Given the conditions, hour of the night, and the time they were given, the crew did an incredible job getting 18 lifeboats off. It would have been awesome if the passengers were willing to get INTO those boats early on. Seeing an obvious ship on the horizon may have added to the reluctance. Opening the D Deck gangway hatch to prepare for the transfer didn’t help either.
He ordered for it to be open so when the lifeboats are lowered to that area more people could board. But to me it doesn't make since because their was no officer posted there to let anyone board. Just so much confusion going on and little time.
I agree, at least have enough time to launch the one that did not flip over since it was actually ready to be launched but was too late. The one that had flipped would have taken more time to be launched.
I look at it differently. Titanic SAVED 706 lives. Stayed afloat longer then herown designed estimated. and the crew managed to keep the pumps and lights going right till the break up.
Everyone is familiar with James Cameron's love for the Titanic. His theory of driving the Titanic backwards towards the closest ship while putting out her distress call is neat. Putting passengers on the iceberg?? I dont know...people were refusing to even put on life jacket's, let alone putting them off on a giant, uneven and unstable iceberg in the pitch black dark ocean
@@CJODell12 yes it does. Try to find a documentary called The Final Word or The Last Word. He admits that. And it's cool because a team of people reconstruct the sinking in a new way. Its fun
As a child and even a young man I felt the iceberg theory was plausible. Then I went on an Alaskan cruise. I saw the ice in the water, looked at the glaciers, witnessed calving and felt the icy cold air. It was then I knew the iceberg theory doesn’t work at all! Now that I’ve seen your video of two men on one as it rolled over, just confirms it even more! And those men had crampons and ice axes!!
@@Blox117 - yes I suppose if it were more of an ice shelf and assuming titanic could come up along side it and have a gangway that people could walk over to it it would be plausible…. A lot of “ifs” but plausible.
Personally, I have always thought I'd have headed to the galley, removed my clothes and covered myself with tallow, cooking fat, butter etc as well as fashioning a 'helmet' from the same, then replaced my clothes. Joughin wouldn't mind - he'd be getting legless at the time. Primitive insulation might have kept me alive a bit longer!
Unlikely to make much of a difference, you need to be out of the water, period. You'd have a better bet grabbing one of the big, thick dining tables with a mate and chucking it overboard and you two hopping aboard, like the Chinese fella who was rescued after hours adrift. You just can't get the fat on thick enough, though if you could get it all over in an even 5-10 cm thickness say, that'd be pretty good because it floats too, but obvs that's not possible (plus I think it freezes at like -5C and the sea was -2.2 C that night, bit narrow).
That's exactly what my daughter said she would do. Cover herself in fat or tallow, grab a bouyant piece of furniture, and get off the ship. This also ties in nicely with Sam's raft idea.
Even the fittest person would only last about 20 minutes at most in water that cold before freezing to death. The baker had the right idea. Drink a couple bottles of whiskey and then stand on the poop deck and as the ship went under just swim away without getting your head wet. The booze in his body kept him alive until he reached the overturned lifeboat.
I've thought of the raft idea, inspired by the door Jack found and gave to Rose. The free crew and probably a large number of passengers would have the simple skills needed to cannabilize the ship. Axes and other tools were likely abundant. Doors, thick wood panels, tables (of which there were hundreds) bedposts and headboards, even cribs could be converted into rafts pretty simple. Lashing together and supplementing with lifebelts/ flotation devices could have created large surfaces to lay on and stay mostly clear of the water. The may have even been able to build small fires out of paper and cigars.
There was also lots of field (flat) ice in the area. Think Rudolph (the red nosed reindeer) and friends when they escaped from the Bumble. Field ice is also why the nearby Californian stopped for the night, and the Titanic also had lots of warnings which provided the locations of field ice. Likely it was still too far away, but just a thought.
Re: @7:00 More lifeboats would've worked IF the crew had been properly drilled in procedures. A trained crew, who'd had boat drill, could easily have gotten additional boats cleared and launched. This would've been presuming installed davits all the way along the Boat Deck (like "Olympic" had after the disaster), so they just had to uncover and swing out. Collapsible Boats would've been in place already (like Boats C and D) and just had to be hooked on. A and B couldn't be launched easily because they were at the base of the funnel, atop the Officers Quarters. An experienced (and properly drilled) crew could easily have launched additional boats in the time allotted, as the sea was dead calm and there was no serious list to either side. The main thing would've been to have been more forceful in getting the passengers INTO the boats. Trying to locate and evacuate people onto the iceberg has to be about the dumbest idea I've ever heard. If anyone on the bridge had suggested it, they'd have been regarded as insane. Makeshift rafts would be the most practicable method to save extra lives. A great source of wood would be the deck chairs -strap inside a folded one and it would be ready to go. Also, wooden chairs and tables from the dining rooms and lounges would be used, and the bigger ones could hold more than one person. A source of labour would ideally be the stewards and other victualling staff who were milling about on deck. Another source was the passengers. Amongst First and Second Class you'd have professional engineers who knew tools. In Third Class, there'd surely have tradesmen who would be useful. In fact, pretty much any able bodied passenger could assist. The trouble was that there'd really be no way to effectively get rafts off the ship without getting into the water, albeit briefly. However, if they could get out of the water quickly they'd probably be able to hang on for the two or three hours until help arrived. It wouldn't have saved everyone, but it probably could've saved at least a hundred or so; possibly even more (depending on how many people assisted). Another factor would be to get people off the ship and to the rafts before the ship went under and there were hundreds of people in the water all scrambling for some sort of flotation device.
In order to organize the building of rafts, you would first have to convince people that the sinking was imminent. It would also have taken more time for planning than was possible.
The only way most people would have been convinced that the ship was sinking was for them to see the flooding occurring. Then there would have been a mad dash to the lifeboats. (Jan Griffiths).
Another one is it might have helped particularly the third class passengers a bit better when it came to trying to get up the the boat deck, a lifeboat drill might have a least help some get a more familiar on where to go.
A lot of third class passengers also had a background in crafts that involve building stuff and/or working with tools. Given the opportunity and some basic instructions, many of them might have been able to help building rafts.
Doesn't matter, the rich women and rich children were first that's all the lifeboats there since the white star line broke safety protocol for choosing looks over safety and only carried half of the lifeboats they actually required before setting in a voyager.
@@AMaidenlessRunt While the Inquiry did reveal that aesthetics was involved for having less lifeboats on deck, they did not break safety protocol. Titanic actually was in compliance with maritime safety regulations and had more lifeboats than what was actually required by law for her gross tonnage at the time. During this time, lifeboats weren't meant to hold people for long periods of time. They were meant to ferry people from one ship to another. It was only after the sinking they realized that the regulations were outdated and that the use of lifeboats needed to change to where people needed to stay in them longer in the event of another ship not being near by that couldn't be ferried to. That's why the Olympic got updated to carry enough lifeboats for everyone and why the Britannic got the newer davit system.
If some of the dining tables had been brought out and their legs lashed together they would have formed a large floating raft. The legs would allow people floating on this raft to hold on so that they wouldn't be washed off. It's just a thought I have had for a long time.
Yup. I do too. There was one scheduled to happen on the morning of the 14th that got cancelled. Filling up the lifeboats to capacity would have saved more lives too.
Knowing where to go in an emergency and how to get there ALWAYS helps. That's why most modern ships have it where passengers have to go to their muster station BEFORE they can even leave port, at least one cruise I went one we actually had to go to the deck where we would board the lifeboats, again to show we know where to go and how to get there.
The Mythbusters actually built that very raft, when then tried to find out if both Jack and Rose could have gotten on the door, they had to tie their floatation vests under the door to get it to hold both
True, but .mythbusters did this in fairly ideal circumstances. The night of the sinking was far from ideal. It's hard to think of that after a horrible disaster, a cold night in 2 C/28 F water. You only have about 15 mins to live in that water if you don't go in to cardiac arrest first. Also the sky had no moon. It's like a real life Final Destination movie. Every situation is against you.
@@elysiabarr425 while your statement is true, "most" only had 15 min in the water, not all did, in fact one survived after being in the water for 2-3 hrs. In the movie, he was the guy on the aft of the ship who went in with rose and jack at the last min, the one drinking all the alcohol, lol!
