essay about the sinking of the titanic

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Why Did the Titanic Sink?

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: June 29, 2023 | Original: April 12, 2018

An estimated 100,000 people gathered at the dock in Belfast, Ireland, on March 31, 1911, to watch the launch of the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic. Considered an “unsinkable” ship, the Titanic was the largest and most luxurious cruise liner of its day, measuring more than 882 feet long from prow to stern—the length of four city blocks—and 175 feet high, and weighing more than 46,000 tons. It boasted state-of-the-art technology, including a sophisticated electrical control panel, four elevators and an advanced wireless communications system that could transmit Morse Code. Despite these amenities, the fabled ship would never reach its destination.

When Did the Titanic Sink?

On the night of April 14, 1912, just four days after leaving Southampton, England on its maiden voyage to New York , the Titanic struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and sank. Now, more than a century after the Titanic went down, experts are still debating the possible causes of this historic disaster that took the lives of more than 1,500 passengers and crew. Most of them agree that only a combination of circumstances can fully explain what doomed the supposedly unsinkable ship.

It was traveling too fast.

From the beginning, some blamed the Titanic’s skipper, Captain E.J. Smith, for sailing the massive ship at such a high speed (22 knots) through the iceberg-heavy waters of the North Atlantic. Some believed Smith was trying to better the crossing time of Titanic’s White Star sister ship, the Olympic. But in a 2004 paper, engineer Robert Essenhigh speculated that efforts to control a fire in one of the ship’s coal bunkers could have explained why the Titanic was sailing at full speed.

The wireless radio operator dismissed a key iceberg warning.

Less than an hour before the Titanic hit the iceberg, another nearby ship, the Californian, radioed to say it had been stopped by dense field ice. But as the warning didn’t begin with the prefix “MSG” (Master’s Service Gram), which would have required the captain to directly acknowledge receiving the message, the Titanic’s radio operator Jack Phillips considered the other ship’s warning non-urgent, and didn’t pass it along .

It may have taken a fatal wrong turn.

According to a claim made in 2010 by Louise Patten (the granddaughter of the most senior Titanic officer to survive, Charles Lightoller), one of the ship’s crewmembers panicked after hearing the order to turn “hard-a-starboard” in order to avoid the approaching iceberg. Because ships at the time operated on two different steering order systems, he became confused and turned the wrong way—directly toward the ice. Patten included this version of events, which she said she heard from her grandmother after Lightoller’s death, in her fictionalized account of the Titanic disaster, Good as Gold .

The Titanic’s builders tried to cut costs.

In 1985, when an American-French expedition finally located the historic wreck, investigators discovered that, contrary to earlier findings, the Titanic had not sunk intact after hitting the iceberg but had broken apart on the ocean’s surface. Materials scientists Tim Foecke and Jennifer Hooper McCarty have cast blame on the more than 3 million rivets that held the hull’s steel plates together. They examined rivets brought up from the wreck and found them to contain a high concentration of “slag,” a smelting residue that can make metal split apart. This may have weakened the part of the Titanic’s hull that hit the iceberg, causing it to break apart upon impact.

Mirages and hazy horizons were created by weather conditions.

Two studies done around the time of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster in 2012 suggested that nature played a key role in the ship’s fate. The first argued that the Earth came unusually close to both the moon and the sun that year, increasing their gravitational pull on the ocean and producing record tides, which caused increased amounts of floating ice in the North Atlantic around the time of the sinking. 

The second study, by British historian Tim Maltin, claimed that atmospheric conditions on the night of the disaster might have caused a phenomenon called super refraction . This bending of light could have created mirages, or optical illusions, that prevented the Titanic’s lookouts from seeing the iceberg clearly. It also would have made the Titanic appear closer, and smaller, to the nearby ship the Californian, causing its crew to assume it was a different ship without a radio, preventing them from attempting to communicate. From their vantage point, and with these hazy conditions, when the Titanic started to sink, the Californian’s crew would have thought it was merely sailing away.

The lookouts had no binoculars.

Second officer David Blair, who held the key to the Titanic’s store of binoculars in his pocket, was transferred off the ship before it left for its maiden voyage from Southampton and forgot to hand over the key to the officer who replaced him. At a later inquiry into the sinking, a lookout on the Titanic said binoculars might have helped them spot and dodge the iceberg in time. Blair kept the key as a memento of his near-miss; it was auctioned off in 2007 and fetched some £90,000.

There weren’t enough lifeboats.

No matter what caused the Titanic to sink, such a massive loss of life could probably have been avoided if the ship had carried sufficient lifeboats for its passengers and crew. But the White Star liner left Southampton with only 20 lifeboats, the legal minimum, with a total capacity of 1,178 people. Though Maurice Clarke, the civil servant who inspected the Titanic in Southampton, recommended it carry 50 percent more lifeboats, his handwritten notes at the time later revealed that he felt his job would be threatened if he did not give the famous ship the go-ahead to sail. Due to the chaos that ensued after the Titanic struck an iceberg, the 20 lifeboats departed the ship with some 400 empty seats, leaving more than 1,500 people to perish in the frigid ocean waters.

HISTORY Vault: Titanic's Achilles Heel

Did Titanic have a fatal design flaw? John Chatterton and Richie Kohler of "Deep Sea Detectives" dive the wreckage of Titanic's sister ship, Britannic, to investigate the possibility.

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Why Did the Titanic Sink? Five Theories That May Explain It

Why did the Titanic sink? Numerous theories have coalesced over the years, and they each have their defenders. Some are more plausible than others, but they each have a shred of plausibility due to the complexity of maritime navigation in the North Atlantic, and steering a massive, untested ship. But why did the largest, most advanced ship of the century sink?Below are theories on why the Titanic sunk.

Why did the Titanic sink? It was Captain Smith’s fault

This was Captain E. J. Smith’s retirement trip. All he had to do was get to New York in record time. Captain E. J. Smith said years before the Titanic’s voyage, “I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” Captain Smith ignored seven iceberg warnings from his crew and other ships. If he had called for the ship to slow down then maybe the Titanic disaster would not have happened.

“The Last Night on the Titanic: Overview of the 1,500 Passengers and Crew Who Lost Their Lives”

For the full “History Unplugged” podcast, click here !

Why Did The Titanic Sink? It was the shipbuilder’s fault

About three million rivets were used to hold the sections of the Titanic together. Some rivets have been recovered from the wreck and analysed. The findings show that they were made of sub-standard iron. When the ship hit the iceberg, the force of the impact caused the heads of the rivets to break and the sections of the Titanic to come apart. If good quality iron rivets had been used the sections may have stayed together and the ship may not have sunk.

Why Did The Titanic Sink? It was Bruce Ismay’s fault

Bruce Ismay was the Managing Director of the White Star Line and he was aboard the Titanic. Competition for Atlantic passengers was fierce and the White Star Line wanted to show that they could make a six-day crossing. To meet this schedule the Titanic could not afford to slow down. It is believed that Ismay put pressure on Captain Smith to maintain the speed of the ship.

It was Thomas Andrews’ fault

The belief that the ship was unsinkable was, in part, due to the fact that the Titanic had sixteen watertight compartments. However, the compartments did not reach as high as they should have done. The White Star Line did not want them to go all the way up because this would have reduced living space in first class. If Mr Andrews, the ship’s architect, had insisted on making them the correct height then maybe the Titanic would not have sunk.

It was Captain Lord’s Fault

The final iceberg warning sent to Titanic was from the Californian. Captained by Stanley Lord, she had stopped for the night about 19 miles north of Titanic. At around 11.15, Californian’s radio operator turned off the radio and went to bed. Sometime after midnight the crew on watch reported seeing rockets being fired into the sky from a big liner. Captain Lord was informed but it was concluded that the ship was having a party. No action was taken by the Californian. If the Californian had turned on the radio she would have heard the distress messages from Titanic and would have been able to reach the ship in time to save all passengers.

Was Captain Smith past his best?

 Was money a key factor in the disaster?

 Did laws need to be changed?

 Who was to blame for the sinking of the Titanic?

Both America and Britain held inquiries into the disaster. both reached the almost identical conclusions.

