It was bitter cold, with what crew members described as the smell of ice in the air, when the Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ship in the world, steamed through the North Atlantic on the night of April 15, 1912. Captain Edward Smith had hopes of making the ship's maiden voyage, from Southampton, England, to New York City, in excellent time. He had the ship running at twenty-two knots (roughly twenty- five miles per hour), close to top speed. The night was moon- less, the skies clear, and the water calm, but an unseen field of ice loomed ahead.

Shortly before midnight, Frederick Fleet, a lookout high up in the ship's crow's nest, suddenly spotted a dark object di- rectly in the path of the ship. He urgently warned the bridge: "Iceberg, right ahead!"1 The berg had also been seen from the bridge...