CONCISE ANSWER
Less than 3 hours. The Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912 after hitting the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. the night before.
Quick Fact
Sinking lasted: Less than 3 hours
Date it went down: April 15, 1912 (iceberg strike at 11:40 p.m. April 14)
Water temp: -2.2 °C
Wreck depth: 3,800 m (12,500 ft)
Location: 41.7325° N, 49.9469° W
Survivors: 706 out of 2,224 passengers and crew
Where exactly did the Titanic sink? About 370 miles south-southeast of Newfoundland.
That’s where the Titanic went down in the North Atlantic.Britannica The spot sits where the icy Labrador Current slams into the warmer Gulf Stream. Every spring, icebergs calve off Greenland and drift south right through this shipping lane. Back in 1912, the Titanic’s Southampton-to-New York route sliced straight through this iceberg highway—turns out nature and human confidence made terrible travel buddies that night.
What were the key distances and warnings involved? Around 1,300 miles northeast of New York with seven formal iceberg warnings received on April 14, 1912.
| Category | Details |
|---|
| Distance from New York | About 1,300 miles northeast |
| Distance from Halifax | Roughly 600 miles southeast |
| Iceberg warnings received April 14, 1912 | Seven formal alerts |
| Bodies recovered | 340 out of ~1,500 fatalities |
| Lifeboat capacity vs. passengers | 1,178 seats available; roughly 400 seats went unused |
How did the collision actually happen? The iceberg opened at least five of the ship’s sixteen watertight compartments.
The iceberg tore open at least five of the sixteen watertight compartments.History.com Here’s what happened: wireless operators had already logged six ice warnings by noon on April 14, yet the ship kept charging ahead at nearly full speed. At 11:40 p.m., lookouts finally spotted the berg dead ahead and rang the alarm three times. First Officer Murdoch shouted “hard-a-starboard” and ordered the engines stopped, but the starboard side still scraped the ice for about seven seconds. Water rushed in fast. As the bow sank, the stern rose up out of the water before snapping in two around 2:20 a.m. The wreck settled 12,500 feet below, split into two main pieces about 600 meters apart. Since researchers found it in 1985, metal-munching bacteria have been steadily eating away at the wreck—scientists think it might vanish completely within a few decades.
Can you still visit the Titanic wreck site? No public tourism is allowed as of 2026; only licensed expeditions may visit.
As of 2026, the wreck lies at 41.7325° N, 49.9469° W, but there’s no public tourism allowed.Transport Canada Only licensed expeditions can reach it, and Canada’s Transport Canada monitors the wreck with sonar and remote vehicles to track how fast it’s collapsing. Researchers reckon the famous bow railing could collapse by 2030, and the whole structure might crumble within 50 years. The disaster pushed world leaders to create the 1914 International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)—that’s where the International Ice Patrol, still on duty today, got its start.International Maritime Organization
How long did it take for the Titanic to sink?
They called it “unsinkable,” thanks to watertight compartments that could seal off the bow if breached. Yet four days into its maiden voyage in 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg—and less than three hours later, it was gone.
What happened to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg?
Chaos erupted after the iceberg strike. The 20 lifeboats launched with about 400 empty seats, leaving more than 1,500 people to die in the freezing ocean.
How cold was the water when the Titanic sank?
The water registered -2.2 °C when the Titanic went down.
How many iceberg warnings did the Titanic receive the day of the sinking?
On April 14, 1912, the day it sank, the Titanic received seven iceberg warnings. One came from the SS Amerika via the Titanic to the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C., reporting ice along the route.
Are there any dead bodies in the Titanic?
Searchers recovered 340 bodies after the sinking. Of roughly 1,500 people who died, about 1,160 bodies remain lost.
Is anyone still alive from the Titanic?
The last living survivor, Millvina Dean, died at age 97 in Southampton after catching pneumonia. As a two-month-old baby, she was the youngest passenger on the doomed maiden voyage.
Can you see the Titanic on Google Earth?
Google Maps shows the exact spot of the Titanic wreck—eerie coordinates marking one of history’s deadliest maritime disasters. Just open the Google Maps app and plug in: 41.7325° N, 49.9469° W.
Who was the most famous person on the Titanic?
- 1) John Jacob Astor IV (“The ladies have to go first…”)
- 2) Margaret Brown (The Unsinkable Molly Brown)
- 3) Benjamin Guggenheim
- 4) Captain Edward John Smith
- 5) Isidor and Ida Straus
- 6) Thomas Andrews
- 7) Lady Duff Gordon
- 8) Lady Countess Rothes (Lucy Noël Martha Dyer-Edwards)
How many people survived Titanic?
In the end, 706 people survived the sinking.
Is the Titanic still underwater?
The Titanic is disappearing. The once-mighty ocean liner, sunk by an iceberg, is slowly being consumed by metal-eating bacteria: holes riddle the wreck, the crow’s nest is already gone, and the bow railing could collapse at any time.
Where is Titanic now?
The wreck of the RMS Titanic lies about 12,500 feet (3.8 km) deep, roughly 370 miles (600 km) south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. It rests in two main pieces about a third of a mile (600 m) apart.
Did sharks eat Titanic victims?
No sharks didn’t eat Titanic passengers. The mangled bodies—like J.J.’s—weren’t scavenged by sharks.
Who owns the Titanic wreck?
Douglas Woolley claims ownership of the Titanic. His legal case rests on a late-1960s British court ruling that awarded him the wreckage.
Can the Titanic be raised?
Raising the Titanic would be about as futile as rearranging the deck chairs on the doomed vessel. After countless attempts, engineers concluded the wreck is too fragile and deep to bring up intact.
Edited and fact-checked by the MeridianFacts editorial team.
