Titanic Sinking: List to Port and Starboard 

This is one of the most realistic animations I’ve seen, the lighting and everything. Amazing work!

The evening out of the list along with the sudden “reversal” then re-dip that happened (basically the prelude to the final plunge) has always fascinated me. I always wonder what dynamics were at play in the bowels of the ship to cause such movement. Clearly it was around this time that Titanic lost its battle of buoyancy as the ships rate of sinking was vastly quicker than before, but that doesn’t explain that strange movement. If I had one wish it would be to be able to observe the actual sinking of the ship, just to know once and for all what actually happened and how it happened.

My theory of the sudden drop & short resurfacing before the last even faster sinking: One or more boilers, that were still under steam pressure and thus provided enormous buoyancy, snapped out of the anchorage that was riveted directly to the hull. This directly tore even larger holes in the bottom of the ship, through which further water could immediately rush in. The breakaway of the boilers, which immediately shot upward without restraint (temporarily neutralizing their buoyancy on the overall structure of the ship) along with the instantaneous rush of water shooting in through the newly created hull damage caused the Titanic to suddenly and noticeably drop. But this ended abruptly when the boiler(s) hit the ceiling of the boiler rooms (rather multi-story high halls), which shockingly lifted the overall structure of the ship again for a short time, only to go into the final plunge much faster than before, as even the buoyancy of the boilers could not win the battle of forces by the water shooting in!

Very correct, the amount of people who include the lists in animations can be almost counted by hand, others just keep it on the even keel, it was very obvious that at some point the ship would have listed, as it is impossible for it to be at an even keel. There were also countless survivors that testified it, like you mentioned in the video, but the interesting part was the list even-ing out as the ship began it's final plunge, as something inside could have happened, either a bulkhead gave way, or an equalization in flooding.

As an aviation guy, it took me quite few minuets to realize List Port and Starboard means Left and Right BankAngle While many things in aviation actually inherited from naval, kind wonder why this is not the case

Isn't it possible that the sudden evening of the list might have led passengers to assume it was also rising? This would seem so especially if they were on the port side.

Titanic really fought until the very end. It’s incredible that she managed to stay more or less upright so all the lifeboats could be launched; you’d think with damage like that the ship would just roll over and capsize, and yet the greatest list was only about 10 degrees.

A 2021 research conducted by the Russian Titanic enthusiasts covered the topic of the flooding and listing by running a computer simulation of the flooding. It's explained there that neither the interior bulkhead collapse nor the vents on the deck would've caused such a dramatic port list evening at 2:15 AM. The first would've simply caused the water redistribution inside the ship but not the rapid increase of flooding. And the vents just weren't enough to cause this event to happen. What they came up with is that the only most likely cause for this could've been the cargo hatches 2 and 3. Suggesting that there were the air pockets remaining right underneath them, at 2:15 AM the wooden hatch covers might've collapsed, thus turning both cargo hatches 2 and 3 into huge, massive openings on the deck. With that, a sudden and massive surge of water inside the ship would've instantly evened the ship's port list out and triggered the entire final plunge event moments later.

My birthday is April 14 and every night om my birthday I get major chills that remind me on titanic. Especially if I stay up late. Can't wait until the real time comes out because I'll be watching it all night!

Very detailed and informative. I had known of the Scotland Road design flaw before, and just recently learned about the Firemen's Passage, but didn't know that it played such a role at the first stages of the flooding, but it makes sense. Regarding the last phase and re-dip, maybe a large area at the mid or stern of the ship suddenly gave room and was flooded, so that there was sort of a counter-weight in the aft which partially compensated for the head going down? The ship was so large and complex, who knows.

The E-Deck graphic shown from 5:50 onward doesn't fully correspond to the testimony of Joseph Wheat who saw water trickling down to F-Deck at the base of the GSC coming from the starboard side. At this time Scotland road was still dry according to him. So there would have been a bit more water on the starboard side than shown here, most likely coming from the set of stairs leading down to the mail hold, which saw rapid initial flooding.

Titanic Animations has the BEST real-time sinking of the Titanic on RU-vid

Your animation is INCREDIBLE!! Thank you!!!!

My personal theory as to why Titanic evened herself out during the final plunge is because of that giant, ugly-ass octopus from that one Italian animated film. (I'm sorry.) But in all seriousness, it really is amazing that despite listing considerably, Titanic still managed to stay on an even enough keel so that all of her lifeboats could be deployed. Albeit by unconventional methods in the case of Collapsibles A & B.

If I’m right, Scotland Road caused the ship to list to port super heavily, about 9.5 degrees

I ever wondered about the 2.5 degree port list pre-collision

This is a very informative video, very easy to understand, keep up the great work!

