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Leaping over the side of the boat, passengers splash into the icy waters below. With one lifeboat left, people are fighting to get on. All of a sudden, a thunderous crack is heard, and a crewman screams out, The boat has cracked in two! Now the frightened travelers are moving frantically toward the stern. (This might have been the scene 86 years ago. ) The unsinkable Titanic went down catastrophically and the safety on the liner as well as the prevention of the incident became issues after the sinking and before the discovery of the ship on the ocean floor. The luxury liner was constructed with a purpose. It was built to transport passengers across the Atlantic in a fast, yet extravagant way.
The ship was housed to carry a king. It had every comfort that anyone could ever have imagined. Such as the rooms that were in the first class. The rooms had the finest quilts, mirrors and even were supplied with fancy cigars. The Titanic was built at the Harvard and Wolff yard where White Star liners ships were built. The construction began on March 31, 1909.
An American financier, J. Pierpont Morgan, who became interested in large passenger shipping companies was the builder of the magnificent pleasure ship. (web) The idea was a good one, little did he know tragedy loomed ahead. The massive ship, the crew, and the captains desires all added up to trouble. The crewmen of the Titanic were not prepared for the possibility of a sinking ship because they thought the vessel was unsinkable, and they didnt concentrate on safety. For example wireless operator interrupted the Californians wireless operator by a moderate, Keep Out! Shut-up!
Youre jamming my signal. Im working the Cape Race! The Californians sole operator listened to Titanic's reply and at 11: 30 turned off his set and retired for the night. The possibility of a problem never entered the Titanic operators mind. (help: //gil. ipswich city. qld.
gov. au/~dal garry / tim e. html) In addition the captains intentions were to cross the Atlantic at a record speed, and these wishes were not to be impeded. White Stars senior captain and the master of the Titanic, decided to continue on course at full speed of twenty knots through the ice feld's despite daylong warnings of icebergs in the vicinity. (Brown, Donald pg. 3) This decision and the crews carelessness foreshadow tragedy. Accordingly, the unsinkable luxury liner struck an iceberg towering approximately fifty to sixty feet at 11: 50 P. M.
on April 14, 1912. (help: //gil. ipswich city. qld. gov.
au/~dal garry / tim e. html) When the vessel hit the iceberg, a richard object sneaking invincibly underneath the oceans surface. Struck the ship and left four gashes on the starboard side and shaking those on board. As the iceberg moved along the flank of the ship, it scraped the first three hundred feet of the hull way below the water line. (Tibbals, Geoff pg. 70) Thus, the Titanic was given only was given only a few hours to stay afloat. In this process, five of the presumably watertight compartments flooded, but five was too much for her to bear. Although twelve square feet of the hull had been penetrated by the collision, this was enough to sink her.
The adjacent compartments also filled up equivalent to ice-cube trays do when filled. As each compartment flooded with water, the bow of the ship sank lower and lower. Just ten minutes after the impact, the water level had risen to fourteen feet above the keel in the first five compartments. Water was also pouring into the boiling room. At around 1: 15 AM. , the Titanic suddenly perched from starboard to port.
She was becoming increasingly rickety; the deck was tilting more and more steeply, making the removal of passengers out of the boat more difficult. By 2: 00 AM. , the water had risen to just ten feet below the promenade deck. At 2: 17 AM. the unsinkable pleasure vessel began to sink into the water, 2: 17 AM. , the stern flopped back into the water, two of the four funnels broke off freeing soot into the clear blackness atmosphere. There was a series of explosions and the immersed forward section broke away from the stern. Finally, the stern also slide beneath the surface and began its two and a half, mile journey to the oceans floor. (Tibbals, Geoff pg. 72 - 84) She sank somewhere around forty one degrees North and fifty degrees West in the Atlantic.
In the two hours it took the ship to sink, the passengers had two hours to save themselves. During the sinking of the massive ship, The passengers acted without dignity. Said first-class Steward Edward Brown. But most of the passengers acted like gentleman: As I was put into the boat, he cried to me, Its all right, little girl.
You go, I will stay. As our boat shoved off he threw me a kiss, and that was the last I saw him. Said Mrs. Daniel Warner Marvin of New York. She had been on her honey moon, lost her new husband in the disaster.
Another eye-witness account came from a Philadelphia banker, Robert W. Daniel. He was only wearing a bathrobe, when he leaped from the sinking ship two minutes before she went down: Not until the last five minutes did the awful realization come that the end was at hand. The lights became dim and went out, but we could see slowly, ever so slowly, the surface of the water seemed a dream. Deck after deck was submerged. There was no lurching or grinding or crunching.
