Did History Actually Teach Us Anything? – Episode 6: RMS Titanic Sinking

Laura: 
Welcome to "Did History Actually Teach Us Anything?". 
The podcast where we unravel the most well-known tales of calamity, mishap, and unforeseen consequences that have shaped the course of history. And consider whether we've actually learned anything from them all these years later... 
In this podcast, we examine the historical events that you may think you know about already and the causes that led to them, be they icebergs or bakers ovens. 
We will consider whether these tragedies could have been avoided, and some of the surprising things we do differently now as a result. 
But this podcast, isn't just about dates and events. It's about learning from the past, drawing insights from hindsight, and gaining a deeper appreciation for the complexities of what really happened in these events we think we know so well. 
So get ready to encounter remarkable individuals, pivotal moments and fascinating insights that will make you appreciate health and safety and environmental management as far more than just red tape. 
There are films. There are musicals. There are podcasts. And on this episode of our podcast, we’re diving into one of history’s most famous disasters: the sinking of the Titanic. 
On the night of April 14th 1912, the “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg, leading to a catastrophic loss of life, and forever changing the world of sea travel.
We’ll explore the events leading up to the tragedy; the omens that had befallen the Titanic before it had even set sail; and how the disaster shaped maritime safety forever.
Joining us is our health and safety expert, Kevin, who is first going to give us a brief history of why the Titanic was so special before it had even started its maiden voyage.



Kevin: 
The Titanic was a luxury passenger liner and was designed to carry passengers, cargo and mail from Southampton, England to New York City. On the 14th of April, 1912, the ship struck an iceberg and met a watery grave at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. 
However, the Titanic isn't just famous for its tragic ending..
The Titanic was one of the most luxurious ships of its time, designed to offer a level of comfort and elegance that was virtually unmatched in 1912, and as a result, was known as the Millionaire's Special. The lower decks also offered many lower class people from the British Isles a chance at a new life in America and Canada.
The Titanic had around 2,224 people on board for its maiden voyage, including passengers and crew. This number is an estimate, as exact records vary slightly, but it includes roughly 1,317 passengers and 907 crew members. This total was well below the ship's full capacity of over 3,300 people, as it was not fully booked.
And, although it famously didn't have enough lifeboats, which we'll discuss later, the Titanic's design included watertight compartments and remotely operated doors, which were considered very impressive safety measures back then, and encouraged everyone to believe that a sinking of the ship was almost impossible.
On completion, the Titanic was over 260 metres in length and over 28 metres wide, weighing over 50,000 tons. Fully equipped the ship had a cost of 1.5 million pounds or $7.5 million, and its insurance cover was 1 million pounds or $5 million. 
Finally, although almost everyone is sure to know the Titanic's name, few know what the RMS part of its name means. It stands for Royal Mail Ship and was attached to Titanic's name because it carried post for the Royal Mail as well as passengers.


Laura: 
What happened before the launch of the Titanic? And were there any signs of trouble ahead?


Kevin: 
Before the Titanic even set sail, tragedy had already struck. Eight workers lost their lives during the construction, and one had even been killed the day the ship was launched. 
Originally, it had been planned for the Titanic to set to sea on the 20th of March, but damage to Olympic, one of the Titanic's sister ships, had put back the completion of work and its departure from Belfast.
This delay in launching the Titanic was significant, as it set the ship's departure date to be right in the peak of the North Atlantic iceberg season, roughly between February to July. 
Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage on the 10th April 1912 from Southampton. It was travelling to New York, stopping at Cherbourg, in France, and then Queenstown, in Ireland, en route.
Upon leaving Southampton, suction from the Titanic caused another ship docked in the harbour to swing into its path. It was only through an hour of careful manoeuvring that a collision was prevented. 
And then, when the Titanic reached Cherbourg the dock was too small to accommodate it, so passengers had to be ferried to and from the ship in tenders, which took two hours to complete.
An echo of what was to come for the passengers in only a few days time.


