What Could Have Prevented the R.M.S Titanic from Sinking

If I were that captain that fateful night of April 14, 1912 the great R.M.S. would have never struck tragedy. On the Titanic there were 2,235 people crowded aboard. There was no wind. The dark sea was calm, like a glass mirror. It was an hour before midnight on a starry, moonless night. The greatest maritime tragedy in the history of sailing, stealthily, silently awaited them in the ice strewn midnight waters of the North Atlantic.

Survivors recalled a gentle shudder that briefly shook the 900 foot long vessel. It came and went so quickly that nobody gave it much of a second thought. Except for the occupants of the Bridge who in the split seconds before that collision saw the huge iceberg towering ahead, floating in their unlighted pathway. The captain swerved to miss the iceberg but they would have been better off to have struck it head on. In trying to avoid a head-on collision, they suffered an even worse fate. Three-fourths of the iceberg lay unseen beneath the calm ocean surface. When the Titanic swerved, it brushed the iceberg’s underside on the starboard side of the bow, slitting a quarter of an inch wide opening more than 300 feet down the side of the vessel. Like a titanic can opener, the iceberg knifed open the side of the iron hull. The damage was just enough to cause the metal plates to buckle so that six watertight compartments began taking in seawater.

The Titanic was traveling at 20 knots a speed at which the conditions were not safe for at night in the icy waters and lack of visibility. There were no crow’s eyes binoculars upon the decks to watch the icy waters. However they were on the vessel, but for some reason they were not used which to this day is still a mystery. This was before sonar technology and there was no way to see what was coming and be able to stop in time, so speed should have been reduced but Captain Smith gave no such orders. When the Titanic took off on its voyage it was equipped with inadequate lifeboats. Only half the lifeboats the ship was capable of taking were on board due to current regulations which were changing, but this only provided room for 1178 people, about 52 percent of the passengers aboard. The day the ship sank an emergency lifeboat drill was cancelled. This would have prevented many of the casualties that accrued if proper procedures were preached. Lifeboats were only filled to about half capacity some not even being half full. This simple drill could have saved many of the people that died from hypothermia that tragic morning.