Introduction:
The sinking of the Titanic and the resulting tragedy of the great loss of life was an event of such significance that is difficult to find another non-war time event that has captured the thoughts of so many people and sparked such interest for over 100 years. Moreover, it’s fame is so widespread that it is difficult to find a school child who has not heard about it in any Western country. Part of the reason for it’s fame was that it was one of the deadliest maritime disasters during peacetime. There were an estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, and more than 1,500 died. That acts of providence should have led to this great tragedy seems incomprehensible – doesn’t providence only work to make the world a better place, not to cause tragedy? We must conclude that acts of providence occasionally results in a tragic outcome. This relates to the age-old question of how there can be any bad that occurs in the world since if God is good and just, why would He allow bad things to happen? And the only answer really is that the only way to fully understand the logic of the universe and its happenings is to be God, which we are not. So we simply must accept that although God is good and just; there are some things that we simply cannot understand. But in regards to the Titanic, we can suggest one possible positive result to the tragedy – it teaches us the dangerous effects of hubris. The comment was made that not even God Himself could sink the ship. This obviously did not increase the protection of the providence of God on the ship – most likely, it did just the opposite. Additionally, because of this hubris, the owners and builders rejected plans for sufficient lifeboats because its sinking was an “impossibility. It only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board, and one third of her total capacity. Additionally, hubris played a big role in the tragedy in numerous ways: 1) the ship should not have proceeded in darkness when it received numerous reports of icebergs. 2) the ship should definitely not have sailed at maximum speed! 3) The ship should not have continued sailing even after it struck the iceberg which caused the sinking to happen much faster (see below). 4) The lifeboats that were deployed were half empty. This was due to the lack of proper training for the crew because it was believed that there was no point in training for emergency evacuations if there couldn’t even be an emergency! In fact, everything about theTitanic was suggestive of hubris: it was the largest ship afloat at the time she entered service. It was also the maiden voyage of luxury ship of tremendous proportions that carried some of the wealthiest people in the world. The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger “marconigrams” and for the ship’s operational use.[5] It had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors. This helped support the hubris that caused one employee to have stated, “God Himself cannot sink this ship!”
Background:
After leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland before heading west to New York.[7] On 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles (600 km) south of Newfoundland, she hit an iceberg at 11:40 p.m. ship’s time. The collision caused the hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard (right) side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea; she could only survive four flooding. Meanwhile, passengers and some crew members were evacuated in lifeboats, many of which were launched only partially loaded. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a “women and children first” protocol for loading lifeboats.[8] At 2:20 a.m., she broke apart and foundered with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived and brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors.
The disaster was met with worldwide shock and outrage at the huge loss of life and the regulatory and operational failures that led to it. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to major improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), which still governs maritime safety. Additionally, several new wireless regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers.[9]
The wreck of Titanic was discovered in 1985 (more than 70 years after the disaster), during a US military mission[10] and remains on the seabed. The ship was split in two and is gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Thousands of artefacts have been recovered and displayed at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history; her memory is kept alive by numerous works of popular culture, including books, folk songs, films, exhibits, and memorials. Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister HMHS Britannic, the largest ever sunk, although she holds the record as the largest sunk while actually in service as a liner due to Britannic being used as a hospital ship at the time of her sinking. The final survivor of the sinking, Millvina Dean, aged two months at the time, died in 2009 at the age of 97.
Acts of Providence:
There were many striking coincidences that took place that caused the tragedy to occur, which is the topic of this website. We will list a few of them here but this is just the tip of the iceberg -pun intended – of the overwhelming number of uncanny coincidences that occurred in relation to the tragedy.
- A fatal steering mistake: Louise Patten, a writer and granddaughter of Titanic second officer Charles Lightoller, said that instead of steering the Titanic around to the left of the iceberg, the steersman, Robert Hitchins, had panicked and turned it the wrong way.” This was caused to the conversion from sail ships to steam which meant there were two different steering systems. The wheel turned one way in a sail ship but turned the opposite way in a steam ship and Hitchins turned it the opposite way.
- Another fatal mistake was that the captain continued sailing instead of stopping the ship. This was due to the pressure from J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic’s owner the White Star Line. This caused the ship to sink hours faster than would otherwise have happened, and in those additional few hours, other ships would have been able to come to the rescue.
- Another uncanny coincidence that caused the tragedy was the inability to see the iceberg in advance due to unusual weather conditions. There was no moon which could have provided vital visibility. Additionally, the sea was unusually calm so there was nothing to give away the position of the nearby icebergs; had the sea been rougher, waves breaking against the icebergs would have made them more visible.[29] Additionally, because of a mix-up at Southampton the lookouts had no binoculars but it is not clear that binoculars would have even been effective due to such darkness. Additionally, there was a slight haze which experts now believe was actually a mirage caused by cold waters meeting warm air when the Titanic got close to the iceberg. This cause a raised horizon which obscured the view of the lookouts and prevented them from possibly seeing the iceberg.[32][33]
- The fact that there was actually a ship nearby, the SS. Californian which ignored the distress signals of the Titanic, was what allowed the tragedy to occur. This made the tragedy all the more maddening because it could have been avoided so easily. Had it responded, most of not all the lives on board the Titanic could have been saved. The fact that it didn’t due to various reasons (see next paragraph) was an usual act of providence. It is noteworthy that the United States Senate inquiry and British Wreck Commissioner’s inquiry into the sinking both concluded that the Californian could have saved many or all of the lives that were lost, had a prompt response been mounted to the Titanic’s distress rockets. In a related act of providence, the SS. Californian was sunk during World War I. On 9 November 1915, while en route from Salonica to Marseilles, she was torpedoed and sunk approximately 60 miles (50 nmi; 100 km) south-southwest of Cape Matapan, Greece by the GermanU-boatU-35, killing one person and injuring two others. To date, Californian‘s wreck remains undiscovered.[55] In another related act of providence, The Californian went down less than 200 miles (170 nmi; 320 km) from the location where HMHS Britannic, Titanic‘s sister ship, would be sunk by a mine just over a year later.
- In an uncanny coincidence, a fight broke out between the signal operators of the respective ships at a time when cooperation and communication were of the utmost importance. At the same time that Californian’s only wireless operator, Cyril Furmstone Evans sent the message to Titanic’s on-duty wireless operator, Jack Phillips; the latter was busy clearing a backlog of passengers’ messages with the wireless station at Cape Race, Newfoundland, 800 miles (1,300 km) away, at the time. Evans’ message that SS Californian was stopped and surrounded by ice, due to the relative proximity of the two ships, drowned out a separate message Phillips had been in the process of receiving from Cape Race, and he rebuked Evans with strong language. Phillips then continued with his inconsequential activities and put the warning out of his mind. Evans, who was likely offended by the rude language of Phillips decided not to repeat his warning even though it had evidently not been registered by Phillips. He then switched off his wireless equipment and went to bed.[14] Ten minutes later, Titanic hit an iceberg.
