Titanic: A Tragic Lesson in Maritime Safety

Fitch 6
In the year of 1912 a historic ship named the Titanic set sail on a remarkable voyage. While the Titanic raised the bar on modern ship sailing during its time period, it also brought an abrupt scare to the industry after its untimely sinking. The titanic took a brief two years to build in an era lacking in modern robotics to help craft the a ship of such magnitude.[footnoteRef:1] While two years seem to be an eternity for most, in the terms of ship building to years is unusually quick. Unfortunately for the Titanic?s passengers this brought a grave ending for its majority. Many view the sinking of the Titanic in a seemingly tragic and negative light, it should rather be viewed as a tragic incident that in turn saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people to come, simply from the lessons which were learned. While the Titanic's tragic sinking is not due to any one failure or complication, the Titanic's sinking in turn

completely overhauled the marine industry, making maritime travel safer for the millions of passengers to follow the Titanic's unforgettable tragedy.[footnoteRef:2] [1: ] [2: ]

On April 10, 1912 a historic ship set sail dubbed the Titanic.[footnoteRef:3] The Titanic was massive for its time. It was over eight-hundred and eighty feet long and came in at a size of over forty- thousand gross tons.[footnoteRef:4] The Titanic redefined the marine industry by its mammoth size and luxurious accommodations offered to the uber rich. The Titanic?s builders and engineers called her unsinkable; unfortunately, the Titanic?s reputation as unsinkable was revoked when she sank on April 14, 1912 claiming the lives of over fifteen-hundred of her passengers.[footnoteRef:5] The results of the Titanic?s sinking have been investigated for over a century to help understand exactly what went wrong and to help use that knowledge to improve all future marine travel. [3: ] [4: ] [5: ]

While the sinking of the Titanic can not be blamed on any one person or flaw, the ship?s captain unfortunately did play a large role in the ships sinking. The owning company of the Titanic, White Star, chose Captain Edward John Smith to pilot the historic Titanic. Shockingly, Captain Smith had a bad track record of close calls.[footnoteRef:6] During the Titanic's maiden voyage, Captain Smith planned on setting a new record for the time it took to travel from Southhampton to New York. Captain Smith pushed the titanic to its max cruising speed of twenty-three knots into a known ice field at the time. During the early nineteen hundreds, icebergs were only reported by other sailors and there was never proper documentation, which makes it very odd for a captain with so many lives at stake to sail at the speeds he was traveling at.[footnoteRef:7] Not only were the icebergs in the area, it was a dark night with no moon and the ocean was like a sheet of glass. With the ocean being like a sheet of glass no light from either from the stars or the ship could not reflect off of anything because there was no wave break.[footnoteRef:8] This unfortunately made seeing icebergs or objects in the water simply impossible unless objects were in the immediate vicinity. Under the circumstances, this made cruising along at twenty-three knots simply ludicrous. [6: ] [7: ] [8: ]

Not only was the ship traveling too fast for the conditions it was equipped with a small rotor which did not allow the ship to make quick and agile maneuvers. By the time the iceberg was seen and the first officer could react, the iceberg stood only thirty-seven seconds off the bow of the ship.[footnoteRef:9] In a panicked decision the first officer ordered the ship to be steered hard to the left, avoiding a direct collision with the iceberg. Many speculate that if the titanic made a dead on collision the majority of the lives onboard could have been saved because the ship would have been able to stay afloat long enough for a rescue ship to arrive.[footnoteRef:10] Instead the ship collided with the iceberg tearing a massive gash on its right side opening a mere three-hundred foot gash which was both above and below the waterline.[footnoteRef:11] This quickly turned the once unsinkable titanic into a very sinkable ship. The water quickly flooded the bow filling up each watertight bulkhead, but the gash was not contained below the bulkhead it spanned past the bulkhead making water uncontainable. As more and more water flooded the bow of he ship it brought the ship?s nose first into the ocean lifting to a staggering forty-five degree angle.[footnoteRef:12] The ship continued to lift until it snapped into two pieces. Although the ship lasted longer than her engineers predicted after striking the iceberg she still sank in a rather quick two and a half hours. [9: ] [10: ] [11: ] [12: ]

Although the Titanic sank quickly, if the lifeboats had been deployed quickly and with proper organization many more lives would have been saved. Instead of people making their way to life boats in an organized manner it was a stampede of people fighting for their lives. The crew never had proper training on how to organize the passages in case of an emergency to fully load and deploy the lifeboats.[footnoteRef:13] Prior to the Titanic's departure from Southampton the crew was scheduled to go through tests and training to deploy the lifeboats instead these tests were cancelled so that the ship could set sail for New York quicker. [13: ]

Since the sinking of the Titanic, marine law and ship building has changed drastically.

