The construction of the Titanic proceeded with astonishing rate the ship was launched to the sea on and her outfitting was completed by March 31, 1912. Schematic diagram of marine currents (blue= cold red = hot) around Greenland and the hypothetical region of origin (West Greenland) and route of the iceberg that collided with the Titanic. Winters and strong activity of the calving glaciers (discussed also in this post on ' The Science behind the Iceberg that sank the Titanic').įig.7. Remarkably often in this area, maybe as a result of previous mild Reach such southern latitudes, in 1912 however icebergs were spotted When the large iceberg reached the cold open sea of the Baffin Bay the West Greenland Current pushed it first slowly to north ern realms follo wing the coast of Greenland, then along the Canadian coast the voyage to the south begun.įinally offshore of Newfoundland the iceberg was captured by the 'warm', but fast Gulf StreamĪnd pushed in south-western direction. Works for the Titanic begun in the dockyard of Harland & Wolff Ltd. It was in 1909, three years before the disaster, that the construction Will one or three years later reach the North Atlantic. Of ice per year drop from the front of the glaciers and if large enough Still today this region is the most important origin of icebergs on the northern hemisphere, thousands of ju nks The icebergs from the North Atlantic originate mainly from the western coasts of Greenland, where ice streams deliver large quantities of ice in the fjord-systems which leads to the Baffin sea. This iceberg has some remarkable similarities to the iceberg as described and drawn by survivors of the Titanic (see the first figure with the drawing by Fleet).ĭespite the question if one of the photos shows the culprit iceberg, the remarkably number of spotted icebergs emphasizes the notion that in 1912 an exceptional number of these white giants reached such southern latitudes (after EATON & HAAS 1986). Photography from the ship ' Birma' of the same iceberg as described by Campbell. Journalist Colin Campbell, a passenger of the ' Carpathia' - the first ship to approach the scene of the disaster and save the surviving passengers of the Titanic - described the iceberg for the New York Tribune (after EATON & HAAS 1986).įig.6. The crew found debris and bodies floating in the vicinity of the depicted iceberg and the captain assured that this was the only iceberg near the scene of the collision (after Titanic & Nautical Resource Center).įig.5. Photography of an ice berg from the cable ship ' Minia', one of the first ships to reach the area in search for debris and bodies. Another iceberg photographed April 20, from the German steamer 'Bremen' claimed to be the Titanic iceberg based on the vicinity to the location of the disaster and the description of the iceberg according to e yewitnesses reports of Titanic survivors (photo from Wikipedia).įig.4. The (contradicting) dimension of the iceberg given were 30 meter height and 100 meter width (photo from Wikipedia).įig.3. The eyewitnesses still unaware of the disaster of the previous night reported a ' red smear' at the waterline of the white giant still visible and therefore supposedly less than 12 hours old. One of the many icebergs suspected of having sank the Titanic photographed in the morning of April 15, from board of the ship ' Prinz Adalbert'. The moment of the collision according to the sailor Frederick Fleet - one of the two men on duty as lookout in the night of April 14 (after EATON & HAAS 1986).įig.2. The story of the ship became part of history and pop culture, but the story of the iceberg that caused the disaster is less understand or known and only vague descriptions and some photo s exists of the supposed iceberg(s).įig.1.

Iceberg that sank titanic