33 Titanic Sinking Photos Taken Before And After The Disaster

Publish date: 2024-04-20

These haunting photos of the RMS Titanic's sinking were taken immediately before and after the historic disaster on April 15, 1912.

On the night of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic’s lookout Frederick Fleet famously yelled, “Iceberg, right ahead!” Despite this warning, the ship wasn’t able to get out of the way in time and crashed right into the iceberg, leading to the Titanic sinking less than three hours later.

Experts later said that the weather, ice conditions, and time of year increased the iceberg hazard in the North Atlantic on that tragic night. If the winds and temperatures hadn’t caused sea ice to travel further south than usual, perhaps there wouldn’t have been any iceberg for the Titanic to hit.

Now, over a century after the disaster, there may be no tragedy in history more suited to the “what if?” parlor game than the sinking of the Titanic.

What if one nearby ship’s radio warning of icebergs in the area had actually reached the Titanic’s main control center? What if the radio aboard the Titanic hadn’t encountered serious issues shortly before the sinking? What if the crew had been properly equipped with binoculars to help them spot sea ice? And the most tortuous question of all — what if the Titanic had carried its full capacity of 64 lifeboats instead of the mere 20 that it was carrying?

Sadly, we’ll never know — in the early hours of April 15, 1912, the “unsinkable” Titanic slipped below the icy waters of the North Atlantic, taking about 1,500 lives with it. In the end, just 706 people survived the disaster.

Look through the gallery below for photos of the Titanic just before and after its infamous sinking. Then, discover the full story of that tragic night.

The Titanic sits near the dock at Belfast, Northern Ireland soon before starting its maiden voyage. April 2, 1912.Wikimedia Commons The lifeboats sit in their davits on the Titanic soon before the ship sets off. April 1912.© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images The icy waters where the Titanic sinking occurred, as seen just days before the disaster. April 4, 1912.Hulton Archive/Getty Images The Titanic begins its sea trials at Belfast, Northern Ireland soon before setting off on its voyage. April 2, 1912.National Archives/Wikimedia Commons The reading and writing room on the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic. 1912.Wikimedia Commons Crowds line the docks as the Titanic prepares to take off on its voyage. Southampton, England. April 10, 1912.ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images The first-class lounge aboard the Titanic, as seen soon before the vessel took off. 1912.Universal Images Group/Getty Images The Titanic sits at the dock in Southampton, England soon before setting off. April 10, 1912.Wikimedia Commons The Titanic leaves port at Southampton, England to begin its voyage. April 10, 1912.Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images Titanic passengers stroll past the vessel's onboard lifeboats soon before the ship went down. Circa April 10-14, 1912.Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images A child plays on the playground located on the saloon deck of the Titanic three days before the ship went down. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images The Café Parisien portion of the first-class restaurant aboard the Titanic, as seen soon before the vessel took off. 1912.Universal Images Group/Getty Images Captain Edward J. Smith (right) and Purser Hugh Walter McElroy stand aboard the Titanic as it travels between Southampton, England and Queenstown, Ireland, just one day into its voyage — and three days before it would sink. Circa April 10-11, 1912.

The man who took this photograph, Rev. F.M. Browne, got off at Queenstown. Both Smith and McElroy died in the Titanic sinking.