Everything from the protocol for safety to the design of the ships were completely overhauled. The Titanic has been used as a platform to help ship designers and the maritime industry allows for much safer marine travel.
One of the biggest changes since the Titanic is that cruise ships are required to have enough lifeboats for all of the passengers on board.[footnoteRef:14] Most cruise ships have extra deployable rafts for adequate safety in the event of an accident. On top of having the proper number of lifeboats, cruise ships now are also required to have life vests for everyone on board. These are just some of the changes made as a direct result of the Titanic. In addition to having enough lifeboats, all cruise liners are required by law to complete a successful muster test. A muster test is designed to run through the exact procedure that would be used in the event of a life threatening scenario such as what the Titanic faced. [14:

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Another flaw exploited in the sinking of the Titanic are the relatively small bulkhead which are supposed to contain water in the event of a hull breach. When the Titanic hit the iceberg the gash opened in the side of the ship was both above and below the bulkhead allowing for water to uncontrollably flood and ultimately sink the ship. The bulkheads on the titanic spanned the whole bottom of the ship and were able to spill over into each following bulkhead. In theory, this makes sense, but instead the bulkhead's design allowed for excess water to flood into the ship pulling in into the water and eventually sinking it.[footnoteRef:15] In new and modern ships all bulkhead's are designed gone watertight and can be remotely opened and close based off the circumstances of the situation.[footnoteRef:16] The bulkhead's are also much larger in the vent of a large gash in the side of the ship the water can easily be contained. These changes alone are enough to save thousands and thousands of lives. [15: ] [16: ]

Since the Titanic, ships no longer use coal burning steam engines. Today, most ships are run off of marine grade diesel, which is similar to the fuel burned in large tractor trailers. This allows for safe encapsulation of the fuel source because diesel is a liquid the is moved to the engine mechanically unlike coal which is shoveled by hand into massive furnaces. Ships such as the Oasis and Allure of the seas contain six diesel generators which provide electricity for the whole ship.[footnoteRef:17] Once the energy is produced the ships propeller system known as "azipods" are electrically powered and can be rotated a full three-hundred and sixty degrees for maximum maneuverability in the event of a close call.[footnoteRef:18] Unlike a mechanical system used in the Titanic along with ships leading up to the modern marvels such as the Oasis and Allure of the Seas these ships do not need time to change the direction of the propeller spin they can go from full forwards to complete reverse in seconds along with change the direction of the propellers to easily avoid any obstacle. The technological advancements shown in these ships? new propeller and power systems revolutionize how ships of the future can perform. [17: ] [18: ]

In addition to new ship designs and mechanics the United States Coast Guard put the International Ice Patrol, IIP, in nineteen thirteen.[footnoteRef:19] Shortly after the creation of the IIP the Canadian government joined the program with the creation of the Canadian Ice Services, CIS; as a result, they have banded together to form the North American Ice Service, NAIS.[footnoteRef:20] The sole purpose of the NAIS is to conduct air reconnaissance missions to map and report all visible icebergs in the North Atlantic. The NAIS often use C-130 Hercules airplanes for the reconnaissance. The C-130 is a common plane used in the Cost Guard for its durability and longevity. Since the NAIS has built an adequate log of the icebergs in the North Atlantic there has not been a single life lost to the icebergs.[footnoteRef:21] [19: ] [20: ] [21: ]

While the Titanic brought an abrupt and tragic end to over fifteen-hundred lives, it has helped saved the lives of countless more to come. The Titanic may have been one of the most tragic days in history, but it in turn paved the way for a much more pleasurable and safer cruising experience for the millions to come. The Titanic changed changed everything from a ships design to the safety on board. When reflected upon, the Titanic should be remembered as much more than the ill fated ship that sank, it should be remembered as an unfortunate sacrifice that in turn saved the lives of countless more to come. While the loss of life can never be justified as a positive it can be used as inspiration to save the lives of other and that is exactly what the Titanic did.