Research skills project: Why did the Titanic sink?
“The ship was doomed and it was slowly sliding into its watery grave. But why did the largest, most advanced ship of the 20th century sink?”
The Titanic was one of the most famous ships ever built and its tragic sinking continues to haunt our imaginations since that tragic night of 12th April 1912. It is possibly the most famous shipwreck of all time. The Titanic was built in Belfast by renowned shipbuilders Harland & Wolff. They built her sister ships ‘The Britannic’ and ‘The Olympic’. It took 11,300 Harland & Wolff shipyard workers 26 months to build the titanic.
The Titanic was famous for its size, its luxury, its famous passengers and for being ‘unsinkable’. …show more content…
It was made of steel and was watertight.
Therefore, no water could get in from the outside. The problem was that the compartments inside the vessel were not watertight. Each compartment did not extend right to the top of the hull – allowing water to flow from one compartment into another. When the iceberg ripped a hole in the side of the ship, the compartments began to fill with water. As five of the compartments filled with water, enough air was pushed out of the ship to lower the front end (the bow) deep into the sea. Water continued to pour over the top of the compartments that where filled with water into those that were still full of air. 5 compartments were filled. The more the Titanic sank, the more water poured into the air- filled compartments and the heavier the vessel became. Eventually, air was forced out of the hull so that the whole ship became heavier than the water around it and consequently the Titanic sank. This is one of the main reasons why the titanic sank, (oblivious to the fact that it crashed into an iceberg.) Although crashing against the iceberg made a gash in the ship, the speed of the ship was too fast to be traveling in dangerous waters. The ship was traveling at about 21 knots. According to http://www.historyonthenet.com/Titanic/blame.htm