British Wreck Commissioner’s report
Inquiry
The 30 July 1912 report and annex fix the position, the 1,490 death figure used here, and the finding of excessive speed in ice. It is the core official British document.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Notoriety98
Mystery30
Scale90
Evidence82
Legal impact85
Culture98
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Quick answers
When and where did Titanic sink?
The ship struck an iceberg at about 23:40 on 14 April 1912 and sank at about 02:20 on 15 April in the North Atlantic. The British Wreck Commissioner’s report placed the loss at 41°46′N, 50°14′W.
How many people died?
Lord Mersey’s court recorded 1,490 lives lost. Other 1912 tallies ran higher; modern compilers often cite about 1,500 of roughly 2,200 aboard. About 710 people reached Carpathia. Figures still differ because crew and steerage lists were incomplete.
What did the official inquiries conclude?
Both the United States Senate inquiry and the British Wreck Commissioner found that the ship was driven too fast in an ice region, that lookout and wireless practice were inadequate, and that lifeboat capacity and loading failed the people on board. The British report dated 30 July 1912 blamed the collision on excessive speed.
Why were there too few lifeboats?
Board of Trade rules then scaled boatage to gross tonnage, not to the number of souls. Titanic’s twenty boats were legal. After 1912 the rule of boats for all became the political and then the treaty standard under SOLAS.
Was the ship officially called unsinkable?
No classification society certified Titanic as unsinkable. Trade-press and White Star publicity stressed watertight subdivision. The word stuck in English headlines after the wreck and became a lesson about marketing, not a hidden design stamp.
When was the wreck found?
On 1 September 1985 a joint expedition of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and IFREMER located the wreck in two main pieces at about 3,800 metres. The United States later passed the RMS Titanic Memorial Act 1986 to treat the site as a memorial.
The 1912 courts worked from testimony, Marconi files and company plans. They did not have the wreck.
After 1985 photography confirmed a hull break and a debris field, without changing the navigational finding.
Exhibits
US Senate testimony
Testimony
Officers, wireless operators, Ismay and passengers were examined from 19 April 1912. The printed hearings remain the earliest long English transcript.
Marconi traffic
Wireless
Ice warnings, CQD and SOS calls, and Carpathia’s replies show who heard the ship and when. Californian’s silent watch is documented as a staffing custom, not a conspiracy.
Boatage and passenger lists
Document
White Star and immigration lists, plus boat-capacity tables, underpin class-by-class survival tables. Gaps in steerage names explain why death totals still vary.
Wreck survey after 1985
Wreck
Two main hull sections and a debris field at about 3,800 metres match a break-up during the sinking. Plate and rivet studies refine, rather than replace, the 1912 flooding story.
Ice Patrol and SOLAS texts
Statute
The 1914 convention and Ice Patrol agreements are the legal after-image of the evidence: boats for all, radio watches and ice reporting as standing duties.
How strong is the record?
Cause consensus92
Iceberg collision and progressive flooding are not seriously contested.
1912 documentary file88
Two inquiries, wireless logs and company plans form a thick contemporary file.
Death-toll precision72
Mersey’s 1,490 is official; other 1912 and later counts differ by tens to low hundreds.
Wreck forensics80
Photography and limited recovery confirm break-up; deep salvage remains restricted.
The case is evidence-rich for a 1912 wreck. Remaining arguments are about metallurgy and memory, not about whether the ship hit ice.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.