Titanic: A Dream That Turned Into A Nightmare
One of the most sought after trips during the 1900s took a sharp turn when it was on its maiden voyage. On April 14,1912, a giant ship weighing 52,310 tons, hit an iceberg at 11:40 p. m. leaving the part of the ship, or the hull, mutilated.
This “giant ship” was called the Titanic. The Titanic had approximately 2,220 people when it crashed. Sadly, only about 700 people survived. When the Titanic hit the iceberg, experts claim that the recklessness of the captain, Captain Smith, may have caused the entire incident.
One of the theories that were made by experts, was that the captain of the Titanic, Captain Smith was going too fast. Apparently, the Titanic was going 22. 5 knots (which is around 26 mph) when its maximum speed was 23 knots. Something that a lot of people say is that Captain smith was trying to get a good reputation by getting an exceptional time across the Atlantic Ocean. Because of his needed goal to go reach the other side faster, he might have spelled the doom of the Titanic
Another theory is that Captain Smith ignored ice warnings. Titanic received seven iceberg warnings throughout the last part of its trajectory to New York. If Captain Smith hadn’t ignored the ice warnings, he could’ve decelerated or even taken another path to avoid the collision. An ice warning is a message of caution sent by ships in the same relative area to prevent ships from crashing like the titanic. Nowadays, they are sent via high technology equipment, but back in the days of the Titanic, Morse code was the language of navigators around the world.
The last thing that Captain Smith did that was atrocious was letting lifeboats leave half full. The Titanic occupied 20 lifeboats that can hold 40 people each. Captain Smith decided that it was a good idea to let some lifeboats leave less than half full. Exactly four of the 20 lifeboats were filled less than 50% because of the Captain. In fact, one of the lifeboats that held 40 people, left with 12 people on it. If Captain Smith hadn’t have done these terrible deeds, many more lives could’ve been saved.
The Captain of the Titanic may be considered the reason for hundreds of lives coming to an end. All because of simple and selfish actions made by Captain Smith such as going too fast, ignoring ice warnings, etc. The Titanic was claimed to be unsinkable but that was proved quickly wrong by the maiden voyage. The Titanic was a dream that turned into a nightmare in the span of two hours, and it's all the Captain’s fault.
