TITANIC: THE COLLISION
Were Any Mistakes Made?
We all know what happened on the night of April 14th and early morning of April 15th, 1912. The Titanic sank after colliding with an iceberg. But were there any mistakes made? Could the collision have been avoided?
To answer this question, we need to examine what we’ve thought throughout the past century. Here, we can see if there’s anything different to be told. So what is the true version of events that we’ve been told?
THE ACCEPTED VERSION OF EVENTS:
It’s the night of Sunday, April 14th, 1912. Titanic is racing through the night, at almost her top speed. The night is romantically beautiful, there isn’t a single cloud in the sky, and the sea is as still as solid ground. The sea is so still that the millions of bright twinkling stars reflect on the surface like a mirror on a line of symmetry. But there’s no moon and it’s almost pitch-black dark. So dark that the calmness of the sea makes it impossible to see the horizon. So much so, it looks like the Titanic is sailing through space.
On the starboard bridge wing, First Officer William Murdoch is keeping a lookout in the darkness. As are the lookouts in the Crow’s Nest, Fred Fleet, and Reginald Lee. It is 11:39 pm… in the distance, a blacked-out object takes shape in the form of an absence of stars. Its shape tells Fleet that it is an iceberg.
“There’s ice ahead,” Fleet screeches to Lee.
Before Lee can react, Fleet rings the warning bell three times which stands for an object dead ahead. He then frantically grabs the telephone to the bridge
On the bridge, Sixth Officer James Moody picks up the phone.
“Is someone there?” Fleet calls.
“Yes, what do you see?” Moody asks.
“Iceberg, Right Ahead,”
“Thank you,”
Moody hangs the phone up and pauses for a second and quickly goes to alert Murdoch. On the bridge wing, Murdoch sees the iceberg itself upon hearing the three bell rings.
“Iceberg right ahead, sir,” Moody calls as he opens the door from the wheelhouse.
“Hard a-starboard,” Murdoch orders as he rushes into the bridge.
“Hard a-starboard,” Moody says to Quartermaster Robert Hichens.
“Hard a-starboard, aye,” Hichens replies as he begins turning the wheel to port.
The order that Murdoch gives is a tiller command. For clarification please refer to my other article Titanic: Tiller Commands.
Murdoch grabs the starboard main engine telegraph handle and swings it from “full ahead” to “full astern”. He does the same for the port main engine telegraph.
In the wheelhouse, Hichens finishes turning the wheel to port.
“Helm is hard over,” he tells Moody.
“Helm is hard over, sir,” Moody calls to Murdoch outside.
Outside, Murdoch rushes back to where he was before the warning was given. The iceberg is now completely out of the darkness, and it is almost on top of the Titanic. During this time, the Titanic’s bow has begun to swing toward the port side. But she is still not clear from the iceberg. It’s almost like the iceberg has appeared out of nowhere like magic. Titanicis not capable of getting clear of it despite how quickly she is capable of steering. The bow continues to swing towards the port side. But this will not exceed twenty-two degrees — two points off her port bow. Murdoch realizes that a collision is inevitable. So his next and only option is to keep the damage confined to one section. He rushes back into the bridge and takes hold of the watertight doors switch in front of the steering wheel. In order for the watertight doors close a warning bell has to sound, so those below know they’re about to close. This is because the crew below have no control over them. Murdoch watches the iceberg loom closer and closer as he holds the warning bell down for ten seconds. When that ten seconds are up he gives his next order. “Hard a-port,” he shouts back towards the wheelhouse.
“Hard a-port,” Moody says.
“Hard a-port, aye,” Hichens replies.
He begins frantically turning the wheel all the way from port to starboard.
At that moment, Murdoch throws the switch to close the watertight doors. He then rushes back onto the bridge wing as an immense scraping sound is heard. The iceberg passes over the side of the Titanic, and the scraping gets louder and louder. Murdoch makes it outside in time to see a clutter of ice chunks collapse onto the Titanic’s forward well deck. But then he watches as the iceberg passes over his head. It towers above the Titanic’s boat deck, but not as high as any of the funnels. The iceberg slips away into the immense darkness of the night. It slips away like a demon laughing evilly as it went back into its familiar darkness.
Murdoch reenters the bridge, followed moments later by Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall.
“Note the time and enter it in the log, Mr. Moody,” Murdoch asks.
“Yes sir,” Moody replies.
He checks the clock and makes 11:40 pm as the time of the collision. Smith enters as Moody disappears.
“What was that Mr. Murdoch?” Smith asks.
“It was an iceberg sir. I hard a-starboarded and ran the engines full astern but it was too close. I intended to hard a-port around it but she hit it,” Murdoch explains.
