Did the titanic really sink on an iceberg because two guess weren't watching ahead?

Question

Like in the movie titanic our how did it really sink or why i know it did crash into the iceberg but why

Answer 1

You never know the actual shape of the iceberg itself as it is in the process of melting as it moves southward. All anyone could have seen was a shadowy shape above the surface of the ocean. Most of the iceberg actually was below the surface and was sizeable enough for the Titanic to have grounded on it before/while striking material sharp enough to cut through the metal from the side.

The bottom where the ship lies is too far down for humans to reach it and even with the technology we have now, age has played a role in the condition of the wreck to do absolutely accurate forensics.

The worst debacle was human folly to believe we could design anything which would be invincible to all possible natural (or otherwise) disasters.

Answer 2

Ignore the movie. Titanic did have lookouts on watch. But spotting icebergs isn't exactly that easy at night. First of all, you're maybe only seeing a quarter of an iceberg at most when you see photos of one. And typically only a 1/9 of the iceberg is above the water. The majority of the iceberg is underwater so you can easily be right on top of it and think you have yards to go before you reach it. Even during the day it's difficult to spot some of the portion that's underwater, at night it's impossible.



Then you have what an iceberg really looks like. Think it's this lovely white object that's easy to spot? Think again. What looks white during the day is filled with dirt and rubble. Up close it's not as white as it appears and at night it becomes far harder to see. You might be able to spot one at night if you have a very bright full moon and no cloud cover that night, but if you have a new moon or if there;s cloud cover you can forget it. And if the seas are calm it helps to decrease the odds of seeing an iceberg at night because you're more likely to see the motion of the waves breaking against the iceberg than you are the actual iceberg.



In addition the temperatures get cooler as you get around icebergs, making it harder to see distances with binoculars or telescopes due to fogging of the optics. You actually hear icebergs due to the popping sound before you see them at night.



The night Titanic sank was a new moon. It was reported that you could see the stars on the water, which tells us the sky was cloudless and the seas calm. But starlight doesn't provide enough light to see by, that new moon means it was a dark night making binoculars useless even if they had had any (they didn't, someone had screwed up and never placed them aboard). Cold temperatures reduced visible ranges. Lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee would have first heard the sound of the iceberg, alerting them as to which direction to look in. It was Fleet who first sighted the ghostly image and gave the warning. Had conditions been different he might have spotted the iceberg sooner.

Answer 3

There were a lot of factors that lead to the Titanic hitting the iceberg. The wireless operator ignored 6 ice warnings, the sea conditions where still and there was no moon so the lookout would have had a had time spotting the iceberg and due to it melting the iceberg was not white but clear making it even harder to see.

Answer 4

Icebergs of the magnitude which collided were not expected in that part of the Atlantic at that time of year. The berg that impacted is estimated to be a 1000 miles from its origin. Standard practice was to sail through ice floes on the basis that ships of this class were big enough to withstand impact.



The look out was a crewman called Frederick Fleet - don't believe all you see in films - he later testified that he would have been able to give an earlier warning if he had been issued with binoculars.

Answer 5

not necessarily..it did sink because it hit the iceburg. but its just in the movie they made it look like the guys werent watching. no one really knows. even the only survivors dont cuz they werent on deck when it happened.