by Ashley Smith

Created on: October 07, 2008

The tragic loss of the titanic and of 1500 of its passengers and crew was partly bad luck and partly poor design based on complacency.The bad luck is bvased on the fact that although badly flawed the ship would have survived if it hadnt hit the iceberg,it was capable of sailing safely but not of hitting anything.

ng things.As per usual when the design problems were found other ships were checked but as ever it was too late by then.

The titanic was sold to the world as the unsinkable ship designed with the most advanced technology possible,it also boasted the best crew available.When passengers boarded they believed the trip to be nothing out of the ordinary and above all totally safe.

The ship was 269m long and 28m wide,she had four large funnels(one was only an air vent added to improve looks),there were three engines and it could when fully loaded take 3,547 passengers and crew.One of the problems was that the company decided when it was time to sail to carry lifeboats for only around half that number.The law of the age decreed that a boat of the Titanic size should carry sixteen lifeboats as well as floats,the titanic had twenty life rafts so technically was legal because capacity for the boats wasn't taken in to consideration.The lifeboats appear to have been fitted in the way they were to ensure they could be kept out of site and not spoil the look of the ship,it seems obvious they were installed purely to fit the law and were never designed for use.

It was April 14th 1912 when the lifeboats were needed properly as a result of the titanic hitting an iceberg.There had been warnings of icebergs in the area and even before hitting the fatal iceberg the ships lookouts had spotted it and sounded the alarm.First officer Murdoch on hearing the alarm ordered an immediate turn to starboard but it was too late,the ice berg struck and damaged the ship ,causing water to begin to fill the ship.The damage stretched some 90 m and water filled 5 compartments in the base of the ship,the water tight doors sealed but the ship was only built to survive 4 flooded compartments.

Following an examination the call was made to launch lifeboats.The first boat was launched with under half its capacity aboard,this was even more important as there was only half the sapce needed in the first place.The ship sent out distress calls immediatly the decision was made to abandon ship,other ships that heard the call headed to the location to help.The nearest boat was 58 miles away but at that time that meant four hours sailing which was too long.

Although the boat started sinking slowly at first it finally went down quicker towards the end,in fact taking some people by surprise.Ass its last part sunk it hit some survivors and boats in the water adding to the toll.The people left aboard searching for lifeboats went down with the ship,as it reached its final moments afloat the boat split in two and the electrics failed leaving people in darkness.

The further failing on the boat was the way people were split by class and travelling standard,while most first class passengers survived the percentage plummets as you go down to second and third class.Over the following days and weeks the dead were recovered along with those that escaped in the lifeboats.People who had died or suffered from bad deisgn and complancey.

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