Just imagine how risky for Carpathia was to go into Titanic position with high speed. Moonless night and sailing with high speed into ice field where another ship sank after hitting iceberg. Much respect for Carpathia crew, they were heroes.
I was just thinking the same thing! I believe the Captain of carpathia was knighted after this and was awarded high honors for his bravery along with his crew. It’s crazy with all the technology we have now and how little we had over a hundred years ago, titanic sank and immediately a rescue mission was launched
Rostron was a christian and he would close his eyes and pray for their own safety every time he had to make a decision during their mad dash towards the titanic
It was actually protocol at that time to go full speed icebergs where considered nuisances at best up until then, it was a series of bad luck and just freakish occurrences that doomed the titanic
It's likely they would've kept the same speed, since the reason they were going at full speed is due to their coal store being on fire the entire journey. The only way to stop a coal fire is to completely burn the coal, which could only be done within the engines, which meant full boiler pressure and speed.
@Brad Last Name: Ships do not slow down for ice. There are countless testimonies from experienced captains who made the Atlantic route frequently, and all said the same thing: that they do not slow down because of ice.
@@legioner9 * I'm stunned it took the Titanic disaster to realize that they need to slow down in a field of icebergs all around them. They really tempted fate running that fast in ice fields. I would be freaked out as a passenger!
@@HoosierDaddy_ not according to the knowledge of the time. When you are in an ice field you want maneuverability and you can only get that with speed. The theory was if visibility is good and you can see the icebergs early, it is safer to be fast and maneuverable than slow. To the knowledge of the Titanic crew they had the perfect night because it was clear without fog and therefore they assumed they would be able to dodge icebergs. The world did not know about the effect of smooth seas and moonless nights and that it can make you see a false horizon. (Technically they also didn't go full speed but thats beside the point.)
If anything the Titanic was rather lucky on how far she sailed through the ice field. As the captain of the Carpathia reported having to avoid dozens of ice burgs to reach the Titanic.
@@TheThingoftheSkyThe carpathia was a ship that was relatively close by and responded to the titanics call for aid. They took in the passengers from the few life boats that made it, as well as fishing some out of the water. In total, not many people where saved (the titanic did not have enough life boats for all its passengers, and most of the ones that she did have, where either launched almost empty, or sunk because they where too full. Very few people made it) On the deck of the carpathia they handed put blankets and warm food for the freezing passengers as well.
@@TheThingoftheSky The telegram operator was getting ready to go to bed. He stayed up a little bit longer to help filter messages for the Titanic coming from the East Coast of the US. He heard the SOS from Titanic and went to wake his captain. The captain was mad for being awakened then apologized after seeing the emergency. The communication officer stayed up longer trying to send the SOS to other ships and staying in communication with the Titanic. The captain of the Carpathia had ordered that they push the engines to their limit to make good time. Forcing the ship to stop using heat from the engines for non necessities. Risking his ship and crew being stranded with no engines or heat to get to the Titanic. There was another ship closer to the Titanic but did not respond to the Titanic firing flares. They thought they were fireworks. They fired the flares a few times over the time they were sinking. The crew kept asking the captain if they should investigate. He even refused to wake the telegram operator. They didn't get the SOS messages because their radio operator was already in bed. They finally were made aware in the morning and arrived after The Carpathia had rescued who they could.
@@adamgerald849 Thats LITERALLY their point. The cycle of the moon has been tracked by most cultures for centuries. The captain KNEW there wasnt gunna be a moon
I’m imagining how creepy that must have been. In a tiny lifeboat in the middle of the freezing ocean, pitch blackness, bodies floating in the ocean, and the shadows of icebergs all around you.
It's also SO dark, my grandfather was in the navy. He often would take night walks. One night the outside lights were off. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be back in Titanic days. Let alone the transatlantic journeys the century before.
It really is. I go on cruise ships frequently and dark nights are REALLY dark and eerie. You can practically see 20-50meters off the side deck with ships lights on.
@VladVlad-ul1io You can't see where things are if you need to go out of your tent and its freaky as those are the nights where every living thing seems to be awake. You think things are their that aren't or are exaggerated beyond reality.
I agree, my father served in the British navy during WWII and said there were nights at sea when you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Eerie.
You also can’t forget about the fact that people warned about the dangers of having too few lifeboats, but people just assumed lifeboats would only be needed to get people onto a nearby rescue ship, so they ignored the possibility of a ship totally sinking that quickly and that far out
That really hits hard when you learn this could have been totally avoided. I thought it was a freak accident and they just couldnt see properly at night. But now hearing they were warned by multiple ships and still went ahead is just heartbreaking 😢
There was no way they could stop the boat because it burns coal and they did listen to the warning but hoping it would be fine because “even God can't sink this ship”😅
There’s even more to it than that, there were SO MANY things about the Titanic that doomed it to fail, the most popular one is that there simply weren’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers because they thought it was unsinkable and they weren’t needed Then you get into the engineering specifics and find out that it was a poorly designed ship in the first place, the Captain had a massive ego, and while I’m not sure this is totally true, apparently the starboard bow of the ship was damaged before they even put the thing in the water, guess which part of the ship the iceberg hit?
The 'freak accident' part of the Titanic was that the iceberg damaged the ship in such an extensive way. The Titanic has some of the most sophisticated systems to prevent sinking at the time. If it had just done a head-on collision, it could have been incapacitated, but not sunk. Or sunk slowly enough to allow for rescue. There were also relatively new radio system to call for help, Ocean liner disasters did happen fairly regularly at the time, but the new generation of ships the Titanic was part of were supposed to (and also were) safer. There were for example radio systems to call for help and ways to seal off breached sections of the ships. The fact that the ship shored the iceberg and ripped it open on so much of its length was pretty unlucky, as it was only just above the damage the ship could have taken on paper. This ship sank in less than three hours, which is fast. Then there were also twists of fate that delayed rescue, etc..
It would have been great if James Cameron would have added the icefield in the movie when Titanic was cruising during its last night. It would have made the movie so much more realistic and eerie.
@@NSMerryweather4771 True, but that scene is too short. There was the scene with the ship cruising at night (just before cpt. Smith talks to Lightoller and says the sea is like a mil pond) where Cameron could have added the icefield, IMO.
@@legioner9 but surely if visibility was good enough to see it all they'd have seen the one they hit coming. The whole point is that until dawn it was pitch black . They didn't see the iceberg after all, they just saw a black absence of stars.
I visited the Titanic museum in Belfast and they said there were a number of issues, including the watch people not having binoculars and the radio transmissions being overfilled by rich passengers passing messages back and forth so that key warnings from other ships in the area went ignored, as well as other factors that also contributed to the issue.
The biggest issues were the ship being made of bad steel (it was overly brittle) them sailing into the field to begin with, followed by consistent poor decisions made by the crew, including their reaction to the berg that they rammed. Full reverse, hard turn. Worst possible decision in that scenario. Anyone who knew their ship, especially one like the titanic, would have known better. The central propeller was a single direction steam motor, it only functioned when the ship was in forward, rudders in general are only really effective when moving forward since they direct the thrust of the propellers, as theyre designed to, rather than relying entirely on the flow of water. They killed a third of their thrust and 75% of their turning capability by throwing the ship to full reverse. Had they gone full fore and cranked her hard, they're likely to have missed the berg entirely. So on top of the poor design of the bulkheads and the low grade brittle steel used in the construction of the ship, the fact they nearly collided with two other ships as the ship left port due to the crew not being capable of handling the ship, the crews decision to sail into an ice field in the dead of night at an unsafe clip, followed by their complete and total lack of the type of knowledge and understanding of how the ship even functions that is expected of anyone in charge of a large ship os expected to have to begin with, the voyage was doomed the second they entered that field
Long comment short, they did the cruise ship equivalent of handing the keys of a hellcat to a dumbass 15 year old kid whos never touched a car before, in the dead of an alaskan winter and expected them not to crash
There's a deleted scene in the James Cameron movie showing the ship 'Californian' fully stopped and completely surrounded by icebergs. Quite a cool scene.
Especially knowing that Carpathia had just in the dead of night and full speed raced through a good chunk of that. Few ships and crew deserve to be called hero like Carpathia
Also a testament to the crew of Carpathia that they themselves ran through that same field to attend the rescue. the closer ship, Californian had secured in the icefield that night.
The part that bothers me the most is that each of the lifeboats had a light to guide survivors to them (which is gonna be a tough swim anyway in 28F water in street clothes) and once the the Titanic went down and it was pure dark, one by one those lights were turned off to avoid drawing swimmers.
I understand. When I was in high school in Spanish class I sat in front of a girl who thought that Italy (the country) was part of the United States of America. *High school* 😂
@@victoriadiesattheend.8478 Historical Trivia 31,876,511: The Italian Unionist Movement existed. It was a postwar political party that advocated for Italy to become a state.
@@Minelaughterbut they're brave mujahadeen anti-communist fighters!? You're telling me people directly affected by imperialism hold grudges sometimes?
Actually, it was a newspaper reporter who coined the term. While Star went along with it knowing full well any vessel could sink under the right conditions, it sent an illusion of safety. Titanic received several ice warnings, but not all could be verified of having reached the Watch On Deck. The Titanic did take a more southerly course bearing in mind its scheduled time of arrival.
There is no record of White Star Line calling it unsinkable. They said they have so much safety features it would be hard to sink. The unsinkable saying didn’t happen until after when a newspaper said that.
One thing I always forget is how dark it would have been for the souls on board the titanic. Once the lights on the titanic turned off, the only thing you would be able to see is the silhouette of the ship in the air blacking out the stars. Absolutely terrifying.
Not just no moon though; it’s quite possible the crew was suffering the effects of an extremely rare phenomenon that makes it look like the horizon is exceptionally clear but actually plays tricks on your eyesight. By showing you a reflection of the water in front of you far out in the horizon, like a mirage except much more powerful of an effect to the point that it’s like fog.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Seek his Holy Spirit for guidance peace and purpose today Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
@hs-ei Interesting fact , One of the possible explanations for the source of the Flying Dutchman legend is the Fata Morgana optical illusion phenomenon .
In reality, it stayed afloat and together much longer than any one would have guessed which was a testimony to its structural integrity. It was a beast!
If I’m not mistaken, Titanic did actually steer about 10-15 miles south to put them out of the center of the ice field, little did they know this still would put them in it. To quote Lightoller “He (Captain Smith) knew nothing of the death trap laying ahead of us anymore then I did.” Charles Lightoller -1933 BBC interview.
Anything Lightoller said should be taken with a grain of salt. He cowardly saved himself and then went on to spend the rest of his life badmouthing the other ships officers who made better decisions but went down with the ship, making them unable to defend their name from him.
I think she tried to turn away and that was the mistake, because the iceberg sliced through the vessel's parsecs like a knife. If she'd crashed into it head on, only the first frontal parsec(s) would suffer while the rest remained undamaged, causing the vessel to stay afloat. Do correct me if I am wrong though, my dad told me this.
