It is the job of science to understand the why and the how of things We look at an accident to understand why it happened and what might be learned from it. Then we move on.  We should stand back and analyze the big picture and not get distracted by emotions Never was this job more difficult then when trying to understand what happened to what had in her time been the biggest and grandest ship of all time: Titanic the Ship of Dreams.

Her life could be more easily measured in days and hours. She was the pride of the White Star Lines, an 882 foot floating palace with only the finest fittings. The highest grade metal was used in her hull, the latest technology went into her every aspect. Her builders, Harland and Wolfe Ltd were a long established company with only the best of architects.  Watertight compartments were installed so that should one compartment flood, it would seal off any further compartments from flooding. It was mainly because of this that Titanic had the reputation of being unsinkable. However, it was neither her builders nor owners who made this claim. There was a shipping magazine at the time which published an article on Titanic and it was they who pronounced her "virtually unsinkable." From these words, the legend grew, the unsinkable ship, RMS Titanic.

The first class suites were lavish beyond imagination, second class was better than first on other liners and even third class steerage was comfortable.

Titanic carried 17 percent over the number of lifeboats required by the Board of Trade, and her crew was a well seasoned crew. Yet, in spite of all this, her life at sea lasted less than six full days and she now lies 12,500 feet beneath the north Atlantic. Of her 2228 passengers and crew, 1523 perished.

Captain Smith has been said to be the prominent cause of Titanic's foundering. He was probably the most beloved Captain of both crew and upper class travelers. He was even widely regarded as a "safe" Captain. And indeed, for most of his career, he was just that. It was only in the waning years of his career that "incidents" began to happen.

With the arrival of larger ships, Smith's confidence in their builders seemed to over bloom, On the maiden arrival of the Adriatic in NY Smith said:

"I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that...."

Prior to the Titanic, Smith had been Captain of the Olympic, sister ship to Titanic. On September 20, 1911 Olympic was departing from Southampton headed for New York. Olympic was then rammed by the Navy ship RMS Hawke. Smith was not charged with any form of negligence, rather the whole experience, which sank neither ship, was chalked up to a confusion of intended courses. But what really happened was a little known condition at that time. A vessel displaces water when it moves. Obviously then, a very large vessel displaces a very large amount of water. Little thought had been given this fact, as smaller ships were not a problem, and the giants of Olympic, Titanic and others had just appeared on the scene. In any case, such a large amount of displaced water in a confined area such as a harbor, can have dire effects on a smaller vessel nearby, namely causing it to move toward the large vessel.  The Hawke was literally pulled right into the Olympic! And this event would later come back to haunt Smith.

As Titanic began her maiden voyage from Southampton, the Oceanic and New York were berthed nearby. The smooth waters parted before Titanic as her speed slowly increased, causing an immense "V" ever widening behind her. On her starboard side, the turbulence caused by the huge vessels forward motion swept harmlessly out to sea, but on the port side there was nowhere for it to go. The displaced water caused the New York to bob up and then down, putting such a great strain on her moorings that they finally snapped! The water passing behind Titanic now began to cause the stern of the New York to be pulled outward directly towards Titanic. Fortunately a nearby tug managed to quickly get hold of one of New York's moorings and were able to hold her while Smith, instinctively summing up the situation ordered full reverse on Titanic's engines. All were safe, but the New York came within four feet of Titanic's stern!

Titanic was to sail from Southampton, England to New York. The first days of her journey were uneventful and routine. On Sunday lifeboat drills were supposed to take place. This involved both showing passengers where the boats were and explaining how they were launched, and also having the crew understand how they were launched. The types of davits on Titanic which launched the boats were a new development, and their operation was new to the crew. A portion of the crew had launched two boats for inspection purposes just before she set sail, but that was the only time. In spite of this, Captain Smith opted to pass on the drills. This alone would be a very serious mistake.

