Vicki Bassnet: The Breakdown Of The Titanic

The British luxury passenger ship, The Titanic, set sail on April 10, 1912, en route to New York City from Southampton (Lord ch 1). During her maiden voyage, midnight of April 15, 1912, she began to sink (ch 1). The Titanic had a collision with an iceberg that was around 100 feet tall (“Titanic: 40 Fascinating Facts” 3). Regardless to how greatly manufactured the Titanic was, and with beliefs that she was unsinkable, the miscalculation of human error proves that every possible outcome cannot be prevented, disasters can still occur regardless of careful planning.

On April 15, 1912 at 11:40 P.M. the Titanic collided with an iceberg and by 2:20 A.M. it was at the bottom of the ocean; over 1,500 people died. The massive loss of life was a shock to the world. The “unsinkable” ship had sunk. Despite the Titanic’s claims about being “unsinkable” and completely safe, many avoidable things led to the immense number of fatalities, such as the shortage of lifeboats, lowered bulkheads, and the lack of binoculars. Bruce Ismay, the designer of the Titanic and director of Whitestar line, often chose the comfort of his passengers over their safety. While Ismay was designing the Titanic he thought that the deck was too cluttered so he decided to keep only a third of the lifeboats needed to save all of the passengers

During the time of her construction, Titanic was designed to be the largest, grandest, safest, and most technologically advanced ship during her time. Her designers and engineers set out to build a class of ocean liners that could compete against White Star Line’s rival company, Cunard. However, when Titanic, the second of her sister ships sunk on her maiden voyage, it shook the world and it had a major impact on the world and its people. One of the main effects was the effect on safety regulations. Titanic only carried enough lifeboats to sustain roughly half of the passengers and crew on board. At the time, Titanic actually exceeded the amount of the lifeboats required by the British Board of Trade regulations by 10 percent.

The Titanic’s maiden voyage was disastrous because the beautiful ship sank and many people died. One of the largest flaws of the Titanic’s design is that it was too big and not nimble enough to avoid the iceberg. In addition to the nimbility of the ship, some of the rivets were improperly manufactured and contained a lot of slag in the steel, which makes it more fracture prone.

During the time that the ship was to be built, The White Line Company was fighting for supremacy over another shipping firm, Cunard. The British firm had two top ranking ships in its ranks and The White Line Company wanted to fight this holding and become the best of the best. In their fight to achieve this, J. Bruce Ismay who was the chief executive of White Star, decided to commission 3 new ships to be built that were bigger and more luxurious that any ship built ever before. The Titanic, the second of the ships to be build took two years to complete from the spring 1909 to the spring of 1911. In the following year, the ship was designed interiorly to help make it a luxury ship. In making the ship though, several mistakes were made that lead to the severity of the disaster. For one, the ships haul had water tight chambers that while were watertight, would allow water to move from one compartment to another. The people involved thought that because of the watertight chambers the ship was unsinkable when in fact these chambers did nothing to stop the ship from sinking. In relation to everyone thinking the ship unsinkable, White Star did not put enough safety boats on the vesicle. They thought the ship to be unsinkable so why put enough safety boats to fit everyone (Titanic,

When the Titanic was finally launched on May 31, 1911. Bruce Ismay was the chairman of the White Star Line company and Thomas Andrews was the one who designed the Titanic. It started its construction at Harland and Wolff shipyard on May 31, 1909. People thought that the ship was known as “unsinkable” because they believed that they used the most advanced technology of its time in order to make this most magnificent ship built of its time. The company did not claim that the Titanic is “unsinkable”, people just claimed that the ship is unsinkable but it shocked people around the world when the “unsinkable” ship actually sank with hundreds of innocent passengers. However, It was also thought to be the largest man

The Titanic was a passenger ship, not a battleship, so it was not built to take on huge icebergs. It states in the article that nothing was wrong in the building of the Titanic, but anything is possible. Man’s error could have been a big factor with the sinking. The ship was built among time pressures, not because of cost, which put a huge strain on the shipyard. If the builders were given more time, then mayne the ship would have been stronger and could have withstanded more. Higher quality rivets and thicker hulls might have kept the Titanic afloat for much longer.