Also, due to the calm sea conditions, there was little wave break activity on the icebergs. Had there been, the crew would have been able to detect the icebergs more easily from the sound.
I very much doubt they would have heard the waves breaking on the icebergs over the sound of the waves breaking on the ship and the sound of the ship's engines. However, they might have seen the waves breaking on the icebergs.
After being on a cruise to Alaska, we were taken to Endicott Arm with Dawes Glacier. There was so many ice bergs that it required pilot boats in front and back to help guide the ship safely through.
i was at a titanic museum once, and they had a simulator for if you were the captain in that situation. it began at the distance the iceberg was visible, and it turned very, very slow. out of the group of 7 people i was with, only 1 was able to avoid it
@@jessicaemmit4062 sadly i cant remember, i was a little kid, but i do remember that the outside of it looked like the titanic itself (or at least part of it)
I grew up in Newfoundland. Ships hit icebergs occasionally, even to this day. Titanic officers made the huge mistake of exposing their broad side to impact. Head on would have been survivable.
Its the same way with cars. A hit to the door is more than likely critical or fatal. A hit to the front destroys the engine but saves you more often than not.
Sort of what happened to the SS Andrea Doria. The Andrea was hit on the starboard side and it quickly sank. While the ship that hit it, the Stockholm, had the front of the ship crushed, it was still seaworthy.
This might just be me, but it sometimes seems so easy to just forget these events and the heavy impact they've had. Videos like this remind me what it might've been like from a passenger's side, and it's haunting. God bless the Carpathia for going through that ice field to get the survivors.
There was also a bizarre condition caused by the Labrador Current that made the horizon appear much higher than it was. This hid the iceberg from view until they were virtually on top of it.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Seek his Holy Spirit for guidance peace and purpose today Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
@@jimsmith3715 The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Scotia, this cold water current meets the warm northward moving Gulf Stream. The combination of these two currents produces heavy fogs and has also created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.
I've often wondered if without the pressure of the 'maiden voyage' hanging over him, if Smith would have decided to either stop or at least slow down significantly until daylight. A 12 hour delay wouldn't be that unusual, but could be seen as a bad sign on the first crossing. I wonder how much that affected his decision making that night.
It was a huge factor IMO. Especially with Ismay himself on board. Look to the 1997 film to see how the latter may have exerted influence on the Captain. Smith had a great record for safety. It's why he was in the position he was in. IMO..Ismay, combined with it being the maiden voyage, mixed with some bad luck is what led to the events of that night.
@@finsfan90 Ismay's presence is often overstated. The sad truth is, maintaining speeds through ice was a normal practice in 1912, as the inquiries indicated after interviewing several other captains.
@@flametitan100 Right, it was standard operating procedure, keep your speed up and rely on the lookouts to warn you of any obstructions in your path. Thay ALL did it that way, although after the British enquiry Lord Mersey said "Hopefully this is the last we hear of THAT practice."
@wayneantoniazzi2706 And yet if I remember correctly there were a number of nearby ships that stopped for the night, including the Californian where the ice field warnings originally came from. Seems like a crazy risk for a captain to take to run at near full steam through a known ice field under a moonless night - especially before the advent of effective search lights.
@@PaladinCasdin Californian was the only ship that was stopped and that's because they saw ice all around them and were slow enough to stop before hitting any. They didn't have any passengers so they weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. Every other ship in the area was still sailing.
I was a sailor on a Great Lakes freight ship. I was on one of the old style ones where they had one half of the house on the front and half on the back. So being hungry at night meant I had to walk one end of the ship to the other on deck in the pitch black. It was kind of terrifying. Especially when cloudy because then there was absolutely zero light. It was like floating in a deep endless void. And like at any moment something could lunge at you from the velvety darkness, never to be seen again. Thinking back on how I literally couldn’t see anything, it makes so much more sense to me on how they didn’t see the iceberg until it was too late. I actually have a lot of mildly scary stories from the ships, it’s no wonder people always say boats are haunted.
@@legendtourstravels3873 Sure! One kind of cool story is when we and a bunch of ships raced to Duluth, Minnesota across the Superior. So we were underway for the port I’d be departing from when the weather on the lake started getting pretty rough. The captain decided to anchor us in a sheltered bay while the weather and heavy waves passed by. A few other ships decided to do the same as well and they were scattered about. The next day I get called to duty and outside my porthole window I see about a dozen ships surrounding us. That’s not very common with our kind of ship, we’re all roughly 1000ft, ~300m, ore ships. One by one the ships started leaving, all bound for Duluth as well. Eventually the captain told us to pick up anchor, and the race was off. We were a bit behind, but our ship is one of the faster ones, and soon enough we were overtaking some of them. Hours had gone by and we were in the remaining wind and waves and fog. It was quite beautiful seeing the pine filled hills of upper Michigan cloaked in fog. The waves had the whole ship flexing and rocking But on we went, coming up on a few more ships. And not long after midnight we had made it to dock. It was finally time to take my leave.
@@AdrianR.374 would love to travel to the great lakes and start tourism packages for them from India. We get a good amount of tourists from your country to ours, but to send from our side to your country would be wonderful.
@@legendtourstravels3873 That would be very cool! There is a lot of beautiful coastline on the lakes. You could sail for weeks and still not see everything.
Hey there sailor! 😂😂😅 Are there any more scary stories about your travels? I loved both that I read. (You could start a blog; your writing style is lovely)
In fairness, in the James Cameron movie, there was a shot of morning with lifeboats heading towards Carpathia and in the shot there were numerous icebergs but it was such a short shot a lot of people probably don't remember it. It was kinda a "blink and you miss it".
Not only that but after they hit the iceberg the Captain restarted the engines and began moving forward again. The forward motion forced water into the gash created by the iceberg and flooded the compartments. The force of the incoming water overcame the sealed off compartments and flooded the ship, and they had reached the critical point of taking on additional water. He made a fatal error. Had the Captain chose to stay still in the water until rescue it’s been calculated that all passengers would have gotten off the ship prior to its sinking. It still would have gone down but they would have had adequate time for the Carpathia to reach them.
This is incorrect as soon the 5th compartment torn was going down and in fact the ship actually stayed afloat longer than the designers/engineers predicted with 5 compartments damaged. Restating engines was not an uncommon practice with other types of damage it can even advisable. Also the lifeboats designed to ferry people to safety back and forth not as static shelters there was literally not enough of them for everyone on board. Because of a variety of factors they also were not launching the lifeboats at or even near capacity in most cases. They also could not have calculated a reliable recuse time due to communications issues and delays.
I remember Captain Smith when he received the first ice warning, they altered course slightly to avoid the fields. However, even though I'm assuming the icebergs separated each other by miles now, but one was still right in front of them.
@@richardcarter5314 Doesn't seem like a lot. 16 km in short. Almost as if Smith didn't even try. Keeping in mind what the SS Californian did on the night of April 14th. For they made a full stop when they realized they were caught too in the same Ice Field that Titanic was nearing and they were 30km away.
@@legioner9 Exactly! And that is what makes the ordeal so frustrating, concerning both Smith, Murdoch, Wilde and Andrews have taken their secrets with them down to the bottom of the ocean.
@@victorsamsung2921 I don't think this crew should be called out specifically. This was normalised complacency across the industry at the time and was the standard operating procedure for the time. Sadly time/luck ran out for the Titanic but if wasn't for this ship, it likely would have been another ship that we'd now be talking about
Exactly! And in a 3 hour movie did it really matter to show icebergs that really had no effect on the course of the movie? And in addition to the Carpathia rescue scene, there’s a deleted scene showing the SS Californian stationary amongst a massive ice field too.
Yeah. I watched the Titanic a few years ago and barely remember a thing or two but the rescue scene really stuck with me. I remember them sort of plowing through what I would know now to be an icefield with pale dead bodies in the middle of them and the rescue team looking for survivors. It was a horrific scene. There were infants there.
“the next morning when survivors woke on their life boats” is a HILARIOUS statement to make. As if the survivors were just schleepin from the night before and someone gently placed their sleeping bodies into life rafts while the titanic sank😂
In my studies of accidents, mostly of construction or bridge failures but some of shipwrecks too, almost in every single case there was a mixture of circumstantial unpredictable events, and clear, preventable human negligence. In every, damn, case. The way I define it is that negligence paves the way for the catastrophe to happen, only waiting for that event that will trigger it all. Without negligence, the trigger will be blank, at the structure survives. Without the trigger event, the building eerily stands, either debilitating or postponing it's life until the day eventually comes. But it always comes, sooner or later.
Well said…and so sadly true. But humans make mistakes…fatigue, loss of concentration, unfortunate substances, etc. . I sometimes wonder how many thousands were/are lucky enough to avoid disaster on possibly a daily basis.
In the Titanic's case, it seems that there were a series of bad decisions all around. Change any one of them and it wouldn't have happened or not been as bad.
@@ahapkaThat's just classic Swiss Cheese model though. Disasters tend to be that way in any moderately safe industry, and the number of things that have to go wrong to cause a disaster just increases as things get safer.
Smith had been getting messages since they left European waters. And it was normal practice on Ocean Liners to go all out and only slow down if conditions cleared. Given that the most advanced early warning tech they had of an obstruction, ahead was the Mark I Eyeball, a disaster like Titanic was just a question of which ship had the bad luck to have the coin land on heads. And before anyone suggests that any of the warnings that didn't leave the wireless room could have changed anything, remember that there are hundreds of "Moose Crossing" signs in Maine And Canada, and every year dozens of vehicular accidents - some fatal - still occur. Replace " extra moose crossing signs" with "iceberg warning X made it to the bridge," and you get my point.
For sure. But I keep the conditions on the night of 14 April in mind, including as Brady said: 1) a moonless sky; 2) still water; 3) freezing temperatures. All made it very difficult for Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee to spot the iceberg. In fact, that Fleet even spotted it with less than 500 meters to spare is amazing on itself.
@@victorsamsung2921 I've heard that said a few times in recent years, about the rockets being the wrong colors. I don't know where to go to confirm or refute it, but given how the officers were all Royal Naval reserves, I find the idea more than a little suspect. It wouldn't be the first time people made up a reason for the crew to be incompetent in the name of having someone to blame.
The ship California was close enough to rescue the passenger off the Titanic before it sank. However after recieving a rude message from the Titanics telegraph operator the California shut off its telegraph. The message sent from Titanic was telling the California to basically shut up because they were interupting the Titanics transmissions.
That message wasn't rude, though. It was colleague banter, and it didn't cause Californian's operator to shut down his equipment; his shift had simply ended.
She wasn’t. She was stopped cold and would have taken an hour to get going and another two to reach the site of titanic (due to her slow speed) the first wireless message was sent past 12. There may have been a few more survivors but not many.
