On April 14, 1912 one of the great disasters in the history of the world occurred, the sinking of the Titanic. The press had dubbed her unsinkable, but history has proven that to be untrue. Why did the Titanic sink with so many lives lost? Some say because of the iceberg, some the engineering, but I say it was due to greed and the human desire for prestige.

When the Titanic was constructed, the minimum safety requirements of the time were followed. Since the committee that made the regulations for lifeboats for the British Board of Trade was dominated by shipbuilders, there was a complex formula that called for so many cubic feet of boat space per thousand tons of ship the Titanic was only required to have enough lifeboat space for 926 passengers (Brander). The Titanic actually had more lifeboats that technically required for a ship of her size. Her lifeboat davits (the lifting and lowering devices for the lifeboats) were designed for up to four full size lifeboats each. The original design for the Titanic included this many, but was later changed to only include one per davit with the exception of station 1 and 2 that also had

lapsible boats (Encyclopedia). The extra lifeboats were excluded to allow for more deck space and a less cluttered appearance.

poured over the top of the bulkheads progressively flooding more of the compartments in spite of the watertight doors being closed. The Titanic also had no longitudinal bulkhead, allowing the stokers (the men who fed coal to the boilers) to work more efficiently (Brander). Many of the amenities of the Titanic forced the design of the bulkheads to be less efficient than they could have been. Grand staircases, and efficient service demanded that some of the bulkheads have doors cut into them for corridors, and to be short to allow for the open space required by such a staircase. The desire for prestige clouded the decision making of the White Star Line in this regard. They wanted the grandest, most opulent, and most efficient vessel of the time at the cost of safety.

Prior to the collision, Titanic received 21 warnings of an ice field directly in her course heading (Warnings). In spite of this, there were no additional lookouts posted. There were also no binoculars in the crows nest (an elevated observation station at the front of the ship) because the ship had not been equipped with them (Collision). When the lookouts saw the iceberg, they rang the warning bell and contacted the bridge. In the bridge, the order was given to stop and reverse the engines and to turn hard to port (left). Three huge propellers, two to the outside and a third in the center, drove Titanic. The outer propellers were driven by piston power, but the center one was driven by a massive turbine that could not be reversed. When the order came to reverse engines, only the outer two could be reversed, the center one could only be stopped. This did not help the Titanic slow down much. Since the Titanic was a single hull ship, with a reinforced bow and double bottom, it would have been preferable to let her hit the berg head on. Most likely she could have survived such an impact and made it to port under her own power. By turning Titanic,

Some common words found in the essay are:
Collision Prior, Captain Smith, Bulkheads Titanic, Brander Titanic, Prior Titanic, Happened April, Hull Titanic, Board Trade, Star Line, Star Lines, double hull, ship titanic, white star, warnings ice, captain smith, warnings ice field, titanic built, ice field, field directly course, lifeboat space, reverse engines, reinforced bow, ice field directly, directly course heading, received 21 warnings,
Approximate Word count = 1390
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)