Laura: 
So what happened during the voyage to cause the Titanic to sink? 


Kevin: 
Millions of rivets were used in the construction of Titanic's hull, made from either iron or steel. Iron rivets were weaker but were predominantly used in the construction of the bow of the ship because they could be hammered into place. 
There is strong evidence that the impurities in the iron rivets, called "slag", made them brittle, especially when exposed to icy seawater. When the ship struck the iceberg, the rivet heads broke off allowing the hull plates to separate. 
Throughout the voyage, the wireless radio operators on board had been receiving iceberg warnings. But on the evening of the 14th of April, the ship arrived at an area known to have icebergs. 
Captain Edward J Smith altered course slightly to head further south but maintained the ship's current speed of approximately 22 knots or 40 kilometers per hour.
The ship did not slow down as it approached the ice field and the lookout was not increased. The only instructions given were to keep a sharp lookout for ice and for the officer on watch to contact the captain if he was at all doubtful.
At around 9:40pm, another ship sent a warning to Titanic about an ice field, but this message was not relayed to the bridge. Within just hour or two, warnings had come through from other ships. Yet again, the message was not relayed to the bridge. 
In fact, the radio operator on the Titanic chastised the radio operator from the other ship for interrupting his work.
There were two lookouts stationed in the crow's nest of the Titanic. But the ocean was unusually calm. This meant that the absence of water breaking at the base of any iceberg would make it almost impossible to spot at any distance. 
And, to make matters worse, there were no binoculars in the crow's nest. The lookouts were relying on just their eyesight to spot any icebergs. 
At around 11. 40pm, approximately 400 nautical miles or 740 kilometers south of Newfoundland in Canada, an iceberg was sighted and the bridge of the Titanic was informed. The first officer was in charge at that time and informed that the ship should be steered hard to the left and the engines put into reverse to avoid the iceberg.
Titanic did begin to turn away from the iceberg, but not quickly enough to avoid a collision. 30 seconds later, the iceberg scraped along the starboard or right hand side of the ship below the waterline. 
This created a gash of around 75 metres in length, a series of other thin gashes and brittle fracturing and separation of the seams in the adjacent hull plates. 
The Titanic started to take on water at an alarming rate, splitting the ship in two which caused the bow to drop deeper into the ocean.


Laura: 
What is the Birkenhead drill, and what was the immediate response of other ships? 


Kevin: 
Distress signals were sent and lifeboats were launched at around 12:20am on the 15th of April, but the nearest ship that responded, the Carpathia, wouldn't reach the Titanic for over three hours. 
There was a ship nearer to the Titanic, the Californian, but their radio was switched off during the emergency, and the captain failed to react to reports from his crew of distress rockets being spotted. 
60 years prior in 1852, a paddle wheeled steamship HMT Birkenhead sank off the coast of South Africa. The soldiers were called on to " stand fast" while the women and children were seated in the lifeboats. There were 193 survivors of the sinking, including all 26 women and children. The sinking gave rise to the phrase "Birkenhead Drill". 
In accordance with the Birkenhead Drill, which had become standard practice during any sinking, women and children should be evacuated first. 
However, there had been only one lifeboat drill on board since the Titanic had set sail and crew members were unprepared for carrying out a real life evacuation. In fact, there had been a drill planned for earlier that day, but this had been cancelled. 
The cancelled drill meant that there was no consistency of approaching the evacuation of passengers, and only around 700 people were eventually rescued.
The Carpathia arrived in the area at around 3:30am, m ore than an hour after Titanic sank and picked up all the survivors from the lifeboats, taking them into New York three days later.
The Californian arrived at the wreck site at 8:30am, having heard the news of the sinking some three hours earlier. 
At 2:20am, the ship finally disappeared beneath the Atlantic Ocean, just 15 minutes after the last lifeboat was launched, and hundreds of passengers and crew went into the icy water.


