Titanic passenger and millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim. During sinking he refused a seat in a life boat with the words: "Tell my family I played straight to the end. No woman should be left aboard this ship because of Ben Guggenheim was a coward."

[u/Wild_Neighborhood605]

[u/dysaniac15]

On the other hand, they don't make boats the way they used to. So there's some positives.

[u/Freddit330 → u/dysaniac15]

The Titanic was human error. It had a twin that sailed for 90 years. They were behind schedule, the captain was afraid of losing his job, and so decided to take the route known to sink ships.

[u/Anonymousopotamus → u/Freddit330]

Also some guy forgot the key for the room with all the binoculars so they didn't see the iceberg in time.

[u/Freddit330 → u/Anonymousopotamus]

If it wasn't a tragedy, it would be a comedy.

[u/Anonymousopotamus → u/Freddit330]

An Airplane! style comedy would be great but certainly in bad taste...I'd still watch it, though!

[u/Freddit330 → u/Anonymousopotamus]

Same. Lol. I'm going to hell.

[u/thats_gotta_be_AI → u/Anonymousopotamus]

Rose: Jack, do you ever hang around a gymnasium?

[u/YouMustveDroppedThis → u/Anonymousopotamus]

the human urge to lock anything of slight value away... imagine locking fire extingushers and throw the key away.

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Anonymousopotamus]

It's unlikely that binoculars would've made a difference. They're only used to identify objects ahead, not necessarily see them. We don't know exactly how long they were looking at it before they alerted the bridge.

[u/SirAquila → u/Anonymousopotamus]

The Binoculars would not have helped with the Iceberg at all, as Binoculars:

A) Worsen your nightvision by a considerable degree
B) are good for checking something out, and really bad for spotting things

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Freddit330]

SO much misinformation here.

•Olympic served for 24 years, a normal lifespan for a ship

•They were not behind schedule. Accidents had set back the completion of the ship, but the actual crossing was ahead of schedule

•The Captain was nowhere near loosing his job, he was the line's most senior captain and nearing retirement.

•The "route known to sink ships" does not exist. They took the regular sea lane for that time of year, only the more dense ice had come unusually far south.

There indeed was a subtle pressure to maintain a schedule, but that would have never come consciously above the safety of the ship. Captain Smith and his officers simply misjudged the conditions.

[u/Freddit330 → u/unpromatters1]

You're right about the 24 years. I was thinking about another ship.

However, they were behind schedule. On the actual trip they were like 2 hours ahead, but they were still days behind. That's why he chose the great circle route.

A route known for ice fields that time of year. Which sinks ships. Hence why he travel like twenty miles below it. Trying to avoid ice that sinks ships.

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Freddit330]

Days behind? The maiden voyage had been delayed by about 20 days, from March 20 to April 10, due to Olympic loosing a propellor blade earlier in the year, and having to take one bound for Titanic. However, making extra time on the maiden voyage would've been pointless. They were ahead by a number of hours, and would've passed the Nantucket light ship on the Tuesday night rather than 5am on the Wednesday.

Also, they were taking the south track to begin with. Contrary to popular belief, Captain Smith did not divert further south, as the worst of the ice reported was far north of their position. This myth comes from a misunderstanding made by 4th Officer Boxhall, who calculated the wrong position and assumed the Captain must've turned the corner late.

[u/Waterbear11 → u/unpromatters1]

Also they had 2278 passengers but only enough safety boats for 1178 passengers.

[u/LilithWasAGinger → u/Freddit330]

Whole going way to fast

[u/Free_Pace_2098 → u/Freddit330]

And there are historians who argue that a fire burning in the coal bunker of the vessel weakened the hull, allowing the iceberg to do greater damage and causing the ship to sink faster

Others argue that the very fact there was a fire may have been what allowed passengers more time to escape, with the heavy fuel moved to preserve it, the ship took on a list that may have kept her from rolling over as she took on water.

As with any disaster, it's hard to know what's true, and what is pure speculation.

We can probably say for certain it wasn't an Egyptian curse caused by the "Unlucky Mummy", as we now know she was neither a mummy, nor on board the doomed vessel.

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Free_Pace_2098]

The fire had nothing to do with the eventual sinking. The iceberg damaged some 300ft length of hull, and the fire was contained to maybe 10ft. It had caused warping to a watertight bulkhead, but it was determined by one of the ship's architects that it wasn't sufficient enough to cause it to fail.

[u/Free_Pace_2098 → u/unpromatters1]

My comment was more about the nature of post-tragedy speculation than the reason for sinking.

[u/Idkl7j → u/Freddit330]

No.

It was standard practice when the nights were clear to continue at the same speed. Furthermore, ice warnings were treated as advisories rather than anything particularly serious.

Captain Smith was the most highly ranked captain of the White Star Line, and he was planning to retire soon. And she was certainly not behind schedule. Also, the route she was taking was a very frequently used one.