My grandfather was a Quartrrmaster with the rival Cunard Line at the same time. The gossip among the merchant seamen was that the Titanic Captain did not sail AWAY from the ice field DELIBERATELY, because the celebrities and rich & powerful in First Class wanted to get a close look at the bergs -- and none of them thought Titanic COULD sink! Grandad went on to be at the wheel of Lusitania in 1917 ... then on the crew of Lancastria, sunk by dive bombers in 1940, while a Hospital Ship, evacuating troops from St Nazaire. This is still Britain's greatest sea disaster: at least 6 000 dead. He survived two of the 20th century's worst sea disasters, despite never having learned to swim!
On top of this, ice bergs are known to flip and turn in the water as the weight redistributes. So apart from a dangerous amount of ice being hidden under the surface, they're twisting around and quickly changing how unsafe it is to be nearby on a boat.
Not mentioned here is that because there was no wind, means there was no ripples on the water either, which makes Icebergs even harder to spot as well.
Yeah and the fact that the water was so calm, made it hard to see the burgs because they didn’t have waves crashing against the base. This was something that was actually said in the movie by second officer Charles Lightoller. They put a fair bit of accurate info into the movie which is one of the reasons I love it.
the titanic was actually designed to not sink against frontal impacts with icebergs, but they tried to steer away so the iceberg dragged across the side, causing them to sink
This is exactly what I’ve always thought. Just one giant ice berg out there enjoying a quiet midnight float, minding its own business… until the Titanic shows up and throws its peaceful float into complete chaos!
I could watch videos of you telling us about history, as you speak so clear and knowledgeable and ur accent just fits. Your like the perfect story teller❤
It’s true. The Carpathia said they saw a lot of big icebergs on their way to rescue titanic survivors. There were so many they had to slow down because they were everywhere. They almost hit one when they approached the ice field going full speed
I wrote a comedy fanfiction where a time traveler went on the titanic and took an innocuous key as a souvenir. But its strongly hinted at that it was the key to the cabinet where the binoculars were kept.
If the lookouts had binoculars it wouldn't have made much of a difference. The pitch black moonless night combined with the stillness of the sea meant that icebergs would have been practically invisible. Even with binoculars, without light seeing would have still been difficult. The conditions that night for spotting icebergs was literally as bad as it could have possibly been
I call bollocks, on that locked cabinet story. They're trying to say that a locked cabinet kept the look-outs from getting something as important as the binoculars? Why didn't they just smash the lock off? 🤔
@@Mr-ne9ld So what's with all the hubub that blames the absence of the binoculars, responsible for the lookouts failure to see the iceberg? Every documentary about the Titanic emphasizes that binoculars could have saved the ship.
Not to mention all of the short cuts that were taken during the construction, and the lack of life boats due to being too confident and not wanting to ruin appearances. All three ships in her class sank, they had problems before they even left shore.
Im just gonna say two main things, the Olympic never sank. the last two lifeboats to left the ship (collapsible A and B) left the ship 5 minutes before Titanic was gone, any more lifeboats would have go down with the ship.
Titanic had more Lifeboats than maritime law required. Pretty much every other passenger liner of the era would have been less well equipped, would have had fewer lifeboats per person and would not have remained afloat for as long meaning less time to deploy lifeboats using older lifeboat launch equipment that was slower to deploy. I do not like how unfairly people judge Titanic compared to its contemporaries.
Olympic never sank, she was scrapped after a long and successful career. Britannic hit a mine in wartime, not exactly normal service, she also carried more casualties than the next three largest WW1 hospital ships combined.
Yup! And there was another boat nearby that saw the flares going off and thought they were just fireworks because it was "unsinkable" so many great books that were written from different perspectives!
Not true at all. The California saw the flares but did not respond because the messages were not marked MSG and they couldn’t be sure if it was just rising stars instead of flares. The company never said it was “unsinkable” at all
@@FrostedRaptor because the wireless operator went to bed before titanic started sending out destress signals. They tried to get in touch with the ship with lanterns but the mirage kept them from being seen .
Refraction. There were reports of heavy refraction in the area. This is basically the inverse of a heat mirage, where the distortion caused the sky to cover the land. In this case, the sea seems to cover part of the sky. The iceberg was obscured by the distortion
They didn’t see the iceberg due to a cold weather mirage that made the horizon seem further away than usual it was actually a clear still starry night and theirs loads of survivors testified how strange the horizon and water looked as it didn’t meet how it usually would in the distance
The sea was also very still that night. Many survivors described it as being like glass. This meant that there were no waves crashing against the iceberg, which would have made it more visible.
That's exactly what some of the survivors in the lifeboats said. They were in the middle of an ice field. But by that time they were inches off the surface of the water.
The operator ripped off his headset pretty much as soon as the Californian started transmitting, due to the proximity of the latter, and the fact that Titanic's set was turned up to the maximum in order to hear responses from Cape Race, the signal was so loud in his ears. He never got to hear the warning about being surrounded by ice. The guy was tired (coming to the end of a 12 hour shift) cranky and then he gets some guy blasting his ears off! Every single one of us would've reacted exactly the same. The wireless operators were both heroes - no blame can be apportioned to them.
I'm frankly surprised the Whitestar Line's 'most experienced captain' didn't know better. Or didn't at least ensure his lookouts had binoculars. James Cameron is right, both Titanic and Titan "one wreck next to the other, and for the same damn reason"
Lookouts never had binoculars. It was their responsibility to see and report anything ahead of them, from there someone on the bridge would use binoculars to identify it
@@jasonmurawski5877what a stupid system. Let’s have short vision that gives less time to react look at potential danger first and thennnn try to get a better look
I think it also involves the material the ship was made of. There is smtg called DBTT - ductile brittle transition temperature. At this temp the material becomes brittle and is easy to break. Modern ships don't have this problem.
My ASD is thanking you for this unintentional hyperfixation about the titanic. I’ve seen the movie in theatres in the 90s, was surrounded by all of the merch into Y2K, and I’ve watched national geographic docs about the wreck but since OceanGate my brain cannot stop watching titanic info dumps and it’s really comforting for me.
Yes messages were sent from the SS California, and I was told Titanics radio operator told the one from California to shut up. And then Stanley Lord went to bed. And when he woke, his life as a sea captain was over.
Interestingly they didn’t tell the ss California to shut up because they didn’t want the advice but because they were so close that the radio transmission was basically screaming in the ears of the receiver on the titanic
Yes he did but because Titanic operators were working Cape Race sending passenger messages. Therefore their headsets were turned up all the way. The Californian was so close that it left a screeching noise in the ears of the Titanic operators. So yes they told them to shut up. And they'd already gotten so many ice warnings they probably thought it was redundant frankly
While true its not how it sounds. To make a long story short, all the radio operators at the time were part of the same company, and trained at the same school, and a "playful" rudeness was common amongst them. The radio operator of the California said himself that offense was neither meant nor taken. Also he had just finished a long shift and just wanted to check in with his colleagues (who at the time were rather busy themselves because thanks to a radio malfunction they had nearly a day of messages to send), who told them they where busy, so he clocked out and went to bed.
Multiple bergs were actually photographed and claimed to be "the one", and the most likely one (based on reported shape) doesn't seem to have any mark on it.
Also the cold water mirage effect made them think that they could see for miles. Also the water was so calm so there was no water breaking at the base of the bergs
The thing is the guy who had the key to the closet with the binoculars in it wasn't on the ship and had the keys with him but figured they would be fine and didn't say anything about it.
I think the movie makes it quite clear that the voyage was dangerous and it was not just one iceberg. Some amount of creative liberty is definitely tolerable, when the outcome is that memorable.
A really good scene Cameron could’ve added to the movie would’ve been to have the survivors passing through that field of icebergs and seeing the dread on their faces as they sail by them knowing that there was no way to avoid the catastrophe
@@Tachikawa_2006 It wouldn’t have been scrapped, it would of became a passenger boat between britian and america for a long time. The company that owned the titanic had plans to turn the titanic into a major passenger vessel.
@@tommydotyjr.2966 Titanic was different from the olympic. The titanic was planned to be a major civilian ship between great britain and the USA. The olympic was supposed to be a minor yet expensive ship that would go on for one or two routes. If you google it, the titanic would of continued on. Then, it would continue on and on until in my opinion it would sink. The lusitania met this fate, and it sunk right on the route the titanic was heading between britian and the USA. The germans would of had the opportunity to sink the titanic easily. Heck, it might have even dragged the USA into the war early as it would of had the most americans on board than any other crusier as the time. As we learn in history, america is constantly dragged into wars just by an attack. Common examples can be: 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and more.
Movies and even some documentaries post a completely false narrative about the Titanic and the disaster itself. So many documentaries have said she was poorly constructed and doomed from the start. Olympic proves she was anything but poorly build. Titanic 1997 & even A Night To Remember seem to just show a lone iceberg. The ice field was dangerous, vast, & Smith had taken a more southerly route. The conditions that night were unheard of. The Titanic disaster was really & truly a series of unfortunate events.
@@JumboCod91 would been a nice ram. They would been faster to blow the warring too. Original book has it they kept cruising over thirty minutes before realizing the water was already going up some of the lower decks. Crazier part was there wasn't so much a shake when it ripped open, cut like butter. Similar one, the ship with the drunk captain who ran to a hotel it was described to happen similar hitting a reef little shock, they too kept going until they did the electric slide off deck. That captain is still in jail after abandoning ship.
Not a single serious movie or documental about Titanic says it was poorly built. It was the state of the art and the best materials available were used.
@@Wen6543 Yup, there were also several techniques as well as certain types of rivets that were still common at the time, but which were not allowed at Harland and Wolff. Because there were structural concerns about them under certain circumstances and H&W specifically opted for safer options. She was an extremely safe and well constructed ship in many respects, just not designed to withstand scraping along icebergs for a third of her length. But then neither are most ships any of us are likely to find ourselves on today.
@@CitizenMio I wonder how many similar accidents like that happened before and after the Titanic, i mean, a giant piece of ice opening the belly of a ship like a can. The chances for something like that probably are astronomically low, like being hit by a lightning.
@@Wen6543 A 2005 study on an expanded ship iceberg collision database, lists 670 events/collisions since the 1800's. I'm unaware of any more recent study, but the one I looked at calculates a collision roughly every 4 years. So that would be around 675 by 2023. Of those around 370 involved steam or motor vessels. 65 are known to have sunk, 3 from glancing blows, including Titanic. In total, records show 56 suffering glancing blows of some sort. So it certainly wasn't always a death sentence, although most would be much smaller vessels. More prone to being pushed aside, versus bent around it on account of being a skyscraper going 21 knots. Remarkably the last vessel known to have sunk in this manner was the MS Hans Hedtoft in 1959. She was a Danish cargo passenger liner. Also on her maiden voyage and just like Titanic her hull was riveted. She went down with 40 crew and 55 passengers. The only remnant ever found was a single lifebelt.