My fiancé is a veteran and a carpenter and he has always said how he would have immediately began building a raft or rafts in that same manner- putting life jackets under it. Great video
This video is appropriate, considering I just watched A Night to Remember for the first time last night. I've seen James Cameron 's Titanic many times and while I am a fan of James Cameron's movie, it pales in comparison when it comes to how the sinking was portrayed. The 1997 movie is a lot more focused on the romance between Jack and Rose, but this movie was just straight to the point. This ship is going down and a lot of people are going to die.
@@sudonum3108 yeah. As I said, I'm still a fan of Cameron's movie but A Night to Remember really was something special, and this movie was done all the way back in 1958, so it shows you how well done it was!
I was thinking something similar like if I was there I would be looking around for a door, table, whatever thing that can keep afloat and just wait so I can use it.
If they filled all the lifeboats to capacity, around 1,100 people could have survived. Also had the D deck gangway door been shut, I bet the ship could have lasted another 10-20 minutes.
yes, I agree. Since their was no lifeboat drill, the officers weren't trained and were afraid the lifeboats would buckle under the weight. Also, one officer, mis-interpreted Captain Smith's order of Women and Children FIRST as Women and Children ONLY costing men their lives
@@davinp Yep exsctly, way more people died that night than it should have been. At least half, if not more than half could have gotten off even with there not being enough lifeboats. Also if the Californian helped, more would have survived too.
@@reminiscer15 I look at it differently. Titanic SAVED 706 lives. Stayed afloat longer then herown designed estimated. and the crew managed to keep the pumps and lights going right till the break up.
The most madcap theory that I've heard about how to save more lives is to take everyone's life jackets and deposit them in the bow end (I can't remember whether it was Boiler Room 6 that was being mooted as a good spot, but presumably the further toward the bow the better), the idea being that the additional buoyancy in the area of the damage would delay the sinking long enough for a rescue ship to arrive.
First and biggest mistake after striking the berg was Smith failing to send out an all stations notification the Titanic struck a berg and is performing an inspection. In the meantime all stations could have been informed of their position, to their wireless operator on station, and at least prepare for a rescue mission. Smiths 40 minute delay was a huge error and dereliction of his duty.
I have a theory that maybe could have saved everyone on Titanic, AFTER the collision. What if coal had been used to plug the holes in the Titanic's hull? .. It has perfect density and falls slowly into the water. Furthermore, it was present on board in almost unlimited quantities. Thus, the crew would only have had to throw large quantities of coal along the hull in the area where the collision occurred. When they fell in the water, pieces of coal could have got stuck in the breaches of the hull (due to the strong water suction), and this could have filled the gaps and slowed down the flooding.. Possibly it could have even saved the Titanic !! .. Please do a video on this topic, it would be super interesting !! And thank you for your great channel :)
Just traveled from PA to Tennessee to got to the titanic museum for vacation. Packed, but amazing to see the artifacts and learning more on what happened. Also, I got a chance to touch the 28F water the unfortunate had to swim in but didn’t survive the night. I was only able to keep my hand in that cold of water for 25 seconds. Also, the steepness of the incline was too much. I was able to hold myself up for about 10 mins .
I was in pigeon forge a few months back and the water wasn't even cold, also supposedly a few weeks or a month ago the ice wall fell and injured some guests
Hey! Super congratulations for your channel! I'm addicted to it watching all of the videos about Titanic! Do you have one or could you make one about the boats AFTER the Titanic went down? Did all of them were rescued by the Carpathia? Did any of them get lost out in the ocean with people on board? *yikes* Thanks!
14:45; I think that is a good idea about building rafts from any available materials. Also, I've mentioned this before, but what about if the 1500 people in the water had huddled together to retain their body heat? I've seen that in a survival manual. I remember seeing the 1997 movie for like the 200th time right after I read that manual and thinking, "why is everyone just floating alone? Huddle for body heat!" I was 13 at the time (2001). I first saw the movie when I was 10 (1998).
I think that trying to build rafts would have been a great idea. Maybe at least 1000 more could have been saved. And using released from duty crew members to build them is a also a good idea. I've thought about that too---there was a lot of wooden things on board, and it was a shame that wasn't put to use to save lives. Great video as always, Sam. (Jan Griffiths).
I would say the officers could have been more efficient in placing people in the lifeboats. Some of them were lowered with only 12 people. Do you think closing the gangway door on D level could have bought more time for them to build rafts?
Also, if Titanic had enough boats for everyone less time would have been spent looking for wiremen sand children and stopping men from boarding the boats. The evacuation would have gone a lot more smoother, especially with the D deck door closed.
Given how Boat 1 was launched relatively early in the sinking (1:10), you know when most people still didn't believe the severity of the situation, as well as how they would've had to climb over Collapsible C to get to Boat 1 it is tragically obvious why Murdoch and Lowe had a hard time getting people into that boat. It's not like it's counterpart on the port side was much better when it was launched at 1:45, having only 18 out of 40, AFTER male passengers and (non assigned) crew were driven out of the boat at gunpoint.
@@edwardojeda3152 The starboard side allowed men to enter the boats when no other women or children were in the area/willing to board. But if the ship appears to still be fine they would've STILL had a hard time getting people into the boats. One story about the Astors was that they had the chance to leave on Boat 7 (Murdoch's side which allowed men to enter after the willing women and children), but John believed the ship was safer than a "little boat". More boats wouldn't have done shit if they couldn't get people INTO the damn things while at the same time trying to NOT cause a panic by telling everyone that the ship had less than 2 hrs to live and since they have to manually lower the boats 7 stories they might not be able to launch all the boats before the ship goes down.
Hey man I hope you like this comment, but I’ve always loved old steam ships and you are doing such a great job at bringing everyone back in time!! I’d like to see other videos of just the history of steam and how the ships evolved over the years!! Either way I’m already subscribed lol love your videos!! You are awesome!
Another thing worth to note with the raft idea is that people would also help you, regualr passengers, I mean some would obviously panick, but those who would remain cool would help you, if nothing else, just to survive.
Thank you for your idea about how more people could have been saved. I have been fascinated by the story of the Titanic ship for many years and all the time wondering why captain Smith did not do more to try everything to save more passengers. In my humble opinion he just showed a horrible lack of leadership, not to mention that a lot of valuable time was lost pondering what to do after the ship hit the iceberg . As you said the ship contained a huge floatable objects; panels,boxes,chairs, tables…etc…that could have saved many people. I am sure that many passengers would have helped in making these rafts to safe their loved ones. Surely building a raft to survive a sinking ship is more urgent than building a raft for a castaway on a remote deserted island, isn’t it !!??
I think your theory would definitely work. If I were on the Titanic I would probably ask a crew member on the Titanic for some tools to do that and then use those tools to demolish some stuff like tables to make a better raft.
I find these really interesting, as I have watched previous live Titanic streams, with the last one On a Sea of Glass, and I heard Mr J Kent Layton (Sincere apologies if I spelt your name wrong) say they only managed to get 18 boats off from the davits in an hour or so.He said if there had been twenty more lifeboats on the Titanic, they would have ran out of time. Personally, I think it would have helped save more lives, but the harsh lesson of a massive liner that size at the time, carrying too few lifeboats made the compulsory safety changes needed.
James Cameron has talked about the ride-the-iceberg idea as well as proposing the Titanic could have steamed over to the Californian instead of just trying to contact it. The latter idea has problems of its own, but to my mind the iceberg one is on the same level of practicality as “They’d have avoided the collision altogether if only they had radar in 1912.” My pick in the might-have-been pool would be a combination of more lifeboats AND a proper lifeboat drill and emergency plan. Thorough training and preparation could have overcome the added difficulty of prepping more boats for launch.
I think your idea about making rafts is a good one, I don't know how feasible it would have been either but it wouldn't have cost any lives and might have saved some.
Thanks for the thoughts! I really love the proposition to set up conditions for rafts. It is a ship after all, they secured everything but the plates and chairs to the ship itself. Most likey why there were so few items to float on.. Don't want a slight tilt and have full wooden furniture tip/slide and squish someone now 🤔
Well my theory is this. As a sailor and person who work on a cruise shop I can tell you next. If Titanic had enough LB for all person onboard and crew was trained to use, prepare and launch LB in abandon ship situation they would perfome much better. Take in consideration that crew onboard Titanic did not have any drill or any emergency duty responsibilities. If they where trained properly with LB for all passagers everybody would be saved in around 1 hour. Again as a sailor I know what takes to perfome various duties and how properly and safely evacuate all ahip. We did it on Celebrity cruises in less than 27 minutes, 1.000 crew and 2.300 passagers in less than 27 minutes. Anyway keep up a good work HUGE FAN of yours!
