I personally subscribe to the theory that Titanic had a coal-bunker
fire and the full-throttle journey was to exhaust it.
While it may be true that the construction of the ship, using
incorrect riveting methods, created a weakness, that isn't what sank
the ship. That's like saying that Drano is a defective product because
it will kill you if you drink it. Improper operation of the ship is
what sank the ship. Also, "accidents" do happen. There was an
unfortunate ripple in the time-space continium which placed the
iceberg at exactly the same position as the hull of the Titanic.
Had the iceberg collision never occured, the ship would have probably
served out a career similar to the sister ship "RMS Olympic". In fact,
the Olympus, which had similar, if not identical manufacturing
defects, survived a collision with another ship that flooded two
compartments. The compartmentalization design worked, but after the
Titanic disaster, the bulkheads were raised to the B-Deck to prevent
the flooding from cascading over into the adjacent compartments.
There were unfortunate design choices which contributed to the
problem. Rudder size and position being one of them. But these are the
kinds of things which time and experience fix. Ships of that size
today use vastly different propulsion systems and rudders to address
issues learned from previous ships. Even so, there are plenty of ships
built even today that have major design faults which are only learned
through experience and disaster.
A funny/interesting thing. Ocean going ships have a relatively short
service life. But on the Great Lakes, the freighters there last a long
long long time. In fact, there are ships plying the Great Lakes that
date back to even before Titanic was built.
AG
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