That's exactly why the ship seen that Titanic kept trying signal visually during the sinking had been stopped. It was a bit of a fail on the Californian "I'd wondered why a ship would be firing rockets".
Bro, it's a theory, but appearently they found out recently that there was literally a latent fire caused by the smouldering of the coal stored as a fuel and it was going on for 3 weeks since the week before the ship even sailed. The company appearently knew about that but they made it sail anyway to not lose the money for delaying the departure (which would have benefitted rival companies) and some of the works of the ship building were done for cheaper to save money. At the end of the day the steel used for the hull was more impure and the strucrure was more fragile then what was planned, the welding ponts were weaker and the heat released from the fire in more than 3 weeks damaged and weakened the integrity of the hull in the same region where the ship hit the iceberg. If the speed was lower (since they didn't have to use that coal so fast to lower the risk of an open fire) and the hull was made of better quality steel and was not damaged by the heat it could have probably survived the impact with the iceberg (as planned). The company appearently betted the lives of everyone on board for a bunch of bucks... The whole thing was just labeled as just an incident after but this researchers claim that there was still enough evidence to reconsruct what happened even after more than 100 years. They started thinking this because of some depositions of some crewmen after the incident and because appearently you can still see today in some of the photos of the titanic that the region of the hull that impacted the iceberg had a slightly different color at the moment of the departure and that's tought to be due to the smouldering coal's heat that was damaging the hull for more than a week already when those photos were taken. If the theory is proven then the Titanic's story is that of some insane amount of negligence.
Oh FFS this again? Did you say "welding"?? There was no welding in ship construction in 1912, the Titanic was held together by rivets. Coal fires in ships of the day were very common. Trimmers were detailed to redistribute the coal and damp it down. The ridiculous picture some twat claimed shows discolouration of the hull neglected to work out it was nowhere near the coal bunkers.
It was light enough to slightly see the icebergs at night, but the binoculars to see them further out, were inaccesible, so they didn't have enough time to react to the one they finally hit.
One of the main reasons the titanic sink was because they switched out one of the employees last minute. The guy who had the keys to the room with all the equipment like binoculars they switched him out last minute, and he forgot to give the keys to the new guy and because of that they didn’t have binoculars so they couldn’t see the icebergs and stop the ship
That likely didnt make any difference. Binoculars are too narrow, so the standard practice was to look with yout naked eye and confirm with binoculars. By the time they saw it, it was too late
For some of those in the comments: she wasn’t sailing at full speed. In order for her to go full speed, all her boiler rooms would have had to been lit - boiler room #1 wasn’t.
Accoding to remarks made by Mr. Lightoller years later Titanic wasn't going at full speed. It would have been considered irresponsible to go full speed with a brand-new ship considering it would take a voyage or two to completely break-in the engines. At any rate Titanic wasn't built to compete with the speedsters like Mauretania or Lusitania anyway so a record-crossing speed was never considered to begin with.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 It was probably egos, pride and arrogance at play. Starting with calling Titanic unsinkable, and White Star Line having this tradition of *not* christening their ships.
@@victorsamsung2921 I think it was overconfidence rather than egos. Captain Smith had a 40+ year career where nothing ever went wrong for him. That was bound to effect his thinking a bit. Not christening ships is supposed to be bad luck but White Star didn't think so, they were in a modern age and thought those things were old hat. By the way, I've got a book on sailors superstitions and the impression I got from it was EVERYTHING is bad luck! One old superstition I'm sure is followed today is "Never start a voyage on a Friday!" Even the non-superstitious won't take a chance on that one!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Overconfidence ... in other words, arrogance? I mean, when you think about it and keep your head on your shoulders, any Captain would have thought lowering speed was the least sensible thing to do. Keeping the 2230 innocent souls on board you're responsible for in mind. But also, at 10PM and approaching midnight before heading off to bed, seeing the signs of flat water, cold-water mirage and *no* moon in the sky right in front of you ... It's just hard to comprehend how someone could be so careless and reckless. No blame on Lightoller and Murdoch of course, who were just keeping orders.
@@victorsamsung2921 E. J. Smith didn't have an arrogant bone in his body, anyone who knew him would have told you that. I will concur he probably should have been on the bridge knowing the ship would be in the area of ice around 11:30 PM and his decision making ability would have been needed, but that's hindsight on my (and everyone else's) part. Still, untimately the captain (like all commanding officers anywhere) is responsible for everything his ship (or organization) does or fails to do. Refer to my comment of 21 hours ago about incoming ice messages for the fact Titanics captain and officers really had no idea what they were heading for.
Part of the problem was how incoming messages warning of the ice field were handled. If the message was addressed to the captain it went to him immediately, if it was addressed to the ship it went to the bridge when it was convenient for one of the wireless men to bring it there. Remember, both wireless operators on Titanic were Marconi company employees and not official members of the ships crew and they had no directives from the company as to how messages concerning the ships navigation were to be handled and no-one thought anything of it. The idea that wireless could give mariners the ability to "see over the horizon" for any navigational hazards hadn't really sunk in yet. Had ALL the ice warnings gone to the bridge immediately and been plotted Titanics captain and officers would have realized they were heading into an ice field nearly 100 miles in length.
If I had to guess, I would say part of the problem there was people's overall disposition towards wireless technology. It being seen more as a novelty to wow the passengers rather than safety equipment. So no real effort to fully integrate it into the ship's operations.
Warnings and messages went to the bridge if they started with the prefix "MSG". Almost all of the warnings did start with this, and almost all of them were delivered to the bridge and heeded. Only a couple weren't, because they didn't start with the designated prefix.
People also misunderstand, thinking that Titanic was of shoddy construction. Far from it, Titanic used the Best Steel, Best Designs and Best worksmanship, giving its Captain confidence. Materials Science just hadn't existed yet, to know that The Steel used, became exceptionally brittle at -10 degrees
Just imagine how risky for Carpathia was to go into Titanic position with high speed. Moonless night and sailing with high speed into ice field where another ship sank after hitting iceberg. Much respect for Carpathia crew, they were heroes.
I was just thinking the same thing! I believe the Captain of carpathia was knighted after this and was awarded high honors for his bravery along with his crew. It’s crazy with all the technology we have now and how little we had over a hundred years ago, titanic sank and immediately a rescue mission was launched
Rostron was a christian and he would close his eyes and pray for their own safety every time he had to make a decision during their mad dash towards the titanic
Yes they almost did hit an iceberg but saw it in time
@@LeicaFleuryincoming angry atheists 😂
@@oledonkeynutzmcgee5320meanwhile Atheists on the Titanic…
They played Russian roulette with all of those icebergs. If it were daylight, I doubt they would have been going half that speed.
It was actually protocol at that time to go full speed icebergs where considered nuisances at best up until then, it was a series of bad luck and just freakish occurrences that doomed the titanic
It's likely they would've kept the same speed, since the reason they were going at full speed is due to their coal store being on fire the entire journey. The only way to stop a coal fire is to completely burn the coal, which could only be done within the engines, which meant full boiler pressure and speed.
@Brad Last Name: Ships do not slow down for ice. There are countless testimonies from experienced captains who made the Atlantic route frequently, and all said the same thing: that they do not slow down because of ice.
@@legioner9 * I'm stunned it took the Titanic disaster to realize that they need to slow down in a field of icebergs all around them. They really tempted fate running that fast in ice fields. I would be freaked out as a passenger!
@@HoosierDaddy_ not according to the knowledge of the time. When you are in an ice field you want maneuverability and you can only get that with speed. The theory was if visibility is good and you can see the icebergs early, it is safer to be fast and maneuverable than slow.
To the knowledge of the Titanic crew they had the perfect night because it was clear without fog and therefore they assumed they would be able to dodge icebergs. The world did not know about the effect of smooth seas and moonless nights and that it can make you see a false horizon.
(Technically they also didn't go full speed but thats beside the point.)
If anything the Titanic was rather lucky on how far she sailed through the ice field. As the captain of the Carpathia reported having to avoid dozens of ice burgs to reach the Titanic.
True that. I remember reading that cpt. Rostron avoided like 4 icebergs at the last second when they were rushing beyond full speed for Titanic.
And could have easily struck one.
While traveling at flank speed 😮
Miracle
@@legioner9 on top of the amount of icebergs the Carpathia was going significantly faster than she was meant to
The Carpathia rescue Mission would make for a pretty good movie.
Oh my god we need James Cameron to make a sequel!
Wait, that I never heard of!
How were they saved??
@@TheThingoftheSkyThe carpathia was a ship that was relatively close by and responded to the titanics call for aid. They took in the passengers from the few life boats that made it, as well as fishing some out of the water. In total, not many people where saved (the titanic did not have enough life boats for all its passengers, and most of the ones that she did have, where either launched almost empty, or sunk because they where too full. Very few people made it)
On the deck of the carpathia they handed put blankets and warm food for the freezing passengers as well.
@@TheThingoftheSky
The telegram operator was getting ready to go to bed. He stayed up a little bit longer to help filter messages for the Titanic coming from the East Coast of the US. He heard the SOS from Titanic and went to wake his captain. The captain was mad for being awakened then apologized after seeing the emergency. The communication officer stayed up longer trying to send the SOS to other ships and staying in communication with the Titanic.
The captain of the Carpathia had ordered that they push the engines to their limit to make good time. Forcing the ship to stop using heat from the engines for non necessities. Risking his ship and crew being stranded with no engines or heat to get to the Titanic.
There was another ship closer to the Titanic but did not respond to the Titanic firing flares. They thought they were fireworks. They fired the flares a few times over the time they were sinking. The crew kept asking the captain if they should investigate. He even refused to wake the telegram operator. They didn't get the SOS messages because their radio operator was already in bed. They finally were made aware in the morning and arrived after The Carpathia had rescued who they could.
@@FernandoMendoza-dw8nz Sheesh, thx for the info
The captain was so confident about the weather being good (which is rather unpredictable) while ignoring the moon (which is completely predictable)
There was no moon that night
@@DrCury448 exactly
Many disasters came from men who do not know when to stop.
There was no moon that night
@@adamgerald849 Thats LITERALLY their point. The cycle of the moon has been tracked by most cultures for centuries. The captain KNEW there wasnt gunna be a moon
I’m imagining how creepy that must have been. In a tiny lifeboat in the middle of the freezing ocean, pitch blackness, bodies floating in the ocean, and the shadows of icebergs all around you.
No moon = No shadows.
@@silver-fd3cvloser
@@silver-fd3cv I think they were talking about the next morning 🙂
@@Ilikestarwars1245 "pitch blackness" they were talking about the night.
Creepier when you realise the sounds. Screams in the beginning that slowly fade out to silence…
It's also SO dark, my grandfather was in the navy. He often would take night walks. One night the outside lights were off. He couldn't see his hand in front of his face. I couldn't imagine how bad it would be back in Titanic days. Let alone the transatlantic journeys the century before.
It really is. I go on cruise ships frequently and dark nights are REALLY dark and eerie. You can practically see 20-50meters off the side deck with ships lights on.