I had never heard the #2 theory, so that was interesting. Regardless of which iceberg they were to use for safety if the two guys had issues trying to climb it WITH special gear, I highly doubt anyone in regular shoes would have been successful. As far as the building a raft theory? Given the amount of time and chaos going on, if someone like Thomas Andrews or any of the other technical-minded people on board didn't think of something like that, it's a high probability that Capt. Smith wouldn't either. A lot of people didn't even want to get into the lifeboats when available; something like that would be completely out of the question (until it was too late). It probably would have worked for some, but I think ultimately many would be destroyed by panicked people trying to get on it. More than likely if it was used to pick up people in the water, those people would soon freeze to death. Excellent video as always!
My great grandfather was in a lifeboat that held 40 and only 12 were in it. Lifeboat one. However the boat was about to float away with no one in it so Murdoch decided to put some passengers and crew in that boat because they were the only ones there at that time on the less crowded starboard side.
Staying on the iceberg wasn't even believable in the "Wreck of the Titan." Seriously, then the protagonist single-handledly (seriously, one arm was injured) killed a full-grown polar bear.
They might have had some extra time to get extra life boats down if they had alerted the passengers earlier and maybe gotten some help. But I still don't think it would have saved everyone. James Cameron demonstrated how long it takes to get a lifeboat down
Another consideration with the lifeboats is how few people even thought it was necessary in the beginning stages of the sinking. A lot of passengers just didn’t get on lifeboats because they didn’t believe there was danger. So you have lifeboats being launched with a lot fewer people on board than they are built to hold.
Great video. I think more life boats would’ve given people confidence & reassurance that everyone would survive. This, in turn, would’ve allowed for a more organized & quick evacuation. A big reason the first life boats weren’t filled to capacity was because women didn’t want to leave their husbands, if there were enough boats this likely wouldn’t have been as big of a concern. It would’ve been understood that EVERYONE had a good chance of escaping. This probably wouldn’t save everyone, but I can’t see how more life boats could do more harm than good.
You do know that most people didn't get into the boats in the early stages because they DIDN'T believe the ship was doomed and by the later half of the sinking people would realize that they DIDN'T have time to safely launch all the boats with hypothetical more boats. AND given how one of the reasons Boats 1 and 2 left with so few people was because people would've had to climb over Collapsibles C and D to get to them, that likely didn't help to get people into the boats and you want to ADD that obstacle to every row? Or what detach the extra row of boats onto the deck and hope they don't block too much of the deck inhibiting people being able to get across the deck and in the latter half of the sinking not slide down the deck like what happened to some of the boats on Lusitania.
I completely agree with you on both accounts. The lifeboat system they had at the time meant that the boats wouldn't be able to launch quick enough and the iceberg theory is simply ridiculous
In regards to the raft idea; how feasible would it be to remove the tables from the dinning rooms and lounges and use woolen blankets to help keep you worm (IIRC as long as their not waterlogged woolen blankets should provide some warmth, even if wet).
Hey Sam I have a great idea for a topic. What could you tell us about the stewards and stewardesses and their duty’s on the Titanic. What were there roles when the ship was sinking? They don’t get mentioned much. So thought it would be cool to take a look at their point of view.
Hindsight is easy!! The one time I survived a sinking, I put my life jacket on as soon as I realized that we were sinking. Of course it helped that we were rescued almost immediately. The key factor in the large loss of life was the fact that the California turned off it's wireless. If they'd left it on even for another hour, a lot more would have been saved. In no case do I think everyone would have been saved.
I politely disagree. The Californian wouldn’t have arrived in time to perform a rescue. Even if it had sped from the closest estimated location, it wouldn’t have arrived with enough time ferry people to and from the sinking ship. A rescue like that would take hours, and there just wasn’t enough time. There was going to be a huge loss of life that night, no matter what, unfortunately.
@@MegCazalet true but they could have gotten there fast enough to help those in the water. They could have been there when it went under and had empty boats in the water.
@@mike-mz6yz I'm not sure they would have attempted to row boats into the crowd. They surely might have done so earlier than Titanic's life boats did (which came back way too late), but I think they'd also have opted to wait for most of the chaos to calm down before attempting a rescue. Which unfortunately means that most in the water would have died either way.
@@renerpho I think your wrong here. Its a different mindset. One is people who just escaped a sinking ship and cold water tempting fate by going back with no idea how long until help arrived. The other would be people coming off a healthy warm ship to try to save others. They wouldn't just wait for some to die I think. I do agree you dont take the boat right into the middle, you start on the edges and work your way through.While having multiple boats in different spots (this makes it so everyone doesnt swim towards one boat.
I have had this very idea since i first saw JC Titanic movie. Watching rose survive on a door i wondered why couldn't they make as many floating things as possible out of the ships material . At least to save some of the children that were lost that night
@@hangmann747tinmann8 The door and the raft Sam described are different. Sams raft should be able to save more than 1 person ideally, but the door was just for one person
A little unrelated but I took a Carnival cruise in 2013 and at the beginning of the cruise there was a strict mandatory training about where the life boats are and which one you are assigned to in case of a disaster
Yes, someone else mentioned rafts in the comment section under one of your videos. The thing is, the crew was partially UNWILLING to believe that the ship was going to sink for at least first twenty minutes. Also people were told that there was no serious problem, and that strengthend their unwillingness to leave the sinking ship. Also one would have to be very careful as to when to launch the rafts because this makeshift stuff could be unsafe compared to a lifeboat, and if launched too early, people would have to spend more time floating on / dealing with the icy cold water.
My idea: As the captain of Titanic, as soon as I got to know the Carpathia is on the way and would be there 1-2 hours later after our ship was going to sink, I would totally focus on delaying the sinking process. I would ask Andrews: Hey, based on your calculation, the ship has one more hour to live. Is there anything as related to the ship design we can do to delay this to two hours or more. Even if the delay in sinking was delayed for half an hour (which was not enough for the Carpathia to arrive) Phillips would have a half hour more time to send SOS codes to get a nearer ship come to help (Maybe the Californian wireless operator would wake up in the meantime and get to know that). I think what Andrews could have suggested include the following: 1) Sealing the flooded compartments to the most extent to reduce the flood rate. 2) Increasing the length of the walls between the compartments 6, 7 ... to delay the water spilling from one to the next. 3) Covering the open top of the compartments.
In the 1997 Titanic a few passengers tried to made rafts from anything they could find but no evidence to suggest that it'll save your life, as in keeping out the water, I think the best way to save more was to hit the icebergs head on. That way only a few compartments would flood, but no one is gonna think that fast and that far ahead in a crisis.
Obviously Kate survived by using a raft (in the movie). In real life, the last person to be rescued out of the water was a Chinese man who had used a raft to keep out of the water. It kept him alive for several hours. So, I'd say there's strong evidence that rafts could have made a huge difference.
@@BelleGoddess81 He is believed to have been Fang Lang. The identity of the six Chinese survivors of the sinking is a bit of a mystery, but that's a different story (one that's definitely worth looking up!). What's certain is that one of the Chinese men had survived by climbing on top of a wooden door, from where he was rescued by a lifeboat.
Every ship in those days had a carpenter. So I think that they should try to do what was commonly done on warships - use carpenter and give him every sailor free of duty for his disposal and try to reinforce the coal bunker wall in Boiler Room 5 with wooden logs commonly held in storages of ship in case of provisional repairs, so the wall would last even few minutes longer.
@@skullsaintdead intresting, I didn't know about that problem. I always thought that if the coal was moved from starboard side to port side (due to coal fire on the starboard), than the coal bunker wall on the starboard was accessible, as the bunker itself was empty in that place. It would be great if someone could explain this question
@@emperorjulian2159 Its actually a really great point, of all the things they could do, stopping Boiler Room 5 from flooding probably would have been the most time and energy efficient, given the ship could stay afloat for quite some time with 5 watertight compartments breached, but def not 6 (and BR5 had only a few minor gashes). Possibly long enough for Carpathia to arrive and even for the morning when California would turn back on her radio. Sam says "you really couldn't do that" referring to how successful the men in BR5 were at totally preventing water from leaking in, as explained at 6:36 in this video, but he praises their selflessness and efficacy at minimising water flow (I wonder why they couldn't hold it, maybe its just too restrictive to get into the coal bunker? Too much debris?): ua-cam.com/video/EGYJNHXUZqM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=HistoricTravels
@@skullsaintdead it was always the question that haunted me. Maybe, as Titanic was commercial vessel, they just had no sufficient logs to staple the bunker wall in the stock. What was common on warships might be not on commercial ships :/ I don't know, but I am sure that they were trying to do something as they knew they were playing the game in which their life was a prize.
