A Titanic Tragedy

Captain Edward J. Smith began Titanic’s maiden voyage on April 10, 1912, which was also the first day of his last voyage before retirement.  Once on open ocean, they averaged 26 knots per hour, a speed that made it impossible to rectify the 882-foot ship’s course after hitting the iceberg. Many accounts state that as an experienced captain, Smith was the voice of authority over other influential passengers like Bruce J. Ismay, White Star Line Chairman. On the other hand, some state that Ismay had influence over Captain Smith and strongly encouraged him to go fast enough to make the full voyage in only six days. Ismay gained a very negative reputation in the press after Titanic’s sinking. Families who sued the White Star Line company accused them of the following: the crew ignored messages about the presence of icebergs by maintaining the current speed, staying on a dangerous northern course, not posting any additional lookouts, and failing to provide the lookouts with binoculars. When Ismay was later questioned about the issues of Titanic’s speed, the lifeboats, lookouts, etc., he maintained that all the decisions were made by Captain Edward Smith and he had been traveling as a passenger and observer only. Reportedly, the captain did not heed the ice warnings and did not slow the ship when there was ice reported in Titanic’s path of travel, a common practice at the time. It was said that there were over seven warnings both from his crew and other nearby ships that he either discounted or ignored. The lifeboat issue is continually examined in the sinking of the ship. Ironically, the very day that the ship sank, a drill had been scheduled for the passengers to practice boarding the lifeboats. The drill was canceled by the captain. The reason why remains unknown. During the two and a half hours after hitting the iceberg, the few lifeboats there were on board left the ship’s decks only partially filled. The first boat, which could have held 40 people only had 12 passengers in it. Captain Smith went down with the Titanic.