Titanic: What Happend?

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic sailed off the coast of Southampton, England, with the final destination of New York. Those plans, however, were met by conflict on April 14, when the luxurious ship was struck by an iceberg in the North Atlantic ocean. Many imperfections and heads are to blame for the sinking of the Titanic and the lives that were lost. There is no disputing the facts that the ship was traveling too fast for the warnings it was given, sank faster than it should have, and many of the lifeboats’ full capacity was left unused. While aboard the ship were 2,223 passengers and crewmates, only 30% of passengers, or 492, made it away from the disaster as survivors. Even though the Titanic could hold up to 64 lifeboats, it was only fitted out with 20 before departure. These lifeboats could hold upwards of 65 passengers, but were only used to hold roughly 28 women or children. Men were practically forbidden to board the lifeboats before women and children were. Hundreds, if not thousands, of extra lives could have been saved had there been the optimal amount of lifeboats or even if the small amount aboard was used efficiently, rather than in a rushed, unthoughtful hurry.

The Titanic was considered by many to be “unsinkable”, however, many problems during the building process led to the disaster that was the Titanic’s eventual sinking.. Excluding the structural problems with the build, there were some problems with practicality and safety. These mainly being the fact that two workers died during the building of the ship and that 20 horses were needed to transport the anchor. If only two workers were killed, think of how many must have been hurt or injured when helping to transport the anchor or building supplies. Moving over to the structural problems, the rivets that were ordered to hold the ship together and keep it structurally sound were changed from Number 2 iron to Number 3. This type of iron was much less durable and less likely to perform well under greater amounts of pressure. When the ship was struck by the iceberg, the rivets split and the water began to flow through the underboard compartments, eventually leading to the ship’s inevitable collapse. Had the rivets been the stronger, correct type of iron, the rivets may have held the underboard compartment walls together instead of snapping and allowing the water to flood the inside. While the change in rivets would not have prevented the hole in the side of the ship, it would have most likely prevented the ship from sinking nearly as fast and present more time to preserve more lives aboard the ship. The actions that led to the iceberg striking the ship were to blame on human heads.

The Titanic was monitored and controlled by Captain Edward Smith. Many think Captain Smith is to blame for the sinking of the Titanic as he was in charge of driving the ship while the warnings of icebergs and icy waters were coming in time after time. He also drove the ship at just under top speed through icy waters, without concern of consequences.

One, singular person was not to blame for the sinking of the Titanic. Many heads are to blame. Even so, the weather of the night was also a deciding factor for the Titanic’s disaster story. The weather of the night of the accident was clear, calm, almost suspiciously still. The water lay dormant as the ship barrelled through the ocean. While the moon was in the sky, seemingly lighting the ocean, an illusion was at play. A mirage caused the crew and the captain to be unable to see any obstacles further in advance to apply changes to the ship’s course. The mirage effect is an illusion that is caused by the light of the moon as it banks off the water of the ocean to create an illusion of flat water, cloaking whatever may be approaching from ahead.