“Close the watertight doors,” Smith orders.
“The doors are closed sir,” Murdoch replies.
Boxhall makes his way out of the bridge and goes below to look for any damage. Smith peers over the side of the starboard wing cab, and there’s no visible damage above the waterline. He then checks the well deck, and finds the chunks of ice deposited. He then looks forward at a light on the horizon, which must be a stern light. He then orders the Titanic to go half-speed ahead to make for that light in case they need help.
Smith and Murdoch remain on the bridge, keeping their eyes on the single light on the horizon. But an officer on the forecastle deck notices the tarpaulin on top of the hatch covers inflating. This tells Smith that the ship is taking on water, as water comes in forces air out. He also notices the ship beginning to list to starboard a little, around five degrees. The hatch cover opens and the surge of air hits the officer on the forecastle in the face. Smith then orders the engines stopped again. The ship drifts to a halt, for the last time. Titanic has reached the end of her life, she is never going to move under her own steam again.
DID MURDOCH SEE THE ICEBERG FIRST?:
That is the generally accepted version of events, but is it all true?
No, it isn’t! While most of it is true, there’re two factors that need to be discussed. These include whether Murdoch saw the iceberg first, and if he ordered “full astern”.
First, let’s examine whether Murdoch saw the iceberg first. This stems from Fred Fleet’s testimony at the US Senate Inquiry in which he says:
“While I was at the telephone, the ship started to move,” — Titanic Inquiry Project
“Well, she started to go to port while I was at the telephone,”
Those pieces of testimony tell us that while Fleet was giving the “iceberg right ahead” warning, the ship was already turning to port. But, this would only be true if Fleet was looking at the iceberg while giving the warning. But Fred Fleet was not the most reliable witness at the two inquiries. He was known for being quarrelsome and paranoid. This prevented him from giving plenty of definitive answers.
But he did say that he was on the phone for thirty seconds and that the ship began turning when he looked up. This could say that he wasn’t looking at the iceberg when he gave the warning. The iceberg’s sudden appearance may have caused him to go into a state of panic, and froze after he gave the warning. So he may have looking down at the telephone holder whilst giving the order and froze at that moment. He might have still been holding the phone as the commotion on the bridge was going on.
Furthermore, Robert Hichens who was at the wheel said:
“the helm was barely over when she struck. The ship had swung about two points,”
Hichens said Sixth Officer Moody, answered the phone from the crow’s nest first. After which the order for hard a’starboard.
If Murdoch saw the iceberg first and ordered evasive action, it would have been the other way round. The order for hard a’starboard first would have come before the phone call from the crow’s nest. Yet, Hichens says Moody answered the phone first, then received the order for hard’a starboard. So, Murdoch did NOT see the iceberg before Fleet did.
WERE THE ENGINES REVERSED?
Now did Murdoch order “full astern” as we have always accepted?
Given the urgency of the situation, it makes dramatic sense and is always shown on film. Whenever we see a film about the Titanic, this is always the case. Since people seem to be familiar more with films, they believe film portrayals. The stem of this is almost entirely from Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall’s testimony. He stated that when he entered the bridge, he saw the engine room telegraphs pointing to “full astern”. Boxhall had a position of authority in the ship’s command centre, so people would believe him during questioning. Someone below decks would be less believed in 1912 over someone in the command centre.
But Boxhall, was not a reliable witness because of health reasons which he admitted later. He stated in an interview with the BBC in 1962, that he was sitting in his quarters drinking a cup of tea. He suddenly heard the warning from the lookouts all the way in his quarters. He immediately made his way back to the bridge, walking along the starboard boat deck. From that point, he should have seen the iceberg as clear as day when it passed by him, but he never saw it. Why did he not see it? He stated that his eyes took a while to adjust to the darkness. This could have distorted objects in his eyesight, which could explain why he saw the telegraphs pointing to full astern. He would have remembered this and naturally would have said this at the inquiry. It is human nature to state what we remember, even if other evidence appears from other witnesses.
In maritime industry terms, setting the engines to “full astern” to stop the ship is a “crash stop”. A crash stop is not an advisable maneuver, as it hinders a ship’s steering ability, and takes away all control. Also, it’s also not as effective in stopping the ship as one might think.
As ships move forward, the water flows towards the stern as the propeller(s) drag water from the bow. Setting the engines from ahead to astern creates a vacuum: the propeller blades try to push the water to the bow. This throws water against the ship’s stern and hull, which causes immense vibrations. Most passengers described feeling a gentle vibration during the collision. A gentle vibration is nothing compared to what would have happened if the engines were reversed. If the engines crashed back from full ahead to full astern, the vacuum would have shaken the ship so violently it would have felt like an earthquake. A vibration like that would have thrown everyone onboard awake, and panic would have ensued. Yet none of this happened.
