Yeah. They could have fothered it with the mains’l.
That is exactly what capt. Lord (master of the SS Californian) did-he was stopped in the ice, waiting for daylight to proceed.
Ok, before I look these up, and promptly forget them anyway, is this a goof using words simply because they are so eminently yaar-my-matey?
The post I quoted was purposely silly, so I answered it with another silly solution.
Titanic didn’t have sails, let alone a main sail, though if it did, the main sail likely would have been the largest.
I’m a prairie boy, born and bred. Everything I learned about going down to the sea in boats I learned from Horatio Hornblower.
Thank you, honestly.
ETA: OK, now you’ve done it again:
“Thrummed”?
ETA2: “They that go down to the sea in ships”–your locution. Source?
Psalm 107:23.
Making a continuous rhythmic humming sound.
But Horatio Hornblower eschewed thrumming — it was never mentioned. Anyway, who would have had time to thrum a mains’l after hitting an iceberg in the biggest ship that had ever “sailed?”
There is a large discussion on this in the encyclopedia titanica forums.
They go into detail on most of these scenarios mentioned.
Some highlights include:
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The crew did as well as could be reasonably expected given the circumstances
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At the time, there had been no major iceberg sinkings and they were reasonable confident in the capabilities of the ship. They did not forsee striking an iceberg:smack:
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Once the iceberg was struck, they did not initially think the ship would sink until the reports of water coming in were realized.
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This occurred in the middle of the night when most of the crew and passengers were asleep and any reaction was delayed.
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The boats had to be lowered by hand and given the time frame and circumstances , getting almost all of the boats off was a significant achievement.
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If everything was optimal, at best, maybe 1200 people could have been saved instead of the 705 that were saved.
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Putting people on the iceberg was not considered at all. Even if that was attempted, it would not likely be successful. They would have to go by lifeboat and then getting off the lifeboat onto the iceberg would be difficult at best. Then whatever rescue ship would have to find them on this iceberg.
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On another point, there was some discussion if the California could have made it to the ship whether any more people could be saved. The conclusion was that if the California was there say within an hour, there would still be the issue of transferring the people from the Titanic to the California and guess what, it would need lifeboats!!! The only additional lifeboats were those from the California and at best, they only had a few more lifeboats so only a few more people could be rescued.
Great post, ssgenius…thanks.
Considering that most people that night died of hypothermia and not from drowning, I would imagine climbing on the iceberg would’ve killed them anyways, just from the cold.
And as far as why they were sailing in an area with icebergs? Actually, it had been an unseasonably warm winter, and thus there were a lot of icebergs that had broken off and had sailed farther down into the shipping lanes.
Nowhere near as fast. The air temperature was around 0oC and there was no wind whatsoever. With dry clothing an adult can survive in those conditions for a great many hours, as anyone knows who has gone for a stroll on a frosty night wearing just a a jacket and jeans. It’s uncomfortable, but not unbearable even after a couple of hours, and I guess not dangerous for 6 hours. If people could huddle together on an iceberg, I would imagine they could survive for days under those conditions.
In contrast, immersed in water at 0oC you’d be fortunate to remain conscious for 20 minutes, and even if you were fished out after 10 minutes you would likely still die of hypothermia because there would be no way to treat that many people.
They say that it was courageous of the band to play as the Titainic sank but I wonder if it just didn’t add to the problem of people not taking the event seriousy.
Interesting.
If the berg they hit is the one pictured, there’s not a lot of standing room there.
Honestly, the stupidest thing they did was locking the doors to steerage. Down there were the folks with the brawn to get off every lifeboat. They were craftsmen and construction workers, with the experience and capability to rig better floats from whatever materials were at hand. They might have kept a lot more people alive.
I don’t think that’ll play outside the U.K.
They did take it seriously. Read the survivor testimony that is available online.
Read the survivor testimony. Very few people mentioned about the locked doors. If there was anything that was locked, it would be the doors to the engineering areas
“Stupid” is the kindest thing you could say about that.
I think when one hears a band that’s been playing ragtime an other popular tunes all voyage suddenly start playing hymns like “Nearer my God to Thee,” one would appreciate the gravity of the situation.