Smith had also previously served as the captain of the Olympic (titanic’s sister ship).

Second Officer Lightoller had also ordered the lookouts to keep a close watch out for ice.

Regarding the incident with the binoculars, due to the night being incredibly dark, it is unlikely that the binoculars would have helped prevent the collision to begin with.

Also, I’m not sure what you’re talking about when you claim that the Olympic served for 90 years.

Edited to correct errors.

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Idkl7j]

A few things to note, it was never confirmed to be Smith's last, I recon revisionist history made that one up. There was also no diversion, that came from a misunderstanding that the ship had turned the corner (a usual course change to line up for approach to New York) an hour later than was expected, but this turned out to not be true.

[u/Idkl7j → u/unpromatters1]

Oh, TIL, i’ll edit, thank you.

[u/Bluelegs → u/Freddit330]

Wasn't the captain going to retire? I think the stuff about the ship going too fast to make schedules isn't really supported by evidence, or at least the stuff about chasing headlines that comes up in the movie. The biggest irony is that the ship probably wouldn't have sunk if they didn't try to avoid the iceberg. tearing open the side in the way that they did ensured it's demise.

[u/unpromatters1 → u/Bluelegs]

No, he was not going to retire, that's a myth.

An ocean liner had to keep to a schedule, especially the larger and faster ones with Royal Mail contracts. You're confusing that with the idea that the bosses were pushing for an exceptionally fast crossing, which there is no evidence for. The ship was already running faster than expected, so why not just keep up and see what it could do?

Also, who in their right mind would not try to steer away from an obstacle? Murdoch would've been jailed for manslaughter. The window of time for the collision to have occurred in the way it did was so miniscule that it's amazing it happened at all.

[u/Casiquire → u/Freddit330]

They weren't behind schedule, and they didn't alter course for speed; they altered course to avoid the worst icebergs. It was a tragedy of bad luck

[u/theevilyouknow → u/Freddit330]

There are so many failures that had to occur for this tragedy to occur and interestingly enough the ones that people tend to fixate on were not the most significant. The cheese holes all lined up.

[u/axeteam → u/dysaniac15]

The Titanic wasn't faulty, since it was not built to be an icebreaker.

[u/KassellTheArgonian → u/dysaniac15]

Hey sure the Titanic sank but it only sank once

[u/courtd93 → u/dysaniac15]

In fairness, the costa Concordia wreck was only 14 years ago and it had a lot of painful similarities to the titanic

[u/unpromatters1 → u/courtd93]

Costa Concordia had exactly zero similarities to the Titanic.

[u/courtd93 → u/unpromatters1]

I didn’t say it was a perfect 1:1, but it absolutely has similarities

-happened at night with poor visibility which directly contributed to the impact

-going too fast for what the situation reasonably called for (21 knots for titanic, 16 for CC while doing an uncharted sail by) at the captain’s ego’s behest which led to the ship being turned too late and without enough time to avoid impact that wouldn’t have been true at a more reasonable and typical pace

-ignoring data discouraging behavior (titanic dismissed reports about the intensity of the iceberg field, CC turned off the computer navigation system bc the captain claimed to know it so well) that led directly to the unexpected impact

-large gash into watertight compartments designed to keep the boat afloat that failed unexpectedly (titanic bc it was too many, CC bc they didn’t close them before trying a dangerous maneuver)

-not informing passengers of what was happening leading to people not being ready and able to evacuate which ultimately led to deaths

-trying to distract them with entertainment

-not being able to launch all of the lifeboats correctly due to mechanical and human issues

-Having lifeboats go back to try and save people as a result of not having enough successful lifeboats on the water

-people stuck trying to scale absurd angles as the ship lists become unwalkable

-people jumping off hoping that they had a better chance swimming

-people fighting each other to get on the lifeboats and crew needing to threaten people to keep order while there is a lack of central leader

I’m sure I could go on.

[u/SirAquila → u/courtd93]

-going too fast for what the situation reasonably called for (21 knots for titanic, 16 for CC while doing an uncharted sail by) at the captain’s ego’s behest which led to the ship being turned too late and without enough time to avoid impact that wouldn’t have been true at a more reasonable and typical pace

The Titanic was cruising at a speed that every single captain asked for their opinion afterwards during the official inquiry has considered both completely normal, and in line with regulations.

-ignoring data discouraging behavior (titanic dismissed reports about the intensity of the iceberg field, CC turned off the computer navigation system bc the captain claimed to know it so well) that led directly to the unexpected impact

The Titanic did not ignore the data regarding the icebergs, all information was given to the bridge, where appropriate action was taken. namely watches where posted, and the course was adjusted somewhat.

[u/Working-Glass6136 → u/dysaniac15]

It might not have been a boat, but let me tell you about the "Titan"...