The vacuum created by the blades resisting the momentum would prevent water flowing over the rudder. If there’s no water flowing over the rudder, the ship cannot steer at all. Murdoch would have known that he needed the Titanic to steer as fast as possible to avoid the iceberg. So he would also have known the negative impact that reversing the engines would have had.
The final scientific piece is that reversing the engines is not very effective in stopping the ship. This is down to the fact that to be effective, the propellers need to have water flowing over them. If the engines reverse and the vacuum is created, water cannot flow over the rudder. Not only is there no water flowing over the rudder, the vacuum acts like weight distributed around a hole. There’s still water flowing towards the stern, but only much wider than the ship’s beam. Within the ship’s beam, all the water is now being pushed back, so there’s no water for the propeller to propel.
Now that the scientific side has been taken care of, we now need to look into survivor testimony. As there may be evidence whether the engines reversed or not. The most reliable witness to say that the engines were not reversed is Frederick Barrett. Barret was the leading fireman in Boiler Room 6. Boiler Room 6 was the Titanic’s deathblow, and the compartment that suffered the most damage.
Fred Barrett was known to have been on duty at the time of the collision. He was overseeing the stokers shoveling coal into the Titanic’s boilers in that room. Then Barrett saw the telegraph change:
“There is like a clock rigged up in the stokehold and a red light goes up when the ship is supposed to stop: a white light for full speed, and, I think it is a blue light for slow. This red light came up, I am the man in charge of the watch, and I called out “Shut all dampers”. (Titanic Inquiry Project, 1998–2017)
Boiler room telegraphs are known to only state conditions ordered by the bridge. Direction doesn’t matter in that instance. This means that the difference between “full ahead” and “full astern” is non-existent to a boiler room. They are a “full” condition. A boiler room’s task is to provide steam for the ordered condition. Such telegraphs had the following conditions: Red for “Stop”, Blue for “Slow”, Green for “Half”, White for “Full”. So, if Murdoch ordered “full astern” from “full ahead”, the white light for “Full” would have stayed switched on. But as we can see from Barrett’s testimony above, that didn’t happened. He tells us that the telegraph changed from the white light for “Full” to the red light for “Stop”. The red light was then followed by a smaller flashing red light and an emergency alarm. This indicates that Murdoch ordered “stop” on the engine room telegraphs in the bridge.
This is also corroborated by Frederick Scott. Scott was standing underneath the watertight door to the passageway to Boiler Room 1. He said that on the Chief Engineer’s Platform, the four telegraphs (two main and two emergency telegraphs) rang stop at the exact same time:
The Commissioner: “Did you hear the two ordinary ones ring first?”
Frederick Scott: “No, they all rang together”
The Commissioner: “What did they ring?”
Frederick Scott: “Stop” (Titanic Inquiry Project, 1998–2017)
So, we can see that Murdoch did not order a “Crash Stop”. Instead, he ordered what’s called an “Inertia Stop”. This is where the engines are stopped altogether and the ship allowed to drift until it halts.
In the case of a steam-powered ship like the Titanic, it would mean reducing the steam pressure. This is because the higher the steam pressure, the faster the ship will travel.
When Barrett, ordered “shut all dampers”, he meant to close the furnace doors on the boilers. This would seal the fires from the air outside. This would starve the flames of the oxygen they would need to burn, and put them out. This would reduce the steam pressure and bring the ship to a stop.
COULD THE SINKING HAVE BEEN AVERTED BY TWO POSSIBLE ALTERNATIVES?
Yet, would this have been a sensible decision to make? It may have been more sensible than reversing the engines, but could Titanic have turned quicker if Murdoch kept the engines at “full ahead”?
Most historians suspect that Titanic could have turned a little further if the engines were not halted. This is because the faster the flow of water over the rudder, the more control and steering ability one has. But the training exam that all mariners had to take stated that the correct answer is to stop the engines. Even if steering and keeping the engines at full speed ahead means turning faster. Why was this? It could be down to the fact that if a collision at sea occurred, it would more likely be with another moving vessel. Not a statutory object like an iceberg. In that instance, both vessels would try to avoid each other. Yet, there’s no guarantee that a collision between the two vessels would be avoided. Even if they steered around each other at full speed ahead.
