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Description
The pre-1985 version of how they thought the Titanic actually sank.

Fig i) Titanic strikes the mountainous iceberg at 11:40pm on April 14th 1912

Fig ii) Titanic sustains a 300 foot gash in her starboard side which goes through 6 water tight compartments. (The coal bunker of boiler room 5 is just where the gash ended.)

Fig iii) At around 02:15am on April 15th 1912 Titanic begins her final plunge, the opening of the forward expansion joint causes the forward smoke stack to break loose and collapse.

Fig iv) Around 02:20am the lights go out and the Titanic comes to stand nearly perpendicular to the sea. The stress of being held at such a steep angle caused the boilers to break loose and crash down through the bulkheads, smashing a larger hole in the bow.

Fig v) Shortly after, the lower punctured compartments flooded causing the mighty ship to fall back to a shallower angle and then with little noise the Titanic slid beneath the waves.

Though there is a lot of speculation about this the fact is that in the pre-1985 version of the sinking the Titanic simply did not split in half, the Titanic was too modern and too well built to have its hull break or so it was thought. The break up happened just as the lights went out so visibility was low though most could see the hull settling back after a loud banging noise (Which was put down to the boilers and engines breaking loose and the stern falling back.) very few were probably in the right position or even the right distance to clearly see the stern actually break away from the bow. Those passengers who claimed to have seen the break up were in the minority so their opinions weren’t counted at the inquiries, instead focusing on the testimony of the officers who stated she didn’t break up.

There is also a rumour that Ismay bribed the crew to say the Titanic didn’t break in two –it would make White Star ships seem weak and badly made-, but this has never been proven.

I've also made a short animation of this on youtube [link]

Description
The pre-1985 version of how they thought the Titanic actually sank.

Fig i) Titanic strikes the mountainous iceberg at 11:40pm on April 14th 1912

Fig ii) Titanic sustains a 300 foot gash in her starboard side which goes through 6 water tight compartments. (The coal bunker of boiler room 5 is just where the gash ended.)

Fig iii) At around 02:15am on April 15th 1912 Titanic begins her final plunge, the opening of the forward expansion joint causes the forward smoke stack to break loose and collapse.

Fig iv) Around 02:20am the lights go out and the Titanic comes to stand nearly perpendicular to the sea. The stress of being held at such a steep angle caused the boilers to break loose and crash down through the bulkheads, smashing a larger hole in the bow.

Fig v) Shortly after, the lower punctured compartments flooded causing the mighty ship to fall back to a shallower angle and then with little noise the Titanic slid beneath the waves.

Though there is a lot of speculation about this the fact is that in the pre-1985 version of the sinking the Titanic simply did not split in half, the Titanic was too modern and too well built to have its hull break or so it was thought. The break up happened just as the lights went out so visibility was low though most could see the hull settling back after a loud banging noise (Which was put down to the boilers and engines breaking loose and the stern falling back.) very few were probably in the right position or even the right distance to clearly see the stern actually break away from the bow. Those passengers who claimed to have seen the break up were in the minority so their opinions weren’t counted at the inquiries, instead focusing on the testimony of the officers who stated she didn’t break up.

There is also a rumour that Ismay bribed the crew to say the Titanic didn’t break in two –it would make White Star ships seem weak and badly made-, but this has never been proven.

I've also made a short animation of this on youtube [link]