Posted on 12/05/2005 12:02:23 PM PST by ZGuy
The discovery of two large pieces of the Titanic's hull is changing the story of how the luxury ocean liner sank 93 years ago.
Undersea explorers said Monday that the Titanic broke into three pieces, not two pieces as commonly believed and portrayed in James Cameron's 1997 film version of the catastrophe. That means the ship likely sank faster than believed.
The hull pieces were found this summer by an expedition sponsored by the History Channel. Its leaders called it the most significant find at the site since undersea explorer Robert Ballard discovered the wreck 20 years ago and declared that the ship had broken in two.
"The breakup and sinking of the Titanic has never been accurately depicted," Parks Stephenson, a Titanic historian, said Monday at a conference at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where scientists discussed the findings.
The 46,000-ton luxury liner was billed as "unsinkable" by its owner, the White Star Line. But it sank after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. About 1,500 people were killed.
Ballard discovered the bulk of the wreck in 1985 in 13,000 feet of water, about 380 miles southeast of Newfoundland. A portion of the ship's bottom was missing, and Ballard's team presumed it had fragmented into hundreds of small pieces.
The discovery of the two hull pieces about 500 meters from the rest of the wreck indicate that the piece came off the ship intact and later broke into two large sections, the explorers said.
"That's X marks the spot," said Richard Kohler, who led the expedition. "Right above that is where the Titanic broke."
Ballard did not immediately return a call for comment.
hindsight was 20/20. the safety standard in use at the time called for a number of lifeboats based upon the square footage of the ship. the Titanic exceeded that amount (I forget the exact number). She was safer than required - a fact lost in the emotions of the aftermath.
add to that the number of empty seats in the first boats, plus their understandable reluctance to go back to pick up swimmers (being ovwerwhelmed), and the number of boats is less critical than what they did with what hey had.
many people aboard didn't think the ship was going to sink, and it was cold, so they didn't want to go in the lead boats. There were also some collapsible boats that weren't deployed at all, or were deployed wrongly.
the problem wqs that the ship was designed to stay afloat with any three compartments flooded. the iceberg opened of, five IIRC, four fully,, and part of a fifth. they knew it was going to sink as soon as the word of that got through.
I'm a fan of disaster movies and enjoyed every minute of the Titanic movie James Cameron made. Especially interested in anything to do with the Titanic because family members could not get passage in steerage was it was sold out.
I believe it wasn't so much steel being made improperly, as too brittle a steel (almost cast iron, really) was used.
The Titatic's sister ship (with a similar hull) faced a similar awfully-quick sinking, but people forget that. (I think the second one involved a torpedo and maybe a broadside or two, so it is a tad different!)
Most excellent movie!
*snrk*
thank you, or better yet, thank Walter Lord.
Another good Titanic movie. Forgot it's name. Senior moment.
I think Leo is a great actor. What's eating Gilbert Grape is an excellent movie and he shows his talent in it.
White Star Line had three ships: Olympic, Britanic and Titanic. Don't remember which of the others sank. One did not.
Well that, and the crew below failed to have the airtight doors closed because it was too hot in the engine room.
(Or so said the PBS website I just read.)
The Brittanic was the sister ship that sank after a torpedo (or mine). Once again, the crew, in order to get around better, didn't keep the doors closed.
You can have all the safety plans you want in place, but humans will mess it up all day long to make their lives easier.
It was filmed in Mexico.
The Britannic -- just read it.
It hit a mine (or a torpedo hit it).
Sank like a rock.
IIRC the Britanic sank during the gallipoli episode of WW-I, and the Olympic continued in service despite striking a destroyer off the british coast, and halving a ligthship off the US east coast, nantucket maybe.
A woman named Jessup was an employee on all three ships.
a fourth, the Gigantic (I think) was never built.
"I have definitive proof that George W. Bush is NOT responsible for loss of the Titanic. He was still in prison for the Chicago Fire and SF Earthquake."
NO YOU DON'T. Total BS!
We know GW's TEETH were in the slammer, but where was George?? HHMMM?
Flapjacks.
And she needed a trim, IMO.
that, and the fact that the seals did not extend to the tops of the compartments, so they simply filled and spilled into the next one.
closine the airtight doors was only required in case of an emergency - there was no reason to suspect what happenned, but the closing of the doors would not have helped any.
He and that "Napoleon Dynamite" guy are better than Tom Cruise.
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