Steam-powered vessels like the Titanic couldn’t safely turn at full speed because of the steam pressure in the boilers. The general rule is, the higher the steam pressure from the boilers, the faster the ship will travel. But when approaching a hazard, keeping the engines running at full speed is dangerous. This is because if the ship collides with the hazard, the danger of the boilers exploding from being struck by freezing water is much greater. The greater the pressure in the boilers, the more danger there is of them exploding. We also have no information about the shape and denseness of the iceberg below the waterline. So we have to ask ourselves and other question. What if Titanic still couldn’t turn fast enough if the engines were still kept running at full speed ahead? In that instance, Murdoch would have taken a much greater gamble. A gamble that the boilers wouldn’t explode if struck by surging icy water, by keeping the engines at “full ahead”. If the boilers exploded from being struck by inrushing icy water, Titanic would have sunk in minutes.
But this is all down to the shape and position of the iceberg, something we will never know the exact details of. So this means we may never know what would have happened if Murdoch kept the engines at full speed ahead. Would she have avoided the iceberg, or been sent down quicker by exploding boilers? It’s a gamble that would have been a little too great for Murdoch to take. Thanks to his actions, although it sealed Titanic’s fate, she survived for two hours and forty minutes. But since he didn’t take that gamble, we will never know the answer.
Some believe that Titanic would have survived if she crashed into the iceberg head-on. . Again, the experts are divided. Some say she would have survived but with a badly mangled bow.
Others say it would have sent her to the sea floor in only minutes. So fast there wouldn’t have been any time to launch lifeboats. Only those on the open decks would have survived. The challenge is the shockwave that would have been created by the Titanic slamming head-on into the iceberg.
To begin with we need to look at Titanic’s design. As well as her materials, her watertight safety features, and the forces acting on her and the iceberg. Titanic had sixteen watertight compartments: four in a row could flood and she’d still float. These were separated by fifteen watertight bulkheads which had few openings. They were fitted with automatic watertight doors at the base. The very forward one ran all the way up to D Deck, which became known as her “collision bulkhead”. This is the one that would absorb the most force when hitting an object head-on. The space between the ship’s stem and the collision bulkhead is sometimes referred to as a “crumple zone”. On modern-day vehicles, a crumple zone can intentionally crumple to protect human lives. But the crumple zone can only withstand so much force. If one drives a ship into something with enough force, it could cause the “safety cage” to collapse.
To begin with, the physically bigger an object is the more vulnerable it is to higher stress concentrations. To deal with such stresses, the denser the structure needs to be. Titanic was designed to deal with enormous stresses. But could she withstand the amount of force that would be exerted by hitting a solid object head-on?
She was traveling at almost 26 miles an hour when she collided with the iceberg. The thing we need to also consider is that the iceberg would have been hundreds of thousands of tonnes in mass. The deceptive thing about icebergs is that only ten percent or so of it is above the waterline. The other ninety percent is all hidden below. Some sources have estimated that the iceberg was over ten times the size of the Titanic as a whole. Others state six times. This means the iceberg would have at least been almost half a million tonnes of solid mass. The Titanic was much more hollow, not solid. This means the Titanic would have bared the brunt of the blow. It all boils down to how much force would be exerted on Titanic by slamming head-on into a solid object ten times her size. This is something that cannot be pinpointed. We will never know how much force this would exert on Titanic.
Yet, Titanic’s design would have been able to withstand much more force than other ships. This is because of something she was built with. Harland and Wolff knew that the bigger an object is, the more vulnerable it is to higher stresses. So to help Titanic with such a task, she was built with a very honeycomb-like structure. A honeycomb structure is a very dense complex. Running along Titanic’s 882.9 feet length were hull frames that formed her skeleton. The furthest from each other any frames were 33 inches, the closest being 20 inches. The closer ribs would be in the bow and stern and the furthest spaced in the centre of the hull. This is because the centre is subjected to the most stresses and needs to flex the most.
Furthermore, Harland and Wolff would have known that Titanic would need to be able to withstand greater stresses. This is thanks to her greater physical size. It’s here where we get into a discussion about whether Titanic’s steel was brittle or not. When we examine this topic, we always compare what Titanic was made of to what we have today. This *isn’t* a fair comparison. In the early 1910s, Titanic’s steel almost exceeded battleship expectations. Harland and Wolff were known for going above and beyond with the materials used on their ships. This is why many shipbuilders wanted their ships built by Harland and Wolff. Harland and Wolff heated the steel plates used on the Titanic even further than they ever had on older ships. This would have invariably eliminated the carbon content of the steel. In a nutshell, the more carbon there is in steel, the more brittle it is. Less carbon equals greater elasticity and plasticity. Elasticity is where the steel bends and deforms, before returning somewhat to its original shape. Whereas plasticity is where the steel is capable of bending until it tears. This means that when a ship collides head-on with a static object, the bow telescopes inwards. Depending on the density of the ship’s honeycomb structure, it can withstand more force. Thanks to Titanic’s honeycomb-like structure, she could withstand greater forces. Greater forces than other ships that had come before her could withstand.
