The Titanic..........revisited

A couple of days ago, the last living passenger, of the ship Titanic, died a peaceful death in what I presume to be the comfort of her bed.
Many of her fellow passengers were not so fortunate and ended up in watery graves, beneath icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Titanic was a legend, in the true sense and enthralls many of us to this day. Being a seafarer I'm fascinated by the fact that a ship of such scale and luxury was conceptualized, built and launched. The Titanic was luxury on an unprecedented scale.
The brief history of the Titanic are as follows:

The history of the Titanic began at a dinner party in a London mansion in 1907. Then, J. Bruce Ismay, managing officer of the White Star Line, a prominent ship operating company, and Lord James Pirrie devised plans to build three magnificent ships that would set a new standard for luxury and elegance. The first two would be named Olympic and Titanic while the third, to be built later, would be the Britannic. The White Star Line started production on the Olympic in December of 1908, while work on the Titanic started the following March. The Titanic included amenities that many of its passengers had never enjoyed in their own homes, such as electric light and heat in every room. The size and splendor of the Titanic quickly established the ship as a legend, even before the first voyage. The Titanic was officially launched from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912. While the ship carried more than 2,200 passengers and crew, Titanic was equipped with only 16 lifeboats, with a capacity of 1,708. The White Star Line had decided to use only half the number of boats the Titanic could carry in order to alleviate what was referred to as a "cluttered" feeling on the main deck of the ship. The Titanic sailed first to Cherbourg, France, to pick up additional passengers, and then to Queenstown, Ireland, before setting out to sea for the transatlantic voyage to New York. The first three days of the voyage passed without incident, while the fourth did not. Although the Titanic had received five ice warnings throughout the day on April 14, Captain Edward Smith decided not to slow down and continued on at 21 knots (25 mph). At 11:40 PM, lookout Fred Fleet spotted an iceberg and notified the bridge. First Officer William Murdoch then ordered the ship turned hard to port and the engine room was signaled to reverse direction. The ship did move slightly, but could not avoid the iceberg, which tore a 300 feet-long hole in the ship, causing compartments to begin filling with water. Twenty-five minutes after the crash, the ships officers ordered the lifeboats uncovered and began preparing the passengers and crew for evacuation. The first lifeboat was launched twenty minutes after the orders were given. Despite having a carrying capacity of 68, the first lifeboat launched with only 28 passengers. When the last boat launched, there were more than 1,500 passengers left on board. The lifeboats contained mostly women and children. However, J. Bruce Ismay managed to escape by sneaking onto one of the last lifeboats. At approximately 2:10 AM, the stern, or rear of the ship, rose out of the water and shortly thereafter the weight of the raised stern caused the ship to split in two. The bow, or front of the ship, slowly sunk as the stern settled back into the water. Then, the stern filled with water until it disappeared into the ocean. More than 1,500 souls were lost in the "greatest maritime disaster in history". Many attempts have been made to find the wreck of the Titanic, yet it wasn't until 1985, when an expedition combining teams from IFREMER and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute discovered the famous ship. The team, led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Luis Martin, took the first photographs of the Titanic in 73 years. More than 90 years later, people continue to be fascinated with the Titanic. The disaster and its survivors have been the subject of four movies, a Broadway musical and countless books. The movie Titanic, written and directed by James Cameron, is the most expensive film ever made and in 1998 it won 11 Academy Awards. The Titanic recently made headlines again in 2001, when a New York couple announced they would be wed in a deep-sea submersible at the Titanic gravesite.

The sinking of the Titanic was an unmitigated disaster, where safety was jettisoned for satisfying personal ego's. Speeding at 21 Knots, on a transatlantic voyage, where icebergs are the rule rather than the exception, is criminally dangerous. A ship of the Titanic's size, cruising at 21 Knots, would require a good two miles to come to a halt, even if the engines were stopped and reversed under emergency.
It was also a time when electronic navigation was not in vogue and radar's had not made an appearance on ships. What it means is that ships were totally dependant on look outs who were placed on platforms, top of the mast, called a crow's nest,to sight navigation hazards and then warn the bridge or navigation centre below.
In the case of the Titanic the lookouts were tardy and was a small cause for the eventual accident. The larger issue would be Capt.Smith, not taking adequate safety measures and paid a heavy price with the loss of his ship and life.

The buck literally stopped with him & on ships, that is how it is............................You put your money, where your mouth is and learn to live without the hype & hoopla, that are seen in many organizations on land.