Would the Titanic have survived if,?

Question

When the Capt found out what happened, what if he decided to run full backwards in order for the water to not fill the boat so fast?
Also, the Titanic might have meet the Carpathia sooner and could have saved more people?

Answer 1

some comments on other posts:

this is the first I've ever heard that Carpathia ignored distress calls....she turned and went 110% full out we're not foolin' here emergency ahead to get there, but she was 110 miles away when the first calls went out.....

posters may have her confused with Californian, a ship about fifteen miles away, stopped in the ice field and waiting for dawn to proceed.......she only had one radio operator who was off duty when Titanic was sending CQD and SOS; her watch saw Titanic's distress flares but her Captain dismissed them as "party signals" and went below.

going forward or backward would have very little effect on how fast the water came in; that's a function of water pressure at the depth of the gash in the hull.

What might have saved more people would have been Titanic trying to limp closer to Californian and attract her attention. Just how far she could have steamed and how fast is open to question; but if she could have gotten to within signal light range, say 10 miles, Californian might have woken up and been able to save way more folks.

The engine room and boiler room staffs stayed at their posts till flooding drove them away. Titanic had lights burning until almost the end.

None of the engineering officers or men survived.

Answer 2

The Titanic was considered unsinkable because the ship was divided into watertight compartments separated by bulkheads. Any two or three compartments could flood and the others would be buoyant enough to keep the ship afloat.

What happened, though, was they saw an iceberg and turned to try to miss it. Instead the iceberg ran alongside the ship and sliced a big gash in the side of the ship, opening several compartments. Even if the could have gone fast enough (doubtful) they would have had to go -sideways-!

I have heard speculation that if they had just run head-on into the iceberg the bow of the ship might have been smashed, but the ship would probably have remained afloat. I have also read that photos of the wreck of the ship suggest that the steel used in the skin was not the right kind, not the kind the designer ordered, because someone was trying to save a little money.

The Titanic was supposed to be the fastest liner ever built and the captain was trying to set a new record for crossing the North Atlantic. That's why they were going so fast in the first place, at night in the fog.

Answer 3

Boats that big don't stop on a dime, so putting the boat in full reverse would still have not done much, as the ship would have coasted and continued to scrape past the iceberg. So no, it wouldn't have made much difference.

Had Carpathia got there faster and not ignored the distress calls, I think many more people could have been saved!!

Cheers!!!

Answer 4

Did Carpathia acctually ignore the distress calls? I thought they had turned most of the power off on the ship (like the titanic was meant to do) to go though the ice fields and that meant they couldn't receive the distress calls?

Answer 5

No, the Titanic was not only rapidly advancing through icy water, but, moreover, the Titanic's bulkheads were not completed (meaning- they only went up so far and allowed water to spill over each bulkhead and flood).
Watertight bulkheads would have done the job. Yes, if any vessel would have arrived earlier, it would have saved more lives.

Since the incident, bulkheads are watertight and now there are even "double hulled ships."
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Answer 6

no, remember where the boiler room was, do you really think anyone would volunteer to stay at the bottom of a sinking ship?

but the carpathia would have definitely had made a huge difference had it gotten there sooner

but then that's why its history

Answer 7

sounds like a good idea! ...you reckon they could have pulled a skier?