Two ships that are known to slam head-on into icebergs were the SS Arizona and Grampian. The former of which occurred before the Titanic. In 1879, Arizona was travelling at her full speed, 15 knots, when she slammed head-on into an iceberg. Her bow was badly mangled, but she managed to stay afloat. Furthermore, Arizona was made of weaker materials than Titanic. Thus, this does paint a good picture for Titanic in surviving a head-on collision.
But historian Parks Stephenson has said that the force that Titanic had exerted on her would have been too much. With this in mind, the shockwave would have been too immense. Portholes would have shattered, rivets would been sheared off and the inside bulkheads would have collapsed. And if Murdoch didn’t stop the engines, the boilers would likely have exploded. Not only that but objects would be thrown forward and passengers and would be thrown from their beds. Burning coals would be thrown from the boilers and potentially cause fires. The ship would have absorbed the sea like cotton wool and dropped like a stone to the ocean floor.
So to conclude, it may not be easy to accept but it seems that no mistakes were made on the Titanic. The collision was unavoidable. Murdoch couldn’t take a huge chance of slamming the Titanic head-on into the iceberg. This is because he wouldn’t know how much force would be exerted on her. A collision like that could have shattered the ship’s entire structure with too much force. Likewise, he was correct in performing an inertia stop, not a crash stop, or keeping the engines running at full ahead. If he performed a crash stop, he would have lost all control of the Titanic. Likewise, the ship would have not been able to turn fast enough. If the engines were kept to a “full” condition, the risk of the boilers exploding in an unavoidable collision would be much higher. So Murdoch did the right thing in not keeping the engines running in full ahead. If the Titanic still could not turn fast enough, the boilers would be at greater risk of exploding when struck by icy water. One thing is for certain, we will never know the final outcome of the suggested alternatives. This is one of the reasons why the Titanic never fails to fascinate. But another question surrounding this topic is one that might also never have a definitive answer. That question is: why couldn’t the lookouts see the iceberg until it was too late?
REFERENCES
Webpages
Titanic Inquiry Project. 2017. Testimony of Frederick Barrett. Available at: https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq03Barrett01.php
Titanic Inquiry Project. 2017. Testimony of Frederick Scott. Available at: https://www.titanicinquiry.org/BOTInq/BOTInq06Scott01.php
Titanic Inquiry Project. 2017. Testimony of Joseph G. Boxhall Cont. Available at: https://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq03Boxhall03.php
titanicofficers.com. Year unknown. Boxhall’s 1962 BBC Radio Broadcast. Available at: https://www.titanicofficers.com/article_24.html?utm_content=cmp-true
Videos
Casual Navigation. 2021. How Do Ships Stop Without Brakes? Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vHPx4bKjIQ
Titanic Animations. 2022. Should Titanic Have Hit The Iceberg Head On. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyn4e3Z5odE
Oceanliner Designs. 2022. What if Titanic Hit the Iceberg Head-On? Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUNI8GnToDg
Images
Fig 1: Marschall K. 1978. Titanic collides with the iceberg.
Fig 2: Titanic: Case Closed. (2012). [Documentary]. Directed by Nigel Levy. UK/USA. Natioal Geographic.
Fig 3: Public Domain
Fig 4: Public Domain
Fig 5: Public Domain
Fig 6: Titanic Episode 1. (1996). [Mini-series]. Directed by Robert Liebermann. Canada/USA. RHI Entertainment.
Fig 7: Titanic (1953). [Film]. Directed by Jean Negulesco. USA. 20th Century Foxx
Fig 8: Titanic Episode 1. (1996). [Mini-series]. Directed by Robert Liebermann. Canada/USA. RHI Entertainment.
Fig 9: Public Domain
Fig 10: How Do Ships Stop Without Brakes? (2021). [Youtube Video]. Casual Navigation.
Fig 11: How Do Ships Stop Without Brakes? (2021). [Youtube Video]. Casual Navigation.
Fig 12: Should Titanic Have Hit The Iceberg Head On. (2022). [Youtube Video]. Titanic Animations.
Fig 13: Crumple Zones and Safety Cages. (2022).[Webpage].How Crumple Zones Work? | Explained. Available at: https://gomechanic.in/blog/how-crumple-zones-work-explained/
Fig 14: Public Domain
Fig 15: Public Domain
Fig 16: Should Titanic Have Hit The Iceberg Head On. (2022). [Youtube Video]. Titanic Animations.
