RMS Titanic

Precautions

• Size of the liner
• Watertight compartments
• Switch-operated watertight doors
• Telegraph
• White Star Line's competition with Cunard (fast Mauretania, Lusitania)
• 1 of 3 ships

Negligence

• Life boats for 1,178/2,224 (20 boats instead of British Board of Trade's recommended 16)
• U.S. immigration legislation gates
• Carpathia (Cunard) telegram operator
• Starting out: SS New York, coal fire, "Titanic" poem

Untitled Slide

Leadership Strategies

• Law of the sea: women and children
• ALL lifeboats were partially filled (705)
• Ice warnings & speed (on-time)
• Delayed damage control (grazed not head-on)--1.5 left (3 hours)
• Heroism of passengers (see Molly Brown)
• Crewmen did not turn back

Summary of Failures

• Poor regulation (not non-compliance)
• Poor communication (telegram, false media reports)
• Poor contingency planning
• Compliance is only the minimum standard for social responsibility
• Blind worship of technology (see Challenger explosion)

Feasibility of a 2nd Ship

• A second ship
• Transfer the cost
• Contemporaneous precedent
• It could have worked

Post-Titanic Changes

• International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea
• International Ice Patrol
• Shipbuilding bulks raised and made more watertight