The American inquiry concluded that Captain Smith should have slowed the speed of the boat given the icy weather conditions.

The British inquiry, on the other hand, concluded that maintaining speed in icy weather conditions was common practice.

Both inquiries agreed on who was most at fault – Captain Stanley Lord of the Californian. The inquiries stated that if Lord had gone to Titanic’s assistance when the first rocket was seen then everyone would have been saved.

Both inquiries made recommendations:

All ships must carry sufficient lifeboats for the number of passengers on board. Ship radios should be manned 24 hours a day. Regular lifeboat drills should be held. Speed should be reduced in ice, fog or any other areas of possible danger.

This article is part of our larger selection of posts about the Titanic. To learn more,  click here for our comprehensive guide to the Titanic.

For more information on answers to such questions as why did the Titanic sink, see The Hunt for Hitler’s Warship  ©  2015 by Patrick Bishop. To order this book, please visit its online sales page at  Amazon   or  Barnes & Noble .

You can also buy the book by clicking on the buttons to the left.

Additional Resources About The Titanic

Was titanic unsinkable: why did people think it was, titanic construction: building the “unsinkable” ship, the titanic: passengers, crew, sinking, and survivors, the titanic – the white star line, cite this article.

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History Resources

Eyewitness account of the sinking of the Titanic, 1912

A spotlight on a primary source by washington dodge.

Dodge, a prominent doctor, banker, and politician from San Francisco, boarded the Titanic at Southampton on April 10 with his wife Ruth and son Washington Dodge Jr. His description of the sinking was written within days after the disaster, as the Carpathia ferried the Titanic survivors to New York. Carpathia passenger Doctor Frank H. Blackmarr began soliciting narratives from various passengers, including Dr. Dodge. He assembled a scrapbook of firsthand accounts and used them to lecture about the sinking.

Dodge’s tale begins at 11:40 p.m. when he and his wife were awakened by the ship’s impact with the iceberg. Twice Dodge went on deck and was told there was no danger. "Having been told that there was no danger, and believing such to be the fact from the general conduct of the passengers & such officers as I saw I insisted that my family remain in bed and await developments — Once more returning to the companion way I asked our steward who was standing in there was he had heard — He replied the order has just come down for all passengers to put on life preservers."

Dodge and his family quickly ascended to the starboard boat deck. His wife and son boarded life boat three, the second boat launched from that side of the ship. Dodge remained on the starboard side of the ship, a decision which undoubtedly saved his life, as the majority of passengers congregated on the port side of the ship. As Fifth Officer Lowe started filling lifeboats on the starboard side of the ship, Dodge was able to secure a spot.

Public outrage at the extreme loss of life was immediate. Just over 700 people, or 32 percent of the passengers and crew, survived. The US Senate and British Board of Trade held special hearings into the causes of the disaster, the lack of life boats, why most life boats left the ship less than full, the conduct of the officers and crew, and the treatment of the third-class passengers. The total number of people who died on the Titanic is unclear. The figures released were quickly revised to between 1490 and 1,500. The statistics have been adjusted so many times since 1912 that most historians agree that they will never know how many people died on the Titanic .

As a result of the disaster, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London in 1913. The convention drew up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that lifeboat drills be held during each voyage; and, because the Californian had not heard the distress signals of the Titanic , that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch. The International Ice Patrol was established to warn ships of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

Washington Dodge returned to San Francisco and in 1917 took controlling interest in Poulsen Wireless Corporation, a telegraph company. He committed suicide two years later in June of 1919.

A full transcript is available.

The officers in charge of loading the boats were cool and masterful, preventing as far as possible all disorder and enforcing the command to load [ inserted : care for] women and children first. When boat 13 was lowered to A deck to be loaded I went to this deck - After 8 or 10 women had been placed aboard, no furt other women or children resp were within hearing to respond to the officers call. A number of men then climbed over the rail into the boat when some one pushed me from behind and shouted get in doctor. I climed in and in a few moments the boat was filled & orders given to lower - As we were lowered boat 15 which had been loaded from the boat deck, was also being lowered - By this we were for a few minutes placed in a perilous position - which threated our destruction - We observed as we neared the water that our boat was being lowered directly into the immense volume of water thrown out from the ships side by the condenser pump - On the Titanic this was a stream from 3 to about 3 feet in diameter, which was thrown with great force 6 or 8 feet form the ship s . It would instantly have swamped our boat - To add to our anxiety boat 15 had swung directly over our heads owing to the fact that the steamer was had settled several feet [inserted: into the water] at her bow - Both boats were being lowered when our loud cries of warning were heard above & the lowering of both boats arrested - As We had no officer or seaman in our boat to direct us but fortunately were able to disengage an oar, and with it we push the bow of our boat, which overhung the threatening waters from the pump, 8 or 10 feet from the ships side when releasing the trigger we dropped into the water & were at once swept away from the steamers side by great force of [inserted: the] water - The ocean being as calm as the waters of a smooth flowing river we rowed off to overtake a boat having a lantern aboard, we being unable to find one in our boat - As the Having rowed about 1/4 mile we found ourselves in close proximity to five boats - We observed the closing incidents the gradual submergence of the ship forward - The final extinguishment suddenly of all her lights - The final plunge downward [inserted: as a shooting star full from the Zenith visable nearly to the horizon] - From this time until shortly after 4 in a sea gradually growing rougher & in a [ inserted " with] a temperature of extremely cold we rowed about -

Questions for Discussion

Read the document introduction and transcript excerpt and apply your knowledge of American history in order to answer the questions that follow.

• Why does the loss of the Titanic continue to interest people one hundred years after the event?
• How might we question the accuracy of the Washington Dodge letter? How can his description be verified?
• How closely does the Dodge description come to any version of the sinking that has appeared in print or film?

A printer-friendly version is available  here .

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RMS Titanic

An introduction to the greatest shipwreck drama of all time discover the key titanic facts and find out how to learn more..

The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 was a catastrophic event which has since passed into myth and legend. But what is the truth behind the myth?  Encyclopedia Titanica is here to help answer that question.

What was the Titanic?

RMS Titanic was a British registered four-funnelled ocean liner built in 1912 for the transatlantic passenger and mail service between Southampton and New York.

According to legend RMS Titanic was conceived at a dinner between Lord Pirrie of the Harland & Wolff shipyard and Joseph Bruce Ismay , Chairman of the White Star Line, at Downshire House, Lord Pirrie's London home.

Did you know? The RMS Titanic was named after the Greek Mythological creatures Titans . Read more...

With the introduction of the Lusitania and Mauretania  the Cunard Line had stolen a march on the White Star Line; with Olympic , Titanic and Britannic Bruce Ismay and Lord Pirrie saw a golden opportunity to regain the initiative and with it a hefty slice of the transatlantic passenger trade.

The new vessels would forsake speed for the increased safety and comfort that would come with a significant increase in scale. Fittings and appointments would also be improved over the competition. Lavish staterooms, a swimming pool, squash racquet court, gymnasium, stylish cafe and plush a la carte restaurant would attract the wealthy, while significantly improved accommodation in other classes was also provided. Millionaires might grab the headlines but it would be steerage (Third Class) and the growing middle class (Second Class) that would drive economic success.

When and where was the Titanic built?

RMS Titanic was designed and constructed at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast (Yard No. 401), Northern Ireland under the supervision of marine architect Alexander Carlisle and chief designer Thomas Andrews .

Having been laid down in 1909 it would take three years of construction and fitting out before RMS Titanic was ready for sea, commanded by veteran Captain Edward John Smith . After brief sea trials she departed for Southampton on 1 April 1912.

How big was the Titanic?

Lifeboats 2 Emergency Cutters 14 Standard Lifeboats 4 Engelhardt Collapsible Lifeboats See Lifeboat Specification .

Although she was the largest ship in the world, she was only fractionally greater in size than her sister ship RMS Olympic . RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic were constructed side-by-side and less than one year would elapse between their respective maiden voyages. They were practically identical in both appearance and fittings. A third sister Britannic would follow, but would enter World War One as a vast hospital ship; she would never see service as a passenger liner.