Laura: 
So what would the response have been like from everybody on board? 


Kevin: 
When the Titanic struck the iceberg, many passengers felt a slight jolt or scraping sound, though not all realised its severity. The iceberg caused a series of breaches along the ship's starboard side, flooding multiple compartments.
Initially, passengers were curious and even excited, not knowing the gravity of the situation. Some were reluctant to leave the warmth of their cabins on a chilly night, assuming it was just a minor incident. 
When they were aware of the danger, many of the passengers and crew believed that the safest place to wait for rescue was on board Titanic, so refused to climb aboard the life boats. 
Crew members began telling passengers to put on their lifebelts and gather on deck. However, many people thought this was a drill or that the "unsinkable" Titanic couldn't actually be in danger.
First and second class passengers received information sooner than many in third class, who had to navigate corridors that were not well marked and sometimes locked. This slowed down their responses and access to lifeboats. 
The Birkenhead drill meant families were often separated in the chaos, unclear and uncertain when and if they would ever see each other again.
Crew members were concerned that if the lifeboats were fully loaded with passengers, they would sink. Which wasn't the case, as this had been tested before launch, but not communicated. Had the crew been informed that the lifeboats could be launched at full capacity, it is likely that many more lives could have been saved. 
As passengers realised the Titanic was sinking, scenes of desperation unfolded. People began to push, crowd and fight to reach the lifeboats. The crew struggled to maintain order amid rising panic. As the ship's bow tilted more steeply as it filled with water, passengers and furniture started sliding, adding to the panic.
Lights would have been flickering and the sounds of groaning metal would have filled the air. By around 2am, the ship was listing so badly that it would have been nearly impossible to stand upright on deck. Many passengers would have jumped overboard, hoping to survive in the icy water, while others clung to the rails.
The freezing water and dark night added to the terror of those still on board or floating in the water.


Laura: 
How severe was the human loss from the ship's crash? 


Kevin: 
Delays in the lifeboats heading back to pick the stranded passengers up, and with a sea temperature of around minus 2 degrees Celsius, meant that most of the passengers died from hypothermia within just a few minutes of entering the water. The final death toll was around 1, 500 people, most of which were crew members and third class passengers.
In fact, efforts to preserve bodies were reserved mainly for first class male passengers, as it was considered valuable to be able to identify them regarding disputes over large estates. As a result, many of the lower class passengers were left buried at sea and never recovered. 
A few survivors were rescued from the ocean by moving passengers between lifeboats and returning to the wreck, including 30 people who used an overturned lifeboat as a raft.
However, concerns about suction caused by the sinking ship caused several lifeboats to hesitate about returning to the wreck site, causing further loss of life.


Laura: 
How did the design of the Titanic impact the damage caused by the iceberg? 


Kevin: 
Despite the claims in the film Titanic, the ship wasn't actually thought to be unsinkable, but it was believed to be highly unlikely it would sink because of its inbuilt safety features. The Titanic had 16 compartments with doors that could be closed remotely from the bridge to contain water should the hull be breached.
Although they were believed to be watertight, the compartments were not capped at the top, as the builders of the ship believed that four of the compartments could be flooded without the buoyancy of the ship being affected. 
Unfortunately, the damage caused to Titanic caused at least five of the watertight compartments to fill with water and the bow to drop deeper into the ocean.
This in turn caused water from the damaged compartments to spill over into each of the subsequent compartments, increasing the weight of the ship and pulling her downwards, thus sealing her fate.
Evidence presented during the US Senate inquiry led them to conclude that this was the largest contributory factor in the sinking of Titanic.


Laura: 
What mistakes were made on board that contributed to the scale of the disaster? 


