 |
| TITANIC SINKING |
According to a new version of what happened, the crew saw the iceberg time, despite which the ship crashed into the ice mass because of that error, kept secret by the second officer of the liner, Charles Lightoller, who survived the collapse.
The granddaughter of the officer, the writer Louise Patten, 56, reveals what happened in his new novel, Good as Gold.
His grandfather died before she was born, but Patten lived with his grandmother, who told her what happened then.
The error, which cost the lives of thousand 517 people, occurred because the ship had two systems of government under two different managers and one was located over the other.
It was the era of transition from sail to steam navigation, and many sailors then, including many officers of the Titanic, had been in command of ships before sailing.
Hence they were accustomed to giving orders under the old system, which means that if one wanted the boat was in one direction, had to turn the rudder in the opposite direction.
The new system was, however, such as driving a car: one moves the steering wheel in the same direction you want it to go the car.
The order of turn to port as it meant he had to turn the wheel to the right under the old system and to the left, under the new system.
When the First Officer William Murdoch, spotted the iceberg at two miles away, gave the order "hard to starboard" was misunderstood by his subordinate Robert Hitchins, which turned the ship to the right instead of left.
While almost immediately warned him of the error and told him to correct, it was too late.
To compound this fundamental error, Bruce Ismay, president of the company that owns the ship, the White Star Line, was the command post and persuaded the captain of the Titanic sailed to stop it instead of the false belief that the vessel was unsinkable.
That led to improvements in water pressure coming through the hull damaged, so the less time it took Titanic to sink in what had been normal in other circumstances.
Charles Lightoller error kept secret during the investigation that is conducted on both sides of the Atlantic for fear of bankruptcy of the shipping if the truth were known.
Lightoller died in 1952, then was considered a hero for his role in the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II, "and his family declined to reveal the truth until now for fear of ruining his reputation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment