Get the Real Truth – Reason Behind the Sinking of Titanic

The Real Story of RMS Titanic

On 10 April 1912, when the largest ocean liner in service at that time, RMS Titanic, started its maiden voyage from Southampton, it was a new beginning in history. With at least 2,224 people on board, including a number of prominent personalities, the luxury ship that was nicknamed ‘Millionaire’s Special’ was en route to New York City on that day.

Designed to be the epitome of style and safety, the vessel featured many advanced luxury and safety features. Moreover, the ‘unsinkable RMS Titanic was commanded by a senior captain, 62-year-old Captain Edward Smith, again ensuring the safety of the vessel and its passengers.

However, the destiny of this spectacular ship was already made. On the 14th of April, the world witnessed what could easily be considered as its most deadly civilian maritime disaster – the sinking of the great ship Titanic. On that fateful night, at ­­around 11.40 PM Titanic struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland and began to sink.

Over the course of the next few hours, people witnessed the biggest catastrophe to hit the world, and at 2.20 AM on the morning of the 15th, the biggest ship that the world had seen settled to the bottom of the North Atlantic.

The sea, the sinking of the ship and the cold weather were enough to take the lives of 1517 passengers and crew on board. Just 706 of them survived the ordeal to tell the horrific and sad tale to the world.

Titanic sinking
Representation image

Why the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic sunk?

As the news of the Titanic disaster reached land, there was shock and outrage directed against several issues that possibly led to the accident. Many legends and conspiracy theories arose almost immediately after the accident on those who died and survived, and also on the reasons behind the sinking of the vessel.

How did the Titanic sink in spite of having the best technical design available at the time seemed a mystery for a long time? This was the question that baffled many scientists and engineers for days after the disaster.

Immediately after the sinking, the investigations into the matter began and in fact, two separate inquiries had been set up – one by the United States Senate and the other by the British Board of Trade.

The U.S inquiry was headed by Senator William Alden Smith and the British one by Lord Mersey. The surviving passengers and the very crew who managed to escape from the clutches of death gave their versions of the tragedy and the investigations were concluded quickly, though the initial questioning and detail gathering took more than a few months.

The results of the investigations revealed that many of the safety measures and regulations of the international maritime were outdated and required a second look. The ship itself was found short on a few of the standards.

Major causes of the Titanic tragedy

Dismissal of iceberg warnings:

Due to the weather conditions in the North Atlantic at that time, the threat of icebergs was high in the region of the Titanic’s crossing. Reports reveal that the Titanic received at least six messages from other vessels in the area warning of drifting ice. The public inquiries had found the captain of Titanic failed to offer proper attention to the iceberg warnings. Almost an hour before the collision, Titanic’s radio operator dismissed a key iceberg warning from a nearby ship, California, since he considered it’s a non-urgent message because the warning didn’t begin with the prefix ‘MSG’ (Master’s Service Gram), and didn’t pass it to the captain.

High speed of the ship:

The ship’s high speed in waters where the presence of ice had been reported was criticized by many, including survivors and investigators, after the accident. Reports revealed that the Titanic, minutes before the collision, was travelling at a speed of 22 knots through the waters of the North Atlantic.

Problems with the materials used for shipbuilding:

Though the ship was built with the best of technological advancement at hand, there were a few chinks in it as well. The steel sheet that was used to make the body was made up of a certain kind of steel that became extra brittle in the cold and easily cracked at the slightest of the contact, in its case – icebergs and this is exactly the answer to how did the Titanic sink.

Less number of lifeboats:

The initial public inquiries had concluded that a number of lifeboats abroad on the Titanic were not enough to meet the requirements during accidents. According to reports, there were fewer lifeboats that could only accommodate 1,200 people when the ship had over 2000 passengers and crew members abroad. Also, the investigators found that the lifeboats were used improperly- not adequately filled and crewed- after the ship collided with an iceberg.

A wrong turn to avoid the iceberg?:

A claim made by Louise Patten, the granddaughter of the most senior ship officer to survive, in 2010 stated that the confusion caused and the wrong turn took may have made the disaster worse. According to Patten, a decision to turn the ship ‘hard a-starboard was passed down the line after sighting the iceberg. But the steersmen misinterpreted it as ‘make the ship turn right,’ moving the ship directly toward the ice.

Lookouts had no binoculars:

Impossible to think with a ship like Titanic? But it was true. Because of a mix-up before starting the voyage from Southampton, the lookouts of the ship had no binoculars. The binoculars were locked up since the key to the store of binocular was with Second officer David Blair, who was transferred off the ship before it started. While has been argued that the binoculars might have helped the lookouts to spot the iceberg in time, some have argued that binoculars would not have been effective during the night.

Similarly, though it has been mentioned in almost all the journals of the time, and indeed later as well, that Titanic was considered unsinkable, this wasn’t said by any of the owners or manufacturers at the time of its launch. It was picked by the press on the 16th of April when the vice president of White Star Line, owners of Titanic, Phillip A.S. Franklin reacted by saying that he thought the ship was unsinkable and was very shocked as to how did the Titanic sink.

The Titanic tragedy has remained one of the most intriguing aspects of the history of the world. Even a century later, the tragedy of Titanic has been studied in detail, becoming a subject for artists, filmmakers and writers. At the same time, ever since the accident, a number of wild conspiracy theories have also bounced around describing the cause of this maritime disaster.

