What time did the Titanic sink? 15 April 1912, 02:20 ship's time

Short answer: RMS Titanic sank at about 02:20 on 15 April 1912, ship's time, two hours and forty minutes after striking an iceberg at 23:40 on 14 April. Ship's time was not Greenwich time: by the usual reconstruction it was a little under three hours behind, so the sinking happened at roughly 05:18 GMT.

23:40, 14 April

The lookout Frederick Fleet rang the bell and telephoned the bridge: iceberg right ahead. The ship turned, but not enough. The contact along the starboard side lasted seconds and opened several of the forward watertight compartments to the sea. The design could survive four flooded compartments. It could not survive what it got.

Two hours and forty minutes

For most of that time, many passengers did not believe the ship would sink. The first lifeboats left half empty. Distress calls went out by wireless; the Carpathia, some 58 miles away, turned towards the position and arrived after the ship was gone. Around 1,500 people died.

02:20, 15 April

The bow went under, the stern rose, the lights failed, and the ship broke apart before disappearing. Survivors in the boats later gave the time as about 02:20 by the ship's clocks, and both official inquiries — the United States Senate inquiry and the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry — worked with that figure.

Why the times disagree

Ships at sea in 1912 set their clocks to local apparent time, adjusted each day at noon as the ship moved west. The Titanic's clocks were therefore neither London time nor New York time. That is why you will find 02:20 in most books and a different figure in any source that converts to GMT or to Eastern time. None of them is wrong; they are answering in different clocks.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Titanic
• Titanic Inquiry Project — full texts of the US and British inquiries

A minute stays exactly where it happened, whichever clock you read it on. See the museum for the minutes already on the record.