I.

1892 Southampton -> NYC

II. 2,224 passengers and crew -> more than 1,500 died
III. Largest ship at the time
IV. second of three Olympic-class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line.
V. built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
A. Thomas Andrews, chief naval architect of the shipyard at the time, died in the
disaster
VI. Titanic was under the command of Capt. Edward Smith, who also went down with the
ship.
VII. 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of
Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship's time
A. hull plates buckled inwards along her starboard (right) side
B. opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea
1. Could only survive 4
C. Lifeboats launched, many only partially loaded.
1. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a "women
and children first" protocol for loading lifeboats.
D. At 2:20 a.m., she broke apart, well over one thousand people still aboard.
E. 2 hours later, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an
estimated 705 survivors.
VIII. worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational
failures that led to it.
IX. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime
safety.
A. 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS),
B. several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an effort to
learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have
saved many more passengers
X. wreck discovered in 1985 during a US military mission at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784
m)
XI. Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister
HMHS Britannic, the largest ever sunk, although she holds the record as the largest sunk
while actually in service as a liner due to Britannic being used as a hospital ship at the
XII. time of her sinking. The final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at
the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97.

Lifeboats
I. 20 lifeboats
 A. 14 standard wooden Harland and Wolff lifeboats with a capacity of 65 people
each
B. four Englehardt "collapsible" (wooden bottom, collapsible canvas sides) lifeboats
(identified as A to D) with a capacity of 47 people each.
1. 2 of them were hard to launch - no davits to lower them and weight made
them difficult to launch by hand
II. 2 emergency cutters with a capacity of 40 people each
III. Titanic had 16 sets of davits, each able to handle four lifeboats - ability to carry up to 64
wooden lifeboats which would have been enough for 4,000 people
A. However, the White Star Line decided that only 16 wooden lifeboats and four
collapsibles would be carried, which could accommodate 1,178 people, only
one-third of Titanic's total capacity.
B. At the time, the Board of Trade's regulations required British vessels over 10,000
tons to only carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity of 990 occupants
IV. At the time, lifeboats were intended to ferry survivors from a sinking ship to a rescuing
ship—not keep afloat the whole population or power them to shore.
A. SS Californian responded to Titanic's distress calls, the lifeboats may have been
adequate to ferry the passengers to safety as planned.

Passengers
I. approximately 1,317 people: 324 in First Class, 284 in Second Class, and 709 in Third
Class.
II. 869 (66%) were male and 447 (34%) female
III. 107 children aboard
A. largest number of whom were in Third Class
IV. considerably under capacity on her maiden voyage, as she could accommodate 2,453
passengers—833 First Class, 614 Second Class, and 1,006 Third Class
A. Usually, a high prestige vessel like Titanic could expect to be fully booked on its
maiden voyage
B. national coal strike in the UK had caused considerable disruption to shipping
schedules in the spring of 1912, causing many crossings to be cancelled
Aftermath
I. news of “mismanagement” by the White Star Line almost immediate
A. first claimed the ship was still floating and being towed into port, then that it had
sunk and the survivors were being taken to Halifax, and finally that they were
being brought to New York.
 II. Carpathia itself, there was virtually a news blackout once the list of survivors had been
telegraphed to shore
A. first the first- and second-class passengers and then, almost grudgingly, the
third-class passengers
III. U.S. inquiry Chaired by Senator William Smith: operation to heal a nation and a technical
inquiry, Specific questions it considered included:
A. Did Titanic steam at full speed through an ice zone despite repeated warnings of
icebergs from other ships in the vicinity?
B. Were the design and construction of the vessel adequate for the task?
C. Did the ship have enough lifeboats?
D. Was the third class unfairly discriminated against?
E. Did Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, exert any pressure on Captain
Edward Smith to increase the ship’s speed? (If this could be proven, it would open
the company to prosecution for all the lives lost.)

1. Pretended he was a woman

F. 86 witnesses gave evidence, of which 21 were passengers. Confirming the class
prejudices of the time, only three of those passengers were from third class, the
remaining 18 being all from first class.
IV. British inquiry was hosted by the Wreck Commissioner’s Court, it too got drawn into
more populist issues, such as whether Sir Cosmo Duff Gordon had paid the crew of
Lifeboat 1 a bribe not to go back and pick up swimmers and whether (Chairman and
White Star Line Heir) Bruce Ismay had behaved like a coward.

