Preview

The Titanic - Who is to Blame?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
498 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Titanic - Who is to Blame?
The Titanic sinking is a topic that has been met with a lot of controversy over the years. There are many theories about what cause the sinking and how it could have been avoided. One factor though, that should be focused on more than any other is: Who is to blame for the sinking of The Titanic? The answer is a simple one. White Star Line is to blame for this legendary sinking.

White Star Line built what they called a “nearly unsinkable ship”. The Titanic was made primarily out of sub-par steel. The steel was not strong enough and on impact, it would damage easily. It was also very heavy so, if the ship started to take in water, it would sink quickly, weighed down by both the water and its own weight. The designers of The Titanic probably hadn’t expected anything to graze alongside the ship like the iceberg did so the water retaining compartments couldn’t actually retain enough water to keep it afloat as five of them were damaged when in reality; the ship could withstand only four being filled.

The propellers on the boat were way too small compared to the boat’s size. While they kept the boat moving forward, they made it virtually impossible for the boat to make a quick turn. Because of this, by the time the lookout saw the iceberg, it was too late to turn away and completely avoid collision. This again was a mistake made by the designing team at White Star Line; it was a careless oversight of the size of the boat compared to the size and power of the propellers.

The captain sailing the Titanic had already been charged with the sinking of another ship. So why, would White Star Line put him in charge of the biggest ship of its time? Clearly that was a mistake; clearly he wasn’t qualified to be in charge of a ship of its size. How White Star Line thought that was a good idea may never be known but it was definitely a stupid choice, there’s no other way to look at it.

After switching over the crew, one of the crew members left the boat with a key in

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    action. This might have saved the ship from the sinking or even the torpedo hits. Captain McVay…

    • 466 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The commander chosen for this voyage was Edward John Smith, this will be his last passage before he resigns, unknowingly that his last day would be April 14, 1912 (. According to an article written by Goss (2016), a British-owned White Star Line had decided to build the Titanic, this took place in Ireland between the years 1902-1912. A documentary about how the Titanic: how It Really Sank (2016) pointed out, that in March 1912 the sister ship to Titanic, the Olympic has a crisis repair, making the last stages to the Titanic arrive at a stop. Its first trip is pushed back a month, mid April. During this time in the year is the point at which the most iceberg show up in delivery paths in the North Atlantic Ocean. Because of the crisis repairs…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    • Due to the small number of crew the work load was way too much for the people operating the ship That is probably the reason why the Captain was sleeping deck below and a untrained crew member was at the wheel asleep controlling the ship.…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On April 15, 1912, 1500 people died on board the RMS Titanic. Families were lost at sea, struggling to survive in the dark, murky waters of the Trans-Atlantic Ocean. However, one question remains… Who or what is responsible for the sinking of the ‘unsinkable ship’? The Titanic set sail on April 10, 1912 carrying 2200 passengers and 1300 crew. She hit an iceberg on April 14, 1912 at 11:45 p.m. At first the captain thought that the ship had merely scraped the iceberg. The damage was much worse... The iceberg scraped the hull so bad the rivets used to hold the ship together popped out. The gash in the hull let water come into the ship at 10 tons per second! Of the 2200 passengers, she carried on board, only 700 survived. Some people say that Thomas Andrews (the head designer of the Titanic) was responsible for the tragedy due to faulty ship design. Others say that J. Bruce Ismay is responsible for encouraging faulty ship design. Ismay is to blame because he should have told Thomas Andrews to make the supposed ‘water tight’ bulkheads higher. Ismay also should have added more lifeboats to save everyone on board in case of disaster. Out of all the culprits, Ismay is the most responsible because he had the final say in how the ship was made.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Why 880 Men Die

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    unpreparedness. The ship did not have lifeboats, which cause the men to be in the ocean…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to 100 Unsinkable Facts about the Titanic, William Edward Minahan was a doctor from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Before he sailed on the maiden voyage of the Titanic, he had his fortune read. The fortune teller told him he would die aboard the ship, but he did not listen, and went on the voyage. She was right, and he died in the tragic accident (1). The Titanic is one of the most well known disasters in history. The RMS Titanic was the most luxurious ship of its time. It was said to be unsinkable, which created false hope for the passengers when disaster struck. The survivors’ haunting stories are still told today. Innovative technologies were used to study why the Titanic sank. If Clive Palmer makes a second Titanic, it will plunge into…

    • 1480 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research Paper On Titanic