Kevin: 
On board, there was no alarm of any kind to warn passengers of the damage to the ship. Which meant there were delays in gathering passengers to the lifeboats and confusion as to what was happening. 
Many of the crew had not joined Titanic until a few hours before sailing, so had had little time to familiarise themselves with the ship and the location of the lifeboats before their normal duties took precedence.
Only one lifeboat drill had taken place on board, which consisted of lowering two unladen lifeboats into the sea and hoisting them back onto the boat deck again and so was not representative of what would be needed whatsoever. 
There were no lists designating crew members to lifeboats drawn up until several days after they sailed from Southampton, which left many crew members ignorant of their allocated station for many days.
There was no system in place for the loading of boats, and indecision as to which deck passengers should be loaded into them and how many passengers should be loaded into each boat. The crew were left to make these decisions, so there was a wide diversity of approaches taken.
It had been suggested that Titanic should carry more than the required minimum number of lifeboats. In fact, it should have been possible to provide sufficient lifeboat spaces for everyone on board, even at full capacity. 
This suggestion was rejected because it was believed that the inherent safety features of the ship would allow plenty of time for rescue in the event of an emergency.
Although Titanic had more lifeboat capacity than was prescribed by the British Board of Trade at the time, being 16 lifeboats and 4 inflatables, these could only carry around 1, 100 people, around half of the people on board at the time of the sinking. 
In total, 18 of the 20 life boats were successfully launched that night; two of the four inflatables floated away during the sinking, including one at the bow used as a raft.


Laura: 
Is there any way that the collision with the iceberg could have been avoided? 


Kevin: 
It could be argued that the Titanic's icy encounter was fated. 
During the autumn of 1911, a large chunk of ice broke away from a glacier on the southwest of Greenland's ice sheet and slowly drifted south, gradually melting as it was carried by the ocean's currents and the wind. The remainder of this ice chunk, an iceberg estimated to be 500 metres long, found its way into the path of Titanic. 
The threat of icebergs would have been well known to a seasoned captain such as Captain Smith and they still pose a threat to shipping today. It's well known amongst seafaring folk that from early February to July they drift southwards and are most active. 
From the very first voyages across the North Atlantic Ocean, icebergs have posed a major threat to shipping.
There were many iceberg related incidents prior to Titanic around Newfoundland and Labrador, but Titanic is the most famous and had the largest number of fatalities.
Icebergs are up to 30% longer underwater than above and twice as deep. So Titanic being close enough to scrape along the iceberg meant it was far too close to it underwater. Damage was inevitable. 
Detection of icebergs in the early 1900s was an inexact science. Ships used navigational devices such as astrolobes, an astronomical instrument dating to ancient times, and sextants and compasses to estimate their location, so reported locations of icebergs were not exact. 
With this level of knowledge, we're left to question the timing of Titanic's maiden voyage during the peak of the iceberg season. If the maiden voyage had been a few months later into 1912, it is likely that we wouldn't be discussing Titanic at all.
In addition to this, during the subsequent investigation, it was found that in reversing the engines when turning the Titanic away from the iceberg, the first officer had, in fact, slowed the ship down. Many experts believe that the ship would have turned faster if it had been travelling at its original speed.
Interestingly, they also believe that the ship would have survived the collision if it had hit the iceberg head on. As although this would have caused extensive damage to the bow, it would have been contained to the front compartments of the ship, and the ship could stay afloat with up to four of them flooded.
Ice positions on both sides of the shipping lane that Titanic was following had been reported by other shipping in the area. Yet no formal discussion took place amongst the officers on board as to what measures should be taken to safeguard the ship, passengers and crew. 
Had these discussions taken place, the officers and crew would have been significantly more organised and prepared for a disaster. 
Furthermore, the missing crow's nest binoculars made spotting the iceberg at any usable distance in the calm conditions at night time impossible, and the speed of the ship as it approached the iceberg left little time for changing the direction of the ship before collision occurred. 
If the binoculars had not gone missing or been misplaced, the lookouts would have been significantly better equipped to spot the iceberg and report it sooner, thus allowing the ship to change direction earlier.


