Were there any physical factors that could have contributed to the disaster? It’s believed that upon impact with the iceberg, the steel hull failed due to brittle fracture. The cause of this includes excessively low temperatures, high speed impact and high sulphur content. On the night of April 14th 1912, each of these three factors was found present. Proof that brittle fracturing of the hull steel contributed to the Titanic disaster came following the recovery of a piece of steel from the Titanic wreck. After being cleaned, it was analysed by scientist and its condition was noted. It was concluded that the sharp jagged edges of the piece of steel showed it have almost shattered and showed not evidence of bending or deformation. Typical high-quality ship steel is more ductile and deforms rather than breaks. Similar characteristics were found in the damaged hull steel of Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic, after its collision while leaving harbour on September 20th, 1911 with a British cruiser. (Basset) The wrought iron rivets which secured the hull plates to the main structure of Titanic were believed to have been of inferior quality and failed for the same reasons as the hull steel. Due to the tremendous forces created on impact with the iceberg, the rivet heads in the areas of contact were simply popped off, which caused more seams to open up. Normally, the rivets would have deformed before failing because of their ductility, but with water temperatures below freezing, the rivets had become extremely brittle. (Basset) There is also contradicting evidence that suggests that Titanic’s steel was not of inferior quality as first thought. Tim Maltin has stated in his book that “The force with which Titanic struck the iceberg was e... ... middle of paper ... ...pen. Design flaws are at fault because if the hull hadn’t become brittle in the freezing temperatures it would have been more ductile and not have given way under pressure. Together Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay shouldn’t have been so negligible and had the ship set to a suitable speed for the conditions of the ocean on that night. Jack Phillips should not have ignored the warning from other ships, if he’d relayed those messages to the bridge early all precautions put in place prior would have happened earlier preventing the Titanic’s collision with the iceberg. Murdoch’s hesitation in giving orders proved fatal and then it all came down to Hitchin’s turning the wheel the wrong way. It was this series of chain events that led to the disaster so infamously known today, right back during construction through to Hitchin’s. Titanic was doomed before it even set sail.
Titanic and the SS Maheno. The well know ship “The Titanic” now lies 3,800 m under water off the shore of Newfoundland where it sunk back in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, the ship is now rapidly rusting and disintegrating. The SS Maheno is a major tourist attraction that lies on the east coast of Fraser Island, Australia. It was a trading ship between New Zealand and Australia from years 1905 to 1935, and also participated in World War I for the New Zealand Naval Force. The wreck was left there to disintegrate after the owners refused to pay to move it. Corrosion is ‘a chemical process by which a metal is oxidised. ’ (corrosionist.com). Iron is the only metal that rusts and occurs out of the chemical processes, oxidation and reduction. In most cases, corrosion of iron occurs when the metal is losing its electrons, this is oxidising. Another cause behind the occurrence of rusting is ‘rust eating bacteria’ at deep enough levels of the ocean. And finally, abiotic factors such as salinity, pH and oxygen levels have an impact on the rusting or shipwrecks. The last cause to be discussed is environmental effects such as salinity, pH and oxygen levels.
First of all the Titanic was uniqely built. The Titanic was built by the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff. It was made out of 2,000 steel plates and three million rivets. The chief designer of the Titanic was Thomas Andrews. It was built in Belfast, North Ireland. It took over three years to build the Titanic. The Titanic sank in under three hours. It was the largest passenger ship built. There was 250 workers injured while working on the ship. The ship was 25 stories high and it weighed 46,000 tons. The anchor was over 18 feet long and weighed over 15 tons. www.historyofthetitanic.org
The Titanic claimed to be the ship of its time; one that would never sink. However, what the Titanic claimed to be was not the case because on April 15, 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg, broke in half, and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. There has been debate ever since that fateful day as to how this happened to the Titanic. Some conspiracy theorist believe the ship never even sank -- regardless of the ships remains at the bottom of the ocean. Other conspiracy theorists believe the Titanic was actually switched with the RMS Olympic because of an insurance scam. Ever since that day, many scientists, engineers, and physicists have tried to analyze the problems of the Titanic; the reasons why it sank.
Often when we think about the Titanic the first thought that comes to the mind is the film “Titanic” which was produced in 1997, 85 years after the disaster struck. It starred Kate Winslett (Rose DeWitt Bukater), Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) And Billy Zane (Cal Hokley) as the main characters. The film is about a love triangle between the three main characters. This movie was produced by James Cameron who put enormous amount of research about the shipwreck of the titanic in order to depict the turn of events in his film. Amongst the purposes of his research he wanted to accurately depict the ship wreck itself from the very instant the ship hit the iceberg to the very last part of the ship that was subdued into the water. Another very significant part of Cameron’s research was to understand the socio-economic status of the passengers which will be discussed in detail later. Although historians have criticized certain aspects Cameron’s film the accuracy in which he depicts certain aspects such as the socio-economics of the passengers can’t be ignored.