J. Bruce Ismay

Edward John Smith

Thomas Andrews

Lord Pirrie

Titanic Deckplans

Harland & Wolff

Design and Construction

How was the titanic propelled.

The Titanic was propelled by a novel arrangement of traditional steam powered reciprocating engines and a more modern steam turbine.

Engines: Two triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines One low-pressure Parsons turbine 25 double-ended and 4 single-ended Scotch-type boilers 159 coal burning furnaces Propulsion: Three propellers 5,892 tons of coal Total horsepower - 51,000 H.P. Service speed - 21 knots Top speed : 23 knots.

Learn more in the Engine Room Engines & Propulsion Systems forum

Titanic's Prime Mover

'Olympic' Class Propulsion System

Cold Starting the Titanic

Speed and revolutions.

Titanic's Central Propeller

More Engineering Articles

Engines, engine room and propulsion

When was the titanic's maiden voyage.

On 10 April 1912 the Titanic sailed from Southampton, England with 2,200 passengers and crew she was bound for New York. Titanic's Schedule took in stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland.

• Keeping Track of a maiden Voyage

Encyclopedia Titanica contains a biography for every single person that travelled on the maiden voyage as well as information about the places people came from and the ships her crew served on.

Titanic Passengers and Crew

Aboard were 2208 people - all ages, creeds and colour; the wealthy, middle class and the poor. If you could walk her decks of you would hear a dozen or more languages being spoken with every imaginable dialect.

Quick Facts

• Includes 4 members of the Harland and Wolff Guarantee Group (all lost).
• Includes 8 Musicians (all lost)
• Includes 5 Postal Clerks (all lost)

More Titanic statistics

Make your own Titanic ticket Print a passenger ticket, based on a 1912 White Star Line original then print out and look up your passenger to find out all about them. Try it now...

Passenger List

What happened and why is the Titanic famous?

Four days after leaving Southampton the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank: 1500 people died and 700 survived.  The Titanic is famous for many reasons, these include

• She was the largest ship in the world
• She sank on her maiden voyage
• Her Captain received many warnings of ice on the route but did not reduce speed.
• There were not enough lifeboats for all the people on board.
• Many crew and paying passengers lost their lives but the man that effectively owned the Titanic somehow survived.
• With millionaires as well as people in dire poverty there was a diverse mix of passengers and crew and we have been left many fascinating stories of their lives.

Titanic in modern culture

RMS Titanic forms part of our cultural landscape. Since 1912 she has been depicted in countless films and books.

Through art, drama and music her tragedy is replayed and reinterpreted and collections of her relics can be seen in museums and exhibitions across the globe.

RMS Titanic has even entered the language: the phrase re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic exemplifies a futile exercise and the essence of her tragedy has formed the metaphorical basis of many an academic thesis.

Encyclopedia Titanica enables you to learn about how the RMS Titanic has been reflected in contemporary culture; Titanic on film and record, in photographic image and in art.

You can also learn about the true stories that inspired the movie makers including The Real Jack Dawson , the story of a real life Titanic victim who's namesake was the hero of James Cameron's 1997 epic Titanic movie.

You can also watch the rarest of all motion pictures: RMS Titanic archive film .

The Real Jack Dawson

Titanic As Metaphor

Archive Film

Archive Recordings

Titanic Sheet Music

How can i get involved.

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Prologue Magazine

They Said It Couldn’t Sink

Nara records detail losses, investigation of titanic’ s demise.

Spring 2012, Vol. 44, No. 1

By Alison Gavin and Christopher Zarr

The Titanic during sea trials. (306-NT-1308-91560)

View in National Archives Catalog

Perhaps no other maritime disaster stirs our collective memory more than the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912.

The centennial of this event brings to mind the myriad films, books, and electronic media the disaster engenders. The discovery of the ship at the bottom of the sea in the 1980s brought to view intriguing artifacts.

The National Archives holds Titanic -related "treasures" as well: Senate investigation records, documents pertaining to Titanic passengers from limited liability suits, and congressional resolutions. These records tell the stories of the survivors in their own words.

When Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, for New York City on April 10, 1912, no one, especially its builders, dreamed of its demise. The ship's owners, the White Star Line, boasted of the size and stamina of the largest passenger steamship built until that time. Yet the "ship that could never sink" sank less than three hours after the crew spotted an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14. Of the 2,223 people aboard, 1,517 perished.

The lack of sufficient lifeboats was chief among the reasons cited for the enormous loss of life. While complying with international maritime regulations ( Titanic carried more than the minimum number of lifeboats required), there were still not enough spaces for most passengers to escape the sinking ship.

The Carpathia was the lone ship to respond to Titanic' s distress signals, risking a field of icebergs in a daring rescue. The Carpathia' s passenger manifest includes the names of the 706 persons it picked up from Titanic' s lifeboats on the morning of April 15, 1912. The manifests collected by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization list 29 categories of questions asked of all persons entering the United States, from birthplace to where the person would be staying in the United States.

The Titanic Relief Fund, set up by Ernest P. Bicknell in his capacity as director of the American Red Cross, raised $161,600.95 for Titanic survivors and families of the victims. (the British component raised $2,250,000). According to Red Cross "Titanic Relief Fund" documents in the National Archives:

The Director and other representatives of the Red Cross Committee were present when the Carpathia landed its passengers [at the port of New York on April 18]. The office of the committee was opened on the following morning, equipped with telephone service, printed stationery, the necessary blank forms and record cards, and with a staff of visitors and clerks supplied by the Charity Organization Society. Within two days substantially all the survivors of the third cabin passengers and many of the second cabin passengers had been visited and interviewed in their places of temporary shelter or at the Committee's Office. . . . This was extremely important. because comparatively few of the third cabin passengers remained in New York City.

A third-class (steerage) passenger's contract ticket for the White Star Line, similar to those used on the Titanic. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The highest percentage of victims were steerage, or "third cabin" passengers, who were mainly poor immigrants coming to America. The ethical question of why first-class passengers were allowed to get into lifeboats ahead of those in second and third class became an issue for future investigation.

The unimaginable scale of the disaster led many people to write to the President of the United States. Dozens of letters came to President William H. Taft from citizens who were angered, inspired, or moved by the loss of the Titanic. They demanded an investigation into the sinking, shared ideas for the prevention of such disasters in the future, or expressed sympathy for the death of President Taft's military aide, Maj. Archibald Butt. Butt, one of Taft's closest friends, was returning from a six-week vacation aboard the Titanic, and his leave of absence papers and a copy of a letter of introduction from Taft to Pope Pius X are also in the National Archives.

Congressional Hearings Lead to Legislation, Regulations

Almost immediately after the disaster, a congressional hearing was convened on April 19, 1912. Extensive documentation of the Titanic' s voyage is contained within the proceedings of the U.S. Senate's "Titanic Disaster Hearings." The report's 1,042 pages document what a commerce subcommittee learned over its 17-day investigation of the causes of the wreck. The subcommittee's chairman, Senator William Alden Smith (R-Michigan), spoke fervently of why he wished to document the event quickly:

Our course was simple and plain–to gather the facts relating to this disaster while they were still vivid realities. Questions of diverse citizenship gave way to the universal desire for the simple truth. . . . We, of course, recognized that the ship was under a foreign flag; but for the lives of many of our own countrymen had been sacrificed and the safety of many had been put in grave peril, it was vital that the entire matter should be reviewed before an American tribunal if legislative action was to be taken for future guidance on international maritime safety.

The subcommittee interviewed 82 witnesses and investigated everything from the inadequate number of lifeboats to the treatment of passengers riding steerage to the newly operational wireless radio machines. Smith also wanted to know why warnings of icebergs had been ignored.

The Navy Hydrographic Office's daily memorandum notes both ice reports in the North Atlantic and the Titanic' s collision with an iceberg. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

One of the themes emerging from the " Titanic Disaster Hearings" is the excesses of the "Gilded Age"—wealth, power, and business in a newly technological world gone wild. The hearings were held in the glamorous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. (Ironically, John Jacob Astor IV, who perished aboard the Titanic, had built the Astoria Hotel, which later became part of the Waldorf-Astoria.)

