The Titanic did not turn around when it saw the iceberg because the crew believed that the ship was unsinkable and that the iceberg posed no threat. Additionally, the ship was traveling at a high speed and the crew did not have enough time to react and change course before the collision occurred.
Corfield said "the fact that the steering propeller was not rotating severely diminished the turning ability of the ship. It is one of the many bitter ironies of the Titanic tragedy that the ship might well have avoided the iceberg if Murdoch had not told the engine room to reduce and then reverse thrust."
They did. Unfortunately triple expansion steam engines cannot be reversed quickly. There were also other options, and I believe that the inexperience of the officers with the Titanic's engine design and layout contributed to the collision.
The average lifespan of an iceberg in the North Atlantic typically is two to three years from calving to melting. This means the iceberg that sank the Titanic "likely broke off from Greenland in 1910 or 1911, and was gone forever by the end of 1912 or sometime in 1913."
On April 14, after four days at sea the Titanic collided with a jagged iceberg at 11:40 p.m. Because it was dark that night, and the lookouts in the crow's nest didn't have binoculars with them since they were locked up, they didn't see the iceberg until it was too late.
These actions include: 1) alternating the thrust of the ship's wing screws and advancing the centerline screw to increase the turning response of the ship; 2) allowing the ship to ram the iceberg head- on; 3) counter-flood the aft end of the stricken ship to reduced the rate of water intake by 4.5 hours; 4) employing ...
On April 14, 1912, the Titanic tragically struck an iceberg in the cold Atlantic Ocean despite receiving seven warnings throughout the day of the imminent danger. Editor's note: In the early hours of April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic sunk having struck an iceberg while en route to New York.
Answer: That's wrong – it would probably have survived. When a ship hits an iceberg head on, all the force would be transferred back to the ship, so it wouldn't have ripped open, but crumpled round, so only 2-3 compartments would have been breached. It was built to survive with 4 compartments breached.
Those changes, along with the advent of superior technologies for navigation and communication, have made the seas much safer since 1912. As such, it is unlikely that the specific circumstances leading to the sinking of the Titanic will recur. But the ocean remains an unpredictable place, fraught with hazards.
Had the Titanic sank in warm water, most of those in the water would have survived. Almost all had life jackets on, and the lifeboat passengers were rescued only a couple of hours after the ship sank. Passengers of sunken cruise ships can't survive indefinitely though unless the water is tropical.
The Titanic sank from human error. According to the granddaughter of the second officer of the Titanic, Louise Patten, a new steering system led to a mistake by the steersman, Robert Hitchins, into going "hard a port" instead of "hard a starboard" and straight into the iceberg instead of away from it.
While we cannot know for sure how he spent his final moments, it is known that Captain Edward Smith perished in the North Atlantic along with 1517 others on April 15, 1912. His body was never recovered.
Capt. Edward Smith was handed a note warning him that a mast from a submerged wreck in the Atlantic was “standing perpendicular, height about 10 feet,” The Guardian reported. The crumpled note was handed back to the messenger before the ship left Southampton on April 10, 1912.
Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British.'"
The state of those bodies would depend on how exposed to currents of oxygenated water — and the deep-sea scavengers that thrive on it — they were over the years. "Decomposition slows if bodies get cut off from the open sea, reducing oxygen levels and scavengers," says William J. Broad in The New York Times.
No matter what caused the Titanic to sink, such a massive loss of life could probably have been avoided if the ship had carried sufficient lifeboats for its passengers and crew. But the White Star liner left Southampton with only 20 lifeboats, the legal minimum, with a total capacity of 1,178 people.
More than 1,500 perished. The main reason for the high death toll was that the ship had only 20 lifeboats. As they pulled away from the sinking ship, many were only half-full or even less. Even if all had been filled to capacity, only half the people would have been saved.
The closest ship to respond to the Titanic's distress signals, the RMS Carpathia, did not reach the lifeboats until 4 A.M., one hour and forty minutes after the Titanic sank. According to generally accepted reports, the rescue continued until the last lifeboat was collected at 8:30 A.M.
But technical limitations—as well as the sheer vastness of the North Atlantic search area—made it extremely difficult.
If a ship is sinking, maritime tradition dictates that the captain ensures the safe evacuation of every passenger before he evacuates himself. He (or she) is responsible for the lives of those onboard, and he can't coordinate their exit unless he's the last person off.
"I will follow the ship" may have been the last words Captain E.J. Smith ever said before the Titanic sunk beneath the waves. The events surrounding the Titanic's captain, Edward Smith, and his last whereabouts as the ship sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic have always been a bit of a mystery.
J. Bruce Ismay, in full Joseph Bruce Ismay, (born December 12, 1862, Crosby, near Liverpool, England—died October 17, 1937, London), British businessman who was chairman of the White Star Line and who survived the sinking of the company's ship Titanic in 1912.
Yes, there are other examples including the second officer but my favourite example is of this extremely fortunate gentleman. His name was Charles Joughin and he was the Master Baker on board.
Robert Hichens: How 'man who sank the Titanic' spiralled into depression before being jailed for attempted murder. The man at the wheel of the Titanic when it struck a fateful iceberg in 1912 has not been remembered well throughout history.
The poor navigation of icebergs is undoubtedly the most well-known and momentous of mistakes that caused the sinking of the Titanic. Indeed, the collision between the Titanic and an iceberg – on 14 April 1912 at 11:40pm – is what caused the tragedy.