Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic the ship. The boats were supposed to be stocked with emergency supplies, but "Titanic"s passengers later found that they had only been partially provisioned. No lifeboat or fire drills had been carried out since "Titanic" left Southampton. A lifeboat drill had been scheduled for the morning before the ship sank, but was cancelled, allegedly because the ship's captain, Edward Smith, wanted to deliver one last Sunday service before he went into full retirement. Lists had been posted on the ship allocating crew members to particular lifeboat stations, but few appeared to have read them or to have known what they
Sinking of the RMS Titanic to take the ship farther south. At 13:45, the German ship SS "Amerika", which was a short distance to the south, reported she had "passed two large icebergs". This message never reached Captain Smith or the other officers on "Titanic"s bridge. The reason is unclear, but it may have been forgotten because the radio operators had to fix faulty equipment. Although the crew was aware of ice in the vicinity, they did not reduce the ship's speed, and continued to steam at , only short of her maximum speed of . "Titanic"s high speed in waters where ice had been