Titanic Sunk by Steering Mistake

[EricDP]

Must have been the same people who were piloting the Queen of the North.

[DrPL]

Originally Posted by Bikeridr

There has been numerous documentaries and "theories" about the Titanic sinking.
As mentioned, the owners wanted the "Blue Ribbon" and pushed the captain to achieve this. The captain, in his turn lain a course too far north as he wanted to avoid the Gulf Stream. Needless to say, that is "suicide" in April as there is a significant risk of ice bergs at that time of the year.

On the other hand, the impact itself was not, and should not be, fatal for the ship as such. However, in order to save cost, the building yard had used plates and nails of poorer quality steel than specified. This led to a brittler steel in cold water, which, when on impact, made the nails to snap and the hull plates to crack like glass.
Had there been used high tensile construction steel, the plates (according to theory) should only had been deformed or "bent", and not crushed like glass.

The Titanic could not have obtained the Blue Ribband (or Ribbon as it sometimes called). The Cunard ships Mauretania and Lusitania were a good 3 knots faster than the White Star line ships Olympic and Titanic.. The White Star line opted instead for size and grandeur rather than speed.

What does seem likely is that Bruce Ismay, the Chairman of the White Star Line, who was on the Titanic, pressured the Titanic to make a faster journey to get the record for the fastest crossing on a MAIDEN voyage, which had been held by the Titanic's sister, the Olympic. We know from witnesses that, although the ship was scheduled to dock in New York on Wednesday morning, she would actually have arrived Tuesday evening...in time for the evening papers: "We did good with the Olympic...look what we did with the Titanic."

The Titanic's Captain did not try to avoid the Gulf Stream by being too far north. In fact, she was perfectly on track. There were two courses that ship captains took; a northern one when there no ice bergs, and a southern one when there were bergs. The Titanic was on the southern one.

Look for a book called "Titanic - Speed Safety and Sacrifice" by George Behe. Its not an ebook, but it is worth buying.

All this stuff about saving costs on the steel plates is guff. Harland and Wolff, the builders, had no reason to scrimp on savings, and analysis of the steel recovered from the ocean floor showed that it was still quite good, if a little inferior by today's standards. This has been taken by some commentators to mean it was "poor." Maybe it was. But poor by 'todays' standards. But what do people expect to happen when 46ooo tons of steel meets half a million tons of ice?

[DrPL]

My thoughts on the Steering error are here http://www.paullee.com/bandb/index.php#Patten

I also have a Titanic page at http://www.paullee.com/titanic with links to an essay that I did on the visual goofs of James Cameron's Titanic. He should have done more homework!

[MikeFromHC]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

Nobody wins a prize without pushing the envelope and taking some risks. Sometimes you win a brief accolade and other times you sink a cruise liner and kill 1500 people. It all balances out.

(Yes, I'm being sarcastic.)

And sometimes worse disasters are overlooked.

On April 27, 1865, the steamboat Sultana, carrying an estimated 2,000 Union veterans home in the dying days of the Civil War, exploded near Memphis, killing most of the men on board.

The estimates are around 1700 and many burned to death.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

And sometimes worse disasters are overlooked ...

Perhaps not newsworthy enough, because none of the passengers were millionaires.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Perhaps not newsworthy enough, because none of the passengers were millionaires.

Possibly, but it's likely that it was simply because news was slower and the events of and the end of the Civil War were more prominent. It had rather a lot to compete with, after all.

[DrPL]

There were also the main thousands who died on the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945...and the Dona Paz ferry in the Philippines in 1987. The first one is usually discounted as it happened during World War 2, leading some commentators to say "Oh, you'd expect large casualty figures in World War 2!". The lack of knowledge of the second is puzzling. It doesn't seem to be as "sexy" as the Titanic so is ignored.

[Rick1971]

I saw the movies, that is not how it happened...

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by Rick1971

I saw the movies, that is not how it happened...

Shhh ... historical revisionism is all the rage.

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by MikeFromHC

And sometimes worse disasters are overlooked.


The estimates are around 1700 and many burned to death.

I read a book about the Sultana, very sad. A lot of those were prisoners who had just suffered months in Andersonville and other prison camps and had just been released.

My great (great?) grandfather was in Andersonville, when he got out he weighed less than 50 pounds. Bad stuff.

[DrPL]

Just to resurrect this old thread, Titanic buff that I am.

Lady Patten contacted me before her book came out, regarding letters that her grandmother, Sylvia Lightoller, shared with author Walter Lord about the 2nd officer of the Titanic, Charles Lightoller.
I've put the letters on my website at http://www.paullee.com/titanic/slightoller.html, and theres a link to a discussion on the fictitious steering blunder on the QI forum. We are promised (threatened?) that Lady Patten promises more revelations about the Titanic. I can hardly wait....

[hidari]

nothing like flogging a DEAD horse.... Watching dung beetles make use of manure is more interesting than hearing about the Titanic.....how about the Lusitania....more interesting and more important and sans a Bollywoodish crock rendition of a watching a boat sink for four hours.

[Shopaholic]

Originally Posted by hidari

nothing like flogging a DEAD horse.... Watching dung beetles make use of manure is more interesting than hearing about the Titanic.....how about the Lusitania....more interesting and more important and sans a Bollywoodish crock rendition of a watching a boat sink for four hours.

Wow! Angry much? That's your opinion. Some people ARE very much interested in the Titanic. If you're not, that's fine. Don't open the thread then! sheesh Not to mention don't confuse reality with a fictional story written against the backdrop of a real-world event.

If it wasn't for the Titanic many of the safeguards we've come to take for granted wouldn't be in place. Think about it. Sirens, lights, loudspeakers for announcements, lifeboats for every soul on board and so many more. The 1500 people that died 100 years ago deserve to be remembered and honored. Their sacrifice saved countless numbers in the many years to come. We must not forget them.

The recent Costa Concordia tragedy made changes too in the nautical world too. It used to be that a few days into sailing that the people on board would have an emergency drill. The ship ran aground before they could do so. Panic ensued. Changes have been made that emergency drills take place before sailing.

[JoeD]

Whilst this topic has been bumped, probably worth a mention that there's a new Titanic dramatisation starting on ITV tomorrow.

[carpetmojo]

I wonder what Julian Fellows (Downton Abbey) will make of it all in his new TV series - starts tomorrow (just!) here in UK.

Slightly more candy-floss than hard searing drama, I have a feeling ......

But it'll look super...