April 15, 1912 was a dark
day for the passengers aboard the RMS Titanic. After scraping against
an iceberg at 11:40 PM, the ship slowly sank into the
frozen depths of the Atlantic and over 1,500 unfortunate
souls lost their lives. Built to be unsinkable, the
ship was considered the pinnacle of technology and design, but
none of that mattered as water flooded the ship's
compartments, bringing it down in less than three hours. Today we're taking a
look at everything that went wrong to sink the Titanic. But before we get started,
make sure to subscribe to The Weird History Channel. And don't forget to leave a
comment and let us know what other infamous events you
would like to hear about next. OK, time to make some room
on that big floating door and find out what went down
when Titanic went down. One of the perks of
being a luxury ship meant being equipped with
the latest technology. In 1912, that
technology revolved around the radio telegraph. Made by Marconi Technology,
the state of the art equipment was overseen on Titanic by
Marconi employees Jack Phillips and Harold Bride. However, that cutting
edge radio tech was mostly used by the
ship's wealthiest passengers to send personal messages. That's like using the
emergency broadcast system to text your butler. [BEEPING] Bride and Philip spent
most of their time relaying these vital personal
messages at the behest of the upper class. As the ship cruised on,
their communications were occasionally
interrupted by other ships warning them of possible
icebergs along the Titanic's path. You know, boring
stuff like that. Bride and Phillips
took these in stride, passing some of the
warnings onto the Captain. The Captain, displaying
the kind of leadership that guarantees your
place in history as the Captain of the most
famous sunken ship of all time, effectively ignored
the warnings. He only changed course
slightly and maintained the ship's speed. In total, the Titanic
received seven messages about the iceberg. The final message even
contained specific coordinates of the location where the ship
ultimately struck the iceberg. Listen, we get it. It was an honest mistake. Nobody can be expected to walk
all the way to the Captain's office to relay
every single iceberg warning some rando sends you. The ship began transmitting
distress signals half an hour after
striking the iceberg. The Marconi signal on
the ship were so powerful that it reached many other ships
and even some areas on land. But there was only
one line, which limited the communication. Signals from all sources
came through at once, resulting in a
cacophonous storm, like a podcast with
more than one host. Chaos erupted as the Titanic's
radio operators continually tried to message nearby ships. To make matters
worse, the crew didn't know their exact
location and were likely providing incorrect coordinates
to potential rescuers. Amateur radio operators on the
land tried to respond as well, creating more interference and
resulting in false reports. Imagine if 911 was a
party line and that's the gist of what happened. In the wake of the disaster,
governments around the world began limiting the
operating power and reserving certain
frequencies for emergency purposes. This spawned the
radioactive 1912, which required all
seafaring vessels to maintain 24 hour radio
watch and keep contact with coastal radio stations
throughout their journey. Every seafaring vessel
requires a lookout to help prevent collisions
while traveling. Even with modern breakthroughs
like radios and GPS, sometimes you just need
a vigilant pair of eyes to keep watch, you know,
for things like icebergs and, I don't know, treasure. The Titanic had two lookouts
during its ill fated trip, Charles Lightoller
and George Symons. It makes sense to issue
your lookouts binoculars, but officers saw things
very differently in 1912. It was believed that the
lookouts would waste time using binoculars to identify
ships and other light sources instead of using them to
spot impending collisions. Wouldn't want to run the risk of
the lookouts goofing off, which is apparently what
you do with binoculars while in the middle
of the ocean. Consequently, David
Blair didn't think much of locking the binoculars
up and taking the key with him when he was replaced by Symons. Symons went looking for a pair
but was told by Lightoller that none were available. However, Lightoller later
explained during a US Senate inquiry that there were five
other pairs of binoculars on the ship. Why was everyone so
uptight about binoculars? Maybe they were full
of heroin or something back then, like
old timey medicine? Obviously no one
can say for certain. But binoculars might have
helped the Titanic's lookouts spot the icebergs sooner. In the end, that
lack of preparedness only contributed to
the ship's downfall. In 2007, Blair's
original key, the one that locked up the
fateful binoculars, was auctioned for
a staggering 90,000 pounds, or
approximately $117,000, alongside other
Titanic related items. That had to be James
Cameron, right? Who else drops 100 grand
on a Titanic rummage sale? True to its name, the
Titanic was big as hell and it was cruising through the
Atlantic at a pretty good clip. The 882 foot long ship traveled
at 22 knots that night. Slowing the ship down would
not have been fast or easy. That's like sending a
Winnebago down a waterslide and jumping on the
brakes halfway down. When the lookouts finally
did spot the iceberg, First Officer Murdoch
ordered the engines to be put in full reverse. But there was a problem. The ship's rudder was far too
small for a vessel of its size. The White Star Line didn't
believe the ship required a larger one, assuming it
wouldn't need to navigate around too many obstacles. When you build a boat
that big, you sort of expect it to carve through
the ocean like Jerome Bettis. To put the engines
at full reverse, the ship needed to slow its
propellers down then fire them back up in the opposite
direction, which took time. Worse, the ship's
central propeller couldn't turn in reverse. Meaning the ship had less
power to travel in reverse than it did moving forward. In simpler terms,
the Titanic had roughly the same maneuverability
