Love and disaster

Ismay: So you've not yet lit the last four boilers?

Smith: No, I don't see the need. We are making excellent time.

Ismay: The press knows the size of Titanic. Now I want them to marvel at her speed. We must give them something new to print! This maiden voyage of Titanic must make headlines!

Smith: Mr. Ismay, I would prefer not to push the engines until they've been properly run in.

Ismay: Of course, I'm just a passenger. I leave it to your good offices to decide what's best. But what a glorious end to your final crossing if we were to get to New York on Tuesday night and surprise them all! Make the morning papers. Retire with a bang, eh E.J.?

Ismay: [Smith nods reluctantly] Good man.

Lewis Bodine: [narrating an animated sequence of the Titanic's sinking on a TV monitor] Okay here we go. She hits the berg on the starboard side, right? She kind of bumps along punching holes like Morse code, dit dit dit, along the side, below the water line. Then the forward compartments start to flood. Now as the water level rises, it spills over the watertight bulkheads, which unfortunately don't go any higher then E deck. So now as the bow goes down, the stern rises up. Slow at first, then faster and faster until finally she's got her whole ass sticking up in the air - And that's a big ass, we're talking 20-30,000 tons. Okay? And the hull's not designed to deal with that pressure, so what happens? "KRRRRRRKKK!" She splits. Right down to the keel. And the stern falls back level. Then as the bow sinks it pulls the stern vertical and then finally detaches. Now the stern section just kind of bobs there like a cork for a couple of minutes, floods and finally goes under about 2:20am two hours and forty minutes after the collision. The bow section planes away, landing about half a mile away going about 20-30 knots when it hits the ocean floor. "BOOM, PLCCCCCGGG!"... Pretty cool, huh?

Old Rose: Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course, the experience of it was... somewhat different.