The mass of water pouring into Titanic’s lower decks immediately after the impact would tell a very different story which would be confirmed by the ships carpenter J. Hutchinson and Titanic’s designer Thomas Andrews.

The collision had forced the metal to buckle inwards and popped rivets below the waterline, opening the first five compartments (the forward peak tank, the three forward holds and Boiler Room 6) to the sea.

As the forward compartments filled, the watertight doors closed. Any sailors still in these compartments drowned quickly. Titanic could stay afloat with the first four compartments flooded, but it had already taken on water in five compartments, and a sixth was beginning to flood. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, ordered "all-stop" once he arrived on the bridge.

The death of a Titan.

It became very apparent that the Titanic would sink. Thomas Andrews estimated the ship had an hour to an hour and a half, and believed that the pumps would only keep Titanic afloat for a few extra minutes at best. The pumps could only cope with 2,000 tons of water per hour, but that quantity was flooding into Titanic every five minutes

"Women and children first!" - The Deployment of the lifeboats.

At 12:05 – 25 minutes after the collision Captain Smith ordered that lifeboats to be deployed some twenty minutes after that he decreed that women and children shall take precedence. The first lifeboat was actually lowered until 12:45 a.m.

Many passengers had not immediately sought lifeboats as a means of survival on the 'unsinkable' Titanic and the boat decks had become an incredibly noisy and unwelcoming area of Titanic as she began to founder.

The reason for this was due to the enormous build-up of steam in the ships boilers that had to be released from her whistles and funnels located on the lifeboat decks. Less than an hour ago Titanic's boilers were running at nearly full capacity and were now completely stopped. This steam had to be released to avoid an explosion in the boiler rooms.

Lifeboat #7 was lowered first, on the starboard side, with a mere 28 people on board (26 of who were first-class passengers) on a boat with a maximum capacity of 65. Titanic was built to hold 32 life boats, but carried only 20: Their total capacity was 1,178, only 53 % of the ship's total complement of passengers and crew of 2,222.

This paltry number of boats was still more boats than required by the board of trade. The organisation that oversaw maritime safety in 1912. At this time, the number of lifeboats required was determined by a ship's gross tonnage rather than its human capacity. The regulations concerning lifeboat capacity had last been updated in 1894, when the largest ships afloat weighed approximately 10,000 tons, while the Titanic had 46,328.

One positive aspect of Titanic's sinking would be the complete overhaul of maritime safety laws around the world for the betterment of the industry.

First and second-class passengers had easy access to the lifeboats with staircases that led right up to the boat deck, but third-class passengers found it much harder. Many found the corridors leading from the lower sections of the ship difficult to navigate and had trouble making their way up to the lifeboats. Some gates separating the third-class section of the ship from the other areas, like the one leading from the aft well deck to the second-class section, are known to have been locked.

While the majority of first and second-class women and children survived the sinking, more third-class women and children were lost than saved. The locked third-class gates were the result of miscommunication between the boat deck and F-G decks. Lifeboats were supposed to be lowered with women and children from the boat deck and then subsequently to pick up F-G Deck women and children from open gangways. Unfortunately, with no boat drill or training for the seamen, the boats were simply lowered into the water without stopping. As a result of the segregation of third class, only one of the 29 children travelling in first and second-class (Lorraine Allison, a two year-old Canadian girl) perished in the disaster, compared to 53 of the 76 travelling in third.

By 1:25 a. the situation on the lifeboat decks had become chaotic. By now most passengers had concluded there were far more people on Titanic than a positions on lifeboats.

The boarding of lifeboats had become increasingly rushed and disorganized as lifeboats were now entering the water overloaded and in a very rushed manner.

As this was Titanic's maiden voyage, the crew had little understanding or training on how to expel her lifeboats and were increasingly losing control of the situation at hand. When Lifeboat #14 was lowered on the port side, with Fifth Officer Harold Lowe in charge. He was forced to fire three shots from his gun into the air along the side of the ship to deter passengers on the boat deck from jumping in as they descended into the water.

In another instance, lifeboat number 11 was nearly lowered directly into the path of one of Titanic's pumps. Had it not been for some quick thinking of those on board who used the oar to prod the boat away from the pump, there may have there may have been a further 70 fatalities added to Titanic's lengthy toll.

By 01:35, as Lifeboats #15 and #16 abandoned the ship, all of the boats in the second-class portion of the boat deck were gone. Six lifeboats remained on the ship, all in first-class, with a combined capacity of 293 for the estimated 1,800 people who remained on the ship. Lifeboats collapsible C and D were the last ones to leave the ship.

A major turning point came at 01:40, when the holes for the bow anchors dipped underwater. This allowed the frigid water to flood the rest of the bow which was until that time dry. Shortly afterwards the ship's bow suddenly lurched several feet downwards. This was most likely caused by the collapse of the watertight bulkhead between boiler rooms 6 and 5, which had been weakened by a smoldering coal bunker fire during the voyage. The sudden movement was noticeable to those on board and the increased angle of tilt further alerted them to the impending danger, leading to outbreaks of panic.

Collapsible C left around 02:00, Collapsible D five minutes later. These boats were the closest to the ship as it foundered. Lifeboat #4 (the boat launched before Collapsible C) picked up those who were caught in the freezing ocean

The Titanic reported its position as 41°46′N 50°14′W. The wreck was found at 41°44′N 49°57′W.