Many of the survivors of the Titanic disaster had claimed that the ship went under as a whole. But many dispute that and say that they did see it break in half, where the bow section plunged into the Atlantic first, and the stern section went under last. We now know that she did break in half before she hit the ocean floor. But was it before she went under? Or after?

Lewis P. Skidmore, was an American Journalist sailing on the RMS Carpathia when she picked up the survivors of the Titanic. A man who was in the right place at the right time and got the first story from a 17 year old survivor of what happened. The 6 pictures below was drawn by Skidmore and was described to him by that 17 year old survivor. Drawing #4 clearly shows the hull snapping in half before she went under.

In the movie Titanic, James Cameron tells us that the hull just grazed the iceberg, but was sliced along the waterline. However, drawing #1 shows us that the Titanic's hull infact rode up on the iceberg and was tilted to her left side. Drawing #3 at 1:40am shows us that the hull was probably still intact as she started to flounder.

So somewhere between that time and 1:50am as the drawing shows, the hull did snap and the force of it must have forced the bow section back above the water for a few seconds before she went under, . This also disputes Cameron's testimony in the movie, as he shows that the bow was under water and went straight down without rising again.

The drawings also show the time and positions of the ship at those times. But this is still by no means proof to the fact that she snapped before she went under, as that 17 year old boy was just another witness who described what many others had, and many others didn't. I guess we will really never know for sure if she snapped before she went under, or after.

When I was in High School the novel A Night to Remember was required reading. The Book's Author interviewed many of the Titanic's Survivors to get material for his book. At the time I read this book (1976) every movie ever made about the ill-fated liner showed it going down in one piece. The book describes the last moments of this ship as it went down. I noticed a little peculiarity, as the book describes the stern settling back before rising up and going under. This struck me as being odd, because if the ship went down in one piece, this little move was violating some physics laws. We had a discussion and the official class conclusion was the ship appeared to be doing this because the survivors, who were adrift in lifeboats, saw the ship's angle change as they were adrift. I didn't buy this, and when the remains of the Titanic were found nine years later, seeing it had broken in two showed I was right, the stern settling back was a result of the ship breaking in two.

I am more inclined to believe that the Hull did snap in half before she went under, although it really can't be proven. For so many survivors to testify that she had snapped before she went under, they would have had to see her above the water to witness such a thing. Also, it would take quite a bit of plaining downward a whole 2 miles for the stern to end up that far away from the bow section when they hit the ocean floor.