Titanic may have been a victim of weak rivets, not iceberg

I was under the impression that an iceberg sank the Titanic. But according to new research, it wasn’t really the iceberg’s fault. It was the ship’s weak bolts and rivets that caused the ship to sink.

Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship’s bow plates. And the damage, Dr. Foecke noted, “ends close to where the rivets transition from iron to steel.”

The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to arrive before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.

The New York Times continues:

On her inaugural voyage, on the night of April 14, 1912, the ship hit the iceberg around 11:40 p.m. and sank in a little more than two and a half hours. Most everyone assumed the iceberg had torn a huge gash in the starboard hull.

The discovery in 1985 of the Titanic wreck began many new inquiries. In 1996, an expedition found, beneath obscuring mud, not a large gash but six narrow slits where bow plates appeared to have parted. Naval experts suspected that rivets had popped along the seams, letting seawater rush in under high pressure.

There is a slideshow of images including a demonstration of how the rivets might have succumbed to the overwhelming pressure after the initial impact with the iceberg.

So there you have it, it wasn’t the iceberg’s fault. It was the ship’s fault for sinking itself!