Ralph White/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images A dining room aboard the Olympic, the Titanic's sister ship. 1912.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images The iceberg suspected of having sunk the Titanic, as photographed by the steward of a passing ship the morning after the Titanic sinking. The other ship had not yet received word about the Titanic disaster, but the steward reportedly saw red paint smeared along the base of the iceberg, indicating that a ship had struck it within the last several hours. April 15, 1912.Wikimedia Commons An iceberg, possibly the one that sunk the Titanic, floats in the North Atlantic near the site where the ship went down. 1912.National Archives Two lifeboats carry Titanic survivors toward safety. April 15, 1912.National Archives Following the Titanic's sinking, a lifeboat carries survivors to safety. April 15, 1912.National Archives A lifeboat, believed to be from the Titanic, is hoisted and drained of water. Date unspecified.National Archives A rescue boat full of survivors makes its way through the water following the Titanic sinking. April 15, 1912.National Archives The last lifeboat launched from the Titanic makes its way through the water. April 15, 1912.National Archives/Wikimedia Commons A lifeboat full of Titanic survivors are picked up by the Carpathia. April 15, 1912.Universal Images Group/Getty Images Survivors of the Titanic's sinking sit on the deck of the Carpathia, wrapped in blankets and clothes given to them by Carpathia passengers, soon after their rescue. April 15, 1912.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images The "Titanic orphans," French brothers Michel (left, age 4) and Edmond Navratil (right, age 2), who were left temporarily parent-less after their father died on the ship. The brothers made it to New York, where they stayed for a month before their mother, who had stayed in France and had not boarded the ship, finally recognized them from a newspaper photo and came to claim them. This photo was taken before they were identified. April 1912.Bain News Service/Library of Congress Survivors of the Titanic's sinking sit aboard the Carpathia just after their rescue. Circa April 15-18, 1912.Library of Congress A newspaper boy sells copies of the Evening News, telling of the Titanic's sinking, outside the office of the White Star Line (the company that launched the Titanic) in London a day after the ship went down. April 16, 1912.Topical Press Agency/Getty Images Crowds wait outside the White Star Line office in New York to hear the latest news on the disaster. Circa April 15-18, 1912.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images A crowd awaits Titanic survivors in New York. Circa April 18, 1912.Bain News Service/Library of Congress The lifeboats of the Titanic that had carried survivors from the sinking ship hang from the side of the Carpathia, the ship that rescued survivors, as it reaches the pier in New York. April 18, 1912.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images The Navratil brothers, one seated with a toy boat similar to the Titanic, arrive in port (presumably New York) aboard a rescue ship. Circa April 18, 1912.George Rinhart/Corbis via Getty Images A crowd awaits the return of survivors of the Titanic's sinking in Southampton, England. April 1912.Topical Press Agency/Getty Images Survivors of the Titanic sinking sit at Millbay Docks in Plymouth, England, upon their return home. May 1912.Hulton Archive/Getty Images Survivors of the Titanic sinking are greeted by their relatives upon their safe return to Southampton, England. April 1912.Hulton Archive/Getty Images

33 Titanic Sinking Photos Taken Just Before And After It Happened View Gallery

Was The Titanic Doomed To Sink?

Construction of the RMS Titanic began in 1909 in Belfast, Ireland. It took 26 months and the work of thousands of laborers to build. But even though the ship attracted attention for its size — at 882 feet long, the Titanic was then the largest ship ever built — some believe it was flawed from the start.

Some have theorized that the Titanic was built with poor-quality rivets, which were too weak to hold the ship together in the event of a disaster. In 2008, The New York Times reported that the vessel's builder, Harland and Wolff, struggled to find enough high-quality rivets and thus purchased ones considered to be lower quality. What's more, rivets later recovered from the wreck were found to have high concentrations of slag, which can make rivets brittle. This could have potentially weakened the Titanic's hull.

Public DomainThe Titanic under construction. Some believe the ship was fatally flawed from the start.

This wasn't the only place where the Titanic's builders cut corners. Initially, White Star Line marketed the ship as "designed to be unsinkable" and the British media described how its watertight bulkheads made the vessel "practically unsinkable." But in the end, the bulkheads rose just 10 feet above the waterline, meaning they weren't nearly as watertight as some believed.

History Uncovered Podcast Episode 64: The Titanic, Part 1: Building The ‘Unsinkable Ship’ It was supposed to be the greatest ship in history, a gargantuan marvel of modern engineering and unparalleled luxury. But the Titanic was doomed long before it ever set sail.

And on May 31, 1911, the ship was officially launched. Its maiden voyage would commence nearly a year later, in April 1912.

The Sinking Of The Titanic

The Titanic left Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. Just days before the Titanic sank, passengers were photographed on the deck strolling by the lifeboats, completely unaware that they'd soon have to be put to use.

Indeed, the first couple of days of the Titanic's voyage were peaceful. It made stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland (present-day Cobh) before starting its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean toward New York.

But disaster struck on April 14th. Then, around 11:40 p.m., the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The iceberg had a severe impact on the ship's starboard side, causing six watertight compartments to flood. One of the ship's designers, Thomas Andrews, was aboard the vessel, and he grimly reported at midnight that the Titanic would sink in 60 to 90 minutes.

He wasn't far off. Over the next two hours and 40 minutes, the Titanic slowly began to founder into the freezing waters as its radio operators sent desperate cries for help and its confused passengers began to line up on the deck. The ship had just 20 lifeboats aboard, far fewer than it could have carried. But that wasn't immediately clear to many passengers, even as the crew instructed women and children to board the lifeboats first.

"There was no commotion, no panic and no one seemed to be particularly frightened," Titanic survivor Eloise Smith said. "I had not the least suspicion of the scarcity of lifeboats, or I never should have left my husband."

Public DomainA depiction of what the sinking of the Titanic might have looked like.