Are you aware of any such theories, and believe those are true? Tell us why do you think that would be the reason behind the Titanic disaster.

Disclaimer: The authors’ views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader.

The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied, shared or used in any form without the permission of the author and Marine Insight. 

About Author

Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.

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23 Comments

  1. I really didnt think that was what happend that night i thought that the titance just hit the iceberag and then it took an hour and a half 2sink

    i never know any of the facts i now know

  2. This is my story: the titanic was named unsinkable (because it was) and the olympic wasn’t named the unsinkable. the olympic and the titanic were made like twin sisters, except for a few tiny differences. before the boarding of the titanic, the olympic had an accident, which the mechanics did not fix very well.
    and at night before the boarding of the titanic, people swapped the letters of the titanic and the olympic around.
    And to prove that it was the olympic that went down, divers found pictures of the side of the ship and there was a mark of the letters MP. which is clearly not in the titanic. and the olympic (which is actually the titanic) sailed for many more years, and never sunk, because of course the titanic was unsinkable.

  3. This is bullshit,titanic never sunk because of natural causes,just unfold the mystry behind its sinking.it is very shooking to see how people tend to be afraid of the Jesuit,the Jesuit wanted money to finish the already started construction of the Federal Reserve Bank.And in this process they went to ask money from the billionaires who are the people believed to be behind the building of the Titanic.but when they did they were turned down so jealous and anger was raised and to quench this they started to plot its sinking of which they eventually achieved.

  4. how could anyone plan the deaths of so many people, including women, children, and babies? only a lunatic would plan such a barbaric action.

  5. ha-ha
    there was no plan for sure …. just unfortunate event… one theory is that was a fire in the gallley and it weakened the metal…

  6. This is not the real reason. The real reason of the titanic sinking is: in the boiler room, there was a complication and it made a big black weak spot on the side. The iceberg hit the weak spot and made a whole on the side. Then it stared sinking

  7. thats not the real truth what happing was before they put it in the water they saw a burnt spot on the ship but they had to sail it because the tickets was sold out so when it hit the ice burg the burnt spot made it easy to rip but if there was not a burnt spot it would not sink and the ship may still be here today

  8. if many people come with deferent reasons, we turn not to know which to believe or it just their assuming

  9. There was a Senior Captain, Edward Smith, in command with an experienced crew, so why did the Titanic hit an iceberg??? What was the Captain doing? Not on the Bridge? In dangerous waters, with possible icebergs? Sounds like an intentional accident! Ship going 22 knots!!!!! Again, where was this experienced Captain? Did Captain Smith give the order to go flank speed????? If so, why? OR, did something happen to the Captain and the Bridge was controlled by someone, other then Captain Smith??? Something to think about, hmmmm?

  10. I am quite convinced that the speed with which the|Titanic sank after hitting the iceberg was due to the weakening of the plates because of the fire in the Bunker No 6. The spontaneous coal fire had broken out three days before the ship sailed and was only put out 3 days later . All the engineers knew about this but were told to keep their mouths shut. Capt Smith had ample warning about the icebergs and could have slowed down or altered course earlier but he ploughed on, mainly to do what he was told by Ismay and because altering course would have used up more coal(There was coal strike in the UK then). At the inquirtry Lord Mersey was reluctant to let the stokers speak about the fire as he said it was not relevant. Capt Smith should really have been tried for reckless endangerment of his passengers.

    I am amazed that this has never been brought into public debate and still people are trotting out new TV progs on the Titanic . They should read ‘On a sea of Glass’ by Fitch,Leyton and Wormstead

  11. the bunker fire – the collision with the navy ship – and the most telling was the structural differences between the sister ships particularity in the forecastle construction. From my viewing of comparison photographs it is the Olympic on the bottom after the terrible 12th.

  12. They let it sit there and Sink ..Had a hole in the Bow . sank bow first . Had the capability to do almost 19 knots astern , But stops and sank ..Full Astern could have delayed the sinking ..There has been no mention of this ,,I find it disturbing ..

  13. Movies made Models made Test tank demonstrations of it sinking But never the Question Why they did not Back down at Full Astern to delay the Sinking Bow first ..I find it disturbing none of those experts ask that question..I Am a Retired Engineer and know well the dynamics of water as fwd and astern Morton influence it ..NO One asks this ..

  14. Well I feel the real truth to the sinking of the ship haven’t been confirmed yet who knows if the ship even sunk at all ?? Everyone keeps on coming with different ideas of how the ship sunk but only God knows

  15. This is part of my story.

    The sinking of the unsinkable ship Titanic was pre planned for some time in 1909 by the Jesuits. The Jesuits attempted to establish Federal Reserve Banking System in U.S but were opposed by some very rich men like Benjamin Guggenheim. The wanted to have as much wealth anyone could imagine so that they finance their plot to restore Pope back to his dominion. That’s how Titanic was sank on the April 1912, which resulted in the tragic death of the opposers to Jesuits plot. A year passed and the Jesuits set up the Federal Reserve System in U.S (1913). Shortly after, they accumulated enough wealth to finance World War 1, World War 2, and other tragic events that followed in history. For further information, the book titled ‘Secret Terrorists’ can be downloaded online and read.

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