# Why didn't the Titanic's personnel evacuate to the iceberg? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2012, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137 "2012-04-18T08:06:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/21 "2012-04-18T15:25:31Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Well, they found the iceberg to photograph it. I think if there were a bunch of people waving, they’d probably see them too. It’s not certain that the iceberg photographed is actually the one that the Titanic struck. In any case, it’s unlikely they’d have been able to find it again in the dark. It was a moonless night with very low visibility, hence the failure to spot it in time to avoid the collision. ---
**Author:** ![abel29a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@abel29a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abel29a)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/22 "2012-04-18T15:46:05Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Based on James Cameron’s 1997 documentary film _Titanic_ the boiler rooms were all flooded and sealed up with watertight doors immediately after the ship struck ice. Wouldn’t this have prevented them from going anywhere other than where the ship’s inertia would carry her? According to a BBC documentary I saw a week ago they only lost two out of five boiler rooms to flooding, so they could still make headway. Indeed, Cpt. Smith ordered ahead slow a few minutes after the collision, although I cannot remember the reason for this. When the ahead slow was given, water started rushing into boiler room no. 5 more rapidly (this was the critical fifth compartment, if they could keep the water at bay there, they stood a chance), and the order for full stop was soon given. After this Titanic did not attempt to move again. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/23 "2012-04-18T15:49:05Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Just in case this is not a joke: [SS Californian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Californian) It wasn’t a joke: If the post I was responding to had said “The California **n** ” I might have recognised it as the name of the nearest ship, but “the California” didn’t ring any bells and I assumed it was a garbled reference to the state. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/24 "2012-04-18T16:22:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > [See any good spots for offloading 2000 people?](http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDoTGIdo5PQj0AVUiJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTBlMTQ4cGxyBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1n?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Diceburg%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D7&w=1024&h=768&imgurl=1000thingstobegratefulfor.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F11%2Ficeberg_19.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2F1000thingstobegratefulfor.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F11%2F13%2F54-be-grateful-for-icebergs%2F&size=90+KB&name=Iceberg_19&p=iceburg&oid=6f62751aec7f76bade38608879801246&fr2=piv-web&fr=yfp-t-701&rw=iceberg&tt=Iceberg_19&b=0&ni=200&no=7&tab=organic&ts=&sigr=12m32qa3j&sigb=1309kkuk5&sigi=124b0p7s8&.crumb=QVq5042jagx) The [actual iceberg the Titanic struck](http://io9.com/5901952/whatever-happened-to-the-iceberg-that-sank-the-titanic) looks a good deal worse in that respect. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/25 "2012-04-18T22:54:18Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > It wasn’t a joke: If the post I was responding to had said “The California **n** ” I might have recognised it as the name of the nearest ship, but “the California” didn’t ring any bells and I assumed it was a garbled reference to the state. If I were you, I would have said it was a joke. Just sayin. ---
**Author:** ![GreedySmurf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a698b9/32.png) [@GreedySmurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreedySmurf)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/26 "2012-04-18T23:50:31Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > If the Titanic has just sunk after colliding with an iceberg, the Californian (or any other ship) is probably not going to deliberately sail close to an iceberg. That would be stupid. Most of an iceberg is under water, so it’s very possible that you’d run into the underwater part of the iceberg before you could get close to the part that is above the water, where the people would be. This is the key thing that makes a “lets offload onto the iceberg”, the most absurd suggestion. If you’re the captain of the Titanic, who’s just had his ship crippled by hitting an iceberg, why in the world would you ever even contemplate going anywhere near another one? And similarly with any rescue ships, why would they place their ship, and their own passengers, in danger by going anywhere near the iceberg? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/27 "2012-04-18T23:58:02Z")
Has a ship ever unloaded it’s passengers on an iceberg when in danger of sinking? ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/28 "2012-04-19T00:54:45Z")