The Titanic simply settled. I was far up on one of the top decks when I jumped. About me where many others in the water. My bathrobe floated away, and it was icily cold. I struck out at once.
I turned my head, and my first glance took in the people swarming on the Titanic's deck. Hundreds were standing there helpless toward off approached death. I saw captain Smith on the bridge. My eyes seemingly clung to him. The deck from which I had left was immersed. The water had risen slowly, and was now to the floor of the bridge.
Then it was to captain Smiths waist. I saw him no more. He died a hero. The bows of the ship were far beneath the surface, and to me only the four monster funnels and the mast were now visible. It was all over in an instant. The Titanic's stern rose completely out of the water and went up thirty, forty, sixty feet into the air.
Then, with her body slanting at an angle of forty five degrees, slowly the Titanic Slipped out of sight. On the other hand, some reacted differently. Chief officer Henry Wilde with second officer Leghtoller were in charge of launching the last lifeboat. Leghtoller had to draw his pistol to reestablish order among the panicking passengers.
He also ordered other crewman to assemble a human barrier between those who just came from the steerage and the last lifeboat. The band tried to relate the frantic passengers and crew by playing until the end. (Tibbals, Geoff pg. 62, 79 - 81) Many different acts took place during the sinking of the ship and it was only after all was said and done that safety issues were discussed. Was safety taken into careful consideration? The supplement of enough lifeboats would turn out to be one of the most unaffiliated issues.
Under the British Board of Trade Regulations, all British vessels of more than ten thousand tons had to carry at least 16 lifeboats with adequate amount of rafts and floats for seventy five percent of its capacity. The ship weighed forty, six thousand tons and only had to carry just as many lifeboats as a vessel that weighed ten thousand tons. These regulations meant that the Titanic only had to carry enough lifeboats for only nine hundred and sixty, two people when she had the capacity for three thousand, five hundred, and forty seven. Alexander Care lisle evidently had misgivings about the managements. Alexanders original layout included sixty four boats, sufficient for everyone. As discussions carried on the builders and owners started to decline the amount of lifeboats within the Titanic.
They decided first to change the number of lifeboats to forty, then to thirty two and finally to sixteen, thirty-foot-long boats as well as four englehadrt collapsible boats. Of course anyone that could do math would know that sixteen, thirty-foot-long boats also with four engelhardt collasspables would not be enough for all those on-board the Titanic. (Tibbals, Geoff pg. 26) Furthermore, safety measures were doled out unfairly. Treatment of the people on board the Titanic was inequitable. In general the third class and second class travelers did not have as good of a chance of surviving as the first class passengers.
The lower class people were ordered to stay in the lower areas and held by other crewman until the first class could safely evacuate on lifeboats. Lastly, the factor of the crews late reactions might have been the cause of more deaths. By the way that the crew left some passengers behind during the sinking. (Titanic. Dir. James Cameron. Perf.
Leonardo Decaprio, Kate Winscet, Kathy Bates, Bill Paxton, Billy Zane, and Frances Fisher. Fox, 1996. ) Stating safety issues aside the next question that comes to mind is: Could the accident have been avoided? This incident could have been avoided if there were a sufficient amount of telegraphers throughout the ship, so they did not have to depend on one person for the only source of communication. For example, when the young wireless operator, previously mentioned interrupted an important message and did not heed its warning, the message may have gotten through id there had been another operator. (http: gil//ipswich city. qld. gov.
au/~dal garry / time . h tml) This clearly displays the need for more telegraphers on-board the liner. Secondly, the question surrounding the number of lifeboats on the Titanic directly relates to the number of saved lives. There was space for more lifeboats on the S. S. S Titanic, but the builders and owners made luxury a priority over safety.
More lives could have been saved if only there had been more lifeboats. Thirdly, weather considerations was another important factor of these tragic incident. If captain Smith had only stopped and deliberated his decision going twenty one knots full speed through ice feld's, this all could have been precluded. The accident could have been avoided, but was not and it sank. The Titanic was found at the bottom of the Atlantic.
In the summer of 1985 by. (Ballard, Robert pg. 454) Dr. Robert Ballard, the head of Woods Holes Deep Submergence laboratory. His interest of finding the Titanic dated back to the 1970 s, but at that time could not, because he could not get financial support. Dr. Ball
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