10–14 April 1912

The maiden voyage

On Greenwich’s timeline she set sail from Southampton at 12.15 on 10 April 1912, called at Cherbourg and Queenstown, received a first ice warning from Caronia at 09.00 on 14 April, and struck the iceberg at 23.40 that night.⁠¹

From Queenstown on 11 April, the inquiry says, she followed the accepted outward-bound route for mail steamers from the Fastnet Light to the Nantucket Shoal light vessel. On the evening of 14 April her course was altered for New York. Ice messages had already been received, including one from Caronia at 09.00, on Greenwich’s timeline, and later reports picked up from other ships.

At 11.40 p.m. on 14 April 1912, in the wording of the British inquiry, Titanic struck an iceberg, and at 2.20 a.m. the next day she foundered.⁠² The inquiry places the foundering in or near latitude 41° 46′ N., longitude 50° 14′ W., in the North Atlantic.⁠²

The hour-by-hour account of what happened after 11.40 p.m. is on the night log.