According to the story “From Exploring the Titanic”, Captain Smith did not seem all that worried about the iceberg and brushed away most of the iceberg warnings. This caused the rest of the crew to also ignore the iceberg warnings, showing the poor communication between the crew. The article “Titanic Past and Present” also states that Smith didn’t make sure the navigation crew was aware of the ice warning and did not post the warning to the chart room. This shows that Smith was very relaxed about the iceberg and did not see it as a threat, and so by the time they realized it was a real danger, it was too late and was responsible for the sinking of the ship. In summary, because of the captain’s laid-back attitude towards the iceberg, the crew did not see it as a threat, so they did not pay attention when they were approaching the ice field, and only turned in time to avoid hitting it head-on, but it still scraped the side of the
The titanic was a ship that was huge and extremely advanced. The ship took 3 years to be completed and over 3, 000 people worked on it. Although the final product could not be fully used it was a well built ship. This ship was well equipped with the best and
The tragic history of the Titanic, the sinking of the “unsinkable” giant of a ship shocked the entire world and contributed to important shifts in the mass consciousness of the people who lived at that period and assessed the achievements of new technologies and their role. However, one would have been hardly able to predict in 1912 that this tragedy, no matter how significant and meaningful, would leave such a deep imprint on the history of human civilization. The continuing interest in the fate of the great vessel has taken the form of various narrations and given rise to numerous myths enveloping the true history and, in this way, often obscuring the facts related to the tragedy. In recent years, this interest has been emphasized by the dramatic discovery of the wreck and examination of its remains. The recovery of artifacts from the Titanic and the exploration of the site where it had sank stimulated new speculations on different issues of the failure to rescue the Titanic and the role of different factors contributing to the disaster. These issues have been traditionally in the focus of discussions that caused controversies and ambiguous interpretations of various facts. They also often overshadowed other parts of the disaster story that were confirmed by statistical data and revealed the impact of social realities. The social stratification of passengers that reflected the social realities of the period and its class interests determined the chances of survival, with most of those perished in the Titanic disaster having been lower class individuals.
First, it was Captain Smith’s fault. If he wouldn’t have ignored the seven iceberg warnings from his crew and other ships the Titanic wouldn’t have sunk. Also, if he would have called for the ship to slow down this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
...tself 500ft below the water, none of them have been proven indefinitely. Whether the ship crossed the Superior Shoal, with water as shallow as 22 feet; or the ship suffered a stress fracture and broke apart on the surface, there will always be one more possibility regarding the Fitzgerald’s demise. For instance, the sip could have also succumbed to the forces of the Three Sisters, a Lake Superior phenomenon, consisting of massive waves. Ultimately, each of these current theories are merely conjectures, and since each holds the possibility of being true, the cause of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald’s sinking is an ongoing mystery, one that has and will continue to bring about many theories. Finally, as a result of the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the 30 million people who lived next to the great lakes would forever look across their waters with renewed respect.
Tests on Titanic's steel showed that the steel had high sulfur content, which increases the brittleness of steel by disrupting the grain structure [Hill, 1996]. This increase in brittleness contributed to the severity of the hull's
Damage beyond the hull was also witnessed that allowed for the influx of water. Whenever the forepeak tank was damaged, “six watertight compartments flooded with water, causing the ship to sink faster than it should have,” (Bassett). The Titanic, being the largest ship at this time, should have stayed afloat for two to three days after striking the iceberg. Within three hours, the Titanic sank, which never should have
The Unsinkable Ship That Sank On the day of April 12,1912, Titanic was thought to be the dream ship that could never be destroyed. Like today’s society, the passengers were enjoying the time of their lives and thought nothing could ever happen to them because everybody thinks it’s the “unsinkable” ship, or at least that’s what everyone knew it to be. White Star Line’s Titanic was called the “Ship of dreams”. As they loaded up, many passengers of different classes and sectors of society thought that, that was the ticket to their dreams. But as time pass by from enjoying too much, little do they know that the ship is sinking.
One of the most famous ideas, person, etc., God, was said he could not force this ship to fail. So, the man who painted the sky, presented Earth with oceans, and built mountains couldn’t sink a ship? If the people of the world had not been so gullible and intrigued to the false, could the ship have survived? It is something to be discussed, but theoretically, yes. If the general public had not pushed the idea of an invincible ship to the Captain of the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith, by default he would have been significantly more cautious when directing and handling the massive craft. The Titanic was revolutionary to modern luxury liners, but society had to ruin its magnificent potential. Overall the conflict between society and the Titanic was slightly indirect. The antagonists all thought they were up talking the ship, and describing it as if it were a messiah. But, the protagonist vessel really couldn’t meet the bar of these expectations. While the antagonists were not “mean” or “cruel” per say, they did contribute to the infamous sinking of the most famous ship of the 20th
As the water flooded into the first five compartments, the water would pass the water line. Once it passed the water line, the water would start to flood into the rest of the compartments like falling dominos. Since one-half of the ship kept flooding in with water, the water would slowly start to break the ship in half. Once one-half of the ship went under the other half that was floating above the water would snap and break off. Thus separating the Titanic into two pieces laying at the sea floor. The Titanic would ultimately sink on April 15, 1912. With the ship sinking, there are three factors on why the Titanic sank. The three factors are human error, corporate negligence, and design error. The three factors are equally responsible on why the ship sank.
The Titanic, one of the biggest well known tragedies in history. The horrific accident was a catastrophe that impacted the world. Devastating news that this colossal ship everyone thought was indestructible had sunk from a collision with an iceberg. But the question is, could the terrible tragedy have been stopped? Why did the Titanic give so easily following the hit?