Original subtitles

[Music]

the sinking of the titanic is one of the

most famous and tragic stories of all

time

but how she met her fate was not just

the result of a collision between a

liner and an iceberg

from the very day that she was designed

she was almost doomed

there was a lot of questions surrounding

what role the materials played in in the

sinking of the ship

astonishing new scientific evidence

reveals the chain of events that brought

about the demise of a ship that was

thought to be unsinkable

and led to the death of over 1500 people

one of the greatest maritime losses in

modern history

[Music]

april 14 1912

an iceberg with a mass of a million tons

drifts into the path of titanic

[Music]

nice big right ahead

[Music]

at 11 39 pm titanic scrapes an iceberg

[Applause]

officers believe they have avoided

disaster

but below the water line it's another

story

[Music]

now almost a hundred years later many

questions remain unanswered

who or what was responsible

and why did the mightiest ship of her

time sink so quickly

[Music]

jennifer hooper mccarty is re-examining

survivor testimony and forensic evidence

recovered from the wreck to finally

unravel the mystery

[Music]

we have very little knowledge of what

that impact was like

what we do know is is only based on the

survivor testimony

from 1912.

[Music]

a public inquiry is held just two weeks

after the disaster

the key witness is bruce ismey the

50-year-old chairman of white star the

shipping company that owned the titanic

he is one of the few men who survived

the maiden voyage

[Music]

also called to testify are wireless

operator harold bride and second officer

charles lighthaller the most senior

officer to survive

these three men's testimony are vital in

deciding who was to blame

[Music]

i gather that you yourself gave the

instructions for the building of the

titanic

yes

and of course you considered the

question of floatability of the ship in

cases of accident or emergency we did

two years before the scheduled launch

date ismay met with his chief designer

alexander carlin

they make what they think to be

seemingly insignificant changes given

the many safety features titanic will

boast

the staircase needs to be much grander

the bulkhead will have to be lowered

is there a problem isn't she safe of

course excuse me

the bulkhead is a partition used to

create watertight compartments or cells

in the hall of the ship

the higher the bulkheads the safer the

ship

as it would be more likely that water

could be contained within any damaged

compartments

each of the 16 compartment is watertight

in the event of a leak

each compartment can be sealed up by an

electric power door operated from the

bridge even if four compartments flood

she'll stay afloat good let's lower the

bell kids in

the height of the watertight

compartments will be reduced to as low

as 10 feet above the water line

[Applause]

[Music]

the boat deck should not be so cluttered

cluttered yes cluttered

people don't pay to look at life bets

well i thought 48 to be a reasonable

amount

especially with the board of trade

increase the requirements well let's not

second-guess the british board of trade

shall we

let's move on

to the grand salon and this meeting with

mysteries may lasted four hours

yes we talked about the whole of the

decorations of the ship never mind the

decorations we're talking about

lifeboats well the lifeboat part is

supposed to take about five or ten

minutes how many lifeboats did you think

there ought to be

i thought ought to be three on each set

of davits

and how many would that make all

together

48 votes you thought there ought to be

48

yes

whereas in point of fact how many were

there

[Music]

16

16.

[Music]

while carlisle changes his designs for

the titanic two thousand miles away on

the west greenland coast a glacier made

of ten year old snow reaches the ocean

a mass of ice weighing up to two million

tons breaks free

[Music]

it is one of forty 000 icebergs born

each year along the greenland coast

one month later the currents carry it on

an unlikely two-year journey that will

take it around baffin bay and on to

newfoundland

april 1910

as the iceberg drifts up the west

greenland coast work begins on building

the hall of the titanic

[Music]