This gigantic ocean liner, at its time, was the most famous and largest ship. The ship was known for the fact of how it was thought to be unsinkable. It was filled with new china, new beds, everything was new. While the ship may have been thought of as unsinkable this was not the case. On April 14, 1912 at 11:40 PM tragedy struck. The unsinkable ship had hit an iceberg and in only approximately 2 hours later it would be at the bottom of the ocean. A total of 1,502 people died either on the ship or in the frigid water. Obviously this ship was on its maiden voyage and as said earlier was filled with all new everything. Then in 1985, Robert Ballard found the Titanic near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland about 12,000 feet down. Since then a total of over 6,000 artifacts have been taken out of the ship. Some experts say the ship will be gone in a few years and implode on itself until it eventually breaks down. Others say the ship will gradually decompose until the bow eventually implodes on itself. In an article published by Canadian Chemical News, D. Roy Cullimore and Lori Johnston described the results of their study of the ship's condition. They concluded: "There appears, at this time, to be evidence not of a catastrophic structural failure about to occur in the near future, but rather of a gradual collapse that would follow a somewhat predictable pattern." Many believe this wreckage should

The Sinking of the Titanic was a tragedy that affected many. This event will forever be in the memories of the people who have suffered from losing loved ones and to the people that such a historical event affected. History was drastically changed after the Sinking of the Titanic, the so called “unsinkable” ship, occurred. A number of theories have been conducted about this event throughout the years after its occurrence. However, only one of these theories should be true. The workers who built the Titanic relied more on the aesthetic beauty and scenery of the ship, rather than the safety of the passengers.

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic left Southampton, England on her voyage to New York City. The White Star spent all they had and spared no expense in assuring her luxury. She was a legend even before she sailed. The Titanic had passengers mixed with the world’s wealthiest basking in the elegance of first class accommodations and immigrants packed into steerage. She was said to be the safest ship ever built, so safe that she only carried 20 lifeboats, which was enough to accommodate for only half her 2,200 passengers and crew. This was decided due to the ship’s construction that was said to make her “unsinkable.” The Titanic was four days into her journey, when she struck an iceberg at 11:40 P.M. on April 14, 1912. The fireman compared the sound to “the tearing of calico, nothing more.” The collision was fatal and the icy water soon poured through the

The builders, Harland and Wolff, claimed that the watertight bulkheads “made the ship virtually unsinkable”, which then caused people to believe that it truly was (Adams 12).

I feel this incident might have occurred but with few loses. According to the article, there were repeated warnings that imply there was an issue with this ship; specifically the sounds the passengers heard hours prior to collision. If better materials were used the ship would have lasted longer floating. This means more people would have been saved. The article did a great job in answering many of the unanswered questions. Until now, I always thought the iceberg was the main and only reason that caused Titanic to sink. I learned from the above information that multiple reasons such as: weak building structure, rusted steel, and icy waters also played a major part in Titanic’s fate. The source was very reliable and contained important

At that time, it was believed that the Titanic was the safest ship. As Tibbals describe it, as having an outer layer to protect the inner layer with double bottom to protect it from any hole could occur in the outer layer. The doors in the bottom were automatic watertight to prevent any water to come inside, as it could closed immediately if there is any water leak. This was some of the reason that made the people say that it is unsinkable ship.

History has changed drastically over the decades. Looking back into history and having the informaiton of the past is a remarkable treasure. Looking back in history to 1912, one of the worst ship disasters occured in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean; that ship was known as “Titanic”. This huge, outstanding ship was viewed by many people as “The Unsinkable Ship”. Obviously, the huge steel built ship was not tough enough to survive the impact of the iceberg. Unfortunately, many people did not survive the impact as well. Due to the sinking of the Titanic, ships built today have improved safety regulations and the quality of the ships.

When analyzing this disaster the first thing to consider is the engineer’s design of the Titanic. The Titanic was employing many new and innovative designs that were believed to make the Titanic the safest ship ever built at that time. The engineer’s of the vessel made claims that the Titanic was “unsinkable” and that “even in the worst possible accident at sea, the ship should have stayed afloat for two to three days.” One of the features that lead them to this claim was the 16 watertight compartments in the hull of the ship. The way they were designed allowed for up to four compartments to be breached and they ship would still carry