I've had nights camping that you couldn't see shit and it messed with you.
@@Denozo88how did it mess?
@VladVlad-ul1io You can't see where things are if you need to go out of your tent and its freaky as those are the nights where every living thing seems to be awake. You think things are their that aren't or are exaggerated beyond reality.
I agree, my father served in the British navy during WWII and said there were nights at sea when you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Eerie.
You also can’t forget about the fact that people warned about the dangers of having too few lifeboats, but people just assumed lifeboats would only be needed to get people onto a nearby rescue ship, so they ignored the possibility of a ship totally sinking that quickly and that far out
Exactly. It was intentionally suck
They actually removed some because the rich folk wanted more space to roam and the boars were in the way
That far out? It was only 400 miles out…don’t get me wrong that sounds far but in the Atlantic Ocean it’s nothing
What's even sadder is that not all of the boats they had got launched in time. And none of them were full.
Called cheap
That really hits hard when you learn this could have been totally avoided. I thought it was a freak accident and they just couldnt see properly at night. But now hearing they were warned by multiple ships and still went ahead is just heartbreaking 😢
There was no way they could stop the boat because it burns coal and they did listen to the warning but hoping it would be fine because “even God can't sink this ship”😅
I probably go to hell for this but:
Seems God took the challenge.... and won
Not heartbtreaking, just stupid.
There’s even more to it than that, there were SO MANY things about the Titanic that doomed it to fail, the most popular one is that there simply weren’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers because they thought it was unsinkable and they weren’t needed
Then you get into the engineering specifics and find out that it was a poorly designed ship in the first place, the Captain had a massive ego, and while I’m not sure this is totally true, apparently the starboard bow of the ship was damaged before they even put the thing in the water, guess which part of the ship the iceberg hit?
The 'freak accident' part of the Titanic was that the iceberg damaged the ship in such an extensive way. The Titanic has some of the most sophisticated systems to prevent sinking at the time. If it had just done a head-on collision, it could have been incapacitated, but not sunk. Or sunk slowly enough to allow for rescue. There were also relatively new radio system to call for help,
Ocean liner disasters did happen fairly regularly at the time, but the new generation of ships the Titanic was part of were supposed to (and also were) safer. There were for example radio systems to call for help and ways to seal off breached sections of the ships.
The fact that the ship shored the iceberg and ripped it open on so much of its length was pretty unlucky, as it was only just above the damage the ship could have taken on paper. This ship sank in less than three hours, which is fast. Then there were also twists of fate that delayed rescue, etc..
It would have been great if James Cameron would have added the icefield in the movie when Titanic was cruising during its last night. It would have made the movie so much more realistic and eerie.
It does show the ice field when Carpathia is shown at dawn surrounded by all the life boats.
@@NSMerryweather4771 True, but that scene is too short. There was the scene with the ship cruising at night (just before cpt. Smith talks to Lightoller and says the sea is like a mil pond) where Cameron could have added the icefield, IMO.
@@legioner9 but surely if visibility was good enough to see it all they'd have seen the one they hit coming. The whole point is that until dawn it was pitch black .
They didn't see the iceberg after all, they just saw a black absence of stars.
it does. but it got deleted in the last edited version
There is a deleted scene with Californian shutting down for the night that shows the ice field
I visited the Titanic museum in Belfast and they said there were a number of issues, including the watch people not having binoculars and the radio transmissions being overfilled by rich passengers passing messages back and forth so that key warnings from other ships in the area went ignored, as well as other factors that also contributed to the issue.
Binoculars wouldn’t have helped. Why would they use binoculars at night lol
The biggest issues were the ship being made of bad steel (it was overly brittle) them sailing into the field to begin with, followed by consistent poor decisions made by the crew, including their reaction to the berg that they rammed. Full reverse, hard turn. Worst possible decision in that scenario. Anyone who knew their ship, especially one like the titanic, would have known better. The central propeller was a single direction steam motor, it only functioned when the ship was in forward, rudders in general are only really effective when moving forward since they direct the thrust of the propellers, as theyre designed to, rather than relying entirely on the flow of water. They killed a third of their thrust and 75% of their turning capability by throwing the ship to full reverse. Had they gone full fore and cranked her hard, they're likely to have missed the berg entirely. So on top of the poor design of the bulkheads and the low grade brittle steel used in the construction of the ship, the fact they nearly collided with two other ships as the ship left port due to the crew not being capable of handling the ship, the crews decision to sail into an ice field in the dead of night at an unsafe clip, followed by their complete and total lack of the type of knowledge and understanding of how the ship even functions that is expected of anyone in charge of a large ship os expected to have to begin with, the voyage was doomed the second they entered that field
Long comment short, they did the cruise ship equivalent of handing the keys of a hellcat to a dumbass 15 year old kid whos never touched a car before, in the dead of an alaskan winter and expected them not to crash
Fun fact: If the titanic wasnt sucken by an iceberg, it would of been sunken by a German U-Boat
What other factors?
There's a deleted scene in the James Cameron movie showing the ship 'Californian' fully stopped and completely surrounded by icebergs. Quite a cool scene.
shown in full in A Night to Remember
I recently saw photos taken from Carpathia on the morning of the 15th. It was surreal to see how many icebergs were nearby
Especially knowing that Carpathia had just in the dead of night and full speed raced through a good chunk of that. Few ships and crew deserve to be called hero like Carpathia
@@DamianMaisano yes as the carpathia also nearly hit an iceberg when they were on the way to the titanic
Also a testament to the crew of Carpathia that they themselves ran through that same field to attend the rescue. the closer ship, Californian had secured in the icefield that night.
Where did you find that photo? I tried to google it 20 ways but can't find that photo of icebergs 😢
The photos don't show it though?
Imagine how terrifying was the moment when the power was gone and all the people were on the ship without any moonlight
It's sad, they couldn't even see when their fate was gonna end, they could only depend on the sound of the ocean coming close to them
The part that bothers me the most is that each of the lifeboats had a light to guide survivors to them (which is gonna be a tough swim anyway in 28F water in street clothes) and once the the Titanic went down and it was pure dark, one by one those lights were turned off to avoid drawing swimmers.
Well the electricians onboard sacrificed themselves most of them anyway to ensure that the power remained on as long as possible
@@natehill8069that’s so selfish :(
@@thememelord4222 While that is noble, they were men and lower class at that so they werent gonna get a seat in a boat anyway.
My roommate just tried to tell me that it was just a movie and never actually happened.
Oh no 😂
Are his parents cousins? 😂
I understand. When I was in high school in Spanish class I sat in front of a girl who thought that Italy (the country) was part of the United States of America. *High school* 😂
Hol up...
@@victoriadiesattheend.8478
Historical Trivia 31,876,511: The Italian Unionist Movement existed. It was a postwar political party that advocated for Italy to become a state.
This is why you listen. Even if youre in a higher position you have to listen and not have any ego or think you're always right
"BUT IT'S UNSINKABLE" famous last words by two captains.
“BUT ITS INDESTRUCTIBLE” famous last words by New Yorkers
@@Minelaughterbut they're brave mujahadeen anti-communist fighters!? You're telling me people directly affected by imperialism hold grudges sometimes?
@@viktorbirkeland6520 what
Actually, it was a newspaper reporter who coined the term. While Star went along with it knowing full well any vessel could sink under the right conditions, it sent an illusion of safety. Titanic received several ice warnings, but not all could be verified of having reached the Watch On Deck. The Titanic did take a more southerly course bearing in mind its scheduled time of arrival.
There is no record of White Star Line calling it unsinkable. They said they have so much safety features it would be hard to sink. The unsinkable saying didn’t happen until after when a newspaper said that.
One thing I always forget is how dark it would have been for the souls on board the titanic. Once the lights on the titanic turned off, the only thing you would be able to see is the silhouette of the ship in the air blacking out the stars. Absolutely terrifying.
So poetic 🥲
That coupled with the screams of terror and people drowning all around you would’ve been nightmare fuel
don't forget how cold it was
And the sounds of terror pure cold terror.
The workers in the engine room were very brave keeping the lights going for as long as they could
Not just no moon though; it’s quite possible the crew was suffering the effects of an extremely rare phenomenon that makes it look like the horizon is exceptionally clear but actually plays tricks on your eyesight. By showing you a reflection of the water in front of you far out in the horizon, like a mirage except much more powerful of an effect to the point that it’s like fog.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Seek his Holy Spirit for guidance peace and purpose today Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
@hs-eiFata Morgana
@@notausernameduhOmg I'm a mirage
@@agereartist3763 congratulations ✨
@hs-ei Interesting fact , One of the possible explanations for the source of the Flying Dutchman legend is the Fata Morgana optical illusion phenomenon .
In reality, it stayed afloat and together much longer than any one would have guessed which was a testimony to its structural integrity. It was a beast!
If I’m not mistaken, Titanic did actually steer about 10-15 miles south to put them out of the center of the ice field, little did they know this still would put them in it. To quote Lightoller “He (Captain Smith) knew nothing of the death trap laying ahead of us anymore then I did.” Charles Lightoller -1933 BBC interview.
Anything Lightoller said should be taken with a grain of salt. He cowardly saved himself and then went on to spend the rest of his life badmouthing the other ships officers who made better decisions but went down with the ship, making them unable to defend their name from him.
@@laszu7137 He ended up in the water and survived on an upside down lifeboat. He was cowardly to get on top of it?
@@laszu7137Describing Lightoller as cowardly despite his heroic actions in war and Dunkirk as an elderly man is ridiculous
I think she tried to turn away and that was the mistake, because the iceberg sliced through the vessel's parsecs like a knife. If she'd crashed into it head on, only the first frontal parsec(s) would suffer while the rest remained undamaged, causing the vessel to stay afloat. Do correct me if I am wrong though, my dad told me this.
@@MoonchildOfDarkness she would’ve sank faster if she hit head on…
this lowkey is my comfort channel
:)
same 🫶
@@OceanlinerDesigns Learning something new almost every day. Keep up the good work. Cheers from a fellow Aussie.
Nothing more comforting than hearing about 1,700 people dying
That's sad, get a significant other, go outside sometimes
Also, due to the calm sea conditions, there was little wave break activity on the icebergs. Had there been, the crew would have been able to detect the icebergs more easily from the sound.
I very much doubt they would have heard the waves breaking on the icebergs over the sound of the waves breaking on the ship and the sound of the ship's engines. However, they might have seen the waves breaking on the icebergs.
That’s how the Batavia hit the Abrolhos
The false horizon didn't help with visibility either. It cover the iceberg until the last minute.
