Iceberg Dead Ahead

The fate of the Titanic could be said to date back over 3,000 years. This was when the snow flakes that eventually became the iceberg, waiting on that fateful night and leading to her untimely end, were fluttering gently to the ground beneath.

It takes approximately 3,000 years for an iceberg to be born, although it can be as much as 15,000, as the snow slowly changes into denser ice crystals, which are compacted as the weight gradually increases, from subsequent snow falls. This process repeats over thousands of years, to form the glaciers that eventually flow into the northern waters, off the coast of Greenland. Here, large chunks break off, in what is called the calving of icebergs.

The trip to the open ocean is a long one, and very few of the calved bergs actually make it. It is estimated that between 30 and 40,000 bergs are calved each year, and of these less than 1% or 3–400 actually reach the Atlantic, at around 48 deg north latitude.

When it does reach there, its long life generally comes to a rather rapid end, as it melts away like an ice cube in a glass of scotch.

As fate again would have it, 1911 – 1912 saw a particularly cold spell, and icebergs, which normally would have melted by the early spring, when Titanic was taking her maiden voyage, were still causing problems in the middle of the shipping lanes and at much lower latitudes than normal. Titanic was sailing a course through 42 north latitude having already turned south to miss the normal berg flow.

A piece of trivia: although the Artic produces the most bergs, the Antarctic produces the largest. A recent chunk (2002), was double the size of Manhattan Island, while another around the size of Rhode Island, has been monitored for a number of years, as it leisurely cruises around the southern ocean.

So here we have a ship, purported to be unsinkable and an iceberg, heading towards each other on a collision course.

Was there anything that could indicate the disaster that was to unfold?

We have a ship that was deemed to be unsinkable, so much so that there were only enough lifeboats for 1/3 of the capacity of the ship.

She was travelling at speeds too high for the conditions.

Ice warnings were ignored and finally not even passed on.

The night sky was perfectly clear, but there was no moon and the ocean was smooth as glass. Both contributed to a black berg not being seen until it was too late.

The crew although experienced were not experienced with this new type of ship and her triple screw propellers. So when danger did strike, the right action was the wrong action.

The Ship was sailing at a rescheduled date due to an accident to her sister ship, so technically shouldn’t have even been there that day.

There were 2 ships that were close enough to have saved all those on board, one ignored the distress signal and the other had no radio and was not in visual range.

Again there is much more but I think you get the idea.

Background
Part 1   Introduction to the story.
Part 2   Sign of the Times
Part 3  The Times They are a Changing
Part 4  Crossing the Atlantic
Part 5  Iceberg Dead Ahead

The Journey
Part 1 Preparation
Part 2 Setting Sail
Part 3 A few stops
Part 4 All's well
more coming soon

Another Perspecive
Part 1 An astrological look
Part 2 An astrological perspective