Was fate responseable for theTitanic tragedy 100 years ago?
April 15, 2012 marked the 100th anniversary of the tragedy of the Titanic. Perhaps no other disaster in history has stirred the emotions more than this one. Was fate responsible for the Titanic tragedy 100 years ago? Because of the symphony of events converging on the Titanic all at the same time, some have thought that fate must have been in control. It is to be acknowledged that there were some unusual events happening all simultaneously. Nevertheless, logically what sank the Titanic and caused the tragic loss of life can be blamed on the decisions made by a number of people.
The titanic was over two years in the building and was the largest man made moving object ever built. It was 882 feet 9 inches long, 92 feet and 6 inches wide and 104 feet from the bottom of the keel to the top of the bridge, weighing a total of 46,328 gross tons. It had a draught of 34 feet and 7 inches and the outboard props were 23 feet and 5 inches in diameter and made of manganese-bronze alloy. It was powered by three 16,000 hp steam engines standing 30 feet in height and weighing in at 1,000 tons each.
Morgan Robertson in 1898, some 14 years before the tragedy of the Titanic, wrote a book titled Futility. His fictional novel was about a ship on a cold April night in the North Atlantic that struck an iceberg and sank. The ship was called Titan. Both ships, the Titanic and the Titan, were referred to as unsinkable. In another book written by William T. Stead, From the Old World to the New World, is another story of a ship that strikes an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. Ironically the captain of the ship that picked up survivors was named Edward J. Smith, the eventual name of the captain of the Titanic.
By the time the Titanic began its voyage westward toward New York, it was carrying a passenger load of 2,014. On April 14, 1912, the Captain received several urgent warnings of ice for which he dismissed. Captain Smith was an experienced sailor, having sailed this route many times before. The apparent reason he ignored the ice warnings was because he was probably thinking in terms of surface ice and not icebergs. Icebergs, as a rule, didn’t appear this far south at this particular time of the year. However, due to some uncanny weather conditions and lunar positioning (the moon was at its nearest proximity to the earth in 1,000 years and there was and unusual alignment of the planets) consequently, there were hundreds of icebergs in the area on the night of April 15, 1912. Apparently Captain Smith had never witnessed this phenomena before, in his sailing career, and, therefore, was unaware of the pending danger. Also, the technical knowledge available in 1912 on ocean conditions at any given time of the year was a fraction of what is available today. Nor were the electronics available for measuring depth and locating obstruction available.
The Californian, a freighter, was the last radio contact with the Titanic; they also warned of ice. Around 8:30 PM the radio dispatcher closed down and went to bed. Ironically the message was once again ignored, and the Titanic forged ahead at full speed. Had the speed been reduced, there probably would have been time to avoid a collision. There were outlooks posted, but they had no binoculars, and it being a moonless night they were able to see only a short distance. By the time they spotted the iceberg there was not enough time to change course at the speed they were traveling.
They alerted the bridge, and the first officer ordered engines at full reverse and a hard left port side. This would be similar to hitting your brakes hard on ice in a car; it produced a skid and slowed the left turn. It is a good possibility that if the first officer had just ordered a hard left port side that the collision would have been averted. Even a head on collision with the iceberg probably would not have sunken the ship. Ironically, on the night of April 11, 1912, another ocean liner ran head on into an iceberg in the vicinity of the icy north Atlantic. Passengers were thrown around, and her bow was badly buckled, but no one was hurt, and the ship managed to reach New York in safety.
The air temp on April 14, 1912, was slightly below freezing. In the resulting inquiry of the Titanic tragedy, Captain Stanley Lord, captain of the Californian, said that the water temperature on April 14th lowered to 28 degrees F, This is the point in which salt water freezes. It is hard to imagine the misery this caused the passengers aboard the Titanic as they rushed onto the decks, probably not dressed with suitable clothing for the cold.