From the time she headed out across the Atlantic, Titanic increased her speed and miles traveled each day. Sunday the 14th began as a beautiful clear day. During the day however, ice warnings began coming in from other ships. There were no radios onboard ships in those days, instead they used the new wireless telegraphy invented by Marconi. That Sunday, Titanic's two Marconi operators, Harold Bride and  John Phillips received no less than six ice warnings from the area the Titanic was headed into.  Of those, only one was ever confirmed to have been posted to the bridge by the Captain! It is unknown for certain how many of the warnings actually got to the Captain, as telegraphy was new and there were no established rules. It seemed that if the warning was directed to Capt. Smith personally, it got delivered, if addressed to Titanic, it might have been given to an officer, but it was determined that not all of the messages got to the bridge! Nearly every one of these warnings put ice directly in Titanic's path.

The winter of 1912 had been the mildest in 30 years. Because of the warm temperatures, large sheets of ice would break off from Greenland and drift far south into the east-west shipping lanes.  Unfortunately the winter had been just cold enough to also drive the Gulf Stream of warm air far south and so melting did not occur very rapidly. Immense bergs and growlers (smaller bergs)  floated placidly around the shipping lanes. Though some bergs may look small on the surface, four-fifths of their mass is below the water. As portions of the berg melt, the center of gravity shifts and the berg may capsize and present a new surface to the air. When this happens, the newly exposed area is often quite dark, both from water draining off it and from algae which grows on it.  Until at least the water drained off, recently capsized bergs were very difficult to see.

As the day moved to evening a noticeable chill was in the air. Most of the passengers moved inwards to heated rooms and second officer Lightoller ordered crews to make sure the fresh water supply did not freeze. Just prior to Captain Smith retiring for the night, he and Lightoller discussed how calm and still the water was, comparing it to a "millpond." Smith gave the orders to maintain speed and heading unless mist affected seeing. Given all the ice warnings, it is hard to imagine how a Captain could order a ship full speed into the dark night, but Smith did.

The captain had also ordered that lookouts be placed in the crows nest and to be instructed to keep a sharp lookout for ice. Bitter irony showed an ugly head here, because while the officer's had binoculars on the bridge, there were none in the crow's nest, perhaps the place which needed them most! There had been a pair, but no one had seen them since leaving Southampton. Only later, after the accident was it known that they had been locked away in a cabinet by an officer who had been replaced at the last minute and who had neglected to tell Lightoller.

It was at 7:15pm that the first ice warning from the Baltic was posted on the bridge. First officer Murdoch then ordered a sailor to secure a hatch, from which a light glow might have been obscuring the view on the crow's nest. At 7:30 the Californian radioed Titanic to report ice. An additional ice warning from the Mesaba cam in at 9:40 but was never taken to the bridge.

At 10pm crewmen Lee and Fleet relieved the men in the crow's nest and began their watch.  First Officer Murdoch relieved Lightoller on the bridge. At 11pm the Californian attempted to send another message to Titanic, saying that they were surrounded by ice and stopped for the night. Her position was directly where Titanic was headed. But the radio operator on Californian was cut short by an overworked Titanic operator who yelled "shut up, you're jamming me, I'm working Cape Race!"

At 11:40 Fleet saw the iceberg and rang the bridge. As sixth officer Moody shouted the news, Murdoch reacted with the instincts of only the best of officers, calling out "hard-a-starboard" while ringing the engine room for engines "full astern." Murdoch was hoping to avoid the collision, when he realized they had struck, he then called for the ship to go "hard-a-port" hoping to swing her stern away from the berg, which did work, but unfortunately it was all so very too late.

It took Titanic only two hours and forty minutes to sink to a watery grave, taking so many lives. There were so many" if only's." If only all the ice warnings had gotten to the bridge, if only there had been a boat drill, with enough boats. If only there had been binnoculars....it goes on and on. Though there is undoubtedly human error, Titanic was also a victim of numerous unusual circumstances.  It can make one's heart ache from the tragedy of it all, impossible to separate science and emotion.