Would The Titanic Have Sunk If It Didn't Try To Avoid The Iceberg? (2024)

FAQs

Would the Titanic have sunk if it didn t try to avoid the iceberg? ›

Still, one of the Titanic's designers, Edward Wilding, suggested that the force of the impact might not have actually been that big. He told the British inquiry that “lots of people scarcely felt” the collision, and he believed the ship would not have sunk if it did hit the iceberg head-on.

The passenger steamer Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank on the night of 14–15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic. Of the approximate 2,200 people on board, over 1,500 did not survive.

"On April 11, 1912, there were 7 warning messages about icebergs on the Titanic's course. These messages were noted but were not taken into account" due to the pride and ignorance of both the telegraph operator and Captain E.J. Smith (Noble 1).

Titanic collided with a massive iceberg and sank in less than three hours. At the time, more than 2200 passengers and crew were aboard the Titanic for her maiden voyage to the United States. Only 705 survived.

If the centre propeller had been designed to keep working when in reverse, it's likely that the Titanic would have avoided the iceberg completely. The colossal cruise liner had been built with bulkheads in its bow in the event of a collision.

When a ship hits an iceberg head on, all the force would be transferred back to the ship, so it wouldn't have ripped open, but crumpled round, so only 2-3 compartments would have been breached. It was built to survive with 4 compartments breached.

Although the ship had been designed to stay afloat even if four of its 16 watertight compartments were breached, the iceberg's glancing blow caused the ship's hull plates to buckle along its starboard (right) side, and water soon began to fill six of the watertight compartments.

While Captain Smith was responsible for the decisions he made when navigating the dangerous conditions on the night of the disaster, Beesley asserted that it could have been any other liner to strike an iceberg as the Titanic did because many other captains would have likely done the same in Smith's position.

Captain Smith having done all man could do for the safety of passengers and crew remained at his post on the sinking ship until the end. His last message to the crew was 'Be British.

The most we can honestly say for certain is that Captain Smith did not survive when Titanic foundered.

Can Titanic ever be raised? ›

"But it will never come out," Daniel Stone wrote in "Sinkable: Obsession, the Deep Sea, and the Shipwreck of the Titanic." "Not only is the exposed steel on the upper bow too brittle for even the most industrious crane operation, but the mud has also acted as deep-sea quicksand for longer than most humans have been ...

Since it was weaker than other hull parts, this part of the ship lacked the structural integrity required to support the added weight of flooded compartments. The pressure on the weakened section of the ship eventually caused it to snap in half.

The Ship Itself

RMS Titanic was actually owned by an American! Although the RMS Titanic was registered as a British ship, it was owned by the American tycoon, John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan, whose company was the controlling trust and retained ownership of the White Star Line!

What would have happened if the Titanic had not turned but struck the iceberg head on? A straight on hit would have severely damaged the bow of the ship, flooding the first one or two watertight compartments, but it would not have sunk. Also, the sudden stop would have injured and possibly killed a few passengers.

Originally Answered: If the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on, would it have still sunk? No… it would have had a smashed up bow and crew would have been killed but the bulk heads would have held and saved the ship.

Captain Smith – As the ships captain he was responsible for going too fast on the night and for ignoring several warnings of icebergs in the area. The Shipbuilders – who were thought to use poor iron for the 3 million rivets used.