This one makes sense, but I have a question, did the D deck gang way door made huge effect on the sinking?

explained what I always wanted to know about the portside list...

looks really nice! cant wait to see full video.

Well done! This is a fantastic explanation of changing list that night!

Another brilliant and insightful episode .

Titanic's sinking was really one hell of a roller coaster.

Very well analysed and explained! Very noice work!

Chief Baker Jougin was drinking water in the A deck bakery when he heard a loud noise of metal wrenching below him. He also heard a rush of passengers above him running aft on the boat deck. This seems to correspond with Archibald Gracie’s testimony of a rush of humanity coming up from somewhere below, while he was at collapsible A. This was around the time he and others were washed over by the wave. I wonder if the metal tearing sound and the wave are related

Sea saw motion as said in On A Sea Of Glass.

Loved this, I never get tired of learning about Titanic, I’d love to become a member but I can’t for some reason 😔

Interesting video, just what I was looking for. Probably won't respond, but here is my two American cents..... Is it possible that where the ship broke in half, that the bottom started to fail before the rest broke apart. Titanic took a rather long time to sink, long enough that the front end was heavily inundated with water, while the back was not. What I'm suggesting, is that as the bow filled, the downward force of the water that caused the ship to start to pivot, raising the stern into the air, was exerting enough of a downward force on the ship to cause a small but gradually increasing bowing of the ships hull. Meaning that one point, to the naked eye it may not have been noticeable, but Titanic started to take on a slight banana shape, with the outer most bend being the essentially the point in the water where the stern and bow meet. So, Titanic is sinking, listing to port. However she struck on her starboard side. Perhaps enough damage was done during the initial hit, perhaps more damage to the side or bottom was done than we know, perhaps its just more bad luck. But Titanic sinks lower and lower. Snap. under the water on the starboard side, perhaps even in damaged areas of the outer hull that hadn't initially let in water, Titanic's hull ruptures. New water rushes into any hole it can find in the new opening leading to both the bow and stern. The force of the break, plus the water has two effects. The first is that the force of the break downward and the sudden rush in of new water, pulls the whole ship with it, causing the mentioned large though apparently momentary drop of several feet. Next, again the combined forces of the break downward and the rush in of new water, momentarily intensify the bowing of the ship, like a banana, that I mentioned before. This wouldn't be noticeable in the stern, as this is also when the ship is doing its momentary drop of several feet, or closely after, so the stern is just perceived as sinking "normally". The bow, however, is through these new forces acting on the area of the break, is pulled down strongly by the back, downward at the break/pivot point at the back of the bow, and upward at the front of the bow. Now, the energetic force of the break subsides, but water continues to rush in from the new breach, i quickly fills the starboard side, fixing the port list, as well as drastically increasing the rate of sinking, leading to Titanic's "final plunge" and further/complete break up. What do you think? Plausible? Impossible?

The sudden movement of the ship in the end, could it have been a boiler explosion maybe? As several boilers were still in pressure.

Is it possible that the coal fire actually kept the ship from sinking so quickly and possibly capsizing because of the 600 tons of coal being moved from starboard to port. Because we know that the coal fire didn’t cause her to sink.

Great video! I think that the listing back from port to starboard might have given some accounts the illusion that the ship raised out of the water slightly or, maybe there was a huge spill over with a bulkhead towards the middle that caused the forward sinking to even out slightly ? It’s hard to know since we can only theorize..

Really cool

What if the sudden evening of the list was not caused by interior flooding but by the movements of people up on deck. Lightoller at some point ordered passengers to go over to the starboard side to even the port list. He said that for some time it worked, but the list returned. Imagine 200+ people waiting on the port side for collapsible B. Seeing that it landed upside down they would rush over to the starboard side in hope to get into another lifeboat. Gracie reported that just before the plunge mass of people appeared on deck near the gymnasium and prevented anyone from going aft.

Hey, awesome visuals, as always. :D Question: Does you're model on CGTrader come with lighting? Cheers!

Did the band play on the starboard side by the gymnasium by around 2 am when they headed outside??? Because by that time more passengers were residing there due to her list to port

wow

Hello! I was looking at a deckplan of the tank top of the titanic. I have a question, why didn't water flow from the starboard sides of the no. 2 and 3 holds into the vestibule on the aft of the Fireman's passage, considering that the doors from the holds leading there weren't watertight? Also, once the water reached that area, shouldn't the port side begin flooding as well, thus the titanic not getting a starboard list? Also, I guess the reason the Titanic took rather long to eliminate the initial starboard list is that while water did begin pouring over the Fireman's passage into the port side, the pooling of water on the starboard side made flooding of the port side slower in general. Is that correct?

My theory lol