why did the titanic sink?

Question

I know it was an ice berg but is that the only theory and were there any other contributary factors.

Answer 1

At 11:40 PM while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge. Sixth Officer Moody answered, "Yes, what do you see?", only to hear Fleet exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!", to which Moody responded, "thank you", before informing First Officer Murdoch of the call. Murdoch (who had now already seen the iceberg) ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which stopped and then reversed the ship's reciprocating engines driving the wing propellers (the center shaft stopped as the turbine was not reversible. In reverse configuration the residual steam from the reciprocating engines was channeled directly to the condensers). A collision turned out to be inevitable, and the ship's starboard (right) side brushed the iceberg, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline, creating a total of six leaks in the first five watertight compartments. Murdoch then ordered the ship hard right rudder which swung Titanic's stern away from the iceberg. The watertight doors were shut as water started filling the five compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The weight of the compartments filling with water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and began to assess Titanic's situation. Following an inspection by the ship's officers and Thomas Andrews, it was apparent that the Titanic would sink, and shortly after midnight on April 15, lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress signal sent out.

Answer 2

Because when the crew saw the iceberg the Captain ordered a sharp turn away to try and avoid hitting it. The ship was going too fast for the conditions and the iceberg ripped along the side of the ship where the walls dividing the bulkheads didn't go right up to the ceiling above. When the water poured in, instead of filling just one hold it poured over the bulkhead walls, slowly filling the ship up from front to back. If the ship had hit the iceberg prow on, only the front bulkhead that went right up to the ceiling would have filled with water and the ship would not have sunk because the ship's pumps would have been able to cope with the amount of water in just the one hold

Also when modern divers found the wreck and salvaged rivets etc from the sea bed, some had corroded more than others, so there was also a theory that the builders may have tried to save money by using rivets not up to specifications, but after so long under the sea, this was not provable.

Answer 3

The popular notion was that an iceberg had cut a 300 foot (90 m) long gash into Titanic's hull. Since the part of the ship that the iceberg had damaged was buried, scientists used sonar to examine the area and discovered the iceberg had caused the hull to buckle, allowing water to enter Titanic between its steel plates. During subsequent dives, scientists retrieved small pieces of Titanic's hull. A detailed analysis of the pieces revealed the ship's steel plating was of a variety that loses its elasticity and becomes brittle in cold or icy water, leaving it vulnerable to dent-induced ruptures. Furthermore, the rivets holding the hull together were much more fragile than once thought. It is unknown if stronger steel or rivets could have saved the ship.

A collision turned out to be inevitable, and the ship's starboard (right) side brushed the iceberg, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline, creating a total of six leaks in the first five watertight compartments. Murdoch then ordered the ship hard right rudder which swung Titanic's stern away from the iceberg. The watertight doors were shut as water started filling the five compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The weight of the compartments filling with water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments (they only went 10 ft above the waterline).

All in all the Titanic was badly made and not up to the standards that it boasted.....

Answer 4

On April 10, 1912, the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. At that time, she was the largest and most luxurious ship ever built. At 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, she struck an iceberg about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada. Although her crew had been warned about icebergs several times that evening by other ships navigating through that region, she was traveling at near top speed of about 20.5 knots when one grazed her side.

Less than three hours later, the Titanic plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking more than 1500 people with her. Only a fraction of her passengers were saved. The world was stunned to learn of the fate of the unsinkable Titanic. It carried some of the richest, most powerful industrialists of her day. Together, their personal fortunes were worth $600 million in 1912! In addition to wealthy and the middle class passengers, she carried poor emigrants from Europe and the Middle East seeking economic and social freedom in the New World.

Answer 5

Well, from what I remember of the movie & the book, the ship was going too fast to be "able to avoid the iceberg. Plus it was at night, and the crew didn't actually "see" the iceberg untill the last moment. Personally? No matter how well built that ship was, I believe it had too much weight in it to do anything "other" that go straight ahead, much less try to turn fast enough to avoid a huge iceberg. And that would also explain "why" it was on it's side. Even in a car, if a wheel is turned too quickly, it can turn over. But this is only my opinion...or theory.

Answer 6

When about to hit the Iceberg, the Titanic turned, thus the iceberg ripped a hole down the side of the keel.

Also the bulkhead's in the hull did not reach the top of the keel thus the watertight compartments were not watertight. This meant that water was allowed to invade the whole ship.

Answer 7

Obviously it hit an iceburg which tore a hole in the side. The ship was designed to be unsinkable because the bottom of the boat beneath water level was split into various compartments so that if one filled with water, the water would stay in that part and the ship would stay afloat, unfortunately the boat builders didnt put the compartment walls all the way to the top so when one compartment filled to the top, it flooded over the top of the ballasts and started to fill the next compartment and so on and so on until all the compartments filled enough to put strain on the ship causing it to split in two and therefore sink!!

Answer 8

well i know when the ice berg hit the bottom parts of the boat started to fill with water, and by the time they shut the emergency flooding doors all the water was locked in the front part of the boat and it snaped in half then the othe half was left bouncing in the water vertically until eventually it sunk, hope that helps.

Answer 9

some Jewish guy did it

There's a good Jewish joke about this one
it goes as follows

as usual Saul levi is sitting at his bench in the park. When along comes an asian guy who sits down beside him. All of a sutton mr Levi gets up and kicks the guy in the shins and says
"thats for Pearl Harbor"
The Guy says mr you have it all wrong Pearl Harbor was an act of the Japanese, and I'm Chinese.
to which mr levi replies Japanese, Chinese it's all the same.
Not one minute later the Chinese guy stands up and hits mr Levi right on the nose and says
"now that's for the Titanic"
what are you talking about says mr Levi
The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg
to which the Chinese guy replies
iceberg, goldberg, greenberg it's all the same

Answer 10

They said the Titanic was unsinkable and there are conspiracy theories that Titanic was switched with her sister ship Olympic before Olympic had been finished completely and it was a flaw in the unfinished section that caused the ship to lose bouyancy when by design it should have stayed afloat when they struck the iceberg.