[FLASHBACK]
We went to the Titanic Exhibit in Orlando to see some artifacts, some recreations, and review the history of the Dream, the luxury, the lives, and the tragedy. How audacity, over confidence, and the presumptions of man were factors that cost 1500 people there lives.
You all know the stories… seen the movies… watched the documentaries… and as more and more interpretations of the evidence paint a more complete picture of what really happened… it almost seems that “Fate” had predetermined the destiny of the great liner. Dozens of individual factors combined to spell doom. Each factor by itself would have had little or no consequence, and even the combination of several would have had little effects, but the combination of all factors, just with proper sequence and timing, one after another, which lead to disaster. Here are some of the factors that sequenced together to lead to a tragedy. Perhaps “Fate” or a power to be could not tolerate the audacity of man to proclaim that this ship was unsinkable… “God” himself could not sink this ship. I’m not superstitious, but I’d not tempt “fate” by proclaiming any such claim as this.
Some of the factors… that combined… spelled Disaster:
- while the Titanic was being built, an unusually warm year caused massive glacier melts and break-offs into the water to create unusually large icebergs that floated in northern seas for two years
- unusually cold water currents combined with a cooler spring meant that Icebergs could come further south, far into the shipping lanes
- design changes to add an fourth additional non functional smoke funnel, and make the other three unnecessarily larger, necessitated lowering the interior bulkheads, thus creating the ability for the water to reach and spill over them into the next compartment increasing the risk of sinking, or sinking faster.
- the originally planned 48 lifeboats were reduced to 16, simply for appearance sake. Each boat could hold 95 people. Of the 16 remaining boats, only 705 people were saved. No one believed the real danger so many boats left near empty.
- had the original 48 lifeboats been available, and the danger taken serious, everyone would have had the chance to be saved.
- Softer rivets (with more impurities in the iron), were used, (verses the grade that was normally used), and where hand riveted to the plates in the curved sections of the bow and keel, making the structure weaker and prone to sheer under stress.
- Last minutes change in the officers staff brought in a new officer, and the one that left the ship accidently took the keys to the look outs locker, in which the binoculars were stored… therefore the look outs had no binoculars to use, they also failed to report not having the proper equipment.
- Ismay wanted to have an impressive first crossing, and pressured the Captain to increase speed.
- Due to the separation of the classes… 3rd class passengers were effectively locked below decks and when disaster struck, many were still locked below decks without access to 1st class, the upper decks, and a way to freedom.
- the ocean was dead calm, so it was harder to see the waves against the bergs for early warning… so the sighting afforded very little warning.
- Had the ship hit the berg head on, only the first compartment would have been damaged, and the ship would not have sunk… but the glancing blow of the berg along the side of the ship ripped opened a gash along 3-5 of the water tight compartments… spelling doom.
- cursing at a full speed of 22 knots, once the berg was sighted, the order was given to go full reverse engines and steer hard to port… effectively with the reverse of the engines negated the ability to steer harder to port… had the ship not reversed engines the turn would have been sharper and probably missed the berg.
- loading of the lifeboat orders were misinterpreted . Women & Children first was taken to exclude men… even if the boat was launched half empty… and men were there.
- the next closest ship the California had turned off their radio at the angry urge of the Titanic’s radio operator, to get off the air, so Titanic could send guest messages.
- warning flares from the Titanic, seen by the California, were dismissed as fireworks of celebration, and thus disregarded. There were no “warning flare standards” in place… no absolute alarm flares… so the flares had no definite meaning… and since the ship was unsinkable… no danger was perceived.
- had there been standards, and flares conveyed a meaning, or the radio been still operating, the Carpathia could have arrived in time to save everyone.
- Iceberg warnings were first acknowledged and even though action was taken to steer on a more southerly course, the bergs went further south than expected.
- an additional warning was delivered to the bridge, was lost, and never delivered to the captain… simply due to the way it was coded by the ship that sent the message.
- more additional warnings were cut-off by the Titanic radio operator that was busy doing messages for the rich & famous… he had no time for the same repeated warnings.
- many still believed that the damage was not severe, and the threat was unfounded… The Titanic Could Not Sink! … this was the final fatal factor that cost so many lives… audacity and arrogance... and an age of unwavering optimism and innocence was gone forever.
Many, many factors… combined in just the right sequence… each playing it’s own role.. to create disaster.
The Proud Ship of Dreams
A marvel of the Time
Larger than Life
The best of the Best… and the Biggest.
883 feet long, 175 foot high, 66,000 tons
The most expensive First Class Tickets was $4,350
In today’s dollars = $80,000
and the unthinkable.
Resting 12,550 feet on the Ocean floor.
The bow buried 50 feet into the mud.
How many times is a tiny string on random events or factors lead to a needless tragedy? How many times has tragedy been averted by seconds or a small factor that either prevented or didn’t combine to create a disaster? Kinda makes ya wonder. So when you see several of those small factors falling into place… better be on guard!
