Misplaced key sank Titanic

JJR512

JJR512

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Key that could have saved the Titanic
By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 2:09am BST 30/08/2007



It looks for all the world like an ordinary key but this unremarkable piece of metal could have saved the Titanic from disaster.

It is thought to have fitted the locker that contained the crow's nest binoculars, vital in detecting threats to the liner lurking in the sea in the pre-sonar days of 1912.

Catastrophically for the Titanic and the 1,522 lives lost with her, the key's owner, Second Officer David Blair, was removed from the crew at the last minute and in his haste forgot to hand it to his replacement.

Without access to the glasses, the lookouts in the crow's nest were forced to rely on their eyes and only saw the iceberg when it was too late to take action.

One, Fred Fleet, who survived the disaster, later told the official inquiry into the tragedy that if they had had binoculars they would have seen the obstacle sooner.

When asked by a US senator chairing the inquiry how much sooner, Mr Fleet replied: "Enough to get out of the way."
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...VCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2007/08/29/ntitanic129.xml

If I found out I had absentmindedly killed 1522 people, I probably would have killed myself.
 
Indeed. I thought it was a foggy night as well. I daresay that a closer look at at minimal visibility would have done much good.
 
I also find it hard to believe that there were no other binoculars on board.
 
Misplaced common sense, more like. I always thought it sad that ... if they hadn't seen it at all, they'd have survived. It was veering off that doomed them. If they'd just plowed right in, they'd have stayed afloat and made newfoundland under their own steam.
 
Silly me for taking the word (speculative though it may have been) of someone who was there.

The Titanic just grazed the iceberg. Had it been seen even just ten seconds sooner, and the entire process that took place after that being advanced in time by the same ten seconds, then the ship almost certainly would have missed it entirely.

I will agree with the opinion, if anyone has it, that implying that this key was the sole factor in the tragedy of the Titanic is an inaccuracy. There are any number of minor, seemingly insignificant details that could have made things turn out differently, solely on their own. For example, all other things being exactly the way they were, if the ship had been designed and built with a bigger rudder. All other things being equal, if the lookout hadn't been paying attention, or was looking another way, and saw the iceberg later than he had, and the ship had hit it more directly, then you have what Professur said right above.

It always felt like a mistake to me to both go to full reverse and apply a hard rudder. It feels to me like the ship would have turned more sharply if they had left it full ahead and applied a hard rudder.
 
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