shipbuilding is in transition

machines are replacing men steel

replacing iron

builders want the hull to be made of

steel plates held together with

mechanical fasteners called rivets which

are inserted through aligned holes in

the hull plate

for optimum strength these would be made

from steel which is stronger than iron

but inserting these steel rivets is only

possible using a large pneumatic

riveting

machine the equipment is too bulky to be

used in the curved areas of the ship

so instead men seal the plates with

materials that are easier to hammer into

place

rivets made of wrought iron

this will potentially weaken a small

area of the bow section but is a

widespread practice and nothing unusual

had ever come of it

the captain chosen for the maiden voyage

is edward john smith the most

experienced captain in the white star

line it is to be his last voyage before

retiring

smith was nicknamed the millionaires

captain people like guggenheim or even

jp morgan would actually change their

sailings and their travel arrangements

so that they could sail

in a ship commanded by captain smith

march 1912 titanic's sister ship the

olympic returns for emergency repairs

so work on the final stages of the

titanic comes to a standstill

titanic's maiden voyage pushes back a

month

she will now sail in mid april the month

when most icebergs appear in the

shipping lanes in the north atlantic

april 2nd 1912 the titanic leaves

belfast for southampton where it picks

up its first passengers

the unexpected delay of the titanic's

maiden voyage forces captain smith into

making a last-minute reshuffle of the

crew

good afternoon gentlemen

as you all know the olympic is currently

laid up

it has therefore been decided that the

olympics chief officer mr wild will be

joining us as chief officer so mr

murdock you will now be first officer

mr lighthouse you will be second officer

mr blair

i would like to have a word with you in

private

can you believe it

the arrival of officers from the olympic

means that murdoch and lightholer are

both demoted

second officer blair is asked to leave

the ship

in his haste to disembark blair

accidentally takes with him the key to

his locker which contains the binoculars

for the lookouts in the crow's nest

[Applause]

the day before its maiden voyage to new

york the titanic is given its final

check by a british board of trade

inspector

16 standard lifeboats passenger capacity

65 70 of push comes to shove

[Music]

the size of ocean liners has quadrupled

in the last 15 years but the board of

trades lifeboat regulations have

remained the same

the titanic is approved 16 lifeboats is

deemed satisfactory for over 2 000

people

[Music]

rms titanic leaves southampton docks for

new york with 600 crew and over 1500

passengers

titanic isn't just carrying millionaires

many are third class passengers

emigrating to the united states in

search of a new life

the last living survivor is melvina dean

then a 10-week old baby traveling with

her parents

my father was going to open a

tobacconist shop in kansas

he spent all his money on that and then

couldn't afford to do anything else but

go in third class because it was such a

luxury ship all the millionaires were on

it

and also the most important thing was

they said it was unsinkable

[Music]

after picking up more passengers in

france and ireland captain smith's plan

is to cross the atlantic in six days

[Applause]

he will need to cross the 3 000 mile

ocean at just over 19 knots

the equivalent of 22 miles per hour

[Music]

to avoid the springtime icebergs captain

smith plots a southern route across the

atlantic

by going this far south he will take the

ship out of the known ice region

but the vast white iceberg continues to

drift even further southward towards the

grand banks

despite being eroded by the sea it is

still over four times the size of the

titanic

[Music]

the titanic is already over halfway

across the atlantic

her 200 foot tall mass support aerials

that allow her state-of-the-art wireless

system to communicate with other ships

up to 400 miles away

ships use this to send and receive

weather reports check positions and call

for help in emergencies

midday sunday april 14th titanic

receives the second ice warning of the

day

it is from the steamship baltic and

gives the location of a region that

contains icebergs

the msg prefix would show it was for the

captain's attention

there will be five ice warnings during

the day

but this will be the last that the

captain will receive

captain smith planned a change in course

from southwest to due west at 5 30 pm

but he delays the change in direction by

20 minutes to allow the ship to travel

further south and avoid the ice region

reported in the baltics wireless message

[Music]

south 86 west mr hitchens

steady she goes

the captain believes he is heading

toward a safe area of the gulf stream

where there are no icebergs but

unbeknown to him he takes the ship in a

direct collision course with the iceberg

[Music]