The crew of the Titanic was not trained in emergency abandon ship procedures, nor was the passengers. Neither was the ship equipped with a public address system to relay specific instructions, so there must have been great confusion aboard the ship as people scrambled in all directions.
J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of White Star Line, allegedly decided not to equip the Titanic with enough lifeboats to rescue everyone on board; therefore, there were only 20 lifeboats, about half enough. The ship was designed to carry 64 lifeboats which were adequate to rescue all the passengers, but Ismay had ordered all but 20 removed because, in his words, “They made the ship look bad and reduced visibility for the passengers.”
Each lifeboat could carry between 40, and 65 persons – dependent upon boat type, so the 20 lifeboats aboard, were able to hold 1178 persons. Only 700 boarded the lifeboats and survived; that means around 478 more could have been saved. There are several reasons why more did not board the life boats: Organization was one, and another was that some did not want to leave the deck of the 882 foot ocean liner to be lowered in a tiny boat into the freezing dark ocean 80 feet below. Many did not comprehend the grave danger and apparently thought that the ship would not sink even though Captain Smith had ordered the evacuation of the ship. If anyone should have known, it would have been him. Captain Smith asked the architect, who was also aboard, to go below and access the damage, and he returned to tell the captain that the ship was sinking. At that moment, Captain Smith knew the horrifying truth that 100s of people including himself were bound for eternity in a matter of minutes.
The passengers, to make the horrible circumstances worse, could see another ship nearby, which is often referred to as the mystery ship. According to the inquiries conducted by the United States and Great Britain in 1912 and again in 1992 that ship was the Californian, a freighter located about 6 miles north of the Titanic. It was the Californian that was the last to contact the Titanic with one final warning concerning the ice; the Titanic had been warned of the ice by wireless messages from other nearby ships throughout the day. After the final message from the Californian, the dispatcher turned off the radio and went to bed. Later the Titanic would make futile attempts to contact the Californian.
In desperation, the Titanic released a total of 8 distress flairs. The crew aboard the Californian saw the flairs and alerted Captain Stanly Lord on three separate occasions, but the captain ignored each one. Captain Lord would spend the rest of his life trying to explain why. The crew aboard the Californian literally watched as the Titanic sunk into the sea and then reported to their captain that the ship was no longer visible. When news came the next morning that the Titanic had sunk, the Californian steamed to the location within the hour. They arrived as the lifeboats were being lifted aboard a rescue ship that had responded to the Titanic’s distress signals but were to far away to arrive in time. Altogether 1,500 lives were lost.
“On this 100th anniversary of the titanic disaster, let us not focus our attention on a rusting hulk of wreckage lying at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, but instead on the 1,500 souls that lost their lives on that fateful day April, 12, 1912. Ships can be rebuilt, but human souls are gone forever. The creator of all life, God in heaven, considers one human soul more valuable than all the diamonds, all the gold and silver, all the real estate and everything else put together”. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
Conclusion
As I researched for this article, I noticed a parallel I had not seen before. The first was that even though the Titanic had been warned of impending danger, it was ignored, and the captain ordered the ship ahead at full speed. The second was that even though the captain of the ship ordered the evacuation, some still didn’t believe it was sinking and refused to be saved by the life boats. The third was that the Californian stood by even after seeing the distress flairs and calls for help and did nothing.
The parallels are: Just as the Titanic ignored all warnings; our generation is warned over and over of the impending danger of dying unprepared to meet God, and the warnings are often ignored, and as the Titanic, many continue full speed ahead to their destruction. Today many refuse to be saved when offered the lifeboat, just as those on the Titanic. God’s lifeboat, his plan of salvation is available but is often refused, either because people don’t believe the ship is sinking or don’t realize the danger. Lastly, many believers today are aware of the needs of the perishing, like the Californian that stood by and did nothing; they could offer the help that could save so many. Accept God’s life boat.
About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been involved in teaching Christian Personal Development for more than 30 years. There are hundreds of articles to help you on this website (Website Contents) in your personal growth.
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