Timeline Article: The Thunderous Noise

Monday, April 15, 1912
2:16am

As Titanic's stern rises higher out of the water, the ship begins to reach an angle that is steep enough for any loose object, no matter how big or small, to slide forward. The sounds from these objects falling, breaking, and crashing throughout the interior of the ship, is something that the passengers in the lifeboats will never forget.

"It was a noise no one had heard before, and no one wishes to hear again. It was stupefying, stupendous, as it came to us along the water. It was if all the heavy things one could think of had been thrown down stairs from the top of a house, smashing each other, and the stairs, and everything in the way."

Second Class Passenger
Lawrence Beesley


Painting By: Ken Marschall