Laura: 
Could anyone be considered wholly responsible for the sinking? 


Kevin: 
As can be expected, there was a powerful desire to explain why the tragedy had happened. The Titanic was owned by an American corporation called International Mercantile Marine Company. Therefore, inquiries into the sinking took place both in Great Britain and the United States. 
The U. S. Senate inquiry took place between 19th of April and the 25th of May 1912, and its report blamed the British Board of Trade for not insisting on providing sufficient lifeboat spaces for everyone on board. The British inquiry blamed the collision with the iceberg brought about by excessive speed of the ship for the sinking.
Captain Smith was not blamed for the sinking, because he had acted as would have been expected from a man of his skill and experience at that time. 
However, the Captain of the Californian, whose radio had been switched off during the whole emergency, was strongly criticised, as it was felt that many more lives could have been saved if they had received the original distress call.


Laura: 
So what recommendations were made to prevent this ever happening again? 


Kevin: 
The US Senate inquiry made many recommendations to ensure that a disaster on the scale of Titanic never happened again at sea. 
They also stipulated that that unless Great Britain put forward legislation to enact their recommendations, the US would not accept British inspection certificates for shipping as being sufficient, and would terminate all reciprocal arrangements with Great Britain. 
The Titanic disaster report was over 20 pages long and full copies can be found online. However, some of the key takeaways include:
There should be sufficient lifeboat provision for all passengers and crew on board a ship in future with at least four crew members skilled in handling boats assigned to each lifeboat.
All crew members assigned to lifeboats should be drilled in lowering and rowing the boats at least twice a month and the drills logged. 
Passengers and crew should be assigned to lifeboats before sailing, and the assigned boat should be the closest one to their quarters. 
Every ship carrying more than 100 passengers should carry two electric searchlights.
A radio operator must always be on duty, day and night. 
There must be direct communication between the wireless room and the bridge. 
There must be a source of auxiliary power on board to ensure continuing operation of the radio equipment until the wireless room becomes submerged.


Laura: 
So to end, Kevin, what maritime safety regulations have been changed as a result of the Titanic disaster? 


Kevin: 
Transatlantic shipping routes had been changed within four days of Titanic sinking to avoid the iceberg danger zone. By 19th of April, 1912, the U. S. Hydrographic Office changed the shipping lines again to be 270 miles south of the Titanic's route, which increased the journey time by between 9 and 14 hours. These lane changes still exist to this day. 
In 1914, as a consequence of the US and GB inquiries, the first International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea was held in London. The conference drew up a treaty based on the inquiry recommendations for numbers of lifeboats, lifeboat drills and 24 hour radio watch on board. This treaty is still in place today. 
As a direct result of the sinking, The Global Marine Community created the International Ice Patrol in 1915 which continues to provide vital iceberg information to ships using the North Atlantic Shipping Lanes.
With regards to ship design, ships today have more advanced watertight compartment designs and automatic watertight doors that can be quickly sealed in case of flooding. The Titanic's compartment bulkheads didn't extend high enough to prevent water from spilling over into adjacent sections. 
Modern bulkheads are higher and ships have improved compartmentalisation to better contain flooding.
Ships hulls are now also built with improved materials and designs to better withstand collisions and minimise flooding risks. Double hulls, for instance, provide an additional layer of protection against breaches, making ships safer in the event of collisions or grounding. 
Crew members are now trained extensively in emergency procedures and evacuation protocols. Safety drills are mandatory for passengers and crew, typically conducted within the first 24 hours of a voyage. These regulations ensure that everyone on board is familiar with lifeboat locations and emergency instructions. 
In addition to these changes, today's ships have more accessible and well marked escape routes, lighting systems for emergencies, and communication devices to assist passengers in finding their way to safety.
Because of these changes, there has never been another disaster at sea as big as that of the Titanic.


Laura: 
Thanks for joining us on this episode of"Did History Actually Teach Us Anything?". 
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