The operational story lasts five days; the legal story still frames merchant shipping.
Dates below follow the 1912 inquiry record and later wreck archaeology, not film time.
Timeline
- Launch at Belfast
Harland & Wolff launches Titanic. Fitting-out continues into 1912. Sister Olympic is already in service.
- Southampton departure
The maiden voyage begins, with calls at Cherbourg and Queenstown on 10–11 April before the westbound Atlantic leg.
- Iceberg at 23:40
After a day of ice warnings the ship strikes a berg. Flooding begins in the forward starboard compartments.
- Sinking and Carpathia
Titanic goes down about 02:20. Carpathia takes survivors from the boats after 04:00 and heads for New York.
- US Senate inquiry opens
Senator William Alden Smith begins hearings in New York, then Washington, while witnesses are still ashore.
- British wreck court sits
Lord Mersey opens the formal investigation in London. Ninety-seven witnesses and 26 Board of Trade questions follow.
- Mersey report
The court finds the loss due to collision with an iceberg caused by excessive speed and records 1,490 dead.
- SOLAS and Ice Patrol
The first SOLAS convention is signed in London. The International Ice Patrol begins tracking North Atlantic ice.
- Wreck located
Ballard and IFREMER find the broken hull. The United States enacts the RMS Titanic Memorial Act the next year.
- Centenary and heritage law
Centenary voyages and exhibitions revive debate over salvage, UNESCO protection and the wreck as a grave.
After 1914 the case lives in treaty text and in a wreck that later cameras could finally show.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.