A. Lord Mersey chaired the British inquiry and included in his court a number of
expert witnesses in naval architecture and shipbuilding. Only three passengers
were interviewed—all from first class.

V. Inquiry findings: Everyone, it seems, was just following orders, and no one was
responsible.

A. Ultimately, of course, the buck stops with the captain. But, conveniently, Captain
Smith and his two most senior officers were all dead by then.

B. described by some as a “whitewash” because, strangely, no one was found to

blame

C. Captain Smith was exonerated on the grounds that most other ships at that time
also sped through the ice at full speed with no serious consequences.
 D. Everyone agreed there should have been more lifeboats on Titanic, and the U.S.
inquiry suggested the British Board of Trade (which had approved the number of
lifeboats) had been sleeping on the job.

E. The British Board of Trade (under whose jurisdiction the British inquiry took
place) was, not surprisingly, more phlegmatic

1. rules were subsequently changed so that ships were required to carry

enough lifeboats for the number of people on board

F. The only person both inquiries heaped scorn on was the captain of SS Californian,
the ship that had stood by about 8 miles off, its crew watching the emergency
flares being fired by Titanic, without doing anything about it until it was too late.

Carpathia and Californian

I. Sir Arthur Rostron was the hero and Stanley Lord the villain. But how fair is that verdict?
II. Carpathia
A. The Carpathia, more than 50 miles to the south-east, picked up the messages and
raced to the rescue through the ice field.
B. All non-essential power on the ship was shut down as Rostron pushed his ship to
the limits, ordering his crew to prepare hot food, blankets and medical care for the
survivors.
C. Titanic author Lindsay Sutton said: "Rostron and his crew were magnificent. They
couldn't have done more.
D. "There's a story that as the needle went into the red, the chief engineer [of the
Carpathia] dropped his cap over the dial so no-one could see."
E. By 4am, the Carpathia approached the spot of the collision and, in order to attract
the attention of the survivors, the crew launched a spectacular array of rockets and
Roman candles.
III. Californian - could’ve saved additional 200
IV. Meanwhile, just 20 or so miles to the north was Captain Stanley Lord in the Californian.
A. had halted his Boston-bound ship for the night because he was caught in the ice
field.
B. Earlier, he had told his wireless operators to alert other ships in the area to the
icebergs.
 C. The Titanic's wireless operators told Californian's operator to "shut up" and they
ignored the warning.
D. Later that night the Californian spotted the flares from the Titanic.
1. Lord was woken - twice - but said the flares were probably "company
rockets" - signals between ships from the same line.
E. He took no action. His wireless office had shut down for the night and couldn't
receive the Titanic's SOS messages.
V. He wasn't charged but his employers, the Leyland Line, dismissed him later that year.
VI. In the 1958 film A Night to Remember, Lord was once again portrayed as the villain ->
demanded a new inquiry to clear his name.
A. After his death in 1962, his cause was taken up by the then Bolton East MP Bow
Howarth.
B. evidence was reviewed in the 1990s but once again Lord was criticised: Why
didn't he react to the flares? Why didn't he wake his wireless officers and get them
to investigate?
VII. "The Board of Trade inquiry needed scapegoats because they didn't want all the blame
rebounding on them," he said.
VIII. "Lord isn't blameless by any means but circumstances conspired against him."

At 23:39 (11:39 p.m.), Fleet first spotted the iceberg and rang the nest's bell three times to warn the
bridge of something ahead. Then, using the nest's telephone he pronounced the infamous "Iceberg!
Right Ahead!" warning to sixth officer James Paul Moody who immediately notified first officer
[15]
William McMaster Murdoch; in charge of the bridge. After the collision, Fleet and Lee remained
[16]
on duty for twenty more minutes.

2 degree turn

1 min deliberation - Murdoch

Survivor’s guilt

I. Costa Concordia (2012) and Titanic (1912) Parallels

A. Essentially all news reported incorrect
1. Boat beached - 11 dead
2. Incompetent “investigative” journalism v. industry representatives
B. Again no life board drill
1. Costa had different departures from different ports
a) They were going to do drill later once all passengers were picked
up
(1) Short one day
C. Crew had no idea what was happening
1. Captain was one of the first ones off
a) Arrested for criminal negligence