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Titanic

Titanic Ever since I first learned about Titanic in middle school, I've been fasinated with this ship. No other ship in the history of ocean travel has demanded as much interest as the Titanic. Volumes of books, TV documentaries and several movies have been produced regarding the most infamous shipwreck in history.

The sinking of the Titanic was far more than a simple accident. It was a tragedy that could have been prevented. It was the result of a long, long chain of mistakes, a fatal series of avoidable human errors that sent Titanic and more than half of her passengers to their watery graves

The most astonishing premition of all is a novel which seems to forewarn of the disater 10 years befor the Titanic was even built. It's called Futility, written in 1898, by Morwan Roberston. In it a colossal new ship named the Titan on it's maiden voyage fron England to New York in April when it strikes an iceberg and sinks in almost the exact spot the Titanic goes down 14 years later. Everything about Titan is strikenly identical to Titanic. The story even predicts correctly which side of the ship the iceberg will strike. The entire text of Morgan Robertson's novella "Futility, or The Wreck of the Titan" can be read online.

Here is a list of the ten big mistakes made:

During the design/building:
1. Titanic was built with bad, inferior steel and weak rivets. It is theorized that the bad steel could have contributed to the ship breaking in half. The weaker rivets - the grade #3 iron were ordered instead of the stronger grade #4 that was put in the design. As a result, when Titanic hit the iceberg, these weak rivets popped out, allowing the two steel plates to open up allowing water to gush into the ship and causing Titanic to sink so quickly.

2. The designers decided to lower the height of the front bulk heads - never imaging that the ship would side swipe an iceberg. As a result, the water was able to spill over the bulk heads.

3. Most big ships had 4 propellers. Titanic was built with the new 3-propeller configuration combined with an undersized rutter. Unfortunately this technology had a hidden flaw, which would prove to play a major role in the disaster. It made the massive ship hard to stop and slow to turn without forward power.

4. The designers decided to remove lifeboats from the deck saying it looked to cluttered. Even though the ship met British law on the required number of lifeboats, it was outdated and so they only had enough lifeboats for about 1/2 the people on the ship.

During the maiden voyage:
5. The binocoulars were lost in the very beginning. Actually, when Second Officer Blair was asked to leave the ship, in his haste to disambark, he accidentally takes with him the keys to his locker which contains the binoculars for the lookouts in the crows nest. As a result, the lookut guys in the crows nest didn't see the iceberg until it was too late.

6. Captain Smith skipped an emergency drill. As a result, there was chaos after the ship hit the iceberg and nobody knew what to do or how to use the lifeboats.

7. Captain Smith ordered the ship at full speed. This is despite the report of icebergs & a clear dark sky that evening. No proof has been found that the Mr. Ismay had discussions with the Captain to have the ship go at full speed.

8. Iceberg warnings ignored & not delievered. An iceberg warning sat in Captain Smith's pocket ignored and some never made it to the Captain from the wire room. The man working the wireless didn't put the iceberg warnings as a priority because the passenger wires were more important - what they get paid to do. Therefore they were put aside.

Also, throught the day the wireless room received 6 iceberg warnings, put together they indicate a giant ice field of nearly 80 miles directly in the ship's path, but no one thinks to put them together. Most of the warnings went un-noticed on the bulletin board. Later, when the California tries to warn Titanic about ice, by interuppting Titanic's wire, Titanic's wireless operator replies rudedly back "Shut Up, I'm busy." The California operator then hangs up his head set and turns in for the night.

9. The crew on duty ordered the engines reversed when the iceberg was reported. A BIG Mistake. This just slowed down the ship from making the turn. It would have been better to hit the iceberg head on. Sadly, further records of the Titanic accident history indicate that the Titanic disaster may very well have been able to have been completely avoided had officers on ship paid heed to reports received earlier regarding the frozen waters they were approaching.

10. Lifeboats not filled to capacity. Some lifeboats were not even half full, resulting in more lives lost that could have been saved. Crew feared it would buckle, even though they were tested at Belfast. They could have saved 500 more lives. Also, the boats refused to return to the ship rescuing more people fearing the sinking Titanic would suck them in - which was not ture.

Also, one of the officers mis-interprits Captain's Smith order of Woman and Children First as Women and Children Only, thus costing men their lives.