The Titanic was an ocean liner that belonged to the White Star Line. This "unsinkable" British ocean liner sank on her maiden voyage in 1912, resulting in the death of more than 1,500 men, women, and children. When compared to previous marine disasters that have occurred during peacetime, the number of deaths was higher.
The Titanic was elevated into the realm of myth and legend due to the apparent improbability of the incident and eventually the severity of the catastrophe.
Construction and Design of Titanic
Thomas Andrews, who designed the ship Titanic measured 270 meters long and 28 meters wide. It was as high as an eleven-story building, and the weight of the ship was around 46,000. She was the most massive moving object ever created by man. The Titanic was seen as being extremely luxurious as well. The Titanic boasted of a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 compartments that would allow her to stay afloat even if three of the compartments were breached. It was assumed that no more than two compartments could ever be breached at the same time. Her designers believed that by using this design, the ship would be virtually unsinkable.
How did it happen?
On April 10, 1912, the much-discussed Titanic set out on its much-publicized maiden journey from Southampton, England to New York. Titanic received the seven iceberg warnings due to more icebergs were formed as a result of the weather conditions in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days later as she sailed the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, but her captain saw no reason to slow down. When peaceful journey is being experienced by all passengers and crew there was an abrupt alarm at 11:40 PM that an iceberg was directly ahead. In order to escape the iceberg, the officer in charge automatically reversed engines and steered the ship. The iceberg, on the other hand, passed along the ship's starboard side, leaving a series of gashes at least 80 meters long. Six compartments had been opened up to the sea by the gashes. It had never even occurred to anyone to imagine, much less prepare for, this. The sinking of the Titanic ship was inevitable.
Many of the crew members and passengers found it difficult to accept that the Titanic would truly sink. At first, the evacuation was disorganized, but as the ship started to sink, the passengers and crew started to panic. Only about half of the 2,227 passengers could fit in the 20 lifeboats that were available aboard the ship. The crew, however, rarely filled the lifeboats to capacity since they adhered to the unspoken guideline of "women and children first". The majority of third-class passengers, many of whom were women and children, were trapped in the ship's lower decks.
The Titanic sank at 2:20 AM on April 15, less than three hours after the initial impact. A total of 1,522 individuals perished at sea, including the ship's captain, one of its designers, the majority of the crew, the majority of the third-class passengers, and the majority of the adult male passengers travelling in first and second classes. In the clamour of those drowning from hypothermia in the frigid Atlantic waters, the 705 survivors in the lifeboats awaited rescue by the Cunard liner Carpathia.
Could the Titanic ship have been saved?
More individuals, including women, children, and elders, have perished as a result of this terrible disaster that occurred in the middle of the ocean at midnight. According to the analysis, some experts believe that the ship could have been saved from sinking.
After the investigation of the disaster revealed that if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head-on, her bow would have crumpled but she would not have received any fatal wounds to her starboard side and therefore she would have remained afloat.
The Titanic's officers received repeated warnings about icebergs in the region but owing to a combination of factors including outdated navigation techniques, lack of binoculars for the lookout, and miscommunication, the ship was unable to avoid the iceberg in time. If they had taken care of all these systems, the Titanic would have saved.
Even if the engine speed had not been reduced, the ship would have turned more quickly with the greater forward motion, and a collision could have been avoided altogether.
What caused Titanic to sink?
In 1994, samples of the hull were retrieved from the site and examined by metallurgists who were interested in the ship's physical composition. The experts quickly learned that the steel used to build the ship's hull was brittle, much more brittle than modern steel, due of its high Sulphur content, and the samples of the shattered hull appeared jagged rather than curved. When the hull met the iceberg, the steel plates did not bend inward, instead they fractured. Scientists believe that if the ship's designers had used more flexible steel of a higher quality, the hull would have absorbed more stress, suffered less damage, and the ship may have remained afloat long enough for the majority of the people to be saved.
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