Why the Titanic Sank and What Happened Afterwards

What Really Happened to the RMS Titanic?

Laid down on March 31, 1909 and launched on May 31, 1911, the RMS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England to the New York City. Lauded as being “practically unsinkable” by its owners, the British White Star Line, the sinking of the Titanic claimed approximately 1,500 passengers and crew, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in history up until that time. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed description of this incident and its multiple causes as well as what lessons were learned and the consequences of this maritime disaster. Finally, an examination of salient social, cultural, or other factors that may have contributed to this disaster is followed by a summary of the research and key findings in the conclusion.

1. Description of the incident itself and detail about what occurred

It was on a Sunday, April 14, 1912 when the Titanic set sail for New York City. The chairman and managing director of White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, was on board for its maiden voyage. Despite the nearing spring season, the Atlantic Ocean’s temperature dropped to near freezing levels, but the night was calm and clear. Despite receiving multiple iceberg warnings, the captained continued on course until 11:40 p.m. at which time lookouts reported sighting a massive iceberg which was directly in the vessel’s path. Despite making an immediate sharp left turn in an effort to avoid it, the Titanic scraped the iceberg, ripping holes along its starboard side (Levinson, 2012).

After the impact, distress signals were radioed and the ship’s lifeboats were deployed at the direction of the captain. At 2:20 a.m., April 15, 1912, the Titanic succumbed to its mortal wounds and slipped below the frigid North Atlantic waters. claiming the lives of more than 1,500 people as well as fueling the public’s morbid fascination with this disaster that persists to the present day (Levinson, 2012).

2. Description of the causes of the failure

Even by contemporary standards, some of the causes of the Titanic’s failure were obvious. In other cases, a seemingly literal “perfect storm” of individual failures combined to seal the Titanic’s fate. At the time of its launch, the Titanic was the largest object to move on water in history, and it was specifically designed to function as a highly competitive, large-capacity and luxurious alternative to the other ships of the day that were making the transatlantic trip between England and the United States. In addition, as its designation indicates, the Titanic was officially known as the “RMS Titanic” since it was also a Royal Mail Ship (RMS Titanic Facts, 2022).

Despite its luxurious accommodations (even the third-class berths were far better than comparable offerings on other lines), the White Star Line scrimped when it came to basic requirements such as a sufficient number of lifeboats for all passengers and crew members. In fact, the capacity of the Titanic was 3,320 people, but it was only equipped with 20 lifeboats which had a maximum capacity of just 1,178 people (RMS Titanic Facts, 2022). Moreover, many of the lifeboats that were available were deployed with less than a full complement of survivors, thereby creating the need for the “women and children first” rule. It is especially noteworthy that the chairman and managing director of White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, was able to secure himself a spot on one of the few remaining lifeboats when he abandoned ship (Levinson, 2012).

There were some other causes of this disaster as well that related to the Titanic’s construction. Despite assertions by White Star Line that the Titanic’s double hull and 16 watertight compartments would protect it from catastrophic damages, the collision with the iceberg ruptured at least five of its watertight compartments, thereby dooming the Titanic and more than 1,500 people to an untimely watery grave (Levinson, 2012).

Furthermore, despite its otherwise luxurious appointments, the White Star Line scrimped on the quality of wrought iron rivets that were used in the construction of the Titanic, and metallurgists later determined that this factor, combined with the frigid North Atlantic waters, made the rivets brittle and vulnerable to breakage. Likewise, the ship’s expansion joints were also poorly designed which placed excessive stress on its superstructure. As Levinson (2012, p. 144) concludes, “Unsinkable the Titanic definitely was not, and sink it did.”

Finally – and inexplicably – although binoculars were issued to the Titanic’s lookouts during the first leg of its maiden voyage, they were subsequently removed during a late rescheduling of personnel and were not replaced for the remainder of the Titanic’s ill-fated voyage (Levinson, 2012). In sum, any of the foregoing factors could have caused a disaster for the Titanic, but they were all combined at the same time under these circumstances, and the ship could not withstand the impact. In addition, the lack of lifeboats further exacerbated the loss of life, an eventuality that resulted in some significant lessons learned which are discussed further below.

3. What was learned from the event? What were the consequences?

Following the Titanic disaster, maritime rules were changed to require all vessels to carry a sufficient number of lifeboats for everyone on board as part of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (Krist, 2017). In addition, the sinking of the Titanic compelled ship builders to redesign their structures to make them more impervious to the same type of catastrophic damage. In fact, White Star Line also implemented changes to the Titanic’s two sister ships, extending the double bottom hull further up the sides of the ship and raising the transverse bulkheads of their watertight compartments which failed on the Titanic (Levinson, 2012).

4. What social, cultural, or other factors may have contributed to the disaster?

As noted above, some of the causes of the Titanic disaster, such as a lack of lifeboats, were sufficiently foreseeable that only greed can account for them. In other cases, it required a combination of events to cause the level of damage that was suffered by Titanic, but even here, the owners of White Star Line seemed more interested in outward appearance of swankiness rather than the safety of the ship and its passengers and crew. In addition, a corporate culture of delay and concealment quickly emerged at White Star Line following the Titanic’s sinking, and Ismay even tried to evade questioning by U.S. authorities upon his arrival by telegraphing a coded message ahead of his arrival in New York by alternate means, calling himself “Yamsi” (“Ismay” spelled backwards). Several U.S. senators figured out Ismay’s ruse prior to his arrival in New York City, however, and confronted him while he was still onboard the Cunard liner that rescued him and others from the cold North Atlantic waters (Extraordinary group of eight telegrams sent by Bruce Ismay, 2022).