You hadnt been there with a ship with 30 boils
After being on a cruise to Alaska, we were taken to Endicott Arm with Dawes Glacier. There was so many ice bergs that it required pilot boats in front and back to help guide the ship safely through.
i was at a titanic museum once, and they had a simulator for if you were the captain in that situation. it began at the distance the iceberg was visible, and it turned very, very slow. out of the group of 7 people i was with, only 1 was able to avoid it
Where is this museum? It sounds cool
@@jessicaemmit4062 sadly i cant remember, i was a little kid, but i do remember that the outside of it looked like the titanic itself (or at least part of it)
@@darknexxenbyI bet you didn’t throw the engines into reverse. THAT is the main reason she scrapped the side.
@@samiam619 if i recall correctly there was no option to reverse, it was just a steering wheel and a start switch
@@samiam619how tf do you reverse a ship at the size of a fucking village anyway?
I grew up in Newfoundland. Ships hit icebergs occasionally, even to this day. Titanic officers made the huge mistake of exposing their broad side to impact. Head on would have been survivable.
That's what I also noticed with my RC cars... If I am too close to steer away, a head-on collision will do less damage.
Its the same way with cars. A hit to the door is more than likely critical or fatal. A hit to the front destroys the engine but saves you more often than not.
Or just no fucking full speed for no reason.
Sort of what happened to the SS Andrea Doria. The Andrea was hit on the starboard side and it quickly sank. While the ship that hit it, the Stockholm, had the front of the ship crushed, it was still seaworthy.
@@fistofram5526apparently it was normal in1912 and the coal was burning 24/7 which can be done by the engine moving fastly and constantly
This might just be me, but it sometimes seems so easy to just forget these events and the heavy impact they've had. Videos like this remind me what it might've been like from a passenger's side, and it's haunting. God bless the Carpathia for going through that ice field to get the survivors.
You look like Michael from Peaky Blinders. Bro was a witness of the Titanic 💀💀💀
No he does not 🤨
There was also a bizarre condition caused by the Labrador Current that made the horizon appear much higher than it was. This hid the iceberg from view until they were virtually on top of it.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Seek his Holy Spirit for guidance peace and purpose today Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus
lol I just saw someone else explain it with "fata morgana" so what the heck is the labrador current, bro?
@@jimsmith3715 The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Scotia, this cold water current meets the warm northward moving Gulf Stream. The combination of these two currents produces heavy fogs and has also created one of the richest fishing grounds in the world.
I've often wondered if without the pressure of the 'maiden voyage' hanging over him, if Smith would have decided to either stop or at least slow down significantly until daylight. A 12 hour delay wouldn't be that unusual, but could be seen as a bad sign on the first crossing. I wonder how much that affected his decision making that night.
It was a huge factor IMO. Especially with Ismay himself on board.
Look to the 1997 film to see how the latter may have exerted influence on the Captain. Smith had a great record for safety. It's why he was in the position he was in.
IMO..Ismay, combined with it being the maiden voyage, mixed with some bad luck is what led to the events of that night.
@@finsfan90 Ismay's presence is often overstated. The sad truth is, maintaining speeds through ice was a normal practice in 1912, as the inquiries indicated after interviewing several other captains.
@@flametitan100 Right, it was standard operating procedure, keep your speed up and rely on the lookouts to warn you of any obstructions in your path. Thay ALL did it that way, although after the British enquiry Lord Mersey said "Hopefully this is the last we hear of THAT practice."
@wayneantoniazzi2706 And yet if I remember correctly there were a number of nearby ships that stopped for the night, including the Californian where the ice field warnings originally came from. Seems like a crazy risk for a captain to take to run at near full steam through a known ice field under a moonless night - especially before the advent of effective search lights.
@@PaladinCasdin Californian was the only ship that was stopped and that's because they saw ice all around them and were slow enough to stop before hitting any. They didn't have any passengers so they weren't in a hurry to get anywhere. Every other ship in the area was still sailing.
I was a sailor on a Great Lakes freight ship. I was on one of the old style ones where they had one half of the house on the front and half on the back. So being hungry at night meant I had to walk one end of the ship to the other on deck in the pitch black. It was kind of terrifying. Especially when cloudy because then there was absolutely zero light. It was like floating in a deep endless void. And like at any moment something could lunge at you from the velvety darkness, never to be seen again.
Thinking back on how I literally couldn’t see anything, it makes so much more sense to me on how they didn’t see the iceberg until it was too late.
I actually have a lot of mildly scary stories from the ships, it’s no wonder people always say boats are haunted.
Can you share some story here for someone who's never seen a seashore in his life..??
@@legendtourstravels3873 Sure! One kind of cool story is when we and a bunch of ships raced to Duluth, Minnesota across the Superior.
So we were underway for the port I’d be departing from when the weather on the lake started getting pretty rough. The captain decided to anchor us in a sheltered bay while the weather and heavy waves passed by.
A few other ships decided to do the same as well and they were scattered about.
The next day I get called to duty and outside my porthole window I see about a dozen ships surrounding us. That’s not very common with our kind of ship, we’re all roughly 1000ft, ~300m, ore ships.
One by one the ships started leaving, all bound for Duluth as well. Eventually the captain told us to pick up anchor, and the race was off.
We were a bit behind, but our ship is one of the faster ones, and soon enough we were overtaking some of them.
Hours had gone by and we were in the remaining wind and waves and fog. It was quite beautiful seeing the pine filled hills of upper Michigan cloaked in fog. The waves had the whole ship flexing and rocking
But on we went, coming up on a few more ships. And not long after midnight we had made it to dock. It was finally time to take my leave.
@@AdrianR.374 would love to travel to the great lakes and start tourism packages for them from India. We get a good amount of tourists from your country to ours, but to send from our side to your country would be wonderful.
@@legendtourstravels3873 That would be very cool! There is a lot of beautiful coastline on the lakes. You could sail for weeks and still not see everything.
Hey there sailor! 😂😂😅
Are there any more scary stories about your travels? I loved both that I read. (You could start a blog; your writing style is lovely)
The icefield was so massive the Carpathia almost hit one herself during her rescue mission towards the Titanic.. that would have been fatal…
In fairness, in the James Cameron movie, there was a shot of morning with lifeboats heading towards Carpathia and in the shot there were numerous icebergs but it was such a short shot a lot of people probably don't remember it. It was kinda a "blink and you miss it".
I also thought there was a short scene that showed that the captain was warned at some point but he ignored it because “the ship is unsinkable”
If someone is in Belfast I very highly recommend visit the titanic museum. To be honest I cried a little after learning about the stories altogether
Not only that but after they hit the iceberg the Captain restarted the engines and began moving forward again. The forward motion forced water into the gash created by the iceberg and flooded the compartments. The force of the incoming water overcame the sealed off compartments and flooded the ship, and they had reached the critical point of taking on additional water. He made a fatal error.
Had the Captain chose to stay still in the water until rescue it’s been calculated that all passengers would have gotten off the ship prior to its sinking. It still would have gone down but they would have had adequate time for the Carpathia to reach them.
Wow!!! I did not know this!! Thanks for this sypnosis..❤❤
Wrong a simple Google search shows it didn't keep going after it hit the berg
That seems weird. Why would moving cause faster flooding?
@@Kali-bs7oj The force of the water is greater against the watertight doors.
This is incorrect as soon the 5th compartment torn was going down and in fact the ship actually stayed afloat longer than the designers/engineers predicted with 5 compartments damaged. Restating engines was not an uncommon practice with other types of damage it can even advisable. Also the lifeboats designed to ferry people to safety back and forth not as static shelters there was literally not enough of them for everyone on board. Because of a variety of factors they also were not launching the lifeboats at or even near capacity in most cases. They also could not have calculated a reliable recuse time due to communications issues and delays.
That final image getting preserved to this day was the best part to see. What a capture
I remember Captain Smith when he received the first ice warning, they altered course slightly to avoid the fields. However, even though I'm assuming the icebergs separated each other by miles now, but one was still right in front of them.
I understand he veered 10 miles further south than the original course.
@@richardcarter5314 Doesn't seem like a lot. 16 km in short. Almost as if Smith didn't even try.
Keeping in mind what the SS Californian did on the night of April 14th. For they made a full stop when they realized they were caught too in the same Ice Field that Titanic was nearing and they were 30km away.
@@victorsamsung2921 True.
@@legioner9 Exactly! And that is what makes the ordeal so frustrating, concerning both Smith, Murdoch, Wilde and Andrews have taken their secrets with them down to the bottom of the ocean.
@@victorsamsung2921 I don't think this crew should be called out specifically. This was normalised complacency across the industry at the time and was the standard operating procedure for the time. Sadly time/luck ran out for the Titanic but if wasn't for this ship, it likely would have been another ship that we'd now be talking about
The 1997 film shows the ice field when Carpathia arrives at dawn and the lifeboats are making their way to it.
Exactly! And in a 3 hour movie did it really matter to show icebergs that really had no effect on the course of the movie? And in addition to the Carpathia rescue scene, there’s a deleted scene showing the SS Californian stationary amongst a massive ice field too.
Yeah. I watched the Titanic a few years ago and barely remember a thing or two but the rescue scene really stuck with me. I remember them sort of plowing through what I would know now to be an icefield with pale dead bodies in the middle of them and the rescue team looking for survivors. It was a horrific scene. There were infants there.
If you think about it, it's a little humorous to consider that Captain Smith would receive a warning for 1 iceberg.
Lol right but when I was 10 and I watched this movie I thought that they were getting warnings on that one singular iceberg 😂
“the next morning when survivors woke on their life boats” is a HILARIOUS statement to make. As if the survivors were just schleepin from the night before and someone gently placed their sleeping bodies into life rafts while the titanic sank😂
In my studies of accidents, mostly of construction or bridge failures but some of shipwrecks too, almost in every single case there was a mixture of circumstantial unpredictable events, and clear, preventable human negligence. In every, damn, case. The way I define it is that negligence paves the way for the catastrophe to happen, only waiting for that event that will trigger it all. Without negligence, the trigger will be blank, at the structure survives. Without the trigger event, the building eerily stands, either debilitating or postponing it's life until the day eventually comes. But it always comes, sooner or later.
Well said…and so sadly true. But humans make mistakes…fatigue, loss of concentration, unfortunate substances, etc. . I sometimes wonder how many thousands were/are lucky enough to avoid disaster on possibly a daily basis.
In the Titanic's case, it seems that there were a series of bad decisions all around. Change any one of them and it wouldn't have happened or not been as bad.
@@ahapkaThat's just classic Swiss Cheese model though. Disasters tend to be that way in any moderately safe industry, and the number of things that have to go wrong to cause a disaster just increases as things get safer.
Smith had been getting messages since they left European waters. And it was normal practice on Ocean Liners to go all out and only slow down if conditions cleared. Given that the most advanced early warning tech they had of an obstruction, ahead was the Mark I Eyeball, a disaster like Titanic was just a question of which ship had the bad luck to have the coin land on heads.
And before anyone suggests that any of the warnings that didn't leave the wireless room could have changed anything, remember that there are hundreds of "Moose Crossing" signs in Maine And Canada, and every year dozens of vehicular accidents - some fatal - still occur.
