Existing comment:
Competing Theories:
Access to Titanic has prompted many new theories about its sinking. One relying on forensic evidence arose from recovery of a hull piece y RMS Titanic Inc. in 1991. Metallurgists said sulfur and phosphorus impurities had made the steel excessively brittle. They suggested the hull shattered when it should have bent. Later tests cast doubts, asserting Titanic met industry standards for so-called "battleship steel."
A second theory blamed weakness among the ship's three million rivets. A hull plate retrieved in 1996 had empty rivet holes, an 17 of 18 recovered rivets lacked at least one head. Historians who examined Titanic's construction said many rivets had been improperly forged, hammered, or tested during the rush to finish construction. Others responded that the shipbuilder knew its craft and would not have allowed sloppy work.
A third theory postulated weakness in Titanic's frame. Chief designer Thomas Andrews notes "panting" of Olympic during sea trials. Its sides moved in and out three inches at cruising speed. Andrews had been ordered to use thinner hull plates than he wanted. That might have weakened Olympic and contributed to its panting -- and Titanic's sinking. Divers to Britannic, finished after Titanic sank, found upgrades to the expansion joint, suggesting corrective changes.
A final theory needed no physical evidence. The granddaughter of Second Officer Charles Lightoller revealed in 2010 that according to family lore, Quartermaster Robert Hitchins, at the wheel, had misinterpreted a steering order and veered toward the iceberg before correcting. At the time the North Atlantic was in transition from Tiller Orders to Rudder Orders. Under the former, pushing a tiller to the right steer left, under the later, moving a wheel right steered right. A descendent of Hitchins insisted he would not have made such a basic error. |