TITANIC TRAGEDY
Human factors interference
What happened
Why it happened
Design failures and life cycle
Water flood in the ship because a long gash had been made by the iceberg.
The ship could have stayed afloat if only a few of its compartments had been affected, but on this instance, 5 large compartments were affected.
The immediate cause of the accident was the iceberg collision which allowed water in the ship.
The automatic watertight technology on bulkheads below the water line was made to enable the crew on the bridge to close the doors electronically, thus keeping all the water confined to the damaged compartment if the ship was hit. The problem was the lack of a transverse overhead- a lid on those bulkheads
The iron rivets that fastened the hull plates to the Titanic's main structure failed to work because of the brittle fracture from the high impact loading of the collision with the icebeerg.
The owner Bruce Ismay decided to cut down on the space on the promenade deck as he thought it was more important to pamper this place for the first class passengers, (for which their tickets cost approximately $500 000. The deck could have been designed for storage of lifeboats.
Chemical analysis showed a very low nitrogen content in the steel which was used to make the ship.The steel was not made by the Bessemer process which meant that the steel was partially deoxidized and susceptible to embrittling at low temperatures.
Wireless officer Phillips who was in charge of sending and receiving messages did not communicate with the other crew members as he was focussed on sending personal messages and not work related information
The look out, Fred Fleet was an experienced seaman but could not use his skills to spot the iceberg at 1000 yards or greater because the equipment (binoculars) to be used was not placed at a place easily accessible.
The crew were warned about the icebergs but they did not pay attention to that at all as they presumed that it was a clear night with good visibility and no icebergs were in sight.
There was not enough back up equipment (lifeboats) to use during an emergency. This should have been the management, designer and crew responsibility.
The crew, in particular, the captains lacked professionalism, they did not reduce the ship's speed as he was being pressured by the management to set a new speed record.
Nature of system
From the research carried, it was concluded that the ship was going too fast in an area known to have icebergs.
Incompetence from the crew as icebergs warnings were unheeded and so multiple warnings were not communicated.
Climate caused the formation of icebergs and the tides sent the icebergs southwards towards the titanic.
The massive ship which carried around 2200 passengers struck an iceberg about two and a half hours before.
At 2:20am the British ocean liner, sinks into the North Atlantic Ocean, Canada.
More than 1500 people went down in the sinking ship and froze to death.
700 people survived
The binoculars which were supposed to be used as lookouts were locked up the aboard the ship and so no checks were made.
The steersman took a wrong turn and this led to the reverse thrust being reduced and affecting the ship's maneuverability.
The iron rivets were too weak and they easily ripped apart during the collision allowing water in the ship.
There were few lifeboats to save passengers and the crew.
The British board of Trade had lifeboats requirements based on the tonnage of the ship and not the number of people.
The board considered to change the Titanic regulations to a passenger-based system but the ship owners refused as they wanted to cut down costs.