There was no “damage control” programs on non-warships. No wood stored away, no tools, no practice done!!!! Crews were signed on only for the voyage. Unlike a war ship were you are part of a navy…..
I think more lifeboats would have worked. I think timed would have been saved with less panic towards the end. Also your idea was perfect, that would have saved a lot of lives.
My father was on a U.S ship that was attacked and sank in the English Channel ww2 , he said in their training they were told to unsnap the helmets before jumping into the water so not to break their neck, he did that but said it wasn't necessary in this case because the deck was level with the water when his crew got off the ship . He told me there's nothing as scary in his life as getting into that water at night.
I think about building the rafts too! There are lot of wood onboard. And also the crew can use help from 3-rd class passengeers - there were a lot of workers.
Titanic had open portholes on the aft cabins and on d deck too so maybe it may hold on longer for a few seconds (Edit) so as the gangway door and if the funnels didn’t fall
Great vid! I was wondering, are you planning to make a series on the Brittanic after the Olympic series is finished? Or is there another video of yours that has already covered this?
You are right about staying out of the water . The extreme cold caused hypothermia that also killed a lot of the passengers who couldn't make it to the lifeboats to survive.
Historic Travels, I have a question. Has the sinking been accurately portrayed in the 1997 film Titanic? The gushing in of the water, especially. Or has it been dramatized with special effects? Simulation videos show that wanter entered very quietly at the start.
My big issue with the extra lifeboats theory is that even if there wasn't enough crew to launch them all there were a lot of passengers that would probably be motivated to help if given a spot on the boats. Seems like a lot of men just stood around because their deaths were inevitable
I'm not convinced that additional boats would have been the hindrance that you suppose it might. But, we can't speculate on that factor in isolation. If adequate boat capacity for the entirety of the souls on board had been available, then the entire culture surrounding lifeboats should have changed to reflect that, such as drills and training directed toward efficient evacuation for both crew and passengers. A more urgent mindset would have facilitated that, but the lack of that mindset prior to this disaster we're discussing produced not only the arrogance to sail the ship without adequate evacuation accommodations, but also "lifeboat hesitancy," as well. They managed to overcome both of those pretty shortly afterward, but perhaps this or something like it had to happen. That's an unfortunate thought, but we can't really do anything but speculate about that. It did happen, and thank you for helping people continue to think about it and learn from it.
Hi history travels. You're theory about making liferafts is a good idea, but I doubt it would of saved everybody, and here are several problems about it. One; timing. It takes a lot of time to assemble everything, like chairs, doors and so on, and bring them up on deck and tie them together, and we must not forget that they only had two hours . Second; knowledge. Some of the crew weren't even properly trained to prepare and lower lifeboats, so, i think only a fraction of them would know how to properly make rafts out of furnitures and secure them with lifejackets. And thirdly; space. Where exactly would they build the liferafts? It would of been very difficult to build liferafts on the deck when everybody around you, especially when they start panicking when the ship was starting to founder.
Hi Sam! I find your theory very interesting, the only "problem" I see with it is the life jackets part of it. If i'm not mistaken, there were not enough of them, not even for the passangers themselves, right? Great video as usual my friend.
Every cabin/stateroom had life vests in them, and I'm sure there were plenty of extras. Some people refused to put them on.because they didn't believe the ship was sinking. (Jan Griffiths).
Interesting Theory Sam and in fact many passengers try to do exactly that there were many accounts of people throwing anything that wasn't bolted down that would float into the sea to make a life rap including deck chairs and furniture but when you consider the amount of time again the sinking of the Titanic is really a story about time management when you consider the amount of time that was allotted to the crew from the time that they realized the ship was going to sink almost an hour after striking the iceberg there just wasn't enough time to make any effective attempt to save more people or the ship they simply wasted too much time in that first hour of inactivity you have to remember in order to Fashion raps you need to go down to the Carpenters store room cuz you would need tools hammers Nails wrote supplies well the Carpenters storeroom was located deep within the stern of the ship you would have had to send crew into the stern of the ship to go to that storeroom to retrieve supplies and then take them up to the boat deck this would have cost valuable time that they just didn't have but as I mentioned people did try to make emergency rafts out of deck chairs a far better solution would be why wasn't Titanic equipped with inflatable rafts that the crew could have inflated and thrown over the side of the ship and have people swim into the inflatable rafts by-the-way ships in World War II employed this exact method if a ship was torpedoed and was thinking fast they were just throw over all the inflatable rafts off the side of the ship and then the crew would swim to the wraps and get into the rafts
Great idea, Sam! I think most - if not all - the deck chairs were made of wood. They might have served as a raft if they could have been tied together with those floatation devices (life jackets) underneath. With all the chaos though, would the passengers have been able to build it in the short time they had?
I’ve heard that passengers had opened porthole windows after the iceberg impact to see what happened and left them opened. Between that and the gangway door being left open the crew could’ve gotten all the boats off safely at least. Who knows….this could’ve delayed the sinking enough to where the Carpathia might’ve arrived in time before the ship fully broke up.
I think opening the D deck gangway door was one of the most lucky events that happened that night. Keeping that door shut probably would have caused the ship to sink faster. When water reached the open door and flooded D deck, this caused Titanic's list to ease, and the ship righted itself (and remained more or less upright until the end). Without that, Titanic may have rolled on its side and sank much sooner. This also would have made launching lifeboats nearly impossible during the last half hour or so.
Given the conditions, hour of the night, and the time they were given, the crew did an incredible job getting 18 lifeboats off. It would have been awesome if the passengers were willing to get INTO those boats early on. Seeing an obvious ship on the horizon may have added to the reluctance. Opening the D Deck gangway hatch to prepare for the transfer didn’t help either.
If they closed the d deck gangway door it might have given them few extra minutes. Enough to launch last boats safely.
Was it murdoch or lightoller who left this gangway door open ?
I think lightoller
Yeah lightoller.
He ordered for it to be open so when the lifeboats are lowered to that area more people could board. But to me it doesn't make since because their was no officer posted there to let anyone board. Just so much confusion going on and little time.
I agree, at least have enough time to launch the one that did not flip over since it was actually ready to be launched but was too late. The one that had flipped would have taken more time to be launched.
I look at it differently. Titanic SAVED 706 lives. Stayed afloat longer then herown designed estimated. and the crew managed to keep the pumps and lights going right till the break up.
titanic killed everyone. all people who rode on the ship are dead
Everyone is familiar with James Cameron's love for the Titanic. His theory of driving the Titanic backwards towards the closest ship while putting out her distress call is neat.
Putting passengers on the iceberg?? I dont know...people were refusing to even put on life jacket's, let alone putting them off on a giant, uneven and unstable iceberg in the pitch black dark ocean
also the titanic had gone well past the iceberg after the impact. no one would have been able to locate it when lifeboats were being lowered
yeah but if they did reverse back to the iceberg, im sure that iceberg would look nice at around 2:10 am
@@Maverick25ish but not a min before😂
I mean I love the 1997 Titanic film, but even I will admit, that it has a LOT of historical inaccuracies.
@@CJODell12 yes it does. Try to find a documentary called The Final Word or The Last Word. He admits that. And it's cool because a team of people reconstruct the sinking in a new way. Its fun
As a child and even a young man I felt the iceberg theory was plausible. Then I went on an Alaskan cruise. I saw the ice in the water, looked at the glaciers, witnessed calving and felt the icy cold air. It was then I knew the iceberg theory doesn’t work at all! Now that I’ve seen your video of two men on one as it rolled over, just confirms it even more! And those men had crampons and ice axes!!
it would work if icebergs were flat
@@Blox117 - yes I suppose if it were more of an ice shelf and assuming titanic could come up along side it and have a gangway that people could walk over to it it would be plausible…. A lot of “ifs” but plausible.
Personally, I have always thought I'd have headed to the galley, removed my clothes and covered myself with tallow, cooking fat, butter etc as well as fashioning a 'helmet' from the same, then replaced my clothes. Joughin wouldn't mind - he'd be getting legless at the time. Primitive insulation might have kept me alive a bit longer!
