What events led to the Titanic?

Answer 1

First of all, let's clear up a couple misconceptions:

1. The Titanic was not trying to "show she was the fastest ship". She wasn't. From the moment she was first designed on the drawing board it had been known she wouldn't be as fast as Cunard's speed-demons Lusitania and Mauretania. She made up for being slower by being more comfortable, more luxurious. So she wasn't trying to set a record for the Atlantic crossing; the laws of physics put that beyond her reach.

2. The use of wireless was for passenger messages was not an issue in the disaster. The fact is that, on the day of the collision, Titanic received six warnings about ice on the route ahead. The problem wasn't that the radio was tied up by the passengers; it was in how the messages were handled once they were received. There seems to have been no system in place to ensure that they were interpreted properly.

3. Turning into the iceberg rather than away. There's a couple problems with that; the first is that those who advocated it are playing "Monday-morning quarterback". It's easy for us, knowing how things turned out, to suggest that First Officer Murdoch (in command at the time) should have turned to take the iceberg head-on. However, one must always remember that Murdoch didn't have the advantage of hindsight that we do.

Let's say he turned into the iceberg and rammed it head-on. At the investigation into the accident he is asked why he did that. If he says, "Because if I turned the other way the ship would've sunk," they are going to ask him, "How do you know that?!?"

The other problem with the "head-on" theory is that recent research shows that the iceberg was spotted so close that the Titanic had no time to turn at all - either towards or away.

So what event(s) let to the accident?

1. Failure to appreciate the importance of the ice warnings they had been receiving all day long.

2. Failure to slow the ship or turn to the south to avoid the icefield ahead.

Other things - the design of her compartments, the number of lifeboats, etc. - are things that would have made a difference after the collision. But those are the two things that might have prevented the collision in the first place.

Answer 2

Kate said it all. Lots of different factors. I wasn't aware of telegraphs being misused, myself, so I'm thinking she's studied this more than me.

What I do know is that the movie Titanic covered most of the reasons she sank:
1. Too much speed. The Titanic was going too fast to reverse/brake.
2. They turned rather than hit the iceberg straight on (which would have knocked people around and caused injuries but the ship would have stayed afloat).
3. The lower deck cargo holds were not airtight and water continued to spill towards the rear of the boat

There were a lot of other reasons so many died:
1. Class restriction in assigning life boats.
2. Too few lifeboats for the passengers
3. The emergency flare, seen by another ship, was dismissed as fireworks

If you're asking what led to the Titanic's creation, I would imagine the decadence of the time and a lack of hubris towards nature/God.

Answer 3

1. Speed (ship too big and heavy to turn or slow down in time)
2. No binoculars for the lookouts (did not see iceberg in time to avoid hitting it)
3. Ship made from iron that became very brittle in the freezing waters (caused iron plates to fracture like glass)
4. Sideswiped iceberg instead of ramming head on (ship might still have sunk but damage would have been restricted to the front 2-3 compartments and would probably have stayed afloat longer to allow more time for rescue)
5. False belief that ship was unsinkable, not enough lifeboats for all passengers/crew
6. Bulkhead doors did not extend all the way up and allowed water to flow from one compartment to the next, sealing her fate.

If the Titanic had been manufactured today, using the same techniques that were used back then, it's doubtful she ever would have left the shipyard.

Answer 4

All of these answers are bogus. The question was about the events leading to the Titanic, and asks nothing about what events happend to the Titanic.

It's simple. It was designed, funded, and built. Those are the events that led to the Titanic.

Answer 5

The Titanic was viewed as invincible, but really it was not and therefore there were not enough lifeboats to sustain the thousands of passengers.

Answer 6

If the Captain had not been in such a big hurry to get that ship to New York City in record time, he would have been going at a slower speed and might have avoided the iceberg. That's just one theory.

Answer 7

The need to show it was the fastest ship; the overuse of the telegraph system by the 1st class passengers so messages couldn't get through; the feeling of invincibility; too few lifeboats; the iceberg!

Answer 8

for some reason i could not get over thinking that someone in my family was on the titanic i think about it all the time and searched on the internet looking for my last name and never found any information

Answer 9

It was hit by an iceberg. Although it was just scraped on the side, it let a massave hole that flooded the whole ship. Im pretty sure thats the story.

Answer 10

first, there was rose and jack kissing, then the watch didn't saw the iceberg, and when he saw it, it was too late...boom!