4. Most of the people who died didn’t drown to death.
Actually, they froze to death. The North Atlantic Ocean, in the early Spring, at night is extremely cold. When the Titanic sank, the water’s temperature was estimated to be about 28 degrees Fahrenheit, which is below freezing. Surviving in such cold water is pretty much impossible for more than 15 minutes. About 20 percent probably died of cold shock within two minutes of hitting the water.
3. Whiskey might have saved a life.
Perhaps the most miraculous Titanic survivor story is that of the ship’s baker, Charles Joughin. He floated around in the frigid waters for two hours before a rescue ship picked him up. He said he didn’t feel the cold (or succumb to it, apparently) because he was too drunk on whiskey to feel much of anything.
2. It COULD have been saved by another ship.
The SS Californian was sitting just 20 miles away from the Titanic at the time of iceberg impact — it had actually stopped because there was too much ice in the water through which to navigate safely. The Californian’s captain actually saw the Titanic’s distress flares but ignored them because the figured they were “company rockets” — aerial signals used for one ship in a fleet to communicate with another. Another way ships communicate SOS signals. The Titanic’s call wasn’t heard until far too late on the Californian, the morning after, actually, because the ship’s radio operator had gone to bed for the night.
1. The first news accounts were dead wrong.
Early reports about the sinking were so vague that the first newspaper to report the event got some key facts wrong. Specifically, the Daily Mail reported that there had been no lives lost in the accident.