Opposite the senators sat the first witnesses, White Star's managing director J. Bruce Ismay and other company officials. Ismay was also president of the International Mercantile Marine Company, White Star's American parent company. He was vilified in the press as a monster, as one who had put his own life and safety before that of women and children as the lifeboats were launched.

Throughout the hearings, he remained confident, almost hubristic, regarding the ship's stamina under pressure. In explaining how Titanic' s disaster could have been averted, he stated simply, "If this ship had hit the iceberg stern on, in all human probability she would have been here to-day [the stern being the most reinforced part of the ship]."

Instead, he said, the iceberg made "a glancing blow between the end of the forecastle and the captain's bridge." He remained sentimental regarding the ship's demise. In the lifeboat, he rowed the opposite direction of the sinking Titanic: "I did not wish to see her go down. . . . I am glad I did not."

Ismay said the trip was a voluntary one for him, "to see how [the ship] works, and with the idea of seeing how we could improve on her for the next ship which we are building." He told the subcommittee, "We have nothing to conceal, nothing to hide." He was grilled again on the 10th day of the investigation, when he denied reports of speeding up the ship to "get through" fields of ice; other eyewitnesses, however, would contradict him.

Also interviewed the first day was Arthur Henry Rostron, the captain of the Carpathia. Rostron gave detailed information about the circumstances under which Titanic' s distress signals had been heard: the wireless operator was undressing for the night but still had his headphones on as the signal came across.

Rostron also related the details of how he prepared the Carpathia to receive the hundreds of survivors in the lifeboats. He came alongside the first lifeboat at 4:10 a.m. on April 15 and rescued the last at 8:30 a.m. He then recruited one of the Carpathia' s passengers, an Episcopal clergyman, to hold a prayer service of thankfulness for those rescued and a short burial service for those who were lost.

The Carpathia was the only ship to respond to the Titanic' s distress signals. The Carpathia' s manifest records the names of the 706 person it rescued from lifeboats on the morning of April 15, 1912. (Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85)

Rostron would later receive a special trophy as a symbol of gratitude from the survivors of the Titanic. It was presented to him by the legendary "Unsinkable Molly [Margaret] Brown," a wealthy Denver matron who assisted with the lifeboats. Rostron received many other memorials and a Medal of Honor from President Taft.

The outcome of the hearings was a variety of "corrective" legislation for the maritime industry, including new regulations regarding numbers of lifeboats and lifejackets required for passenger vessels. In 1914, as a direct result of the Titanic disaster, the International Ice Patrol was formed; 13 nations support a branch of the U.S. Coast Guard that scouts for the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

Survivors, Families Seek Millions from White Star

Beyond simply seeking corrective legislation to prevent future disasters, the survivors and the families of victims also sought redress for loss of life, property, and any injuries sustained. The limited liability law at the time, however, could restrict their claims significantly. The Titanic' s liability was protected by an 1851 law ("An Act to limit the Liability of Ship-Owners, and for other Purposes," 9 Stat. 635) designed to encourage shipbuilding and trade by minimizing the risk to owners when disasters occurred.

Under this law, in cases of unavoidable accidents, the company was not liable for any loss of life, property, or injury. If the captain and crew made an error that led to a disaster, but the company was unaware of it, the company's liability was limited to the total of passenger fares, the amount paid for cargo, and any salvaged materials recovered from the wreck. The 706 survivors and the families of the 1,517 dead therefore might be entitled to only a total of $91,805: $85,212 for passengers, $2,073 for cargo, and a $4,520 assessment for the only materials salvaged from the Titanic —the recovered lifeboats.

In October 1912, the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company (more commonly known as the White Star Line) filed a petition in the Southern District of New York to limit its liability against any claims for loss of life, property, or injury. In this petition, the White Star Line claimed that the collision was due to an "inevitable accident." "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC" (A55-279) is a part of the National Archives holdings in New York City.

Profiles of the Titanic and its decks. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The only way to remove limits on the company's liability would be to prove that the captain and crew were negligent and the ship's owners had knowledge of this fact.

Those individuals seeking payments slowly began to build their case against the White Star Line. They held that although the crew had received wireless messages about the presence of icebergs, the Titanic had maintained its speed, stayed on the same northern course, posted no additional lookouts, and failed to provide the lookouts with binoculars.

In addition, they faulted the White Star Line for not properly training the crew for evacuation, leading to the launching of partially filled lifeboats and the loss of even more lives. For these reasons, combined with the fact that the managing director of the White Star Line, Ismay, was on board the Titanic, claimants believed the liability should be unlimited.

After White Star filed its petition, several notices were placed in the New York Times between October 1912 and January 1913, asking people who claimed damages to prove their claims by April 15, 1913. Hundreds of claims totaling $16,604,731.63 came from people around the world. Claims were divided into four groups: Schedule A: Loss of Life, Schedule B: Loss of Property, Schedule C: Loss of Life and Property, and Schedule D: Injury and Property.

The Schedule D claims for injuries and property detail the harrowing experiences of many survivors of the Titanic. In nearly 50 claims, survivors describe how they lived through the disaster and the physical and mental injuries they sustained.

Anna McGowan of Chicago, Illinois, was unable to get on a lifeboat and jumped from the Titanic onto a lifeboat and sustained permanent injuries from the fall, shock, and frostbite. The experience left her in a state of "nervous prostration" (most likely something similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD) and unable to provide for herself.

Survivors of the Titanic disaster aboard a lifeboat on April 15, 1912. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

Patrick O'Keefe of Ireland also jumped overboard to save his life, but he remained in the cold Atlantic waters for hours before being rescued by lifeboat B.

Bertha Noon of Providence, Rhode Island, asked for more than $25,000 due to injuries she sustained after being pushed onto a lifeboat and being exposed to the cold for several hours before being rescued by the Carpathia . Her injuries included an injured back and spine that left her "unable to wear corsets," severe nervous shock, a "misplaced womb," and a recurring congestion in her head and chest that left her delirious and unconscious for days at a time.

Though the Schedule A claims filed by family members for loss of life did not include first-hand accounts of the accident, they document tragic losses of entire families. Finnish immigrant John Panula was preparing for a reunion with his family in Pennsylvania when his wife and four children died on the Titanic. The Skoogh family with their four children Carl, Harold, Mabel, and Margaret Skoogh (ages 12, 9, 11, and 8 respectively) were returning to the United States aboard the Titanic.

Claims for Losses Reveal Class Differences

The loss of life claims also reveal the variety of values assigned to a human life. While Alfonso Meo's widow, Emily J. Innes-Meo, asked for only £300 (approximately $1,500 at the time), Irene Wallach Harris, the widow of Broadway producer and theater owner Henry B. Harris, sought $1 million in her claim. Some of the documents state the ages and annual salaries of the deceased to justify the amounts they were seeking in their claims. The most detailed claim involved the $4,734.80 claim filed by the family of 41-year-old James Veale:

That the said James Veale was by profession a granite carver; that he was earning at the time of his death $1,000 per year or more. That according to the Northampton Table of Mortality, the said James Veale, deceased probably would have lived, except for his death aforesaid, 11.837 years more; that the said James Veale did not expend upon himself more than $600 a year; that his personal estate has been damaged in the sum of $400 per year during the period of 11.837 years and to the extent of $4,734.80 by reason of the aforesaid breach of contract committed by the petitioner herein as aforesaid.

Charlotte Drake Cardeza's claim is the largest and most detailed claim among the Schedule B claims for loss of property. In nearly 20 pages, she itemized the lost contents of 14 trunks, 4 suitcases, and 3 crates. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The claims also reveal the vast class differences apparent among the passengers of the Titanic. This is most apparent in the Schedule B claims for loss of property. The most detailed and largest property claim belongs to socialite Charlotte Drake Cardeza, who occupied the most expensive stateroom on the ship. After surviving the sinking of the Titanic aboard lifeboat 3, Cardeza filed a claim for the lost contents of her 14 trunks, 4 suitcases, and 3 crates of baggage (a total of at least 841 individual items) for a sum of $177,352.75. The nearly 20-page itemized claim includes objects such as her 6 7 / 8 -carat pink diamond ring valued at $20,000. On the other end of the spectrum, Yum Hee of Hong Kong filed a claim for $91.05. His most expensive item: a suit of clothes valued at £2.5 (approximately $12.50 at the time).

