Hours & days

One good thing about living in the modern era is we have detailed records about many events over the last century or so.

That means we can reconstruct accurate accounts, sometimes down to the second.

Sinking of the Titanic by Willy Stower (Source)

For example, here is a timeline of the sinking of the Titanic in 1911, with key events told down to the minute:

Timeline of the Sinking of the Titanic

11:35 p.m. Lookouts spot the iceberg 1/4 mile ahead.

11:40 The Titanic sideswipes the iceberg, damaging nearly 300 feet of the hull.

12:05 a.m. Watertight compartments are filling; water begins to spill over the tops of the transverse bulkheads.

1:20 The bow pitches; water floods through anchor-chain holes.

2:00 The bow continues to submerge; propellers lift out of the water.

2:10 The Titanic tilts 45 degrees or more; the upper structure steel disintegrates.

2:12 The stern raises up out of the water; the bow, filling with water, grows heavier.

2:18 Weighing 16,000 tons, the bow rips loose; the stern rises to almost vertical.

2:20 The stern slips beneath the surface.

2:29 Coasting at about 13 mph, the bow strikes the ocean floor.

2:56 Falling at about 4 mph, the stern strikes the ocean floor.

What Really Sank the Titanic(1995)

This snippet comes from a longer account, so it doesn't need to mention date and location.
Instead, it is focused at the minute scale, telling us exactly what happened to the boat.
This recount is focused on the mechanics of the disaster, so the focus is on physical events rather than the behaviour or reactions of people at the time.

Like the French Revolution timeline we saw earlier, this snippet uses a strict time-event pattern, which makes it easy to read but sacrifices detail.

Compare with this next snippet, which is from the same account but describes the events in more detail:

On the night of April 14, although the wireless operators had received several ice warnings from others ships in the area, the Titanic continued to rush through the darkness at nearly full steam.

At 11:35 p.m., the lookouts spotted a massive iceberg less than a quarter of a mile off the bow of the ship. Immediately, the engines were thrown into reverse and the rudder turned hard left. Because of the tremendous mass of the ship, slowing and turning took an incredible distance, more than that available.

At 11:40, without enough distance to alter her course, the Titanic sideswiped the iceberg, damaging nearly 300 feet of the right side of the hull above and below the waterline. The damage caused by the collision allowed water to flood six of the sixteen major watertight compartments. As water rushed into the starboard side of the ship's bow, the ship began to tilt down in front and slightly to the right.

Causes and Effects of the Rapid Sinking of the Titanic(1998)

This snippet covers exactly the same events as the previous one, but it adds more detail.
The extra detail sacrifices speed, but it's more colourful and informative.

Apollo 13 damaged service module (Source)

Here's a snippet describing the Apollo 13 space accident.

How does this snippet compare to the ones we've seen above?

During the first two days, the crew ran into a couple of minor surprises, but generally Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the program.

At 46 hours, 43 minutes Joe Kerwin said, “The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We’re bored to tears down here.” It was the last time anyone would mention boredom for a long time.

At 55 hours, 46 minutes, as the crew finished a 49-minute TV broadcast showing how comfortably they lived and worked in weightlessness, Lovell said, “This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody there a nice evening, and we’re just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Good night.”

Nine minutes later, oxygen tank No. 2 blew up, causing the No. 1 tank to also fail.

The command module’s normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth.

The message came in the form of a sharp bang and vibration at 9:08 p.m. April 13. Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang and said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”

Next, the warning lights indicated the loss of two of three fuel cells, which were the spacecraft’s prime source of electricity. With warning lights blinking, one oxygen tank appeared to be completely empty and there were indications that the oxygen in the second tank was rapidly depleting.

Thirteen minutes after the explosion, Lovell happened to look out of the left-hand window and saw the final evidence pointing toward potential catastrophe. “We are venting something out into space,” he reported to Houston. Capcom Jack Lousma replied, “Roger, we copy you venting.” Lovell said, “It’s a gas of some sort.”

It was oxygen gas escaping at a high rate from the second, and last, oxygen tank.

Apollo 13: Mission Details(2009)

This snippet reads like a story. The only thing that really gives it away as history is that repeated time-event pattern in the language.
This snippet feels very different to the other snippets because it is so detailed and dramatic at a human scale.
Unlike many of the snippets we've read, this description is all about named individuals doing and saying specific things.
It quotes the participants extensively.
It doesn't explain anything about the meaning or significance of the event. That's because we're so zoomed in on the action.

Imagine you're a 25th-century historian describing a significant disaster from the 22nd century, such as catastrophic failure on the world's first space elevator.

Write a brief description of this disaster spanning hours or days.

Use your imagination for the details, but use the snippets above for ideas on how to span time.

Imagine this was a significant natural disaster in the 22nd century that spanned hours or days

To help you out, here are some phrases from the snippets above:

11:35 p.m. Lookouts spot the iceberg...
On the night of April 14...
At 11:40...
During the first two days...
At 46 hours, 43 minutes, Joe Kerwin said...
It was the last time anyone would...
Nine minutes later...
...a sharp bang and vibration at 9:08 p.m. April 13.
Next, the warning lights indicated...
Thirteen minutes after the explosion...

Write a brief description of a 22nd century disaster that spanned hours or days.

On November 22nd, during a routine ascent to the orbital hub along the world's first space elevator, a cabin carrying a crew of technicians and scientists encountered an unexpected crisis.

The crew cabin had been steadily climbing the nanotube tether for 70 hours when a small meteor, undetected by the global monitoring systems due to its size, struck a decommissioned satellite. The collision altered the satellite's orbit and sent fragments hurtling towards the space elevator.

The orbital hub operations team detected the trajectory of the incoming debris 71 hours into the climb and issued a warning to the cabin crew. The message instructed the crew to prepare for potential evasive maneuvers as the debris was predicted to intersect with the elevator’s path within the hour.

At 71 hours, the orbital hub operations team detected the potential hazard of the incoming debris. Given the limitations of the elevator system, the operators faced a critical decision: to continue the ascent, to stop, or to descend. They chose to stop the cabin, hoping to let the debris pass by.

However, this decision proved ill-fated. The debris, moving faster than anticipated, reached the cabin's location at 72 hours and 30 minutes. A large fragment collided directly with the segment of the tether above the cabin. The impact severed a crucial part of the tether’s infrastructure, causing tension imbalances and partial structural failure above the cabin.

Realizing the error, the cabin operators hastily initiated a controlled descent to lower the cabin away from further damage. But the compromised tether could not bear the dynamic loads of the descent. By 73 hours, as the cabin attempted to descend, additional stresses exacerbated the tether's damage, leading to a faster, uncontrolled descent.

Describing historical events