Replace " extra moose crossing signs" with "iceberg warning X made it to the bridge," and you get my point.
So well said.
For sure. But I keep the conditions on the night of 14 April in mind, including as Brady said: 1) a moonless sky; 2) still water; 3) freezing temperatures.
All made it very difficult for Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee to spot the iceberg. In fact, that Fleet even spotted it with less than 500 meters to spare is amazing on itself.
@@victorsamsung2921 It's also probable that there was a mirage in play also hampering visibility, but since it was at night you couldn't tell.
@@K9TheFirst1 Yep. The cold-water mirage. Also, apparently Titanic fired the wrong colored rockets. What is the truth about that?
@@victorsamsung2921 I've heard that said a few times in recent years, about the rockets being the wrong colors. I don't know where to go to confirm or refute it, but given how the officers were all Royal Naval reserves, I find the idea more than a little suspect. It wouldn't be the first time people made up a reason for the crew to be incompetent in the name of having someone to blame.
The ship California was close enough to rescue the passenger off the Titanic before it sank. However after recieving a rude message from the Titanics telegraph operator the California shut off its telegraph. The message sent from Titanic was telling the California to basically shut up because they were interupting the Titanics transmissions.
That message wasn't rude, though. It was colleague banter, and it didn't cause Californian's operator to shut down his equipment; his shift had simply ended.
In addition, they were stuck in the middle of an ice field themselves and had stopped for the night. Still, they should've done *something...*
Exactly right!
No for that. He just went to sleep and there was no replacement
She wasn’t. She was stopped cold and would have taken an hour to get going and another two to reach the site of titanic (due to her slow speed) the first wireless message was sent past 12. There may have been a few more survivors but not many.
Actually in the 1997 movie they do indeed show many other icebergs when the Carpathian arrives.
For those who don't know, the picture of the iceberg at the end has a smudge on it from the red paint
My grandfather was a Quartrrmaster with the rival Cunard Line at the same time.
The gossip among the merchant seamen was that the Titanic Captain did not sail AWAY from the ice field DELIBERATELY, because the celebrities and rich & powerful in First Class wanted to get a close look at the bergs -- and none of them thought Titanic COULD sink!
Grandad went on to be at the wheel of Lusitania in 1917 ... then on the crew of Lancastria, sunk by dive bombers in 1940, while a Hospital Ship, evacuating troops from St Nazaire. This is still Britain's greatest sea disaster: at least 6 000 dead.
He survived two of the 20th century's worst sea disasters, despite never having learned to swim!
DAMN your grandfather's lucky as hell 💀
bros grandad is THAT guy
Sounds like Uncle Albert.
How was he at the wheel of Lusitania in 1917, when the ship went down two years earlier in 1915?
@@tommydotyjr.2966 fake story for likes probably
I truly admire your dedication to Titanic! Love your content!
The iceberg that struck Titanic probably wasn’t fully melted until a year or two later.
And the still water meant no waves crashing against the ice burg; which also aids in spotting them.
On top of this, ice bergs are known to flip and turn in the water as the weight redistributes. So apart from a dangerous amount of ice being hidden under the surface, they're twisting around and quickly changing how unsafe it is to be nearby on a boat.
Not mentioned here is that because there was no wind, means there was no ripples on the water either, which makes Icebergs even harder to spot as well.
The titanic is like a compilation of so many bad decisions that make the impossible possible
Not really. It was sabotaged by the banksters. It wasn't an iceberg.
Isn’t that always how it happens?
@@jonmaster5000I mean yeah but people always like to present things as one small difference changes all of history which it very rarely does
@@peter42466 I agree totally. You can’t just simplify everything.
Wow he really said ‘tonite is a good night to risk everyone’s life on a gut feeling’
Yeah and the fact that the water was so calm, made it hard to see the burgs because they didn’t have waves crashing against the base. This was something that was actually said in the movie by second officer Charles Lightoller. They put a fair bit of accurate info into the movie which is one of the reasons I love it.
the titanic was actually designed to not sink against frontal impacts with icebergs, but they tried to steer away so the iceberg dragged across the side, causing them to sink
This is exactly what I’ve always thought. Just one giant ice berg out there enjoying a quiet midnight float, minding its own business… until the Titanic shows up and throws its peaceful float into complete chaos!
I could watch videos of you telling us about history, as you speak so clear and knowledgeable and ur accent just fits. Your like the perfect story teller❤
It’s true. The Carpathia said they saw a lot of big icebergs on their way to rescue titanic survivors. There were so many they had to slow down because they were everywhere. They almost hit one when they approached the ice field going full speed
edit to this story: At the end of Titanic (1997) when Carpathia arrives there are hundreds of iceberg in the scene
That is what we call an "oopsie daisy"
My bad internet is pausing it and the faces he make are so funny
I wrote a comedy fanfiction where a time traveler went on the titanic and took an innocuous key as a souvenir. But its strongly hinted at that it was the key to the cabinet where the binoculars were kept.
If the lookouts had binoculars it wouldn't have made much of a difference. The pitch black moonless night combined with the stillness of the sea meant that icebergs would have been practically invisible. Even with binoculars, without light seeing would have still been difficult. The conditions that night for spotting icebergs was literally as bad as it could have possibly been
I call bollocks, on that locked cabinet story.
They're trying to say that a locked cabinet kept the look-outs from getting something as important as the binoculars?
Why didn't they just smash the lock off? 🤔
LOL
You dont use the binoculars to detecta iceberg the naked eye is better for that
@@Mr-ne9ld So what's with all the hubub that blames the absence of the binoculars, responsible for the lookouts failure to see the iceberg?
Every documentary about the Titanic emphasizes that binoculars could have saved the ship.
Not to mention all of the short cuts that were taken during the construction, and the lack of life boats due to being too confident and not wanting to ruin appearances. All three ships in her class sank, they had problems before they even left shore.
Im just gonna say two main things, the Olympic never sank. the last two lifeboats to left the ship (collapsible A and B) left the ship 5 minutes before Titanic was gone, any more lifeboats would have go down with the ship.
Titanic had more Lifeboats than maritime law required.
Pretty much every other passenger liner of the era would have been less well equipped, would have had fewer lifeboats per person and would not have remained afloat for as long meaning less time to deploy lifeboats using older lifeboat launch equipment that was slower to deploy.
I do not like how unfairly people judge Titanic compared to its contemporaries.
Olympic never sank, she was scrapped after a long and successful career. Britannic hit a mine in wartime, not exactly normal service, she also carried more casualties than the next three largest WW1 hospital ships combined.
This youtube channel has some great videos disproving everything you just said.
Jessica's opinions are complete dogshit. There were no shortcuts taken during construction.
Seeing ice bergs at sea is a surreal experience.
*This was basically the original OceanGate*
Not really, but thanks for making an ignominious "comment".
@@nathanielovaughn2145 Nobody asked for your opinion Karen
@@nathanielovaughn2145 Nobody asked for your opinion K A R E N
Yup! And there was another boat nearby that saw the flares going off and thought they were just fireworks because it was "unsinkable" so many great books that were written from different perspectives!
Not true at all. The California saw the flares but did not respond because the messages were not marked MSG and they couldn’t be sure if it was just rising stars instead of flares. The company never said it was “unsinkable” at all
@@FrostedRaptor because the wireless operator went to bed before titanic started sending out destress signals. They tried to get in touch with the ship with lanterns but the mirage kept them from being seen .
Refraction. There were reports of heavy refraction in the area. This is basically the inverse of a heat mirage, where the distortion caused the sky to cover the land. In this case, the sea seems to cover part of the sky. The iceberg was obscured by the distortion
They didn’t see the iceberg due to a cold weather mirage that made the horizon seem further away than usual it was actually a clear still starry night and theirs loads of survivors testified how strange the horizon and water looked as it didn’t meet how it usually would in the distance
The sea was also very still that night. Many survivors described it as being like glass. This meant that there were no waves crashing against the iceberg, which would have made it more visible.
That's exactly what some of the survivors in the lifeboats said. They were in the middle of an ice field. But by that time they were inches off the surface of the water.
"we are stopped and surrounded by ice"
Titanic: "shutup! Youre jaming my signal"
The operator ripped off his headset pretty much as soon as the Californian started transmitting, due to the proximity of the latter, and the fact that Titanic's set was turned up to the maximum in order to hear responses from Cape Race, the signal was so loud in his ears. He never got to hear the warning about being surrounded by ice. The guy was tired (coming to the end of a 12 hour shift) cranky and then he gets some guy blasting his ears off! Every single one of us would've reacted exactly the same. The wireless operators were both heroes - no blame can be apportioned to them.
I'm frankly surprised the Whitestar Line's 'most experienced captain' didn't know better. Or didn't at least ensure his lookouts had binoculars.
James Cameron is right, both Titanic and Titan "one wreck next to the other, and for the same damn reason"
Lookouts never had binoculars. It was their responsibility to see and report anything ahead of them, from there someone on the bridge would use binoculars to identify it
@@jasonmurawski5877what a stupid system. Let’s have short vision that gives less time to react look at potential danger first and thennnn try to get a better look
Fun fact: If the titanic wasnt sucken by an iceberg, it would of been sunken by a German U-Boat
I think it also involves the material the ship was made of. There is smtg called DBTT - ductile brittle transition temperature. At this temp the material becomes brittle and is easy to break. Modern ships don't have this problem.
My ASD is thanking you for this unintentional hyperfixation about the titanic. I’ve seen the movie in theatres in the 90s, was surrounded by all of the merch into Y2K, and I’ve watched national geographic docs about the wreck but since OceanGate my brain cannot stop watching titanic info dumps and it’s really comforting for me.
Iceberg: _"Near, far, wherever, you are..."_
Yes messages were sent from the SS California, and I was told Titanics radio operator told the one from California to shut up. And then Stanley Lord went to bed. And when he woke, his life as a sea captain was over.
Interestingly they didn’t tell the ss California to shut up because they didn’t want the advice but because they were so close that the radio transmission was basically screaming in the ears of the receiver on the titanic
Yes he did but because Titanic operators were working Cape Race sending passenger messages. Therefore their headsets were turned up all the way. The Californian was so close that it left a screeching noise in the ears of the Titanic operators. So yes they told them to shut up. And they'd already gotten so many ice warnings they probably thought it was redundant frankly
While true its not how it sounds.
To make a long story short, all the radio operators at the time were part of the same company, and trained at the same school, and a "playful" rudeness was common amongst them.
The radio operator of the California said himself that offense was neither meant nor taken. Also he had just finished a long shift and just wanted to check in with his colleagues (who at the time were rather busy themselves because thanks to a radio malfunction they had nearly a day of messages to send), who told them they where busy, so he clocked out and went to bed.
What a lovely, melodic voice and delightful Australian inflection! ❤
Amazing to think the burg was photographed and you can see where it was hit.
Multiple bergs were actually photographed and claimed to be "the one", and the most likely one (based on reported shape) doesn't seem to have any mark on it.
