And so the majestic ship swept swiftly to her doom--a concrete expression of man's age-long struggle to subdue the resistless forces of nature--a pathetic picture both of his power and his impotence. As she sped on under the dim light of the stars, not a soul on board dreamed to what a death-grapple she was coming with the relentless powers of the sea. Latest product of the shipbuilder's art, she was about to brush elbows with another giant of the sea, launched by nature from the frozen shipyards of the north, and she was to reel from the contact stricken to the death like the fragile thing she was! At 11.46 P.M. the sharp warning came from the lookout: "Iceberg right ahead." Instantly the engines were reversed and the helm was put hard a-starboard. A few seconds earlier and she might have cleared. As it was, she struck an underwater, projecting shelf of the iceberg, and ripped open 200 feet of her plating, from forward of the collision bulkhead to a few feet aft of the bulkhead separating boiler-rooms numbers 5 and 6. It was a death wound! How deeply the iceberg cut into the fabric of the ship will never be known. Probably the first incision was deep and wide, the damage, as the shelf of ice was ground down by contact with the framing and plating of the ship becoming less in area as successive compartments were ruptured. [Illustration: Courtesy of _Scientific American_ THE TITANIC STRUCK A GLANCING BLOW AGAINST AN UNDER-WATER SHELF OF THE ICEBERG, OPENING UP FIVE COMPARTMENTS. HAD SHE BEEN PROVIDED WITH A WATERTIGHT DECK AT OR NEAR THE WATER LINE, THE WATER WHICH ENTERED THE SHIP WOULD HAVE BEEN CONFINED BELOW THAT DECK, AND THE BUOYANCY OF THAT PORTION OF THE SHIP ABOVE WATER WOULD HAVE KEPT HER AFLOAT. AS IT WAS, THE WATER ROSE THROUGH OPENINGS IN THE DECKS AND DESTROYED THE RESERVE BUOYANCY] Whatever may have been the depth of the injury, it is certain from the evidence that the six forward compartments were opened to the sea. Immediately after the collision the whistling of air, as it issued from the escape pipe of the forepeak tank, indicated that the tank was being filled by an inrush of water. The three following compartments, in which were located the baggage-room and mail-room, were quickly flooded. Leading fireman Barrett, who was in the forward boiler-room, felt the shock of the collision. Immediately afterwards he saw the outer skin of the ship ripped open about two feet above the floor, and a large volume of water came rushing into the ship. He was quick enough to jump through the open door in the bulkhead separating boiler-rooms 6 and 5, before it was released from the bridge. The damage just abaft of this bulkhead admitted water to the forward coal-bunker of room No. 5, which held for a while, but being of non-watertight and rather light construction, must have soon given way; for the same witness testified to a sudden rush of water coming across the floor-plates between the boilers.