# Did This Guy Doom The Titanic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 18, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670 "2007-09-18T22:56:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/61 "2007-09-24T22:32:53Z")
Speaking of the military both the Carpathia and Californian were sunk by U-boats a few years later during the war, it’s a little ironic that both of Titanic’s rescuers were living on borrowed time as well. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/62 "2007-09-24T22:35:21Z")
There’s [this.](http://www.metallurgy.nist.gov/webpages/TFoecke/titanic/Titanic.pdf). Which I just found on google, but only had time to skim the abstract. Until 5 minutes ago, I don’t recall seeing it in print beyond “theory & speculation,” but I do seem to remember a T.V. Special (A & E, maybe?) that took a smallish piece of Titanic’s steel (I don’t remember whether it was a piece of hull steel, or from a rivet), cubed and cleaned it, set it in a frame, chilled it down to 32\* F, and struck it with a hammer (mounted on a kind of pivot). IIRC, it shattered like glass. Now, whether this is an accurate, scientific test or not, you’ll have to get a metallurgist to chime in. But for my part, it looked pretty convincing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/63 "2007-09-24T22:59:19Z")
[QUOTE=OttoDaFe] According to several accounts, sometime before or during the trip from Belfast to Southampton the binoculars were removed from their usual location by Second Officer David Blair, who put them in a locker in his cabin. Blair left the ship at Southampton as part of a crew shakeup, but neglected to pass on the location of the binoculars to Charles Lightoller, who had been bumped from First to Second… [/QUOTE] But the article linked by the OP say > [@](#): > > "He would have found them had he been able to open the locker. > > “So in the end all the lookouts had were their own eyes.” Which, of course, is bunk. That locker could’ve been pried open any number of ways or the locking mechanism picked and/or popped. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/64 "2007-09-25T02:22:27Z")
[QUOTE=JohnBckWLD] But the article linked by the OP sayWhich, of course, is bunk. That locker could’ve been pried open any number of ways or the locking mechanism picked and/or popped. [/QUOTE] This is true, which I think is indicative of the blase attitude (arrogant overconfidence in technology?) that was prevalent at the time, and in no short supply on the Titanic. ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/65 "2007-09-29T22:34:12Z")
[QUOTE=mlees] Have there been other cases of sinkings due to the same weakness? [/QUOTE] Didn’t the Liberty ships on the Murmansk convoys have similar issues to this? From [here](http://www.key-to-steel.com/default.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&NM=119) > [@](#): > > Spectacular failures took place in many of the all-welded Liberty ships produced during the Second World War, when nearly 1500 incidents involving serious brittle failure were recognized and nineteen ships broke completely in two without warning. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/66 "2007-10-01T20:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=slaphead] Didn’t the Liberty ships on the Murmansk convoys have similar issues to this? From [here](http://www.key-to-steel.com/default.aspx?ID=CheckArticle&NM=119) [/QUOTE] Maybe. But that article does not seem to state that the liberty ships broke apart because of the cold water making the steel brittle. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670/67 "2007-10-02T14:43:06Z")
[QUOTE=mlees] Maybe. But that article does not seem to state that the liberty ships broke apart because of the cold water making the steel brittle. [/QUOTE] No cite, but when I was in Navy Nuclear Power School, the Liberty ships were mentioned as examples of brittle fracture when we studied the subject in the materials course. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-this-guy-doom-the-titanic/419670.md?page=3)