I love your videos man!
I love your *deep dive* videos. You earned a *sub*
Also the cold water mirage effect made them think that they could see for miles. Also the water was so calm so there was no water breaking at the base of the bergs
The Captain even commented that the ice field was perfectly normal for that time of year
The thing is the guy who had the key to the closet with the binoculars in it wasn't on the ship and had the keys with him but figured they would be fine and didn't say anything about it.
Also, their binoculars were locked in a cabinet and they didn't have a key so they were trying to spot them with the naked eye
I think the movie makes it quite clear that the voyage was dangerous and it was not just one iceberg. Some amount of creative liberty is definitely tolerable, when the outcome is that memorable.
At least he went down with the ship. I don't think he could have survived the criticism.
A really good scene Cameron could’ve added to the movie would’ve been to have the survivors passing through that field of icebergs and seeing the dread on their faces as they sail by them knowing that there was no way to avoid the catastrophe
Fun fact: If the titanic wasnt sucken by an iceberg, it would of been sunken by a German U-Boat
@@jackmccool9911or scrapped.
@@Tachikawa_2006 It wouldn’t have been scrapped, it would of became a passenger boat between britian and america for a long time. The company that owned the titanic had plans to turn the titanic into a major passenger vessel.
@@jackmccool9911 if not sunk, It would have been scrapped. Olympic served until 1935 when she was scrapped.
@@tommydotyjr.2966 Titanic was different from the olympic. The titanic was planned to be a major civilian ship between great britain and the USA. The olympic was supposed to be a minor yet expensive ship that would go on for one or two routes. If you google it, the titanic would of continued on.
Then, it would continue on and on until in my opinion it would sink. The lusitania met this fate, and it sunk right on the route the titanic was heading between britian and the USA. The germans would of had the opportunity to sink the titanic easily.
Heck, it might have even dragged the USA into the war early as it would of had the most americans on board than any other crusier as the time. As we learn in history, america is constantly dragged into wars just by an attack. Common examples can be: 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and more.
What do you think of the refraction theory explaining why the iceberg wasn't spotted? It potentially seems to make a lot of sense.
The cameraman must have been immune to hyperthermia
Movies and even some documentaries post a completely false narrative about the Titanic and the disaster itself. So many documentaries have said she was poorly constructed and doomed from the start. Olympic proves she was anything but poorly build. Titanic 1997 & even A Night To Remember seem to just show a lone iceberg. The ice field was dangerous, vast, & Smith had taken a more southerly route. The conditions that night were unheard of. The Titanic disaster was really & truly a series of unfortunate events.
@@JumboCod91 would been a nice ram. They would been faster to blow the warring too. Original book has it they kept cruising over thirty minutes before realizing the water was already going up some of the lower decks. Crazier part was there wasn't so much a shake when it ripped open, cut like butter. Similar one, the ship with the drunk captain who ran to a hotel it was described to happen similar hitting a reef little shock, they too kept going until they did the electric slide off deck. That captain is still in jail after abandoning ship.
Not a single serious movie or documental about Titanic says it was poorly built. It was the state of the art and the best materials available were used.
@@Wen6543 Yup, there were also several techniques as well as certain types of rivets that were still common at the time, but which were not allowed at Harland and Wolff. Because there were structural concerns about them under certain circumstances and H&W specifically opted for safer options. She was an extremely safe and well constructed ship in many respects, just not designed to withstand scraping along icebergs for a third of her length. But then neither are most ships any of us are likely to find ourselves on today.
@@CitizenMio I wonder how many similar accidents like that happened before and after the Titanic, i mean, a giant piece of ice opening the belly of a ship like a can. The chances for something like that probably are astronomically low, like being hit by a lightning.
@@Wen6543 A 2005 study on an expanded ship iceberg collision database, lists 670 events/collisions since the 1800's. I'm unaware of any more recent study, but the one I looked at calculates a collision roughly every 4 years. So that would be around 675 by 2023.
Of those around 370 involved steam or motor vessels. 65 are known to have sunk, 3 from glancing blows, including Titanic. In total, records show 56 suffering glancing blows of some sort. So it certainly wasn't always a death sentence, although most would be much smaller vessels. More prone to being pushed aside, versus bent around it on account of being a skyscraper going 21 knots.
Remarkably the last vessel known to have sunk in this manner was the MS Hans Hedtoft in 1959. She was a Danish cargo passenger liner. Also on her maiden voyage and just like Titanic her hull was riveted. She went down with 40 crew and 55 passengers. The only remnant ever found was a single lifebelt.
That's exactly why the ship seen that Titanic kept trying signal visually during the sinking had been stopped. It was a bit of a fail on the Californian "I'd wondered why a ship would be firing rockets".
Bro, it's a theory, but appearently they found out recently that there was literally a latent fire caused by the smouldering of the coal stored as a fuel and it was going on for 3 weeks since the week before the ship even sailed. The company appearently knew about that but they made it sail anyway to not lose the money for delaying the departure (which would have benefitted rival companies) and some of the works of the ship building were done for cheaper to save money.
At the end of the day the steel used for the hull was more impure and the strucrure was more fragile then what was planned, the welding ponts were weaker and the heat released from the fire in more than 3 weeks damaged and weakened the integrity of the hull in the same region where the ship hit the iceberg.
If the speed was lower (since they didn't have to use that coal so fast to lower the risk of an open fire) and the hull was made of better quality steel and was not damaged by the heat it could have probably survived the impact with the iceberg (as planned). The company appearently betted the lives of everyone on board for a bunch of bucks... The whole thing was just labeled as just an incident after but this researchers claim that there was still enough evidence to reconsruct what happened even after more than 100 years.
They started thinking this because of some depositions of some crewmen after the incident and because appearently you can still see today in some of the photos of the titanic that the region of the hull that impacted the iceberg had a slightly different color at the moment of the departure and that's tought to be due to the smouldering coal's heat that was damaging the hull for more than a week already when those photos were taken.
If the theory is proven then the Titanic's story is that of some insane amount of negligence.
It is not a theory, it is facts and was not found recently i believe
The fire was contained.
Oh FFS this again? Did you say "welding"?? There was no welding in ship construction in 1912, the Titanic was held together by rivets. Coal fires in ships of the day were very common. Trimmers were detailed to redistribute the coal and damp it down. The ridiculous picture some twat claimed shows discolouration of the hull neglected to work out it was nowhere near the coal bunkers.
@@Rantasalmi47 Absolute bullshit.
It was light enough to slightly see the icebergs at night, but the binoculars to see them further out, were inaccesible, so they didn't have enough time to react to the one they finally hit.
The captain was banking on the clear conditions and before he knew it his ship was banking too.
One of the main reasons the titanic sink was because they switched out one of the employees last minute. The guy who had the keys to the room with all the equipment like binoculars they switched him out last minute, and he forgot to give the keys to the new guy and because of that they didn’t have binoculars so they couldn’t see the icebergs and stop the ship
That likely didnt make any difference. Binoculars are too narrow, so the standard practice was to look with yout naked eye and confirm with binoculars. By the time they saw it, it was too late
@@Yatagurusuand they also wouldn’t be using binoculars at night
If there was indeed a cold-water mirage phenomenon happening that night, binoculars wouldn't have helped. But they still should have had them, yes.
For some of those in the comments: she wasn’t sailing at full speed. In order for her to go full speed, all her boiler rooms would have had to been lit - boiler room #1 wasn’t.
Accoding to remarks made by Mr. Lightoller years later Titanic wasn't going at full speed. It would have been considered irresponsible to go full speed with a brand-new ship considering it would take a voyage or two to completely break-in the engines. At any rate Titanic wasn't built to compete with the speedsters like Mauretania or Lusitania anyway so a record-crossing speed was never considered to begin with.
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 It was probably egos, pride and arrogance at play. Starting with calling Titanic unsinkable, and White Star Line having this tradition of *not* christening their ships.
@@victorsamsung2921 I think it was overconfidence rather than egos. Captain Smith had a 40+ year career where nothing ever went wrong for him. That was bound to effect his thinking a bit.
Not christening ships is supposed to be bad luck but White Star didn't think so, they were in a modern age and thought those things were old hat.
By the way, I've got a book on sailors superstitions and the impression I got from it was EVERYTHING is bad luck!
One old superstition I'm sure is followed today is "Never start a voyage on a Friday!" Even the non-superstitious won't take a chance on that one!
@@wayneantoniazzi2706 Overconfidence ... in other words, arrogance? I mean, when you think about it and keep your head on your shoulders, any Captain would have thought lowering speed was the least sensible thing to do.
Keeping the 2230 innocent souls on board you're responsible for in mind. But also, at 10PM and approaching midnight before heading off to bed, seeing the signs of flat water, cold-water mirage and *no* moon in the sky right in front of you ...
It's just hard to comprehend how someone could be so careless and reckless. No blame on Lightoller and Murdoch of course, who were just keeping orders.
@@victorsamsung2921 E. J. Smith didn't have an arrogant bone in his body, anyone who knew him would have told you that.
I will concur he probably should have been on the bridge knowing the ship would be in the area of ice around 11:30 PM and his decision making ability would have been needed, but that's hindsight on my (and everyone else's) part.
Still, untimately the captain (like all commanding officers anywhere) is responsible for everything his ship (or organization) does or fails to do.
Refer to my comment of 21 hours ago about incoming ice messages for the fact Titanics captain and officers really had no idea what they were heading for.
Titanic's Iceberg: Hey my local icefield imma just be somewhere..
Icefield: Kay.
Great clip! I thought that you had given up on the whole UA-cam thing.
The captain: *Skill issue*
Part of the problem was how incoming messages warning of the ice field were handled. If the message was addressed to the captain it went to him immediately, if it was addressed to the ship it went to the bridge when it was convenient for one of the wireless men to bring it there. Remember, both wireless operators on Titanic were Marconi company employees and not official members of the ships crew and they had no directives from the company as to how messages concerning the ships navigation were to be handled and no-one thought anything of it. The idea that wireless could give mariners the ability to "see over the horizon" for any navigational hazards hadn't really sunk in yet.
Had ALL the ice warnings gone to the bridge immediately and been plotted Titanics captain and officers would have realized they were heading into an ice field nearly 100 miles in length.
If I had to guess, I would say part of the problem there was people's overall disposition towards wireless technology. It being seen more as a novelty to wow the passengers rather than safety equipment. So no real effort to fully integrate it into the ship's operations.
Warnings and messages went to the bridge if they started with the prefix "MSG". Almost all of the warnings did start with this, and almost all of them were delivered to the bridge and heeded. Only a couple weren't, because they didn't start with the designated prefix.
People also misunderstand, thinking that Titanic was of shoddy construction. Far from it, Titanic used the Best Steel, Best Designs and Best worksmanship, giving its Captain confidence.
Materials Science just hadn't existed yet, to know that The Steel used, became exceptionally brittle at -10 degrees