Men standing nearby joked with us

because we were going out on the ocean.

"You'll get your death of cold out there amid the ice."

Women and children only!

I found myself clinging to my husband's arm

with little Marjorie beside me.

I did not want to leave him.

Charlotte knows she'll be separated from her husband,

not knowing if and when they'd be reunited.

I think she probably was just thinking,

"Please, no, not this. I want to survive but not at this cost."

Dilemmas that you just have to accept in that moment,

those are...

Yeah, those are heavy.

Officer Lightoller...

You know, the man's been at sea since he was 13.

He doesn't have that understanding

of what it means when a woman is clinging to her husband,

when a child is crying for their father.

He just goes ahead with what he believes to be right...

...but it's not objectively right.

From what you have said, you discriminated entirely

in the interests of the women and children in filling those lifeboats.

Yes.

Why did you do that?

Because of the captain's orders, or because of the rule of the sea?

The rule of human nature.

The deck seemed to be slipping under my feet.

I hung onto my husband's arm.

And although he was very brave...

...and not trembling...

...I saw his face was white as paper.

Port or starboard...

...that sliding doors moment

will determine who survives and who doesn't.

Keep moving along the deck!

Women and children only! That's women and children only!

Women and children, women and children.

They struck utter terror into my heart and...

...now they'll ring in my ears till I die.

There was a lot of confusion.

People crying, swearing and praying.

There's a really stark disadvantage facing the third-class passengers.

The chief officer shoved one of the revolvers into my hands.

Chekhov said you can't put a gun in the room and not use it.

All of the order has been lost.

I called out, "Don't shoot!"

GUNSHOT