The Unsinkable Titanic

[skeggysteve]

Just watched this on More4
It was a repeat, so has anyone watched it before?

And what did you think?

I thought it was very good, just don't know if any of it is true - and before any smart arse says it yes it did sink!

I mean the bits about the errors that where made, or they said where made.

The one that I found strange was the 'they should not have steered away from the 'berg, if they had hit it head on it would not have sunk' - what he hell! I think it would take a very, very brave man to not steer away from a 'berg.

And why do I/we find any programme about the Titanic such compeling viewing?

[GTO Scott]

skeggysteve said:

The one that I found strange was the 'they should not have steered away from the 'berg, if they had hit it head on it would not have sunk' - what he hell! I think it would take a very, very brave man to not steer away from a 'berg.

Natural human instinct to try and clear a way around the danger. With such junior officers in charge at that time of night, their first reaction would have been to steer around. No doubt a slight fear of explaining to both master of the vessel E J Smith, and Chairman of the White Star Line J. Bruce Ismay, who was travelling on board, that they'd just rammed an iceberg in the brand new ship rather than try to steer round it also played a part. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that if they had of done, the ship probably wouldn't have sunk.

skeggysteve said:

And why do I/we find any programme about the Titanic such compeling viewing?

Studying the Big T does seem to be a worldwide obsession - I have several books and I do watch most of the stuff that comes on the telly.

[TinFoilHatMode]
Now, was it the Titanic that sunk, or was it the Olympic that got sunk intentionally in a big insurance scam?
[/TFHM]

[skeggysteve]

GTO Scott said:

skeggysteve said:

The one that I found strange was the 'they should not have steered away from the 'berg, if they had hit it head on it would not have sunk' - what he hell! I think it would take a very, very brave man to not steer away from a 'berg.

Natural human instinct to try and clear a way around the danger. With such junior officers in charge at that time of night, their first reaction would have been to steer around. No doubt a slight fear of explaining to both master of the vessel E J Smith, and Chairman of the White Star Line J. Bruce Ismay, who was travelling on board, that they'd just rammed an iceberg in the brand new ship rather than try to steer round it also played a part. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we now know that if they had of done, the ship probably wouldn't have sunk.

skeggysteve said:

And why do I/we find any programme about the Titanic such compeling viewing?

Studying the Big T does seem to be a worldwide obsession - I have several books and I do watch most of the stuff that comes on the telly.

[TinFoilHatMode]
Now, was it the Titanic that sunk, or was it the Olympic that got sunk intentionally in a big insurance scam?
[/TFHM]

Yes, Scott, the with hindsight thing was sort of what I meant - the programme didn't mention that.
I think they were trying to say that if a senior officer had been on deck then they would/could have reacted differently?

Not heard about the Olympic stuff before - maybe I'm not as obsessed as I thought

Sorry it a bit late to pick the bits out and post correctly!

[GTO Scott]

skeggysteve said:

Yes, Scott, the with hindsight thing was sort of what I meant - the programme didn't mention that.
I think they were trying to say that if a senior officer had been on deck then they would/could have reacted differently?

Would they?

'fkin hell sir, there's a hoofing great big iceberg in the way'
'Well steer round it then!'

Actually, the big mistake may well have been putting one engine into reverse - this effectively stopped the ship turning quickly (the intention was to slow the ship, unfortunately it also slowed the turn). It is thought that Titanic could have steered around if it had maintained a decent rate of progress.

skeggysteve said:

Not heard about the Olympic stuff before - maybe I'm not as obsessed as I thought

As conspiracy theories go, this is a good one.

Basically it goes like this:

• Olympic suffers collision near Southampton in 1911 with Royal Navy Cruiser HMS Hawke, damaging both ships. White Star were given the blame by an admiralty court, and could not claim insurance costs.
• The damage could not be repaired without a visit to the only dry dock in the world big enough to accomodate Olympic, back in Belfast at Harland & Wolff, suggesting that the damage was far more severe (extending to the keep and turbine mountings) than the supposed 8ft deep penetration of the hull
• The temporary patch fitted at Southampton failed during transit back to Belfast, suggesting hull rigidity had been compromised.
• Back at Harland & Wolff, it was obvious that the Olympic could not be repaired for a reasonable sum of money - repair would have entailed virtually rebuilding the rear 20% of the ship. It was decided to swap the almost-complete Titanic for the battered Olympic, and as they were moored next door to each other for six weeks this would not have presented much of an issue for the huge Harland & Wolff workforce.
• At the end of the six weeks, the real Titanic left to begin a highly successful career posing as the Olympic.
• Back at H&W, work carried on apace on the Olympic's hull. In spring 1912, the 'fake' Olympic returned to H&W for a replacement propellor, giving a chance to finalise any swap.
• The real Olympic sails at the start of April 1912, with the plan being to find a nice deep spot in the north Atlantic and allow the vessel to slowly sink whilst conveniently placed rescue ships (for example the Californian, another ship owned by IMM, owners of the Olympic class ships) collected all the passengers.
• However, the plan goes wrong - "Olympic" strikes something hard, ripping the side open and causing the tragedy we all now know about.

A very short idea of the book, well worth a read of the proper publication.

Edited by GTO Scott on Sunday 18th October 00:52

Edited by GTO Scott on Sunday 18th October 00:53