by Tiffany Logue
Contributing writer
April 15, 2012, is the 100 year anniversary of the Titanic disaster. According to CBS News, the disaster was remembered on land and sea. CBS News reporter Mark Phillips called it “remembering human arrogance and folly.”
Like most mistakes that earn the phrase “human arrogance and folly,” the Titanic disaster could have been less severe if the mistakes had been caught in 1912.
Titanic left for its first and only voyage on Wednesday, April 10, 1912. Its long-term destination was New York with two stops along the way.
After a narrowly missed collision with a steamer named New York, Titanic left Southampton and was on its way to stop at Cherbourg and Queenstown.
When it hit the open ocean, Titanic had somewhere between 2,200-2,400 people aboard it. However, exact numbers are debatable.
The Titanic sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912. Of those 2,200 or so people, only 705 people were saved after the ship hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean.
There were a few ways most of the people lost could have been rescued. Some of the ways could have been to add more lifeboats, to give the lookouts binoculars, to reduce its speed and to get a reply from the nearby ship.
According to “The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic” by Michael Wilkinson and Robert Hamilton, “It is now definitely known that the Titanic carried 20 boats, providing accommodation for about 1,200 persons.” At this time, the rules for number of lifeboats were not as clear, and the Titanic contained 20 because it was the minimum number they had to have.
According to “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic” by Tom McCluskie, Michael Sharpe and Leo Marriott, of these 20 lifeboats, only about three had close to their full capacities, 13 were about half full and four contained under half.
According to “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic,” the crew operating the lifeboat levers did not have training or experience with the equipment used to lower the boats and had not been given clear instructions.
Southeastern research librarian Dennis Miles, who has a personal interest in the Titanic, said, “(Captain E.J. Smith) should have given his officers specific instructions to fill the boats to full capacity.” He said that if the boats were full, 400 more people might have been saved.
After the Titanic disaster, lifeboat regulations were researched and updated to save more lives in future accidents.
An easily solved problem Titanic had was the lookouts lacking binoculars which made it harder to see icebergs at farther distances.
There are different theories as to why the lookouts did not have binoculars. One was that they had been locked in a box and a man took the key home with him.
The “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic,” theorizes that the binoculars “had gone missing during the officer reshuffle at Southampton.”
A larger issue that could have saved lives was the speed at which Titanic was going.
The last recorded speed was written down on April 14, 1912. Titanic was traveling at 22.5 knots at noon and was assumed to be traveling the same speed at the time of the accident, according to “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic” which is about 26 mph
Twenty-six mph is considered fast for a ship in 1912.
The theory from “The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic” was that if Titanic had not shut off its engines, went into full reverse and turned hard to the right, the main damage would have been to the front of the ship. Those same theories say that if this had occurred, Titanic would have not sunk.
Miles said if the Titanic had taken the iceberg on straight it “would have damaged the (front of the ship) for sure and would have messed that up, but it would have taken only the front compartments instead of all six.”
The truth is that no one knows if taking the damage on the front would have had a different effect. However, if Titanic had not been going 26 mph, it would have had a better chance of making it.
According to “The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic,” the ship’s needed stopping distance was half a mile. Without binoculars and moving that fast, it was impossible to not hit the iceberg.
No one knows why Smith ordered the ship to speed up seeing as he had received iceberg warnings. Like everything else surrounding the disaster, there are several theories as to why Smith did.
The theory given by “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic” is that he could have been trying to beat Titanic’s sister ship’s best speed of 22.75 knots.
The wider assumed theory is that J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of White Star Line, asked Smith to take Titanic to 22 knots. According to “The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic,” this theory suggests that Ismay wanted the ship “to reach New York ahead of schedule.”
Ismay denied all such accusations.
One of the least known problems that Titanic faced was lack of compassionate ships nearby.
All ships that received Titanic’s distress code were too far out to get there in time. However, survivors of Titanic said they saw a ship’s lights.
The ship the survivors assumed they saw was the Californian which had stopped in the middle of an ice field for the night. The Californian was said to be stopped anywhere from 6-20 miles away from the sinking Titanic.
According to “The Story of the Unsinkable Titanic,” the Californian’s wireless operator “had received a sharp rebuff from his Titanic counterpart the previous night…” The operator returned to find Titanic’s distress code, “CQD,” at 6 a.m.
According to “Titanic and Her Sisters Olympic and Britannic,” SOS had become the distress call in 1908 because it was easier to send in Morse code. However, “It was still not in common use by 1912.” Most ships still used CQD which meant “Come Quick, Danger.”
When it arrived the next morning, the Californian saw that a ship named the Carpathia had already arrived at Titanic’s location and was pulling up survivors. However, “It was said Titanic’s distress rockets were seen and misinterpreted” by the Californian.
“Captain Lord (of the Californian) did not give the rockets the amount of credit that they deserved,” said Miles. Had they given them credit, the Californian could have saved a lot more people if not all. Had someone on the Californian thought to see if Titanic needed help, they could have been at the ship in about two hours depending on the exact distance from the disaster.
There were many different ways Titanic’s losses could have been reduced. However, these mistakes were made, thus making Titanic a historical event.
For more information on the Titanic, visit [email protected]/titanic.