Passengers of the RMS Titanic April 1912 at around 11:40 pm, while the RMS "Titanic" was sailing about south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the ship struck an iceberg and began to sink. Shortly before midnight, Captain Edward Smith ordered the ship's lifeboats to be readied and a distress call was sent out. The closest ship to respond was Cunard Line's away, which would arrive in an estimated four hours—too late to rescue all of "Titanic" passengers. Forty-five minutes after the ship hit the iceberg, Captain Smith ordered the lifeboats to be loaded and lowered under the orders women and children first. The first
Wreck of the RMS Titanic to the wreck of the German battleship "Bismarck", sunk at a depth of on the other side of the Atlantic. The mud around the ship was found to contain hundreds of different species of animals. The sudden explosion of life around "Titanic" may be a result of an increased amount of nutrients falling from the surface, possibly a result of human overfishing eliminating fish that would otherwise have consumed the nutrients. Many scientists, including Robert Ballard, are concerned that visits by tourists in submersibles and the recovery of artifacts are causing the wreck to decay faster. Underwater bacteria have been