A nearby ship, the Californian, did not answer the Titanic's distress calls. (Its radio operator had fallen asleep, and though the captain saw the Titanic's distress flares, he dismissed them as part of a "party"). The ship that did respond, the Carpathia, was about 58 miles away.

And thus, the sinking of the Titanic happened at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912.

"As the bow went under, the stern lifted higher and higher into the air, then pivoted and swung slowly over my head," recalled R. Norris Williams, a survivor who was swept into the icy waters before he swam to a lifeboat.

He continued: "Had it come down then I would have been crushed. Looking straight up I saw the three propellers and the rudder distinctly outlined against the clear sky. She slid into the ocean. No suction. No noise."

About 1,500 passengers and crew members perished. But 706 people were rescued by the Carpathia, which arrived at the scene later that morning.

How The Carpathia Rescued Survivors

Upon hearing the Titanic's distress call, the Carpathia had charged to its rescue. The captain, Arthur Henry Rostron, steered the ship through 58 miles of treacherously icy waters and arrived at around 3:30 or 4 a.m.

By then, the Titanic had disappeared into the North Atlantic.

"On all sides we could see lifeboats making laboriously toward us, some dangerously overcrowded, some half empty," James Bisset, the Carpathia's second officer, later recalled. "A mile away was a mass of wreckage, like an island, marking the spot where the Titanic had gone down."

He added: "It should not have happened... but it did happen!"

The Carpathia rescued 706 Titanic survivors, including the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown — who quickly threw herself into the rescue efforts — and Williams, who refused a doctor's suggestion to amputate his frozen legs.

Public DomainMolly Brown presenting Carpathia Captain Arthur Rostron with an award for rescuing survivors after the Titanic sinking.

The addition of the Titanic survivors to the Carpathia nearly doubled the number of people on the ship, and survivors like Brown busied themselves with helping others. She passed out blankets, used her language skills to communicate with survivors, and pressed the first-class survivors to donate money to those who'd lost everything in the Titanic sinking.

She was steadier on her feet than others, including White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay, who was reportedly hysterical. Charles Lightoller, the Titanic's second officer, recalled that Ismay "was obsessed with the idea, and kept repeating, that he ought to have gone down with the ship."

The Carpathia arrived in New York on April 18th, three days after the Titanic's sinking. By then, news of the catastrophic event had spread across the world. Survivors soon began telling their stories, and an inquiry was launched to investigate why exactly the ship had gone down.

The search for answers — and for the Titanic itself — continued for decades.

Questions About The Sinking Of The Titanic

Why did the Titanic sink? Many theories have been suggested over the years.

Some point to the ship itself. In addition to its cheaper rivets and its compartments, one theory suggests that the ship had suffered from a coal fire, which weakened its hull. Another postulates that the ship's navigation system malfunctioned because of interference from the Northern Lights.

But others believe the Titanic's sinking can be chalked up to human error. Some place the blame at the feet of its captain, Edward Smith. He kept the ship at a high speed during the crossing, and it was traveling at 20.5 knots (23.6 miles per hour) when it struck the iceberg. Why? It's possible that Smith was trying to beat a record set by the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, that he was pressured into the high speed by Ismay, or that he believed the crew would be able to react in time to a disaster.

Public DomainEdward Smith on the Titanic on April 10, 1912, the day it left Southampton, England for New York.

Smith has also been criticized for "ignoring" iceberg warnings. Some historians have noted that if Smith did not "ignore" the warnings, per se, he perhaps did not take them as seriously as he should have.

An American investigation into the sinking concluded that Smith's "indifference to danger was one of the direct and contributing causes of this unnecessary tragedy" and that he should have slowed the ship down. However, a British investigation found that Smith was not at fault.

And in any case, Smith could not have controlled other factors — like the Californian's lack of response to the Titanic's distress calls.

But at least one mystery about the ship was solved in 1985. Then, 73 years after the Titanic's sinking, American oceanographer Robert Ballard and French scientist Jean-Louis Michel discovered the wreck of the ship some 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland at a depth of 12,600 feet.

Since then, thousands of impressive Titanic artifacts have been brought up to the surface. These artifacts include instruments from the ship's band, clothing, money, jewelry, and chunks of the ship itself.

Now, more than a century later, the Titanic remains on the ocean floor where it sank in 1912. But it probably won't be there forever. Scientists are concerned about metal-eating bacteria, which has started to consume it.

Regardless, the Titanic holds an important place in history. The optimism of its maiden voyage was matched only by the despair of its sinking.

After viewing this collection of photos from the RMS Titanic's sinking, peruse some other rare Titanic photos that you may not have seen before. Then, discover some fascinating Titanic facts that are sure to surprise you.