From the claims for loss of property, we also discover that Margaret ("Molly") Brown's three crates of ancient models destined for the Denver Museum, Col. Archibald Gracie's documents concerning the War of 1812, and over 110,000 feet of motion picture film owned by William Harbeck are all now at the bottom of the Atlantic. The most expensive individual item lost during the sinking was H. Bjornstrom-Steffanson's four-foot-by-eight-foot oil painting La Circasienne Au Bain by Blondel, valued by him at $100,000.

Schedule C claim 72 was filed on July 24, 1913, by Mabelle Swift Moore, widow of businessman Clarence Moore. Moore had been a member of a Washington, DC, brokerage firm W. B. Hibbs and Company and owned extensive real estate. A "master" of the hunt, he had been in England looking for a pack of 50 hounds. (The dogs, however, were not carried on the Titanic.) Mrs. Moore sued for $510,000.

Survivors Give Eyewitness Accounts of the Sinking

Though the White Star Line filed its petition in October 1912 and individual claims were due by April 1913, hearings were not held in the Southern District of New York until June 1915. Depositions filed with the court throughout 1913 and 1914 provide conflicting reports on blame for the disaster.

In June 1914, White Star Line's Ismay was questioned about the speed of the Titanic, its lifeboats, the lookout, and other issues that may have contributed to the disaster. Throughout his testimony, Ismay restated many of the same opinions given during the congressional hearing—that all decisions were made by Capt. Edward Smith and he was onboard to consider passenger accommodation improvements for the White Star Line's next ship, the Britannic.

The "Unsinkable Molly Brown" filed a claim for lost property that included an extensive collection of gowns, hats, and jewelry as well as "ancient models for Denver Museum." (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

Statements by two of the survivors, Elizabeth Lines and Emily Ryerson, seemed to contradict Ismay's statements. Lines declared that she overheard parts of a two-hour conversation between Captain Smith and Ismay on Saturday, April 13. Sticking in her mind was Ismay's statement, "We will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday," meaning they would arrive one day earlier than originally planned. The following day, Ryerson recalled Ismay holding a message and stating to her that "We are in among the icebergs." Despite this, he told her that they would be starting up extra boilers that evening to surprise everyone with an early arrival.

Other depositions filed by survivors give us eyewitness accounts to the dramatic and tragic final moments aboard the Titanic. Ryerson described the bitter cold of that April night before being told by a fellow passenger to put on her life belt. Though she described the initial scene on the boat deck as without confusion, the situation changed quickly. Passengers were thrown by crew into the lifeboats; Ryerson even describes falling on top of someone. After lifeboat no. 4 was loaded with 24 women and children (far below the 65 it could hold), it was lowered toward the water. Before being fully lowered, the lifeboat jammed, and men swarmed into the boat, which was intended for women and children only. After being lowered, the survivors and crew began to row for their lives, fearing that the sinking Titanic might suck them down with it. Later on that night, near dawn, Ryerson's boat returned to the site of the sinking and began rescuing some 20 survivors.

Among those rescued survivors was George Rheims, who remained for some five hours in waist-high water on a partially submerged collapsible lifeboat. In his deposition he recounts how hours earlier, after Rheims noticed "a slight shock" when returning from the bathroom, he looked out the nearest window and saw a massive white iceberg pass by. He then reported witnessing several lifeboats launching that were between half and three-quarters full. He also described seeing men scrambling onto lifeboats as they were lowered and hearing pistols being shot during his last hour aboard the ship. In the final minutes before Titanic disappeared into the depths, Rheims jumped into the cold waters and waited for his rescue.

Over several days in June and July 1915, testimony continued. Negotiations carried on outside of court led to a tentative settlement with nearly all of the claimants in December 1915. The settlement was for a total of $664,000 to be divided among the claimants. A final decree, signed by Judge Julius M. Mayer in July 1916, held the company guiltless of any privity and knowledge and not liable for any loss, damage, injury, destruction, or fatalities.

In a page from her testimony, passenger Elizabeth Lines recounts overhearing Bruce Ismay remark to Captain Smith on the speed of the ship's crossing, saying that they will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

George Rheims recalled that as he swam away from the sinking Titanic, he looked back and saw the screws [propellers] out of the water in the air; she went down perfectly straight. He was rescued the next morning. (Records of District Courts of the United States, RG 21)

The Titanic' s tragic story fascinated people both at the time of the disaster and for generations after. For more than 70 years, the exact location of the ship's remains was unknown. On September 1, 1985, a joint American and French expedition team found the vessel under more than 12,400 feet of water off the coast of Newfoundland. On November 21 of the same year, Rep. Walter Jones, Sr., of North Carolina, chairman of the House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, submitted a report to accompany House Resolution 3272. It recommended that the shipwreck Titanic be designated "as a maritime memorial and to provide for reasonable research, exploration, and, if appropriate, salvage activities."

Perhaps in the end, the 1986 Memorial Act sums it up best by stating, where marine resources are concerned, at least, "we must maintain a sense of perspective regarding man's abilities and nature's powers." Nature's power, in the form of an iceberg in the frigid north Atlantic Ocean one April night in 1912, seems to impress us all the more 100 years later.

Alison Gavin received her M.A. in history from George Mason University in 2004; she was the 2003 Verney Fellow for Nantucket Studies. She has worked in the National Archives since 1995, and her work has appeared in New England Ancestors, Historic Nantucket, Quaker History, and Prologue.

Christopher Zarr is the education specialist for the National Archives at New York City. He works with teachers and students to find and use primary sources in the classroom.

Note on Sources

Learn more about:

• Other Titanic records online
• Stories from the Titanic on the Prologue blog
• The sinking of the Christmas tree ship in Lake Michigan

Additional research for this article was conducted by William Roka at the National Archives at New York City.

The Carpathia' s passenger manifests listing survivors of the Titanic are in Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG 85, at the National Archives Building (NAB), Washington, DC. They have been microfilmed as T715, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, 1897–;1957, roll 1883.

The letters to President Taft regarding the disaster are in "Letters Sent by President Taft to the Department of Commerce and Labor," Entry 15, General Records of the Department of Commerce, Record Group (RG) 40, National Archives at College Park, MD (NACP).

Archibald Butts's leave of absence and a copy of his letter of introduction to Pope Pius X are in Records of the Adjutant General's Office, RG 94, NAB.

The largest and most far-reaching of the documents NARA has concerning the sinking of Titanic (at 1,176 pages) can be found in the United States Congressional Serial Set (serial 6167): U.S. Senate, Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, " Titanic " Disaster: Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce United States Senate, pursuant to S. Res. 283 directing the Committee on Commerce to investigate the causes leading to the wreck of the White Star Liner " Titanic ," S.Doc. 726, 62nd Congress, 2nd sess., 1912 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1912), Publications of the U.S. Government, RG 287, NACP.

A more accessible source for the Senate hearings, at only 571-pages, is The Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcripts of the 1912 Senate Investigation, edited by Tom Kuntz (New York: Pocket Books, 1998). It gives accounts of the 17 days of hearings, an introduction and epilogue, an appendix, a list of witnesses, and a digest of testimony.

The records from the limited liability suits are in the case file "In the Matter of the Petition of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, Limited, for Limitation of its Liability as owner of the steamship TITANIC"; Admiralty Case Files Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21; National Archives at New York City.  

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Who Were the Titanic Survivors?

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The sinking of the RMS Titanic is one of the most famous tragedies in maritime history, with some stories of the Titanic survivors having reached legendary status.

As the pride of the White Star Line, the ship known as Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage in 1912. Little did its more than 2,000 passengers and crew members know they were embarking on a journey that would end in catastrophe just four days later, when the ship sank after colliding with an iceberg.

Who survived and who perished? Let's revisit the tragedy to learn what became of those who were traveling aboard the White Star Line ship that fateful night.

