R.M.S. Titanic 1912R.M.S. Titanic 1912

Background Information

The year 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. The ship was owned by an American conglomerate but operated by British seamen. It left Southampton on April 10, 1912, with 1324 passengers, 130 of whom were bound for Canada via New York. It collided with an iceberg on April 14 and sank early the following morning. The SOS message from the Titanic was relayed from a wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland, to Montreal and then to New York, providing the first news of the tragedy to the world.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the closest major seaport with a rail connection to New York. Ships were sent from Halifax to gather the dead from the worst naval disaster in history, and many of the bodies retrieved were buried there.  Among the dead were 82 Canadians.

The documents in this presentation came from the Begbie Canadian History Contest Society.

Instructions

Using the following eleven documents, explain why the unthinkable happened to what many considered to be an unsinkable vessel.  Be sure to indicate where you found the evidence to support your thesis (Documents 1, 2, 3 etc. – cite as D1, D2, D3 etc.) 

Document 1

“The first decade of the twentieth century was the culmination of a hundred years of the most accelerated rate of change in society and technology that mankind had ever known.Between 1812 and 1912, humanity had gone from transportation, communication, production, and manufacturing methods powered by human or animal muscle,augmented by wind and water, to a world of steam engines, steamships, and steam-powered machinery.”

Daniel Allen Butler, Unsinkable: the full story of the RMS Titanic, 1998, p. 25 

Document 2

“The Titanic is divided by 15 watertight bulkheads [an upright partition separating compartments of a ship], and designed so that any two compartments may be flooded without in any way involving the safety of the ship...Each door [between the bulkheads]...can, by simply moving an electric switch, instantly close the doors throughout, practicably making the vessel unsinkable.” 

“White Star Line Royal and United States Steamers Olympic & Titanic, 45,000 Tons Each, The Largest Vessels in the World.”  Publicity brochure, Liverpool, 1911, p.11

[Most naval accidents occur when a ship slices into the side of another vessel. This would flood at most two compartments.]

Document 3

The wireless room of the Titanic, 1912.

Wireless technology was relatively new in 1912. While most vessels carrried one operator, the Titanic carried two. Ships travelled in very busy shipping lanes and no vessel was more than two or three hours away from another vessel. In case of an accident a ship could contact a nearby ship for help.

Document 4

“When  anyone asks how I [Captain Smith] can best describe my experience of nearly forty years at sea, I merely say, uneventful. Of course there have been winter gales, and storm and fog and the like, but in all my experience, I have never been in any accident of any sort worth speaking about...I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”

Titanic Captain Edward Smith, interview in New York newspapers, 1907

Document 5

Wireless messages reporting the location of icebergs  received by Captain Smith on April 14, 1912:

A. 9 a.m. “Captain, Titanic [from Caronia] –West-bound steamers report bergs, growlers and field ice...”

B. 1:42 p.m. “Greek steamer Athenai reports passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice to-day...”

C. 7:30 p.m. “To Captain, [from] Antillian...Three large bergs five miles to southward of us.”

Wireless messages reporting the location of icebergs received by the Titanic but NOT forwarded to the bridge:

D. 1:45 p.m. “America passed two large icebergs...”

E. 9:40 p.m. “From Mesaba... Saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs.”

F. 10:55 p.m. From Californian [a ship ten miles from where the Titanic was to sink] “Say, old man, we are stopped and surrounded by ice.”

[The Californian operator, the only one on his ship, had been working an 18-hour shift. He soon turned off his wireless set and went to bed, so did not hear the Titanic’s SOS messages. The Carpathia heard the message but was over four hours away.]

North American Philadelphia 1912 The Helmsman

Document 6

Document 7

“Why did the Master persevere in his course and maintain his speed [40 kph]?... for a quarter of a century or more, the practice of liners using this track when in the vicinity of ice at night had been in clear weather to keep the course, to maintain the speed and to trust to a sharp lookout to enable them to avoid the danger. This practice had been justified by experience, no casualities having resulted from it...Its root is probably to be found in competition and in the desire of the public for quick passages rather than in the judgment of navigators.”

Report on the loss of the Titanic, 1912

Document 8

“Lookout Swears Glasses Would Have Allowed Him to Spot Berg.”

Headline, New York World, April 24, 1912.

[Mr. Fleet, the lookout in the crowsnest of the Titanic, testified at an inquiry that he had asked for but had not been given binoculars by Second Officer Lightoller. The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 pm.]

Document 9

A blue iceberg with red and black paint on its side. Photographed on April 15, 1912,  by a passenger on the Carpathia as the lifeboats were recovered.

“9 p.m.[Second Officer Lightoller of the Titanic]: ‘This is the first time in my experience of the Atlantic in twenty-four years...of seeing an absolutely flat sea. The sky was perfectly clear but there was no moon.’...Lightoller then remarked that it was a pity that the breeze had so completely died, since the chop a breeze usually kicked up would make it easier to spot any ice ahead as it washed up against the base of a berg. Captain Smith was sure that the visibility was good enough that even a ‘blue’ berg, that is, one that had recently overturned [and much darker in colour than a white iceberg], would be spotted before it could present a danger.”

Report on the Loss of the S.S. Titanic, 1912

Document 10 Profile of the Titanic, from Report on the Loss of the S.S. Titanic, 1912       The letters below the diagram indicate the location of the sixteen bulkheads. The heavy line on deck levels D and E indicates the top of the bulkheads. The crosshatched compartments are those opened to the sea by the collision. 

[It took 2 hours for water to fill the damaged compartments. The bow of the ship sank slowly until water spilled over the top of the bulkheads and filled more of the compartments. The ship sank at 2:20 a.m. The Carpathia, the nearest ship to hear the SOS sent by the Titanic, did not reach the survivors until 4:30 a.m.]

Cincinnati Post Apr 1912

[The Titanic carried a total of 2223 passengers and crew, and enough lifeboats to hold 1178.A total of 706 people were saved and 1507 were lost.]