as an airborne bus. In the end, by the time the
crew spotted the iceberg, it was far too late. Not even their best efforts
were able to steer the ship away from its grim destiny. For over 70 years,
the Titanic quietly rested in its watery grave. It was assumed the
ship sank fully intact and the disaster was blamed
on the Captain's decision to sail through icy dark waters
at high speeds or the hull's metal becoming brittle in
the frigid temperatures. That thinking all changed when
Robert Ballard located the ship off the coast of
Newfoundland in 1985. The discovery of the wreckage
and the fact that Titanic had apparently broken
apart as it sank brought those initial
assumptions into question. Experts began looking at
the Titanic's engineering, hoping to discover if the
ship's construction had somehow contributed to its fate. Two scientists named Jennifer
Hooper McCarty and Tim Foecke suspected the hull's
rivets may have been weak. As it turns out, many rivets
recovered from the wreckage had high amounts of a smelting
residue called slag, indicating that they were made from a lower
quality iron rather than steel. McCarty and Foecke later
learned that White Star had used the iron rivets
to save time in labor costs in order to have the
Titanic and its two sister ships constructed
simultaneously. Both the bow and
stern of the ship were built using
the iron rivets. You can probably see
where this is going, unlike Titanic's lookouts. McCarty and Foecke theorized
that the lesser quality rivets simply popped right out when the
iceberg collided with the ship. The seams ended up
bursting, allowing water to flood the vessel and
bring the whole thing down in record time. But shoddy rivets
were only one aspect of Titanic's structural issues. Previously, experts believed
the ship snapped in half as the bow sank and lifted
the stern 45 degrees out of the water. Based on the evidence, that
would have looked totally bitchin'. Most paintings, and a
certain James Cameron film, depict the sinking
in this manner. The reasoning was that
the pressure and weight was too much for the
ship's expansion joints, ultimately causing Titanic
to dramatically snap in half like a doomed biscotti. Reality is, of course,
much stranger than fiction. Two researchers
studying the wreckage discovered the precise point
where the hull split and broke into two. Naval architect
Roger Long explained this discovery meant the stern's
angle wasn't 45 degrees at all. Instead it was more
likely around 11 degrees as the ship sank. Learning that the
expansion joints failed at such a low angle meant
the ship might have eventually broken apart during more
common situations too. For instance, a
severe storm might have blasted Titanic apart just
as swiftly as the iceberg did. Or maybe even a
particularly intense shuffleboard tournament. They can get rough. Titanic had 16
watertight compartments that would close in the
event of a flood, which was an impressive design
feature for its time. The compartments were
supposed to contain water in the event of a hull breach. These compartments, along
with general hubris, were the reason the ship was
believed to be unsinkable. Unfortunately, the
compartments designed facilitated the spread of
water instead of stopping it. The walls separating
each compartment didn't reach from
floor to ceiling, probably to allow
for more cargo space. So in actuality, they were less
like watertight compartments and more like bathroom stalls. That seems like an oversight. Maybe get some grout in there. When the crew closed
the watertight doors to contain the
flooding, the weight of the water inside
the containers caused the bow to
pitch downward. That precarious angle
allowed the water to flow over the compartment
walls, eventually filling them up one after the other. Historians generally agree
this design was stupid. A few things had to
line up perfectly in order to place a big old
iceberg in Titanic's path that night. As icebergs move from
Greenland to the Atlantic, they often melt before
making it to the ocean. Only about 2% of icebergs
make it that far, and that trip can
take several years. But in 1912, the
weather was a bit off. Records from the time point to
an unusual amount of icebergs arriving intact in the
North Atlantic that year. Mild winters have been to blame. Perhaps the strange weather
made the current stronger, eventually pushing
icebergs further out. Other researchers
believe high tides that year allowed icebergs
to float into the ocean. Maybe they were all
gathering for Coachella. Historian Tim Maltin suggested
that optical illusions caused by light refraction might
have also contributed to the collision. After meticulously studying the
ship's logs, weather records, and survivor testimonies,
he developed a theory that suggested the
temperature may have dropped as the ship traveled
from the Gulf stream to the Labrador current. Frigid water in
the current would have cooled air from
the water's surface, possibly resulting in
a thermal inversion. Thermal inversions are known
to cause superior mirages that are especially
treacherous at sea because they make distant
objects appear closer and the horizon seem higher. The lack of a moon
that might have also caused danger to the ship. No light existed to
highlight any issues on the water surface. As we already covered,
Titanic's rascally lookouts had their binocular privileges
revoked for the evening. Acts of God were not the
only unfortunate coincidences at work. The Board of Trade didn't adjust
Titanic's safety requirements despite its immense
size, which led to the ship's insufficient
number of lifeboats. Captain Edward Smith
allegedly allowed lifeboats to leave before being
filled to capacity. Smith also failed to issue
an order to abandon the ship or give any instructions
for evacuation. As the ship sank, the
nearby Californian, which was only 10 miles away,
mistook Titanic's emergency flares for fireworks and
had turned their radio off. Apparently the operator was
tired of listening to messages about some first class
passenger's sick poodle and went to bed for the night. So what do you think? Could the sinking of the
Titanic been prevented? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
