<P> The first three days of the voyage from Queenstown had passed without apparent incident . A fire had begun in one of Titanic's coal bunkers approximately 10 days prior to the ship's departure, and continued to burn for several days into its voyage, but passengers were unaware of this situation . Fires occurred frequently on board steamships of that day due to spontaneous combustion of the coal . The fires had to be extinguished with fire hoses, by moving the coal on top to another bunker and by removing the burning coal and feeding it into the furnace . Fortunately, the fire was over on 14 April . </P> <P> Titanic received a series of warnings from other ships of drifting ice in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland . One of the ships to warn Titanic was the Atlantic Line's Mesaba . Nevertheless, the ship continued to steam at full speed, which was standard practice at the time . Although the ship was not trying to set a speed record, timekeeping was a priority, and under prevailing maritime practices, ships were often operated at close to full speed, with ice warnings seen as advisories and reliance placed upon lookouts and the watch on the bridge . It was generally believed that ice posed little danger to large vessels . Close calls with ice were not uncommon, and even head - on collisions had not been disastrous . In 1907 SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg but still had been able to complete her voyage, and Captain Smith himself had declared in 1907 that he "could not imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder . Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that ." </P> <P> At 11: 40 p.m. (ship's time) on 14 April, lookout Frederick Fleet spotted an iceberg immediately ahead of Titanic and alerted the bridge . First Officer William Murdoch ordered the ship to be steered around the obstacle and the engines to be stopped, but it was too late; the starboard side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline . The hull was not punctured by the iceberg, but rather dented such that the hull's seams buckled and separated, allowing water to seep in . Five of the ship's watertight compartments were breached . It soon became clear that the ship was doomed, as she could not survive more than four compartments being flooded . Titanic began sinking bow - first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper . </P> <P> Those aboard Titanic were ill - prepared for such an emergency . In accordance with accepted practices of the time, where ships were seen as largely unsinkable and lifeboats were intended to transfer passengers to nearby rescue vessels, Titanic only had enough lifeboats to carry about half of those on board; if the ship had carried her full complement of about 3,339 passengers and crew, only about a third could have been accommodated in the lifeboats . The crew had not been trained adequately in carrying out an evacuation . The officers did not know how many they could safely put aboard the lifeboats and launched many of them barely half - full . Third - class passengers were largely left to fend for themselves, causing many of them to become trapped below decks as the ship filled with water . The "women and children first" protocol was generally followed when loading the lifeboats, and most of the male passengers and crew were left aboard . </P>

Where did the iceberg hit the titanic ship