Unlikely to make much of a difference, you need to be out of the water, period. You'd have a better bet grabbing one of the big, thick dining tables with a mate and chucking it overboard and you two hopping aboard, like the Chinese fella who was rescued after hours adrift. You just can't get the fat on thick enough, though if you could get it all over in an even 5-10 cm thickness say, that'd be pretty good because it floats too, but obvs that's not possible (plus I think it freezes at like -5C and the sea was -2.2 C that night, bit narrow).
put one as many clothes you can get. All clothes will create some air boxes to preserve warm air.
That's exactly what my daughter said she would do. Cover herself in fat or tallow, grab a bouyant piece of furniture, and get off the ship. This also ties in nicely with Sam's raft idea.
Even the fittest person would only last about 20 minutes at most in water that cold before freezing to death.
The baker had the right idea. Drink a couple bottles of whiskey and then stand on the poop deck and as the ship went under just swim away without getting your head wet. The booze in his body kept him alive until he reached the overturned lifeboat.
personally I would have just ran to my cabin and put on my wet suit under my cloths. That way if I go in the water I have at least some protection.
I've thought of the raft idea, inspired by the door Jack found and gave to Rose. The free crew and probably a large number of passengers would have the simple skills needed to cannabilize the ship. Axes and other tools were likely abundant. Doors, thick wood panels, tables (of which there were hundreds) bedposts and headboards, even cribs could be converted into rafts pretty simple. Lashing together and supplementing with lifebelts/ flotation devices could have created large surfaces to lay on and stay mostly clear of the water. The may have even been able to build small fires out of paper and cigars.
There was also lots of field (flat) ice in the area. Think Rudolph (the red nosed reindeer) and friends when they escaped from the Bumble. Field ice is also why the nearby Californian stopped for the night, and the Titanic also had lots of warnings which provided the locations of field ice. Likely it was still too far away, but just a thought.
Re: @7:00 More lifeboats would've worked IF the crew had been properly drilled in procedures. A trained crew, who'd had boat drill, could easily have gotten additional boats cleared and launched. This would've been presuming installed davits all the way along the Boat Deck (like "Olympic" had after the disaster), so they just had to uncover and swing out. Collapsible Boats would've been in place already (like Boats C and D) and just had to be hooked on. A and B couldn't be launched easily because they were at the base of the funnel, atop the Officers Quarters. An experienced (and properly drilled) crew could easily have launched additional boats in the time allotted, as the sea was dead calm and there was no serious list to either side. The main thing would've been to have been more forceful in getting the passengers INTO the boats.
Trying to locate and evacuate people onto the iceberg has to be about the dumbest idea I've ever heard. If anyone on the bridge had suggested it, they'd have been regarded as insane.
Makeshift rafts would be the most practicable method to save extra lives. A great source of wood would be the deck chairs -strap inside a folded one and it would be ready to go. Also, wooden chairs and tables from the dining rooms and lounges would be used, and the bigger ones could hold more than one person. A source of labour would ideally be the stewards and other victualling staff who were milling about on deck. Another source was the passengers. Amongst First and Second Class you'd have professional engineers who knew tools. In Third Class, there'd surely have tradesmen who would be useful. In fact, pretty much any able bodied passenger could assist. The trouble was that there'd really be no way to effectively get rafts off the ship without getting into the water, albeit briefly. However, if they could get out of the water quickly they'd probably be able to hang on for the two or three hours until help arrived. It wouldn't have saved everyone, but it probably could've saved at least a hundred or so; possibly even more (depending on how many people assisted). Another factor would be to get people off the ship and to the rafts before the ship went under and there were hundreds of people in the water all scrambling for some sort of flotation device.
In order to organize the building of rafts, you would first have to convince people that the sinking was imminent. It would also have taken more time for planning than was possible.
The only way most people would have been convinced that the ship was sinking was for them to see the flooding occurring. Then there would have been a mad dash to the lifeboats. (Jan Griffiths).
Another one is it might have helped particularly the third class passengers a bit better when it came to trying to get up the the boat deck, a lifeboat drill might have a least help some get a more familiar on where to go.
A lot of third class passengers also had a background in crafts that involve building stuff and/or working with tools. Given the opportunity and some basic instructions, many of them might have been able to help building rafts.
I believe a lifeboat drill had been planned for the day Titanic hit the iceberg but had been canceled for unknown reasons.
Doesn't matter, the rich women and rich children were first that's all the lifeboats there since the white star line broke safety protocol for choosing looks over safety and only carried half of the lifeboats they actually required before setting in a voyager.
@@AMaidenlessRunt While the Inquiry did reveal that aesthetics was involved for having less lifeboats on deck, they did not break safety protocol. Titanic actually was in compliance with maritime safety regulations and had more lifeboats than what was actually required by law for her gross tonnage at the time. During this time, lifeboats weren't meant to hold people for long periods of time. They were meant to ferry people from one ship to another.
It was only after the sinking they realized that the regulations were outdated and that the use of lifeboats needed to change to where people needed to stay in them longer in the event of another ship not being near by that couldn't be ferried to. That's why the Olympic got updated to carry enough lifeboats for everyone and why the Britannic got the newer davit system.
@@AMaidenlessRunt they actually had more lifeboats than were required at the time.
If some of the dining tables had been brought out and their legs lashed together they would have formed a large floating raft. The legs would allow people floating on this raft to hold on so that they wouldn't be washed off. It's just a thought I have had for a long time.
Do wonder if a lifeboat drill would have at least helped a bit, particularly with some of the crew organisation with getting the lifeboats prepared.
Yup. I do too. There was one scheduled to happen on the morning of the 14th that got cancelled. Filling up the lifeboats to capacity would have saved more lives too.
It would have helped. They were lost and didn't know what to do
Knowing where to go in an emergency and how to get there ALWAYS helps. That's why most modern ships have it where passengers have to go to their muster station BEFORE they can even leave port, at least one cruise I went one we actually had to go to the deck where we would board the lifeboats, again to show we know where to go and how to get there.
The Mythbusters actually built that very raft, when then tried to find out if both Jack and Rose could have gotten on the door, they had to tie their floatation vests under the door to get it to hold both
True, but .mythbusters did this in fairly ideal circumstances. The night of the sinking was far from ideal. It's hard to think of that after a horrible disaster, a cold night in 2 C/28 F water. You only have about 15 mins to live in that water if you don't go in to cardiac arrest first. Also the sky had no moon. It's like a real life Final Destination movie. Every situation is against you.
@@elysiabarr425 while your statement is true, "most" only had 15 min in the water, not all did, in fact one survived after being in the water for 2-3 hrs. In the movie, he was the guy on the aft of the ship who went in with rose and jack at the last min, the one drinking all the alcohol, lol!
@@hangmann747tinmann8 the chef of the chip
No, he was minutes in the water. He got on a raft.
My fiancé is a veteran and a carpenter and he has always said how he would have immediately began building a raft or rafts in that same manner- putting life jackets under it. Great video
But given all of the crew had a belief that she would not sink anyone caught ripping doors off would have been arrested for damage to company property
This video is appropriate, considering I just watched A Night to Remember for the first time last night. I've seen James Cameron 's Titanic many times and while I am a fan of James Cameron's movie, it pales in comparison when it comes to how the sinking was portrayed. The 1997 movie is a lot more focused on the romance between Jack and Rose, but this movie was just straight to the point. This ship is going down and a lot of people are going to die.
Agreed, I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It makes Cameron’s version all the more disappointing.
@@sudonum3108 yeah. As I said, I'm still a fan of Cameron's movie but A Night to Remember really was something special, and this movie was done all the way back in 1958, so it shows you how well done it was!
Yes I agree but it would be better if they knew at the time that the ship broke in half (But the didn't and that's okay)
@@freecontent4306 Yeah, I thought that was odd that the ship sunk completely intact. Still a great movie despite that.
I was thinking something similar like if I was there I would be looking around for a door, table, whatever thing that can keep afloat and just wait so I can use it.
If they filled all the lifeboats to capacity, around 1,100 people could have survived. Also had the D deck gangway door been shut, I bet the ship could have lasted another 10-20 minutes.
yes, I agree. Since their was no lifeboat drill, the officers weren't trained and were afraid the lifeboats would buckle under the weight. Also, one officer, mis-interpreted Captain Smith's order of Women and Children FIRST as Women and Children ONLY costing men their lives
@@davinp Yep exsctly, way more people died that night than it should have been. At least half, if not more than half could have gotten off even with there not being enough lifeboats. Also if the Californian helped, more would have survived too.
