Just over 110 years ago the most famous ship in the world was launched in Belfast. It was the biggest, fastest and apparently one of the safest ships in the world! In fact, it was thought to be 'unsinkable'... its name was the TITANIC.

The ship cost the WHITE STAR LINE over £200 million and was full of the modern technology of the day. It had a swimming pool and a gymnasium as well as a huge grand staircase. 
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This question has been asked for over 100 years now. There are many suggestions.  This is one part of your study where it is left up to you to decide. You will be given the evidence and asked to present your ideas on just why the Titanic sank all those years ago.
This will be superb practice for you to demonstrate your skills of CRITICAL ANALYSIS ; USING EVIDENCE TO MAKE YOUR POINT ; BEING BALANCED and practicing your WRITTEN SKILLS. All of these skills are used everyday in countless jobs. ​

EXHIBIT 1: THE CAPTAIN
Captain Smith had a huge amount of experience and no  accidents in his long career. 
HOWEVER there were a number of things about him that could be held against him. 

• It was his last voyage before retiring. Was he trying to break the record for crossing the Atlantic before retiring?
• He had actually been involved in a collision with a British war ship when in command of the Titanic's sister ship - Olympic. This had occurred only months before the Titanic voyage. Was he out of his depth with such big new ships?
• The ship ignored at least 6 ice warnings that night! Captain Smith would certainly have been informed of most of these. 
• If the Titanic was going slower it may have survived. It was travelling at the high speed of 23 knots. Close to its limit
• He allowed lifeboats to leave only partially full (despite there not being enough to start) There was over two hours of time to fill the boats in an orderly way. 
• He also once said that he felt technology had improved so much that modern ships were now beyond sinking!

Captain Smith and a huge amount of the crew, would die in the disaster. It has been suggested that he tried to save others and actually went down with his ship purposefully

EXHIBIT 2: THE OWNERIsmay was the owner of the White Star line that owned Titanic. His company was under a huge amount of competition to get passengers to America FAST! 

• If he could make the journey in 6 days this would be fantastic publicity. He was under pressure by rival British and German shipping companies.
• It was said he pushed Captain Smith to maintain top speed to make the time! Although there was ice in the water, it was also very calm allowing for better speed
• Ismay is also criticized for letting the Titanic be designed with only enough lifeboats for HALF the passengers. This was done to allow for more room for First class rooms. He probably thought why would an 'unsinkable ship' need lifeboats? 
• However, there were reports that Ismay was seen helping people on to the lifeboats up until the last minute. He jumped on board just as the lifeboat was leaving - when there were no other passengers waiting on the deck. One person said in Ismays defence that the only thing that would have happened if he stayed on board was another life needlessly lost. His only fault was that he survived. 

Ismay survived the disaster - He was criticised for supposedly jumping into a lifeboat while 1500 of his passengers died! He suffered greatly from the disaster afterwards. He was accused of many things by the American press in particular. This included wild stories of him dressing as a woman to get on a lifeboat! In the end he was deeply affected and spoke little about it, choosing to shy away from the public eye and live in the west coast of Ireland in semi isolation.

Exhibit 3: The ShipbuildersHarland and Wolf in Belfast designed and built the Titanic. They were the biggest shipbuilder in the world at the time. 

• There  have been new findings about the rivets used on the Titanic. These rivets held the ship together however it was discovered that the rivets were made of poor quality iron which could shatter in cold weather - like on the icy night the ship sank

Exhibit 4: The Ship DesignerTHOMAS ANDREWS from Comber was the designer of the Titanic. He would also go down with the ship when it sank. 

Part of his revolutionary design of the Titanic was to provide 16 watertight doors which could be closed in an emergency.
However: 

•  The watertight doors did not go high enough. This was again to allow room for First class passengers

Andrews was remembered telling people off that night for not wearing lifebelts. He also was careful to keep people calm- even though he knew the ship would not stay afloat for more than 2 hours. 
He was last seen without a life jacket and helping people into the boats. He was married with a baby girl. ​

EXHIBIT 5: THE POTENTIAL RESCUEROne other man badly blamed for the disaster was Captain Lord who was captain of a nearby ship the Californian. It was said that he could have easily saved most of the Titanic's passengers. However for various reasons it didn't:

• It was close to the Titanic when it hit the iceberg and sent out several ice warnings. The operator on the Titanic even told them to 'Shut up' as he was trying to send messages to New York!
• The radio operator on Captain Lords ship turned off his radio at 11:15 - stopping any news from reaching them.
• The crew also saw the Titanic's distress flares BUT thought they were having a party! 
• In reality Captain Lords ship was probably still too far away anyway. 
• Captain Lord, like Ismay, would spend the rest of his life haunted by the disaster and facing unfair allegations of guilt

results of the titanic disaster

The Titanic disaster was huge then and now and it produced a number of lasting effects:

• All ships had to come equipped with lifeboats for all passengers
• International ice patrols began to chart icebergs 
• Morse code and other communication became common in ships. SOS was used to signal distress. 
• Ships or technology of any type is reluctant to use any term like indestructible or unsinkable

BBC Bitesize Link

5 theories

Guardian article on Rivets

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