How Close Was Another Ship to Saving Titanic

[00:00:00]Titanic was sinking.

[00:00:02]But, another ship was only miles away.

[00:00:07]Her crew cried out for help.

[00:00:10]But, did that cry ever arrive?

[00:00:17]A tiny light on the horizon may have been Titanic's last hope.

[00:00:24]This is the story of how close rescue [music] really was.

[00:00:32]It was a calm, freezing night in the North Atlantic.

[00:00:41]Titanic's lookouts [music] scanned the black water for danger.

[00:00:48]Then, an iceberg appeared directly in Titanic's path.

[00:00:58]The collision tore open Titanic's steel hull below the waterline.

[00:01:05]Within minutes, the ocean began pouring into Titanic.

[00:01:13]Titanic's officers spotted a ship's light far in the distance.

[00:01:20]They decided to fire distress rockets into the night sky.

[00:01:27]Each rocket exploded hundreds of feet above Titanic.

[00:01:38]Passengers watched in fear, unsure what the rockets meant.

[00:01:46]Titanic fired rocket after rocket, hoping someone would see.

[00:01:53]Titanic's radio room sent out call after call for help.

[00:02:00]Somewhere out there, another ship's crew was watching.

[00:02:08]A single ship's light sat motionless on the horizon.

[00:02:16]Titanic's officers believed help was finally within reach.

[00:02:24]But the distance between the two ships remained a mystery.

[00:02:35]On that other ship, crew members noticed strange lights in the sky.

[00:02:40]They saw the flashes, but could not explain what they were.

[00:02:48]Titanic kept firing, believing rescue was finally coming.

[00:02:57]For a moment, hope flickered across Titanic's decks.

[00:03:06]That other ship had stopped for the night near a field of ice.

[00:03:11]Its officers noticed lights flashing far across the water.

[00:03:21]The officer reported the strange lights to his captain.

[00:03:27]The officer kept watching, but no one investigated further.

[00:03:38]More flashes lit up the sky, one after another.

[00:03:44]But the ship's radio had already been turned off for the night.

[00:03:55]>> No one on board knew that Titanic was calling for help.

[00:03:59]The rockets [music] kept appearing low and far in the distance.

[00:04:10]The officers counted the flashes but doubted their meaning.

[00:04:16]Some thought they might simply be signal flares.

[00:04:20]Nothing more.

[00:04:24]No rockets were fired back and no ship moved closer.

[00:04:33]On Titanic officers waited for a response that never came.

[00:04:40]Time was running out and the ship kept sinking lower.

[00:04:49]Titanic fired its last rocket into the freezing night sky.

[00:04:57]Then the distant light quietly vanished from view.

[00:05:05]With no rescue in sight Titanic's final moments arrived.

[00:05:14]Crew members worked desperately to save as many as they could.

[00:05:20]Titanic's massive stern rose high into the night sky.

[00:05:28]Then Titanic disappeared beneath the freezing Atlantic waters.

[00:05:37]Survivors drifted in the darkness waiting for any sign of help.

[00:05:46]Many wondered why that nearby ship never came closer.

[00:05:55]>> At dawn, that ship's radio was finally switched back on.

[00:05:59]>> The operator received the devastating news of Titanic's sinking.

[00:06:09]The captain realized how close his ship had truly been.

[00:06:16]The ship raced toward the wreck site, but it was too late.

[00:06:26]All that remained was floating wreckage on the silent water.

[00:06:32]Meanwhile, a different ship, far away, had heard Titanic's call.

[00:06:41]>> Its captain pushed the engines to their absolute limit.

[00:06:48]>> For hours, [music] the crew risked everything to reach Titanic in time.

[00:06:57]>> At dawn, the rescue ship finally reached the survivors.

[00:07:05]>> Hundreds of freezing survivors were pulled safely aboard.

[00:07:14]But over 1,500 lives had already been lost.

[00:07:22]For over a century, one question has haunted this story.

[00:07:29]Investigators spent years debating how close that ship [music] really was.

[00:07:37]To this day, the true distance remains a mystery of the sea.

[00:07:44]How close was rescue, really?

[00:07:48]>> [music] >> The ocean still keeps that secret.