The Titanic Sets Sail

The ship encounters the iceberg, were women or men more likely to survive, what role did class play in who survived, 10 famous survivors of the titanic disaster, 7 famous victims of the titanic disaster, legacy of the titanic.

Amid great fanfare and excitement, the Titanic departed Southampton, England, bound for New York City on April 10, 1912. With its luxurious accommodations and state-of-the-art features, the ocean liner was hailed as the epitome of modern luxury.

Onboard were a mix of first-class, second-class and third-class passengers, along with a crew of more than 900 individuals, for a total of 2,240 people. Among the passengers were some of the most prominent people of the time, including businessmen, celebrities and socialites.

The builders of the Titanic had outfitted the ship with what were considered the most high-tech safety features of the time. These included watertight compartments and watertight doors the crew could close remotely. This gave the ship a reputation for being "unsinkable" at the time of its maiden voyage.

On the night of April 14, 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Despite efforts to avoid a collision and the deployment of distress signals, the doomed ship began to sink rapidly.

In just two hours and 40 minutes, the ship the world had previously called unsinkable would be completely submerged.

In the chaos that ensued after the ship struck the iceberg, people committed brave acts of heroism. The tales of some of these acts would survive the sinking and go on to be immortalized in literature and film.

For example, Fifth Officer Harold Lowe played a crucial role in loading and launching lifeboats, helping to save numerous passengers. Similarly, American socialite Margaret "Molly" Brown earned the nickname "Unsinkable Molly Brown" for her bravery and leadership during the crisis.

Before escaping herself, Brown helped other passengers into lifeboats and even begged the crew member in charge of her lifeboat to return to the ship for more passengers, but he refused.

The survival rate for female passengers was significantly higher than that of male passengers. According to historical data , approximately 74 percent of female passengers survived, while only around 20 percent of male passengers survived.

The prioritization of "women and children first" during the evacuation process, according to orders from Captain Edward John Smith, meant that women were more likely than male passengers to have priority access to lifeboats.

Additionally, societal norms and expectations at the time encouraged men to prioritize the safety of women and children, often sacrificing their own lives in the process.

Social class played a significant role in determining survival rates aboard the Titanic: While some individuals from all classes managed to survive, the overwhelming majority of casualties were from the lower classes, highlighting the inequalities that existed in the ship's class structure and evacuation procedures.

First-class Passengers

First-class passengers had greater access to lifeboats and received preferential treatment during the evacuation process. They were more likely to survive compared to passengers in the lower classes.

Many of them had accommodations in the upper decks, closer to the lifeboats, and the crew gave them priority boarding due to their social status. As a result, about 62 percent of first-class passengers survived.

Second-class Passengers

While passengers in the second-class accommodations had somewhat better survival rates compared to third-class passengers, they still faced challenges during the evacuation.

They were located further away from the lifeboats and received less assistance from the crew. However, some managed to secure spots on lifeboats, and about 43 percent of second-class passengers survived.

Third-class Passengers

Third-class passengers faced the most significant obstacles. They were located in the lower decks of the ship and had limited access to lifeboats. The crew did not give them clear instructions on how to evacuate and effectively left them to fend for themselves.

Language barriers and unfamiliarity with ship protocols were also issues. As a result, only about 26 percent of third-class passengers survived.

Crew Members

Many crew members worked tirelessly to lower lifeboats and ensure the safety of passengers, some sacrificing their own lives in the process — especially those stationed in the lower areas of the ship and those tasked with more hazardous duties. Only about 24 percent of the crew members survived.

Among the survivors of the Titanic was Millvina Dean, the youngest survivor at just two months old. Several notable individuals survived the sinking of the Titanic, including:

• Lawrence Beesley : A schoolteacher and journalist, Beesley was traveling aboard the Titanic and survived by boarding lifeboat number 13. He later wrote a detailed account of the sinking, providing valuable insights into the events of that fateful night.
• Karl Behr : A tennis star who survived the Titanic disaster, Behr was traveling on the ship with his future wife, Helen Newsom. When the Titanic struck the iceberg, Behr helped his fiancée onto a lifeboat before being separated from her. Despite the chaos, he managed to secure a spot on a different lifeboat.
• Margaret "Molly" Brown : Brown became famous for her leadership and assistance to other passengers during the sinking. She survived in lifeboat number 6 and later helped organize the survivors on board the Carpathia, the ship that rescued them.
• Millvina Dean : The youngest passenger aboard the Titanic and the youngest survivor of the disaster, Dean was just two months old when the ship sank. A third-class passenger, she escaped with her mother and brother on lifeboat number 10, but her father perished.
• Archibald Gracie IV : An American writer and historian, Gracie was traveling aboard the Titanic when it sank. He survived by clinging to an overturned collapsible lifeboat and later wrote a detailed account of the disaster.
• Eva Hart : A 7-year-old girl at the time of the sinking, Eva Hart survived along with her mother by boarding lifeboat number 14. She became a vocal advocate for maritime safety and shared her experiences of the Titanic throughout her life.
• Bruce Ismay : When the ship struck the iceberg, Ismay, who was the managing director of the White Star Line, managed to secure a spot on one of the last lifeboats to leave the sinking vessel. People criticized him for this for years afterward, calling him a coward for placing his own safety above the safety of others.
• Charles Lightoller : As the most senior officer to survive the sinking, Lightoller played a crucial role in loading and launching lifeboats. He survived by clinging to an overturned collapsible lifeboat and later provided testimony during the inquiries into the disaster.
• Edith Rosenbaum Russell : A fashion journalist and buyer, Russell was traveling aboard the Titanic and survived by boarding lifeboat number 11. She's famous for escaping with a toy pig, which is now housed at the National Maritime Museum in London.
• Richard "Dick" Norris Williams II : Tennis star Williams was traveling aboard the Titanic with his father. During the sinking, the two were separated, but Williams managed to reach a collapsible boat, where he was rescued. He went on to win numerous tennis championships and even competed with fellow survivor Karl Behr.

As the Titanic sank, many passengers and crew members perished in the icy waters. Prominent figures such as Captain Edward Smith went down with the ship, along with hundreds of others. Some of the most famous passengers to perish in the Titanic disaster included:

• Thomas Andrews : The chief designer of the Titanic, Andrews was aboard the ship during its maiden voyage. He perished in the disaster, having worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of passengers until the very end.
• John Jacob Astor IV : A wealthy businessman and real estate mogul, Astor was one of the wealthiest individuals aboard the Titanic. His family was behind the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel empire.
• Archibald Butt : A military aide to U.S. presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, Butt was returning to the United States aboard the Titanic after a vacation in Europe.
• Benjamin Guggenheim : Another prominent businessman and heir to the Guggenheim fortune, Guggenheim was known for his lavish lifestyle.
• Captain Edward Smith : An experienced and respected seaman who had served with the White Star Line for many years, Captain Smith was responsible for overseeing the ship's maiden voyage but tragically went down with his vessel.
• William Thomas Stead : A renowned journalist and editor, Stead was known for his investigative journalism. He boarded the Titanic to travel to a peace conference in the United States.
• Isidor and Ida Straus : The owners of Macy's department store, Isidor and Ida were well-known philanthropists. They chose to stay together and perished in the disaster.

In the wake of the Titanic disaster, inquiries were launched to investigate the circumstances surrounding the sinking, and people formed conspiracy theories about the ship .

The British Board of Trade conducted a comprehensive inquiry, examining factors such as the ship's speed, the crew's actions and the adequacy of the ship's safety measures.

The sinking of the Titanic remains one of the most enduring tragedies in modern history. Memorials and museums dedicated to the disaster serve as reminders of the lives lost and the lessons society has learned from this catastrophic event.

While the tragedy claimed the lives of many, it also showcased the bravery and resilience of those who faced unimaginable circumstances. Authors, filmmakers, artists, historians and others have been immortalizing their stories ever since the event unfolded.

We updated this article in conjunction with AI technology, then made sure it was fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.

Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article:

Material Failures

Design flaws, effects of the disaster, ship design, safety regulations.

Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — The Sinking of the Titanic: A Convergence of Error and Hubris

The Sinking of The Titanic: a Convergence of Error and Hubris

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Introduction, the factors leading to the sinking of the titanic, key decisions and actions by stakeholders, lessons learned: a call for responsibility and reflection.

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• Journal of Economic Perspectives
• Winter 2011

Behavior under Extreme Conditions: The Titanic Disaster

• Bruno S. Frey
• David A. Savage
• Benno Torgler
• Article Information
• Comments ( 0 )

JEL Classification

• Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification

This Historic Photograph May Depict the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic

The image, which sold for $22,000 at auction this week, was taken aboard a recovery vessel days after the famous ocean liner went down

Julia Binswanger

Daily Correspondent

Over a century after the Titanic hit its fateful iceberg, the ship remains a haunting symbol of human innovation, hubris and tragedy. This week, Henry Aldridge auction house in Devizes, Wiltshire sold an “extremely rare” black and white photograph of an iceberg —that some believe is the one that sank the Titanic—for £17,500 (about $22,000).

The Titanic struck its iceberg on April 14, 1912, resulting in approximately 1,522 deaths of the 2,240 passengers and crew onboard. A few days after the ocean liner sank, a recovery ship, the C.S. Mackay-Bennett , went to gather the bodies from the ocean. During the mission, someone onboard took a photograph of an iceberg.

On the ship was John R. Snow, Jr ., whose family company was the largest undertaking firm in Nova Scotia. Snow played a large role in overseeing recovery efforts following the Titanic disaster.

The embalmers on the C.S.  Mackay-Bennett recovered 306 bodies, but the ship only had 100 coffins onboard. Snow’s men placed 100 bodies in the caskets and wrapped an additional 90 corpses in canvas material. For the remaining 116 bodies, the men performed sea burials.

According to Artnet ’s Verity Babbs, a vendor of Henry Aldridge acquired the five-by-three-inch photograph of the iceberg from Snow’s family in the 1990s. Thus, it is possible that John R. Snow, Jr. took the photograph himself.

The photograph was sold as part of Henry Aldridge’s Auction of Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia sale on April 27. The auction house calls the photograph “extremely rare,” and the sale exceeded expectations, quadrupling the photographer's low estimate of £4,000 (about $5,000).

“Nobody can say for sure that this was the iceberg that sank the Titanic,” auctioneer Andrew Aldridge tells the Daily Mail ’s Lettice Bromovsky. “But what we can say is that after the rescue ship Carpathia , the Mackay-Bennett was one of the first ships to reach the wreck site and that the undertaker on board decided to take a photo of this iceberg.”

During the sale, the auction house also sold big ticket items like a gold pocket watch with the initials of John Jacob Astor IV , the richest passenger on the Titanic. Astor’s watch sold for £1.175 million (roughly $1.4 million). The auction house also sold the violin case of the ship’s bandleader Wallace Hartley for £360,000 (about $450,000). The actual violin sold in 2013 for £1.1 million (about $1.7 million at the time). Hartley is famously depicted in James Cameron’s 1997 film , playing as the ship sinks.

The impressive numbers from the sale speak to the enduring legacy of the Titanic.

“Titanic is probably, next to Noah’s ark, history’s most famous ship,” Charles Haas , president of the Titanic International Society , tells the New York Times ’ Derrick Bryson Taylor.

“The Titanic story has already lasted 112 years,” he adds. “And while there are people out there who say, ‘The ship sank, get over it,’ it has so much built-in drama to it that the younger generations are still quite fascinated by it.”

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Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ,  Chicago magazine,  Rebellious magazine and  PC magazine. 

Titanic Universe

Titanic Newspaper Articles From 1912

Many different Titanic newspaper articles covered the tragedy of the Titanic sinking. There were varying accounts of the disaster depending on the publication and the information they received before running the story the next day. Accounts of the sinking of the RMS Titanic started positive, such as the headline in the Syracuse Herald on April 15, 1912, which reads, “Titanic’s Passengers All Rescued.” What began as a positive outlook on the disaster and headlines constructed out of speculation quickly became much worse than the publications had ever imagined.

On its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, the Titanic was the largest passenger ship ever assembled. The height of luxury and class, the vessel began its journey from Southampton, England, to New York. Although in compliance with the safety standards of the time, the Titanic did not possess enough lifeboats to accommodate everyone on board. When the large vessel struck an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, one of the most significant maritime disasters in history took place.

Titanic newspaper articles have been collected from all around the world and citing many different angles. From the United States to across the Atlantic, the Titanic sinking was the largest story of April 13, 1912, and many of the Titanic newspaper articles have been preserved and can be viewed to this day. Some have even been replicated and made into collectible items. T-shirts, mugs, and other items have been used to showcase some of the most famous Titanic newspaper articles. There are a few online collections of hundreds of articles available for the public to view.

One thing is for sure, a Titanic newspaper article is a piece of history that is both relevant and an extremely sought after collector’s item. With the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic quickly approaching, the number of Titanic Newspaper articles is sure to skyrocket in popularity and become even more sought after by Titanic enthusiasts.

The below images do not constitute what is archived in the newspaper compilations listed above.

Andre Nolan

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Book Review

I survived the sinking of the titanic, 1912 — “i survived” series.

• Lauren Tarshis
• Historical , Suspense/Thriller

Readability Age Range

• Scholastic Inc.

Year Published

This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine . It is the first book in the “I Survived” series.

Plot Summary

Ten-year-old George Calder and his little sister, Phoebe, have been visiting their Aunt Daisy in London. Nothing could thrill them more than sailing home to America on the famed Titanic . George spends his time exploring the gigantic ship and even has a chance to speak with the architect and see the blueprints.

George hears a rumor that someone is transporting a mummy, and he’s determined to get a look at it. Late one night, he sneaks into the cargo hold and begins to open the box. There, he runs into a thief from third class who takes George’s pocket knife. The ship suddenly begins to shake and make loud noises. George uses the opportunity to escape.

Once he’s back on the deck, George sees people throwing snowballs at one another. Everyone is laughing because the ship seems to have grazed an iceberg. George goes back to bed, until a crewman knocks on the door of the suite he shares with Phoebe and Aunt Daisy. The man tells them the captain wants everyone on deck, just as a precaution. Aunt Daisy is irritated that people are expected to do this in the middle of the night in their bed clothes. She goes to wake Phoebe but finds the girl is missing.

George thinks Phoebe probably heard him sneak out and tried to follow him to see the mummy. She’s left a trail of lemon drops so she won’t get lost on the enormous vessel. George and Aunt Daisy follow the trail until they reach a gate behind which the poorer passengers are locked. Aunt Daisy demands a crew member let them in to look for Phoebe, and they soon find themselves trapped as well. A little Italian boy named Enzo, whom George met earlier, calls out to George. Enzo and his father, Marco, are traveling to America to make a new life. Marco lifts Enzo up on his shoulders, and Enzo cries out Phoebe’s name until she comes running through the crowd.

Since George saw the ship’s blueprints, he knows a secret way back to the deck. He leads the way for Aunt Daisy, Phoebe, Enzo and Marco. His aunt, sister and Enzo are placed on a lifeboat, but Marco knows the men must stay behind. When George tries to board the lifeboat, he’s denied. It’s implied that the reason is because the boats are full and George is male, though he’s only 10. Marco holds on to George as the ship begins to go under. He tells George to jump into the water with him, and he finds a piece of wood that will allow them to float in the icy sea. After his heroic efforts to save the boy, Marco is exhausted and barely moving. A makeshift lifeboat sails by. George jumps in, painstakingly pulling Marco with him. After hours in the boat, a larger ship called the Carpathia rescues them. Enzo, Phoebe and Aunt Daisy are aboard as well.

Back in America, Enzo stays with Aunt Daisy while Marco is being treated in the hospital. George suspects Daisy and Marco are interested in one another, and he hopes Marco and Enzo will stay around. Back on the farm with Papa, George still feels the anxiety of what he’s experienced. He realizes he is not the carefree young boy who set out on the maiden voyage of the Titanic . Papa suggests they build a little boat to use on their pond, and this gives George a sense of hope for the future.

