6 Things You Never Knew About the Titanic  1 of 6  The Titanic
sank because the sea conditions were too good.  Most ships lost
at sea were the victims of huge waves caused by hurricanes or
large storms.  But it was a lack of waves that contributed to
the Titanic hitting the iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912,
and sinking on the 15th, a hundred years ago.  On that night the
weather and the sea conditions were perfect  --  but for the
Titanic, they were too perfect.   There was no wind, and thus
there were no waves.  It was a flat calm.  It was also a dark
moonless night, which made it difficult to see an iceberg in the
distance.  On such a night, waves would have made the iceberg
more visible.  Even small waves would have caused a bright
phosphorescent line around the base of the iceberg, due to the
millions of dinoflagellates that migrate to the ocean surface at
night.   These tiny plankton glow brightly even with the
slightest disturbance.  (Sailors had seen this phosphorescence
many times as they rowed t