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| This picture is from the display at Johnson Eco Centre. The photos below are ones I pulled from the internet. |
The Owner:
British White Star Line's owner was acquired by the super-rich American financier, J. Pierpont Morgan -- master of acquisition, syndication, consolidation, and creator of all-powerful monopolies. Morgan's immense financial resources had been used to establish industrial giants such as United States Steel (the world's largest company at the time) and General Electric. White Star was to be Morgan's aggressive weapon to rule the waves in the North Atlantic.The Ship:
a. The hull of the Titanic had no double plates on her sides below the waterline where she struck the iceberg although she did have a double bottom. (After the Titanic sank, White Star installed a second set of steel plates inside the hull of the Titanic's sister ship Olympic.)
b. Titanic's much-praised watertight bulkheads only came 10 feet above the waterline. If Titanic took on water, it would flood over from one compartment into the next -- which is exactly what happened.
The extent to which Morgan would go, to try to win the public is illustrated by the fact that ,even though Titanic only required three smokestacks, a fourth, "dummy" stack was added, so the public would think White Star's ships were very powerful.
Over 15,000 workmen were hired to build the ship -- many inexperienced in shipbuilding.The single rudder was unable to quickly turn her supersized hull or cope with her three propellers. (Before her initial voyage, Titanic narrowly avoided a collision while in port.)
Although interior design was splendid, the money spent on Titanic's hull design proved inadequate.
The Captain and Crew:
The Captain, Edward J. Smith, had exhibited his over-confidence in himself when he said: "When anyone asks me how I can best describe my experiences of nearly forty years at sea, I merely say "uneventful". I have never been in an accident of any sort worth speaking about. I never saw a wreck and have never been wrecked, nor was I ever in any predicament that threatened to end in disaster of any sort." More significantly, when he was aboard the Titanic, Captain Smith reportedly said, "I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel." (He most certainly could not).On Titanic's first voyage, Captain Edward J. Smith's behaviour suggests he believed he was infallible and his ship indestructible. A new ship, minimal sea trials, a new crew, a fire in the hold, two breakdowns in the wireless system, plus the ice warnings should have demanded that the Captain adopt strict precautionary measures. He did not. Being determined to break the speed record, they did not reduce the speed in an ice zone where warnings had already been messaged to the ship.Was this a good example of the old adage "Pride cometh before a fall"?
Only days before the fateful voyage, many crew members were hired in the pubs of Southampton.
The lookouts had neither a spyglass nor a spotlight.
Titanic's officers and crew had virtually no training or practice in launching her lifeboats. The lifeboats, when actually launched, only had 706 people aboard, but could have held and saved nearly 500 more lives. Incredibly, an officer who survived, claimed at the Enquiries that they believed the lifeboats would buckle if fully loaded, even though the builders, Harland and Wolff, had successfully tested the boats with the weight of seventy men.
Apparently, the expression "A word to the wise is sufficient" was not part of the philosophy of Captain Smith or his Officers. No less than nice ice-warnings were received aboard the Titanic. Two messages were not even delivered to the Bridge. But, even one of the other seven should have caused the Senior Officer on duty to implement proper precautions immediately.
The Passengers:
Although Titanic's Third Class was quite different from other ships, Titanic was still officially listed as an "Emigrant Ship" and required by U.S. law (not British) to have steel gates separating "Steerage" (Third Class) passengers from the rest of the ship. After striking the iceberg and hearing the order "Abandon Ship", stewards kept Third Class passengers below, behind these gates, until they received explicit instructions to allow them on deck. Many Steerage passengers only arrived on deck after the last lifeboat had been lowered - and on average half full.
Tickets Sales Disappointing:
J. P. Morgan and White Star must have been staggered by the fact Titanic had only sold a little over half the overall available berths, and less than 50% in First and Second Class. One can imagine that the Cunard Line (White Star's main competitor) was relieved by the Olympic's and particularly the Titanic's apparent lack of appeal. Bruce Ismay who was the builder of the ship might well have been terrified over the possible wrath of his boss, J. P. Morgan.
Capacity vs Actual
First Class - 736 capacity - 329 actual - 45%
Second Class - 674 capacity - 285 actual - 42%
Third Class - 1,026 capacity - 710 actual - 69%
Crew - 885 capacity - 899 actual - 102%
Total - 3,320 capacity - 2,223 actual
Communications:
The Marconi Wireless Station was installed by White Star as another attraction for passengers to be able to send messages back and forth to home or destination. The Marconi operators were paid per message. Clearly, as events were to prove, the independent unmonitored Marconi Company franchise was an irresponsible and dangerous arrangement for the Titanic and all on board. The performance of the operators also reflected badly on the Marconi Company.
No less than 9 ice-warnings were received aboard the Titanic. Two messages were not even delivered to the Bridge because the wireless operator on duty was too busy sending passenger messages. But, even one of the other seven should have caused the Senior Officer on duty to implement proper precautions immediately.
Two ice warning messages from the Californian had been ignored by the Marconi operators. The second one, direct to the Titanic from the Californian, received this response from Marconi operator Jack Phillips (who went down with the ship) -- "Shut up, shut up, I am busy". This handling showed how little understanding the Marconi operators had of the importance of those ice warnings to ship-safety -- and to themselves.
Lifeboats:
A simple calculation could tell what additional lifeboats should have been on the Titanic. The shipbuilder had specifically recommended more, but White Star refused, saying they would "clutter up the deck". By that refusal, in case of a major on-board fire, boiler or coal explosion or a collision (such as happened), White Star had knowingly given a potential sentence of death to as many as 2,200 people who could not be fitted into Titanic's lifeboats.
On the first Sunday at sea, Captain Smith cancelled White Star's mandatory lifeboat drill for Officers and crew. Such lifeboat training would certainly have been invaluable later, for orderly lifeboat launching.
The lifeboats were only partially filled. It took 40 minutes from the "Abandon Ship" order to launch the first life boat, and 8 minutes more to launch the rest. Poor handling of life boat evacuation had been a serious disaster all by itself.
My thoughts:
Although the Titanic did physically collide with an iceberg which caused damage there are many other reasons why the luxury ship sank. I belief that the cumulative factors of all the weakness from the design to the evacuation played in the large lose of life.
Here are a list of weaknesses that contributed to the "sinking of the Titanic":
- Greed, pride and lust for power
- Design deficiences
- Inferior design
- Emphasis on luxury and not safety
- Improperly trained crew
- Lack of sea trails
- Lack of communication
- Class discrimination
What do you think?
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