You Are On The Titanic in 1912: Can You Survive?

The Titanic sinking, from the bottom of the ship: Titanic survivor Frederick Barrett was the leading fireman in Boiler Room 6 when the hull opened at 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912. Mike follows him compartment by compartment to ask one question: when a ship's own arithmetic fails, can one stoker beat it up a ladder? Titanic was built to float with her first four watertight compartments flooded, and Barrett was standing in the fifth. From there the story stays below the waterline, told through what Barrett himself later told investigators: the watertight door that dropped behind him, the Titanic boiler room where three engineers worked the pumps for something like an hour, thirty furnaces drawn by hand, and the wave of green water that ended it. Along the way we explain why the Titanic watertight compartments were walls rather than sealed boxes, why twenty lifeboats were legal and still seated only 1,178 of about 2,200 people, and what happened when Boat 13 reached the water with Boat 15 coming down on top of it. Harvey said go, and Barrett went. Would you have? Tell us below, and subscribe to NerdHistory for the next night below the waterline. Hashtags #Titanic #TitanicSinking #TitanicSurvivor #NerdHistory