Comment Re:Honor and glory? (Score 2) 129
Indeed. I'm not a naval historian but I believe Titanic sunk because of multiple factors, not just one or two.
- Titanic was cruising too fast for the conditions.
- There were more bergs than usual.
- The sea was too calm to spot the berg before it was too late.
- Titanic's rudder was too small to turn the ship in time.
- Titanic's middle prop (driven by a steam turbine, not reciprocating engines) could not be reversed, which combined with the reversed outer props caused bad turbulence for the rudder, causing the ship to turn even slower.
- The berg only barely punctured the fifth compartment, which eventually caused the ship to founder. Had it only been four compartments, the ship would've survived.
And, the sinking became a legendary naval disaster because of many more factors.
- Not enough lifeboats for everyone, which was entirely normal at the time.
- Women and children only policy, which caused half-filled lifeboats to leave the ship.
- Radio not being listened at all times while at sea, which caused the nearest ship to not hear Titanic's pleas for help. (The lights mentioned in the animation.)
- Emergency signal rockets not being respected, which caused the same.
There was a third Olympic-class vessel, called the Britannic, that sailed into a mine during WW1 and sunk. Because of favorable circumstances, only 30 people out of over 1000 on board were lost. Ships sink. What we have to do as a civilization is to do our best so that sinkings don't become disasters. The Titanic disaster prompted many actions toward that goal, which helped with Britannic also. And we are constantly improving and reminded about these things by events such as the sinking of the Costa Concordia.