@@reminiscer15 I look at it differently. Titanic SAVED 706 lives. Stayed afloat longer then herown designed estimated. and the crew managed to keep the pumps and lights going right till the break up.
Yes, this seems like the most obvious answer to me! So many lifeboats were launched half empty or worse.
@@davinp actually the officers had a drill in Southampton
If Charles Lightoller had let men into the lifeboats on the port side, probably 200 additional lives would have been saved.
The most madcap theory that I've heard about how to save more lives is to take everyone's life jackets and deposit them in the bow end (I can't remember whether it was Boiler Room 6 that was being mooted as a good spot, but presumably the further toward the bow the better), the idea being that the additional buoyancy in the area of the damage would delay the sinking long enough for a rescue ship to arrive.
First and biggest mistake after striking the berg was Smith failing to send out an all stations notification the Titanic struck a berg and is performing an inspection. In the meantime all stations could have been informed of their position, to their wireless operator on station, and at least prepare for a rescue mission.
Smiths 40 minute delay was a huge error and dereliction of his duty.
I have a theory that maybe could have saved everyone on Titanic, AFTER the collision.
What if coal had been used to plug the holes in the Titanic's hull? ..
It has perfect density and falls slowly into the water.
Furthermore, it was present on board in almost unlimited quantities.
Thus, the crew would only have had to throw large quantities of coal along the hull in the area where the collision occurred.
When they fell in the water, pieces of coal could have got stuck in the breaches of the hull (due to the strong water suction), and this could have filled the gaps and slowed down the flooding.. Possibly it could have even saved the Titanic !! ..
Please do a video on this topic, it would be super interesting !!
And thank you for your great channel :)
Nice !! I love this idea ! It will be great if Sam does a "what if" video on this theory...
@@thomasbenoit5826 Thank you very much :)
I hope he will !..
it is similiar to the idea of the collision matts.
@David Federico Absurd.. There was coal enough on the boat for doing the both..
@@TheTarget1980 Yes but with coal, far more efficient and easy to do (just throwing coal along the hull) than with mattresses..
Just traveled from PA to Tennessee to got to the titanic museum for vacation. Packed, but amazing to see the artifacts and learning more on what happened. Also, I got a chance to touch the 28F water the unfortunate had to swim in but didn’t survive the night. I was only able to keep my hand in that cold of water for 25 seconds. Also, the steepness of the incline was too much. I was able to hold myself up for about 10 mins .
I was in pigeon forge a few months back and the water wasn't even cold, also supposedly a few weeks or a month ago the ice wall fell and injured some guests
Hey! Super congratulations for your channel! I'm addicted to it watching all of the videos about Titanic! Do you have one or could you make one about the boats AFTER the Titanic went down? Did all of them were rescued by the Carpathia? Did any of them get lost out in the ocean with people on board? *yikes* Thanks!
if the ship had been doing only 12 knots would have missed iceberg entirely
14:45; I think that is a good idea about building rafts from any available materials. Also, I've mentioned this before, but what about if the 1500 people in the water had huddled together to retain their body heat? I've seen that in a survival manual. I remember seeing the 1997 movie for like the 200th time right after I read that manual and thinking, "why is everyone just floating alone? Huddle for body heat!" I was 13 at the time (2001). I first saw the movie when I was 10 (1998).
I think that trying to build rafts would have been a great idea. Maybe at least 1000 more could have been saved. And using released from duty crew members to build them is a also a good idea. I've thought about that too---there was a lot of wooden things on board, and it was a shame that wasn't put to use to save lives. Great video as always, Sam. (Jan Griffiths).
I would say the officers could have been more efficient in placing people in the lifeboats. Some of them were lowered with only 12 people. Do you think closing the gangway door on D level could have bought more time for them to build rafts?
Also, if Titanic had enough boats for everyone less time would have been spent looking for wiremen sand children and stopping men from boarding the boats.
The evacuation would have gone a lot more smoother, especially with the D deck door closed.
Boat 1 had only 12 people in it, despite having a capacity of 40.
Given how Boat 1 was launched relatively early in the sinking (1:10), you know when most people still didn't believe the severity of the situation, as well as how they would've had to climb over Collapsible C to get to Boat 1 it is tragically obvious why Murdoch and Lowe had a hard time getting people into that boat. It's not like it's counterpart on the port side was much better when it was launched at 1:45, having only 18 out of 40, AFTER male passengers and (non assigned) crew were driven out of the boat at gunpoint.
@@edwardojeda3152 The starboard side allowed men to enter the boats when no other women or children were in the area/willing to board. But if the ship appears to still be fine they would've STILL had a hard time getting people into the boats. One story about the Astors was that they had the chance to leave on Boat 7 (Murdoch's side which allowed men to enter after the willing women and children), but John believed the ship was safer than a "little boat". More boats wouldn't have done shit if they couldn't get people INTO the damn things while at the same time trying to NOT cause a panic by telling everyone that the ship had less than 2 hrs to live and since they have to manually lower the boats 7 stories they might not be able to launch all the boats before the ship goes down.
Hey man I hope you like this comment, but I’ve always loved old steam ships and you are doing such a great job at bringing everyone back in time!! I’d like to see other videos of just the history of steam and how the ships evolved over the years!! Either way I’m already subscribed lol love your videos!! You are awesome!
Another thing worth to note with the raft idea is that people would also help you, regualr passengers, I mean some would obviously panick, but those who would remain cool would help you, if nothing else, just to survive.
and there would have been a lot of men with good practical skills in third class.
Underrated channel. Relaxing informative content
Thank you for your idea about how more people could have been saved. I have been fascinated by the story of the Titanic ship for many years and all the time wondering why captain Smith did not do more to try everything to save more passengers. In my humble opinion he just showed a horrible lack of leadership, not to mention that a lot of valuable time was lost pondering what to do after the ship hit the iceberg . As you said the ship contained a huge floatable objects; panels,boxes,chairs, tables…etc…that could have saved many people. I am sure that many passengers would have helped in making these rafts to safe their loved ones. Surely building a raft to survive a sinking ship is more urgent than building a raft for a castaway on a remote deserted island, isn’t it !!??
I think your theory would definitely work. If I were on the Titanic I would probably ask a crew member on the Titanic for some tools to do that and then use those tools to demolish some stuff like tables to make a better raft.
I find these really interesting, as I have watched previous live Titanic streams, with the last one On a Sea of Glass, and I heard Mr J Kent Layton (Sincere apologies if I spelt your name wrong) say they only managed to get 18 boats off from the davits in an hour or so.He said if there had been twenty more lifeboats on the Titanic, they would have ran out of time. Personally, I think it would have helped save more lives, but the harsh lesson of a massive liner that size at the time, carrying too few lifeboats made the compulsory safety changes needed.
Great idea Sam. There had to be numerous item's that could have been salvaged.
James Cameron has talked about the ride-the-iceberg idea as well as proposing the Titanic could have steamed over to the Californian instead of just trying to contact it. The latter idea has problems of its own, but to my mind the iceberg one is on the same level of practicality as “They’d have avoided the collision altogether if only they had radar in 1912.”
My pick in the might-have-been pool would be a combination of more lifeboats AND a proper lifeboat drill and emergency plan. Thorough training and preparation could have overcome the added difficulty of prepping more boats for launch.
I think your idea about making rafts is a good one, I don't know how feasible it would have been either but it wouldn't have cost any lives and might have saved some.
Thanks for the thoughts! I really love the proposition to set up conditions for rafts. It is a ship after all, they secured everything but the plates and chairs to the ship itself. Most likey why there were so few items to float on.. Don't want a slight tilt and have full wooden furniture tip/slide and squish someone now 🤔
Well my theory is this. As a sailor and person who work on a cruise shop I can tell you next. If Titanic had enough LB for all person onboard and crew was trained to use, prepare and launch LB in abandon ship situation they would perfome much better. Take in consideration that crew onboard Titanic did not have any drill or any emergency duty responsibilities. If they where trained properly with LB for all passagers everybody would be saved in around 1 hour. Again as a sailor I know what takes to perfome various duties and how properly and safely evacuate all ahip. We did it on Celebrity cruises in less than 27 minutes, 1.000 crew and 2.300 passagers in less than 27 minutes. Anyway keep up a good work HUGE FAN of yours!
i would think turning a ship that size around would take a lot of time and also distance. the turning circle must be huge.