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The reason for Master Harold Victor Goodwin not surviving the Titanic was because he and his family were immigrants and also third class passengers in the lower part of the boat. His family, and many other families, were locked and trapped down there to die because people did not think that the immigrants and third class was worth saving even though the lifeboats could hold more people then they let…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Englishman Research Paper

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In August, 1807, a steamboat designed by Robert Fulton successfully completed the first round trip voyage from New York to Albany and back (Steamboats, par 1). This voyage started an obsession for advancement in steam travel that reached across the Atlantic and into the minds of the British people. Their quest to always out-do their competitors eventually led to the creation of one of the most famous steamboats of all time. The Titanic was the most luxurious ship that had ever been built. It could not compete with the speed of other steamships, however, so the English decided to compensate by creating the largest and most elaborate ship the world had ever seen (Sinking, par 3). The Titanic was financed by an American company, International Mercantile Marine, which purchased White Star Lines, the British marine company responsible for building the Titanic. The ship, however, was built totally with British technology, registered as a British ship, and manned by British officers (Sinking, par 2). The Titanic launched its first voyage from Southampton, England on the evening of April 14, 1912 (Sinking, par 1). It was traveling to New York when it struck an iceberg and sank, killing fifteen hundred people. The superiority of the Titanic will always be overshadowed, however, by the memory of one of the greatest disasters of all…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It may be argued that the Cunard Line is almost entirely at fault for its negligence and general disregard for the welfare of its passengers. The Lusitania was doomed from the beginning. The ship was constructed with government money in return for the guarantee that the ship could be converted into an armed warship in periods of war. The Lusitania's sister ship, the Mauretania, was converted into a troop transport while the Lusitania was decided to be too cumbersome…

    • 750 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Everyone felt the cold breeze on their face, their eyelashes; frozen. Their hair is iced in place and everyone is surrounded by freezing cold water. No one can feel their body, it has only been ten minutes but people around Rose are already dying. The movie, Titanic, is based on historical stories 50 years prior. White Star Line, the contractors for the creation of the Titanic, and many others, believed that the ship was unsinkable. Therefore, no one would get on the lifeboats. Although, today's forensic science proves many flaws that the ship held. The Titanic is the most influential American film because it illustrates a profound look into history, uses engineering to recreate the historical event, and demonstrates how to live life.…

    • 2174 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Some books say the ship was blown off course, others blame an “error in navigation.”…

    • 775 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Titanic was famous for its size, its luxury, its famous passengers and for being ‘unsinkable’.…

    • 1034 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As soon as the engine stopped working it was clear that the Titanic was not able to work again. Numbers may vary on the amount of passengers and workers on the Titanic because the workers never truly made a list of the names of the passengers (Landou). The control workers could have been there when Fredrick Fleet called them to warn about the iceberg. The passengers and workers on the lifeboats didn’t fill them up as much as they could have. Many valuables were taken down with the Titanic on the morning it crashed (“Unsinkable”). The control room workers could have been on guard or at least have another person working the controls. If the Titanic wouldn’t have sunk, we would build ships the same and we wouldn’t over think about the possibilities, we would just put as much equipment as needed as we do…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Titanic Research Paper

    • 3174 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Questionable events arose after the sinking because the only evidence about that night was the stories told by the few survivors. It was known that on April 10th 1912, the Titanic set sail on her first voyage from Southampton. On April 14th at 11:40 p.m. the ship struck an iceberg on her starboard side of the bow. On April 15th at 2:20 a.m., the Titanic 's broken off stern sank into the sea (Amy 2). For many people, it was hard to believe that the largest ship ever built had sunk on its maiden voyage. Since it was thought that Titanic could stay afloat with even the hardest of impacts it was hard to imagine that the Titanic went down just because of an iceberg that scratched her bow. Therefore, the world was shocked the morning of April 15th when news broke out that Titanic had gone down in less than three hours. A recently uncovered family secret has revealed new information as to why the Titanic sank so rapidly. Today, the Titanic lies at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in two pieces and a big debris field surrounding two square miles. The shipwreck site is one of the deepest places on Earth to be explored and has brought us new knowledge about the tragic events of April 15thas well as biological processes currently occurring…

    • 3174 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people died, because there wasn't enough lifeboats. Titanic only had twenty lifeboats. That is not enough for over 2,000 people. Each lifeboat could only hold 40 to 60 people. The Titanic…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics