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The Unsinkable Ship, The Ship of Dreams, otherwise known as the R.M.S. Titanic was an unforgettable and tragic disaster that changed the lives of many people. Some things could not have been predicted; however, they could have been more prepared. If certain precautions had been taken, the destiny of the R.M.S. Titanic would have been altered and saved many lives.
On April 10, 1912, the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage. The ship left Southampton, England, heading for New York, United States of America. On April 14, 1912, at 11:30 pm Fred Fleet and Reginald Lee were the two men on lookout duty. Fleet initially spotted the iceberg and rang the bell to proclaim “Iceberg right ahead!” Less than five miles ahead Titanic's destiny awaited.1 After receiving the news, First Officer Murdoch acted quickly. He gave the order, “Hard-a-starboard,” and told the engine room, “Stop. Full speed astern.” 2 After he gave those orders, he pulled the lever that automatically closed the fifteen watertight doors in the engine and boiler room bulkheads. The Titanic turned two points to port before hitting the iceberg.
The iceberg’s dark bulk glided along the ship’s length, scraping, and bumping against the first 300 feet of the vessel’s hull deep below the waterline. As the Titanic was still moving at about 21 knots, she would have passed through 300 feet in less than ten seconds.3 Many passengers and crew were only slightly disturbed by the collision. Most felt a heavy vibration. Many who were sleeping did not even wake up. The crew did not begin telling the people that the ship was sinking until they knew for sure. They did this to try to prevent panic. Even after they were putting out lifeboats to the first class, many of the second-class people did not know the ship was sinking. Nonetheless, on April 15 at 2:20 am with around 1500 people still on board Titanic sank.
When the Titanic set sail with 2,208 passengers and crew on board. Out of these, only 712 people survived. 1,496 lives were lost that day.4 This was very tragic because many more lives could have been saved. There were only 16 lifeboats and 4 inflatable lifeboats on the Titanic. The capacity of each lifeboat was 65. Out of these, only four of them were lowered carrying close to their full capacity. Of the remaining 16, only three had more than fifty people on board. The average number aboard the other 17 boats was a startling 44. Even if all the lifeboats had been fully loaded, 1,052 people would have still lost their lives. Some of the builders of the ship believed that she was unsinkable; therefore, they did not prepare for the worst. If they had taken these precautionary measures there is no doubt more people would have survived.
The Titanic was going around 21 knots when it hit the iceberg. If it had not been going as fast, they would have been able to turn easier and could have avoided the iceberg altogether. However, along with being the largest and the most luxurious ship, they also wanted it to be the fastest. They were aiming to arrive in New York late Tuesday night instead of early Wednesday morning as they had planned. If they had laid down their pride and wanted to be the fastest and focused on the safety of everyone on board this could have been prevented. Many other factors contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. Some of them were design and outfitting flaws that were correctable; some were faulty navigation, and failure to deliver warning messages, these were human errors. If the design of the Titanic herself had called for watertight bulkheads to be carried one deck higher there would have been no overflow, no spillage from forward to after compartments, pulling the ship's head lower in the water and causing a further overflow. For almost her entire voyage Titanic had been advised repeatedly of ice conditions at or near the position her sailing orders required her to occupy. Throughout April 14, as she approached this location, her wireless operators received at least six messages that described field ice and icebergs on her course and directly ahead.5 some things were unpredictable like collision and near-collision, and weather conditions.
Some people had said the Titanic was doomed from the start, the hull number that was assigned by her builders was 390904. A number of some Harland and Wolff yard workers read in mirror images as ‘NO POPE.’ This causes fear and doubts in the mind of the superstitious. Many things contributed to the sinking of the Titanic. Some things could have been prevented, but there were many unpredictable things. When everything lined up perfectly, the Titanic was surely doomed for disaster. The Titanic was an unforgettable and tragic disaster that changed the lives of many people. If these things were done, they could have altered the destiny of the R.M.S. Titanic and saved the lives of many people.
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