Interesting ideas. I like the raft idea. The iceberg one is nuts. Thanks for sharing and stay safe.
I had never heard the #2 theory, so that was interesting. Regardless of which iceberg they were to use for safety if the two guys had issues trying to climb it WITH special gear, I highly doubt anyone in regular shoes would have been successful. As far as the building a raft theory? Given the amount of time and chaos going on, if someone like Thomas Andrews or any of the other technical-minded people on board didn't think of something like that, it's a high probability that Capt. Smith wouldn't either. A lot of people didn't even want to get into the lifeboats when available; something like that would be completely out of the question (until it was too late). It probably would have worked for some, but I think ultimately many would be destroyed by panicked people trying to get on it. More than likely if it was used to pick up people in the water, those people would soon freeze to death. Excellent video as always!
They should have filled every lifeboat to the capacity listed on each lifeboat. Guaranteed another 400+ would have been saved!
My great grandfather was in a lifeboat that held 40 and only 12 were in it. Lifeboat one. However the boat was about to float away with no one in it so Murdoch decided to put some passengers and crew in that boat because they were the only ones there at that time on the less crowded starboard side.
Simple idea. Force passengers into the boats till they are full.
Staying on the iceberg wasn't even believable in the "Wreck of the Titan." Seriously, then the protagonist single-handledly (seriously, one arm was injured) killed a full-grown polar bear.
They might have had some extra time to get extra life boats down if they had alerted the passengers earlier and maybe gotten some help. But I still don't think it would have saved everyone. James Cameron demonstrated how long it takes to get a lifeboat down
Another consideration with the lifeboats is how few people even thought it was necessary in the beginning stages of the sinking. A lot of passengers just didn’t get on lifeboats because they didn’t believe there was danger. So you have lifeboats being launched with a lot fewer people on board than they are built to hold.
If I had been on that ship and was ordered into a boat, I wouldn't have hesitated. (Jan Griffiths).
Your theory was good if people put their lifejackets under then it would work like the piece Rose and Jack found
I seriously wish more teachers had your approach!
Great video.
I think more life boats would’ve given people confidence & reassurance that everyone would survive.
This, in turn, would’ve allowed for a more organized & quick evacuation.
A big reason the first life boats weren’t filled to capacity was because women didn’t want to leave their husbands, if there were enough boats this likely wouldn’t have been as big of a concern. It would’ve been understood that EVERYONE had a good chance of escaping.
This probably wouldn’t save everyone,
but I can’t see how more life boats could do more harm than good.
You do know that most people didn't get into the boats in the early stages because they DIDN'T believe the ship was doomed and by the later half of the sinking people would realize that they DIDN'T have time to safely launch all the boats with hypothetical more boats. AND given how one of the reasons Boats 1 and 2 left with so few people was because people would've had to climb over Collapsibles C and D to get to them, that likely didn't help to get people into the boats and you want to ADD that obstacle to every row? Or what detach the extra row of boats onto the deck and hope they don't block too much of the deck inhibiting people being able to get across the deck and in the latter half of the sinking not slide down the deck like what happened to some of the boats on Lusitania.
I completely agree with you on both accounts. The lifeboat system they had at the time meant that the boats wouldn't be able to launch quick enough and the iceberg theory is simply ridiculous
Very good video, thanks.
Thanks for what u do Sam. Love ur vids
In regards to the raft idea; how feasible would it be to remove the tables from the dinning rooms and lounges and use woolen blankets to help keep you worm (IIRC as long as their not waterlogged woolen blankets should provide some warmth, even if wet).
Sounds feasible to me. I think that's basically what Sam had in mind.
Regarding the blankets: The more the better.
Hello Sam thanks for everything you do
Excellent job, Sam!
Hey Sam I have a great idea for a topic. What could you tell us about the stewards and stewardesses and their duty’s on the Titanic. What were there roles when the ship was sinking? They don’t get mentioned much. So thought it would be cool to take a look at their point of view.
Hindsight is easy!! The one time I survived a sinking, I put my life jacket on as soon as I realized that we were sinking. Of course it helped that we were rescued almost immediately. The key factor in the large loss of life was the fact that the California turned off it's wireless. If they'd left it on even for another hour, a lot more would have been saved. In no case do I think everyone would have been saved.
I politely disagree. The Californian wouldn’t have arrived in time to perform a rescue. Even if it had sped from the closest estimated location, it wouldn’t have arrived with enough time ferry people to and from the sinking ship. A rescue like that would take hours, and there just wasn’t enough time. There was going to be a huge loss of life that night, no matter what, unfortunately.
@@MegCazalet true but they could have gotten there fast enough to help those in the water. They could have been there when it went under and had empty boats in the water.
@@mike-mz6yz I'm not sure they would have attempted to row boats into the crowd. They surely might have done so earlier than Titanic's life boats did (which came back way too late), but I think they'd also have opted to wait for most of the chaos to calm down before attempting a rescue. Which unfortunately means that most in the water would have died either way.
@@renerpho I think your wrong here. Its a different mindset. One is people who just escaped a sinking ship and cold water tempting fate by going back with no idea how long until help arrived. The other would be people coming off a healthy warm ship to try to save others. They wouldn't just wait for some to die I think.
I do agree you dont take the boat right into the middle, you start on the edges and work your way through.While having multiple boats in different spots (this makes it so everyone doesnt swim towards one boat.
I like the voice over if you saying 1000 when you were talking about Britannic
I have had this very idea since i first saw JC Titanic movie. Watching rose survive on a door i wondered why couldn't they make as many floating things as possible out of the ships material . At least to save some of the children that were lost that night
Thanks Sam
I would just throw Lightoller overboard and get the lifeboat as full as possible 🤣
Here here, I agree
Sam, you should make a video at a lake testing your raft theory to see if it works! Just an idea
💯 with you on that idea
Mythbusters already did it! Look up can jack and rose both stay on the door?
@@hangmann747tinmann8 The door and the raft Sam described are different. Sams raft should be able to save more than 1 person ideally, but the door was just for one person
A little unrelated but I took a Carnival cruise in 2013 and at the beginning of the cruise there was a strict mandatory training about where the life boats are and which one you are assigned to in case of a disaster
Yes, someone else mentioned rafts in the comment section under one of your videos. The thing is, the crew was partially UNWILLING to believe that the ship was going to sink for at least first twenty minutes. Also people were told that there was no serious problem, and that strengthend their unwillingness to leave the sinking ship. Also one would have to be very careful as to when to launch the rafts because this makeshift stuff could be unsafe compared to a lifeboat, and if launched too early, people would have to spend more time floating on / dealing with the icy cold water.
My idea: As the captain of Titanic, as soon as I got to know the Carpathia is on the way and would be there 1-2 hours later after our ship was going to sink, I would totally focus on delaying the sinking process. I would ask Andrews: Hey, based on your calculation, the ship has one more hour to live. Is there anything as related to the ship design we can do to delay this to two hours or more. Even if the delay in sinking was delayed for half an hour (which was not enough for the Carpathia to arrive) Phillips would have a half hour more time to send SOS codes to get a nearer ship come to help (Maybe the Californian wireless operator would wake up in the meantime and get to know that). I think what Andrews could have suggested include the following: 1) Sealing the flooded compartments to the most extent to reduce the flood rate. 2) Increasing the length of the walls between the compartments 6, 7 ... to delay the water spilling from one to the next. 3) Covering the open top of the compartments.
In the 1997 Titanic a few passengers tried to made rafts from anything they could find but no evidence to suggest that it'll save your life, as in keeping out the water, I think the best way to save more was to hit the icebergs head on. That way only a few compartments would flood, but no one is gonna think that fast and that far ahead in a crisis.
Obviously Kate survived by using a raft (in the movie). In real life, the last person to be rescued out of the water was a Chinese man who had used a raft to keep out of the water. It kept him alive for several hours. So, I'd say there's strong evidence that rafts could have made a huge difference.
@@renerpho Ok I sit corrected :)
@@renerpho Who was this Chinese man? that looks like something interest to look up
@@BelleGoddess81 He is believed to have been Fang Lang. The identity of the six Chinese survivors of the sinking is a bit of a mystery, but that's a different story (one that's definitely worth looking up!). What's certain is that one of the Chinese men had survived by climbing on top of a wooden door, from where he was rescued by a lifeboat.
