Titanic – What Went Wrong

I listened to an interesting interview on CBC radio this morning with a John Woolow (not sure correct spelling). He authored a book on what went wrong aboard Titanic. (1)He first noted that Captain Smith was probably the wrong man for the job. (2) He stated the number of lifeboats and the fact the Capt cancelled the lifeboat drill on the Sunday morning of the disaster. (3) Noted were the missing binoculars and rules regarding radio not operating on a 24 hour basis. (4) Finally he stated that the lifeboats did not return to the vessel to pick up people in the water. The capacity of the boats was approx 1100 yet only some 700 survived. One boat did actually return to pick up people in the water.
While I don’t disagree with the wrongs the author points out, I do disagree that any were a direct cause of the sinking. There was only one reason for that, speed, the ship was doing 22 knots through a well reported ice field. The facts the author lists might well have improved the outcome and the number of lives saved, but none of the reasons he offers would have changed the disaster,Titanic would still have sunk. Speed alone was the cause with perhaps an overconfident belief the ship was indeed unsinkable. It is also highly unlikely the builders or the White Star line actually claimed the ship was unsinkable, that was more likely to have been a myth created by passengers and or crew members.
The Titanic disaster has been filmed numerous times, dozens of books and articles published, the story has not faded with the passage of time.
Many reasons have been offer, many theories considered, many what if’s. However, no matter how it is sliced up, Speed remains the cause.
Cheers and keep reading.