The Titanic is the most famous ship there ever was or ever will be. Not only because of the movie that lifted its fame to incredible heights but because the incredible ship was the most luxurious and largest ship that the world had seen at that point. It has since been reported that many felt the ship was unsinkable and that when it hit the iceberg most did not even worry, but could this be true?
Looking into the text at the time it appears that the reports that the ship was unsinkable were largely exaggerated in modern-day. After the ship sank it is more likely that many felt it was just a good way to sell papers to claim that it was believed to be unsinkable. There have been a number of reports though. For example, one person who was a VP at the company that owned the titanic said that when he heard the reports of the sinking ship, he didn’t believe them. In his mind, the ship could not sink.
However today it is largely presented as if the ship was promoted as the unsinkable ship, which was just not true. The ship’s main selling point was luxury. The ship was incredibly large and had all the trimmings of an incredible ballroom and more. It was a playground for the rich and famous with some of the most notable on the ship being the Us business tycoon Benjamen Guggenheim, British journalist, William Stead and Isidor Straus the owner of the Macy’s department store at the time. Before they set sail, most did not really consider the safety features, much like we all ignore the safety checks on planes today.
The titanic was an incredible ship though and it had the latest and greatest innovations in ship safety at the time. The ship had 16 chambers and the plan was that if any chamber took on water, it could be closed immediately before it spread to the other chambers and sank the boat. Of course, this is not what took place and on April 14th, 1912 the ship sank. Sadly, the ship could likely stay afloat if four of its 16 compartments filled with water, reports indicated that five of the chambers filled with water.
Worse still some reports after the event indicated that low quality steel and weak rivets may have been used in the construction of the titanic. This may have meant the despite a solid design the ship could not withstand the damage that would be caused. At the end over 1,500 people died that were on the ship. The majority that died were crew (700) while the third class inhabitants also took a majority share with only 174 of the 700 passengers surviving from that class.
Today the ship is still at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It has split into two parts, the bow, and the stern. The bow is the largest part and can be found at 41°43′57′′ N 49°56′49′′ W, if you are ever in the area. Many people do not know but the ship’s final stop before it had its wreck was in Cobh, Ireland.
The evidence does appear to suggest that most people did not know of the ship as unsinkable at all. While the new safety features were well reported and many thought of them as far superior to any ship at the time, few thought it was unsinkable. The ship was so heavy that the new features were mostly to calm down any concerns that people would have had at the time. It appears that it has simply earned this reputation after the fact. Because after all, nothing beats a good story.