Good to know that
I love the voice over correction
XD
your the best Samuel!!
Every ship in those days had a carpenter. So I think that they should try to do what was commonly done on warships - use carpenter and give him every sailor free of duty for his disposal and try to reinforce the coal bunker wall in Boiler Room 5 with wooden logs commonly held in storages of ship in case of provisional repairs, so the wall would last even few minutes longer.
Wasn't the issue that the boiler room chaps couldn't access the rear of the coal bunker to reinforce it, i.e. the tear was inaccessible?
@@skullsaintdead intresting, I didn't know about that problem. I always thought that if the coal was moved from starboard side to port side (due to coal fire on the starboard), than the coal bunker wall on the starboard was accessible, as the bunker itself was empty in that place.
It would be great if someone could explain this question
@@emperorjulian2159 Its actually a really great point, of all the things they could do, stopping Boiler Room 5 from flooding probably would have been the most time and energy efficient, given the ship could stay afloat for quite some time with 5 watertight compartments breached, but def not 6 (and BR5 had only a few minor gashes). Possibly long enough for Carpathia to arrive and even for the morning when California would turn back on her radio. Sam says "you really couldn't do that" referring to how successful the men in BR5 were at totally preventing water from leaking in, as explained at 6:36 in this video, but he praises their selflessness and efficacy at minimising water flow (I wonder why they couldn't hold it, maybe its just too restrictive to get into the coal bunker? Too much debris?): ua-cam.com/video/EGYJNHXUZqM/v-deo.html&ab_channel=HistoricTravels
@@skullsaintdead it was always the question that haunted me. Maybe, as Titanic was commercial vessel, they just had no sufficient logs to staple the bunker wall in the stock. What was common on warships might be not on commercial ships :/
I don't know, but I am sure that they were trying to do something as they knew they were playing the game in which their life was a prize.
There was no “damage control” programs on non-warships. No wood stored away, no tools, no practice done!!!! Crews were signed on only for the voyage. Unlike a war ship were you are part of a navy…..
I think more lifeboats would have worked. I think timed would have been saved with less panic towards the end. Also your idea was perfect, that would have saved a lot of lives.
More could have survived if the lookout officers kept their eyes on the horizon instead of staring at two loud teenagers.
Gosh darn Jack & Rose. 😂
video idea: would historic travels survive the titanic sinking?
6:54 But what if they had more crew onboard that could get more boats ready ?
2:18 i thought he was gonna say rachel broke it 😂
My father was on a U.S ship that was attacked and sank in the English Channel ww2 , he said in their training they were told to unsnap the helmets before jumping into the water so not to break their neck, he did that but said it wasn't necessary in this case because the deck was level with the water when his crew got off the ship . He told me there's nothing as scary in his life as getting into that water at night.
why were the lifeoboat only on the boat deck? it seems there is a lot of space on the lower decks on the nose and stern of the ship...
More fantastic info Sam 😁🇬🇧
Always a great video!
Fantastic job, Sam :)
I have studied titanic for 6 years
I've studied the titanic for 5 years
Lmao I got a good laugh out of the ‘drop them off on the iceberg’
I think about building the rafts too! There are lot of wood onboard. And also the crew can use help from 3-rd class passengeers - there were a lot of workers.
Titanic had open portholes on the aft cabins and on d deck too so maybe it may hold on longer for a few seconds
(Edit) so as the gangway door and if the funnels didn’t fall
Great vid! I was wondering, are you planning to make a series on the Brittanic after the Olympic series is finished? Or is there another video of yours that has already covered this?
A lifeboat drill would of been nice
Did you edit the number of people saved on Britannic at 8:18 and 8:35 or is it just me?
I think he did.
@@cmc8856 ok
You are right about staying out of the water . The extreme cold caused hypothermia that also killed a lot of the passengers who couldn't make it to the lifeboats to survive.
Historic Travels, I have a question. Has the sinking been accurately portrayed in the 1997 film Titanic? The gushing in of the water, especially. Or has it been dramatized with special effects? Simulation videos show that wanter entered very quietly at the start.
My big issue with the extra lifeboats theory is that even if there wasn't enough crew to launch them all there were a lot of passengers that would probably be motivated to help if given a spot on the boats. Seems like a lot of men just stood around because their deaths were inevitable
Language barrier played a part as well, at least in the very beginning.
If only i had seen all the ice warnings. It could have been a different ending.
ua-cam.com/channels/PW_U7R3eYeEIV69Y8YdpKA.html he man
I'm not convinced that additional boats would have been the hindrance that you suppose it might. But, we can't speculate on that factor in isolation. If adequate boat capacity for the entirety of the souls on board had been available, then the entire culture surrounding lifeboats should have changed to reflect that, such as drills and training directed toward efficient evacuation for both crew and passengers. A more urgent mindset would have facilitated that, but the lack of that mindset prior to this disaster we're discussing produced not only the arrogance to sail the ship without adequate evacuation accommodations, but also "lifeboat hesitancy," as well. They managed to overcome both of those pretty shortly afterward, but perhaps this or something like it had to happen. That's an unfortunate thought, but we can't really do anything but speculate about that. It did happen, and thank you for helping people continue to think about it and learn from it.
Hi history travels. You're theory about making liferafts is a good idea, but I doubt it would of saved everybody, and here are several problems about it. One; timing. It takes a lot of time to assemble everything, like chairs, doors and so on, and bring them up on deck and tie them together, and we must not forget that they only had two hours . Second; knowledge. Some of the crew weren't even properly trained to prepare and lower lifeboats, so, i think only a fraction of them would know how to properly make rafts out of furnitures and secure them with lifejackets. And thirdly; space. Where exactly would they build the liferafts? It would of been very difficult to build liferafts on the deck when everybody around you, especially when they start panicking when the ship was starting to founder.
That white star line poster is beautiful
Hi Sam! I find your theory very interesting, the only "problem" I see with it is the life jackets part of it. If i'm not mistaken, there were not enough of them, not even for the passangers themselves, right?
Great video as usual my friend.
Every cabin/stateroom had life vests in them, and I'm sure there were plenty of extras. Some people refused to put them on.because they didn't believe the ship was sinking. (Jan Griffiths).
Interesting Theory Sam and in fact many passengers try to do exactly that there were many accounts of people throwing anything that wasn't bolted down that would float into the sea to make a life rap including deck chairs and furniture but when you consider the amount of time again the sinking of the Titanic is really a story about time management when you consider the amount of time that was allotted to the crew from the time that they realized the ship was going to sink almost an hour after striking the iceberg there just wasn't enough time to make any effective attempt to save more people or the ship they simply wasted too much time in that first hour of inactivity you have to remember in order to Fashion raps you need to go down to the Carpenters store room cuz you would need tools hammers Nails wrote supplies well the Carpenters storeroom was located deep within the stern of the ship you would have had to send crew into the stern of the ship to go to that storeroom to retrieve supplies and then take them up to the boat deck this would have cost valuable time that they just didn't have but as I mentioned people did try to make emergency rafts out of deck chairs a far better solution would be why wasn't Titanic equipped with inflatable rafts that the crew could have inflated and thrown over the side of the ship and have people swim into the inflatable rafts by-the-way ships in World War II employed this exact method if a ship was torpedoed and was thinking fast they were just throw over all the inflatable rafts off the side of the ship and then the crew would swim to the wraps and get into the rafts
Great idea, Sam! I think most - if not all - the deck chairs were made of wood. They might have served as a raft if they could have been tied together with those floatation devices (life jackets) underneath. With all the chaos though, would the passengers have been able to build it in the short time they had?
I’ve heard that passengers had opened porthole windows after the iceberg impact to see what happened and left them opened. Between that and the gangway door being left open the crew could’ve gotten all the boats off safely at least. Who knows….this could’ve delayed the sinking enough to where the Carpathia might’ve arrived in time before the ship fully broke up.
I think opening the D deck gangway door was one of the most lucky events that happened that night. Keeping that door shut probably would have caused the ship to sink faster. When water reached the open door and flooded D deck, this caused Titanic's list to ease, and the ship righted itself (and remained more or less upright until the end). Without that, Titanic may have rolled on its side and sank much sooner. This also would have made launching lifeboats nearly impossible during the last half hour or so.
Can you do a video about the sinking of the W.A. Scholten? That would be great