Four hundreds miles south of Newfoundland a million-ton chunk of Greenland ice drifts into the north Atlantic shipping lanes. After a journey of more than 1,900 miles it is about to become the most notorious iceberg in history. The Titanic’s story is as iconic as the ship itself. She was the largest and most luxurious liner of her era, and supposedly unsinkable. But a giant iceberg is only part of Titanic’s story. 10 Mistakes that Sank the Titanic, Channel 5 2019
10 mistakes than sank Titanic: 1908: It’s been a warm wet season in Greenland … ibid.
‘On the inside she is opulent beyond belief. They wanted to create the most comfortable Atlantic crossing you could possibly imagine.’ ibid. Alex Churchill, historian and Titanic researcher
An incident that would trigger the first great mistake: The Delay: ‘This public perception that Titanic is not sinkable’ … Prioritising the repairs to Olympic halted Titanic’s construction and delayed her maiden voyage by three weeks. ibid.
More icebergs than usual on the shipping routes. ibid.
‘She was going too fast’ … This excessive speed is the second major mistake.’ ibid.
Smouldering in the deck below something that the company had expressly concealed from its passengers: ‘Titanic was in fact on fire when she left Southampton on her maiden voyage’ … Titanic’s firemen revealed that a fire had taken hold in the coal bunker in boiler room 5. ibid.
The fire would have made the steel walls of the bunker red hot. ibid.
The message never reached Captain Smith. ibid.
The binoculars in the crow’s nest were stored in the second officer’s cabin. But on this particular voyage, the lookouts couldn’t get at them. ibid.
They were staring into an optical illusion. ibid.
The collision was so glancing that hardly anyone realised what had happened. ibid.
Different temperatures affect the strength of steel … When its chilled in subzero water, the steel undergoes a fundamental change … Titanic’s rivets below the waterline would have become similarly brittle. ibid.
The slag in the [iron] rivets can make them even more liable to fracture. ibid.
Down below in the boiler rooms all hell was breaking loose. The iceberg has opened up a hole in Titanic’s hull. ibid.
Bulkheads too shorts … water spills over them flooding all the compartments … Titanic’s bows dip below the surface hoisting her stern high in the air. ibid.
Morse code: ‘CQD CQD This is the Titanic. Have hit a berg. We are sinking by the head’ … ibid.
There was another ship on the horizon … The Californian’s radio operator had already gone to bed having been told to get off the airwaves by Jack Phillips earlier that evening. ibid.
Titanic’s final mistake: Dodging the iceberg: ‘If the iceberg had struck the iceberg head on … that damage would not have been fatal.’ ibid. expert
A massive tsunami of ice cascading down the valley. Try to imagine that though not just happening here but happening all over the world. Well 700 million years ago that’s exactly what did happen. Ferocious forces created a climate emergency, and across pole to pole, across all the lands and oceans, our world froze. Chris Packham, Earth II, BBC 2023
Just as the earliest forms of animal life were unfolding, the ice threatened to destroy them. ibid.
The Deep Freeze saw a new age on Earth, an age of complex life. ibid.
Earth is the only planet in the solar system to have active tectonic plates. And they are constantly reshaping our world and its life. ibid.
Falling levels of carbon dioxide pushed down temperatures. ibid.
When it gets cold the web of life unravels. ibid.
Today ice covers a tenth of all the land of the planet. ibid.
A frozen white marble floating in the darkness of space. ibid.