Christian Beliefs

People pray on the lifeboats as they sail away from the sinking ship.

Other Belief Systems

Some passengers are spooked at the idea that there may be a mummy in the cargo hold. They believe it’s bad luck to take a mummy from its tomb.

Authority Roles

George’s mother died several years earlier. He and Phoebe live with Papa in America. Aunt Daisy, with whom they stay in London, is in her early 20s and playful with the kids. They travel home to America with her. Mr. Andrews, the Titanic’s architect, shares the blueprints with George and answers his many questions without complaint. He even suggests George could build a ship someday. Marco uses all his strength to save George after the Titanic begins to sink.

Profanity & Violence

Sexual content, discussion topics.

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Lying: George lies when cornered by a thief in the cargo hold.

Smoking: George’s papa smokes a pipe.

Class warfare: The poor are trapped behind a locked gate, which implies that many of them perish.

After the story, the book includes author’s notes and historical facts about the sinking of the Titanic .

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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110 Years Later, a Stunning New Photo May Finally Show the Iceberg That Sank the Titanic

Could this actually be the ship’s notorious nemesis? Here’s the evidence.

More than a century after the sinking of the RMS Titanic , the identity of the iceberg that actually brought the mighty ship down is still unconfirmed. We’ve long scrutinized two photographs of separate icebergs that possibly sank the Titanic, but now, a newly discovered picture that’s up for auction shows a third frozen chunk—casting new doubt over the true culprit behind the legendary disaster.

The 5-inch by 3-inch black-and-white photograph— see it here —mounted on cardboard and mistakenly labeled “ Titantic ,” captures a potential suspect in the ship’s infamous sinking. Taken by John Snow Jr., a Nova Scotian undertaker, while en route to the North Atlantic wreckage site aboard the C.S. MacKay-Bennett on April 16, 1912—just two days after the Titanic ’s fateful encounter with an iceberg—this image adds another piece to the historical puzzle.

Snow, who was tasked with aiding in the recovery of victims, ultimately retrieved 306 bodies from the icy waters, including John Jacob Astor IV and Isidor Straus.

The C.S. MacKay-Bennett couldn’t handle all 306 bodies, so Snow’s firm embalmed 100 first-class passengers for return in coffins from Nova Scotia, and wrapped second-class passengers in canvas. Tragically, 116 third-class passengers and crew members were buried at sea.

“Nobody can say for sure” that the iceberg seen in the newly uncovered photo was the one that sank the Titanic , auctioneer Andrew Aldridge told The Daily Mail . But the Mackay-Bennett was one of the first ships to arrive at the wreckage site after the rescue ship Carpathia , which lends considerable weight to the possibility—especially since “the undertaker on board decided to take a photo of this iceberg,” Aldridge said.

The prevailing theory suggests the Titanic ’s nemesis was an iceberg marked with red paint , a telltale sign a ship had recently struck it. The emergence of a third iceberg photo adds to the intrigue. “He must have had his reasons for taking a photo of this iceberg,” Aldridge said. “He captioned it Titantic and mounted it for posterity.”

The photo, which is slated for auction on April 27 and is expected to fetch between $5,000 and $8,500, was in the Snow family until a collector acquired it in the early 1990s. That collector has brought it to auction.

Regardless of which iceberg was responsible for the Titanic ’s sinking, it still took decades for people—including those on board the ship—to fully understand what really happened on the night of April 14, 1912.

The trouble for the White Star Line-owned Titanic started that morning, according to Biography . The ship received a warning about ice in its path from the Caronia, and got another message about dangerous ice from the Baltic in the early afternoon. While Captain Edward Smith relayed the information to the chairman of the White Star Line, no one took action that day.

Later in the evening, after 7 p.m., the Titanic’ s crew overheard a third ice warning, this time from the Californian alerting another ship in its fleet. The crew disregarded a fourth advisory from the Mesaba , and the telegraph operators didn’t record a complete warning that the Californian directly transmitted to the Titanic .

As the warnings piled up unheeded, around 11:40 p.m., a crew member spotted an iceberg in the Titanic ’s path, but it was too late to move. The opportunity to decelerate or divert southward to evade the icebergs had already slipped away. The Titanic collided with the iceberg, sustaining damage to its forward section. The iceberg tore several holes in the ship’s side, and seawater rapidly began to pour in. Shortly after the collision, Captain Smith rushed to the bridge to evaluate the crisis and discovered that the ship was sinking.

The first distress call went out after midnight.

The Titanic didn’t have enough lifeboats to carry all its passengers to safety. Roughly 20 minutes past 2 a.m. on the morning of April 15, the Titanic plunged into the depths of the North Atlantic.

Biography writes that initially, surviving passengers reported watching from the water as the Titanic split apart before sinking. But for 73 years, those survivors’ claims were dismissed, and the conventional wisdom was that the Titanic sank in one piece.

“We rode away, and I didn’t close my eyes at all. I saw that ship sink, and I saw that ship break in half,” said Eva Hart, a 7-year-old Titanic survivor. “For 70 years, people have argued with me about that, but now at last it has been proven beyond all doubt that she did break in half. I know it did, I saw her.”

Biography continues:

It wasn’t until the Titanic ’s wreckage was discovered in 1985 that it was definitively proven that the ship had indeed split. Until that time, the survivors were told they misunderstood or incorrectly remembered what they had seen, largely thanks to testimony from employees of the White Star Line shipping company in the immediate months after the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912.

The true events of that tragic night have remained shrouded in doubt and speculation. And now, with the revelation of a third photograph potentially capturing the iceberg responsible for the sinking of the Titanic , we edge closer to piecing together the ship’s last moments.

Tim Newcomb is a journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. He covers stadiums, sneakers, gear, infrastructure, and more for a variety of publications, including Popular Mechanics. His favorite interviews have included sit-downs with Roger Federer in Switzerland, Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles, and Tinker Hatfield in Portland. 

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Newly emerged evidence could explain what caused the Titanic to sink

It's said an optical illusion may have played a hand.

Jess Battison

Newly emerged evidence could explain what caused the Titanic to sink.

Well over a century ago , on 14 April, 1912, the ‘unsinkable’ ship struck an iceberg and sank into cold waters .

The Titanic was on its first voyage, going from Southampton to New York City with about 2,200 passengers and crew onboard.

The British ship had already received a number of warnings about icebergs in the area before the fatal strike that took it down. Approximately 1,500 people died in the accident.

But evidence from reports in The Times suggest an optical illusion could have played a key role in the sinking of the ship.

It is suggested the Titanic had sailed into a ‘thermal inversion’ - this is when a layer of warm air traps colder air underneath.

This would have occurred when the icy waters of the Labrador Current flowed into the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean.

OK, so that all sounds relatively simple and yet it can have mega effects which in this case, may have been fatal.

Thermal inversions can create various mirages such as the ‘morgana fata’. This is well-known as when ships look like they’re floating above the horizon.

And it’s said in the case of the Titanic that the thermal inversion here led to a superior mirage, creating a false horizon. At sea level, light bends over the true horizon.

But higher up, like at the Titanic’s crow’s nest (30 metres high) the gap between the true and false horizons can look like a haze. And therefore, the crew on lookout wouldn’t have been able to see the iceberg until it was too late as it would be obscured by the mist.

This idea, found in The Times' archive, supports the theory previously suggested by Tim Maltin, Titanic author and historian.

"The weather, the night the Titanic sank, was absolutely extraordinary," he explained. "It was one of the calmest and clearest nights in history on the North Atlantic."

Maltin explained the effects of the thermal inversion, saying: “Although the high pressure kept the air unusually clear, the abnormally long distance to the horizon meant that light was scattered by the molecules in the path of vision, creating a haze caused by the scattering of light.”

Maltin also explained how the superior mirage would have raised the horizon up behind the iceberg, partially masking the view.

“And with the berg coming straight towards the lookouts, it unfortunately meant that the berg had to be that much nearer before it was seen,” he added.

Topics:  Titanic , History , Optical Illusion

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@ jessbattison_

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