The Titanic: The Downfall Of The Titanic Disaster

None of them realized yet that by the time the first hours of daylight came, the Titanic would be gone, along with two-thirds of her passengers and crew. When the passengers realized their impending doom, it was already too late: lifeboats had been launched. After the sinking of the Titanic, many people believed it was simple bad fortune and found no legal negligence. Many have argued since the sinking about what the actual major factors were for the loss of lives on this ship. The major loss of lives on the Titanic is due to a combination of improper precautionary methods, poor weather conditions, and poor response overall to the situation.

At the time of impact, the Titanic was traveling at approximately 21 knots, almost top speed. (Streissguth) Another major decision that contributed to the amount of lives lost was the fact that there were not enough lifeboats for all the customers to be safely placed in. At that present time, ships were... ... middle of paper ... ...ibly being sunk. However, on a cold April night, in 1912, the Titanic collided with an iceberg. The Captain of the Titanic was now forced with some very tough decisions.

The Titanic (otherwise known as the unsinkable ship) sank on April 14, 1912. Originally evidence led to the conclusion that the sinking was caused by hitting an iceberg at approximately 11:40 pm. After about one-hundred years people began asking, was it an iceberg that caused the titanic to sink? While the ship truly did collide with an iceberg the crash wasn't the main reason for the sinking of the ship. The iceberg did have a small role in the sinking, as well as multiple other small things, but the main cause for the ship’s descent was a fire that began before the ship first took off on April 10th.

If the ship had been carrying enough lifeboats, everyone could have survived as there were two and a half hours between the moment when the Ship hit the iceberg and when it sunk, therefore allowing enough time for everyone to board the lifeboats. The ship only carried 20 lifeboats in total, which could only accommodate for 33% of the ships total passengers and crew . This was because the designers of the ship didn’t want to “clutter up the deck”. Somehow, this was legal at the time, as the law for the number of lifeboats was based on the gross tonnage, not the passenger capacity of the ship. Arthur Rostron, captain of the rescue vessel Carpathia, is quoted saying “If there had been sufficient boats that night...every soul aboard could have been saved.” As well as this, the limited number of lifeboats were not filled to their capacity.

The Titanic - History of a Disaster On April 14,1912 a great ship called the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage. That night there were many warnings of icebergs from other ships. There seems to be a conflict on whether or not the warnings reached the bridge. We may never know the answer to this question. The greatest tragedy of all may be that there were not enough lifeboats for everyone on board.

The Lusitania was destroyed in the same was as the Titanic as they could not pull the boats into the sea and water kept rushing into the hull through the front where the torpedo hit as the boat couldn’t be stopped.The Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915. 1198 people died of a total of 1959 people on the boat. The ship sunk in 18 minutes. Second most famous passenger liner after the Titanic. It was destroyed 8 miles from the coast of Old head of Kinsale, Ireland.

The water temperature that night was below freezing. The wrought iron rivets that fastened the hull plates to the Titanic's main structure also failed because of brittle fracture during the collision with the iceberg. Low water temperatures contributed to this failure [Garzke and others, 1994]. Ship’s Midsection Contributing to this failure in the midsection was the design of Titanic's huge spiral staircase. The staircase not only weakened the midsection's structure, but served as a means for water to pass up through the ship.

The Titanic was finished on February 3, 1912. (Domont, www.geocites…; Acheson, www.museum.gov) The Titanic set out on its fateful voyage on May 31st, 1911 from Southampton to New York. On the way she stopped in Cherbourg and Queenstown. On the Titanic’s voyage numerous iceberg warnings were received... ... middle of paper ... ...ning of April 14th, 1912 the world lost over one thousand souls due to one of the most discussed disasters of all time. Weather or not it could have been prevented is still a mystery.

A crew member received multiple warnings the night of the accident but chose not to listen (Ballard 18). Not only he caused the boat to sink, but there was also a defect when the people first built the Titanic. “...the individual bulkheads were indeed watertight...so water could pour from one compartment into another, especially if the ship began to list or pitch forward,” (History.com 1). If the Titanic were to hit something and somehow move upside down, the ship would flood from the very front. The third cause of the disaster was the reliability of the radio.

All these changes were made because the Titanic sank. Ships in the early 1900's and ships today differ greatly in design, equipment, and safety. The sinking of the Titanic was very tragic and many people had lost their lives, but it also saved lives. The lives of people who would have died if advancements on sea travel were not made when the Titanic sank. People only realized their faults only until something tragic happens like when the security of airplanes/airports were not advanced until the terrorist attack on September 11th.