> [@GreedySmurf](#): > > And similarly with any rescue ships, why would they place their ship, and their own passengers, in danger by going anywhere near the iceberg? Any rescue ship could just take the survivors off with their own lifeboats or other light craft. The Iceberg wrecked the Titanic because the Titanic was a heavy ship going twenty knots. If an oar powered lifeboat hit some undersea ice, its just going to bounce off. As to getting the Titanic close enough to unload in the first place, I’m not convinced that’s as big a problem as people are making it out to be either. Note when looking for the original iceberg, two ships managed to find _two different icebergs_ that had signs of an impact above the waterline. This suggests that in two seperate cases ships were able to get their above waterline structure close enough to the ice to touch. And that’s just in the general area of the Titanic collision. Icebergs get wider under the waterline, but I don’t think they “flare out” as rapidly as some people seem to be picturing. Difficulty finding the iceberg again seems a little more likely. But if they’d only gone forward for five minutes or so after the impact as **abel29a** suggests, I wouldn’t think it would be that hard. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/29 "2012-04-19T02:25:26Z")
Why would you abandon an unsinkable ship? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/30 "2012-04-19T06:13:42Z")
Aren’t icebergs slippery? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/31 "2012-04-19T06:39:19Z")
If only they had a real expert aboard, someone who could get in really close, steering by eye and instinct, to that iceberg to unload people == someone like [Francesco Schettino](http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Politics/Pix/pictures/2012/1/16/1326715169212/Costa-Concordia-cruise-sh-007.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/32 "2012-04-19T07:56:36Z")
Unless the OP wishes to claim it, I hereby call rights to the blog name _Evacuate to the Iceberg._ ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/33 "2012-04-19T09:42:38Z")
How do you climb up an iceberg? It’s made of ice. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/34 "2012-04-19T09:50:26Z")
Look people, what if the iceberg is then sunk by an even bigger ship? Where does it all end? ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/35 "2012-04-19T13:17:02Z")
Many of the passengers on the sinking Titanic didn’t even want to get into the _lifeboats_, how could you possibly convince them to get onto the damned iceberg? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/36 "2012-04-19T14:57:50Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > As to getting the Titanic close enough to unload in the first place, I’m not convinced that’s as big a problem as people are making it out to be either. Note when looking for the original iceberg, two ships managed to find _two different icebergs_ that had signs of an impact above the waterline. This suggests that in two seperate cases ships were able to get their above waterline structure close enough to the ice to touch Not necessarily. You don’t have to get close enough to touch an iceberg to see marks from an impact on it. Especially not if you have binoculars. [This picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titanic_iceberg.jpg), which may be of the iceberg that the Titanic hit, was clearly not taken by someone touching the above-water part of the iceberg. The iceberg got the photographer’s attention because it had a smear of red paint on it. I’d bet a smear of red paint on a white iceberg would be visible from some distance away. If that was the iceberg that sank the Titanic, it doesn’t look like it would be easy to climb onto. There don’t appear to be nice flat areas near the water line. You’d probably need specialized gear for climbing on ice. Why would anyone on the Titanic have such gear ready at hand when they needed to evacuate the ship? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/37 "2012-04-19T15:20:30Z")
I’m going to go with “because the Titanic wasn’t carrying any pitons and everyone who boarded the iceberg would have fallen off and drowned.” ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/38 "2012-04-19T15:39:55Z")
The iceberg probably didn’t come out of the collision with the Titanic unscathed. Damage from the collision could have [caused part of the iceberg to fall off](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_calving), possibly some time after the collision. Cracks can propagate through ice, so it’s not necessarily just the part near where the Titanic hit that is going to be in danger. When pieces do fall off of icebergs or ice shelves, they can make a big splash when they fall into the water. This would create large and unpredictable waves, making it even more dangerous than usual to get close to the iceberg in a ship or lifeboat. You really wouldn’t want to get a ship near an iceberg that has recently been in a collision, making it possibly unstable. Icebergs can even [flip over](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=365362). This might even be more likely to happen to a recently damaged iceberg. It would, of course, kill anyone who was on the iceberg at the time. Not only that, it would create large, chaotic waves that would pose a danger to any ship near the iceberg at the time. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/39 "2012-04-19T15:41:55Z")
It would not matter. By all accounts even if they had twice as many life boats they needed a shit load of people would have died. The crew did not take the evac seriously until it was to late. Their were to many conflicting orders. Their was only 1 drill the whole way and everyone thought it was a joke. Long story short the crew was really not all that good at their job and resulted in many people dieing. They did not even know how to lower some of the boats correctly nor knew their capiactiy. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137/40 "2012-04-19T15:48:40Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I dunno, they’d already found an iceberg in the dark _once_ that evening… And, as an added bonus, in addition to sinking an unsinkable ship, they could have set the record for the amount of times a ship crashed into the same iceberg in the one night. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-the-titanics-personnel-evacuate-to-the-iceberg/619137.md?page=3)