in 1912 a phenomenon takes place that

allowed icebergs to travel further south

than is thought possible

the cold labrador current that pushes

itself into the gulf stream forms a cold

protective layer around the iceberg

the labrador current goes where the gulf

stream permits it to go depending upon

the exact location of the gulf stream

the cold water can move quite far to the

south of the tail of the bank if the

gulf stream is southward moving you have

relatively cold water pushing very far

south into the north atlantic ocean into

the shipping lanes in recent years

icebergs have moved as far south as the

latitude of philadelphia

as the iceberg moves into the shipping

lanes it is seen by other ships that

send wireless warnings to the titanic

but the inquiry will later learn that

these messages will never reach the

captain

[Music]

the wireless operators on the titanic

serve two functions they relay weather

reports and ice warnings but what pays

their salary is sending and receiving

messages for the wealthy passengers on

board

at 7 20 pm bride finishes his accounts

and then intercepts the message from the

californian it warns of three large

icebergs seen at 42 north 49 west

directly in the path of the titanic

[Music]

it's for the captain going to the bridge

but captain smith has already left the

bridge and is now dining with passengers

had bride taken down the message earlier

the captain would have received it and

could have taken evasive action

[Music]

and you simply delivered it to an

officer on the bridge

it's for the captain

which officer

i can't remember

none of the surviving officers recall

ever seeing this vital message

to this day nobody knows if the message

was delivered

titanic unwittingly steams ahead into

the path of the iceberg

[Music]

april 14 1912 the titanic heads toward

the united states at 24 miles per hour

with over 1300 passengers aboard

[Music]

captain smith checks the bridge before

retiring for the night

[Music]

it's cold

yes it is cold sir

not much wind either

no sir as a matter of fact it's a flat

calm

yes

a flat calm

[Music]

you both realized at the time that since

it was a flat calm it would be more

difficult to see the ice

um as far as the case of the berg is

concerned yes it would be much more

difficult

naturally

you wouldn't see the water breaking on

it if there were no wind so you would

not have that to look for

[Music]

if you were placed in similar

circumstances would you still bang on at

21.5 knots well that looks like

carelessness you know

that we should recklessly bang on and

slap her into an iceberg regardless of

anything

but undoubtedly we should not do that

what i want to suggest to you is that it

was recklessness

in view of the abnormal conditions and

in view of the knowledge you had that

ice was in the immediate vicinity to

proceed at 21.5 knots

then all i can say is that recklessness

applies to practically every commander

in every ship that crosses the atlantic

ocean

[Music]

in the wireless room phillips has a

two-hour window to send every passenger

message while the titanic is in range of

the cape race receiver at newfoundland

he is interrupted by the fifth and the

most critical ice warning of the day

it is from another ship the ss masaba

the masaba gives the precise location of

an area containing icebergs only 50

miles away from the titanic

[Music]

this would alert the captain that the

titanic is heading straight towards the

iceberg

but the warning comes without the

critical msg prefix

phillips interprets the message as

non-urgent and goes back to sending

passenger messages

the closest ship to the titanic the

californian also sends a message she has

decided to stop for the night because of

ice

but their wireless operator does not

wait for phillips to stop sending his

messages

and overrides it with a powerful signal

ah

bloody idiot

[Music]

philip's reply is to tell the

californian to stop sending ice warnings

while he is busy with passenger messages

[Music]

the californian turns off its wireless

equipment for the night the titanic has

now lost radio contact with the only

ship less than two hours away

[Music]

11 30 pm

the iceberg is just four miles away

titanic will reach it in just 10 minutes

anything

no sir

because blair has left with the keys to

the binoculars locker lookouts fleet and

lee have to rely on their own eyesight

if there had been glasses in the crow's

nest would you have used them

yes

constantly

yes after all you are the man who

discovered the iceberg

yes

if it was necessary to have glasses do

you not think you should have gone to

the bridge or telephone to the bridge

and said i am told to keep a sharp

lookout and i have not got any glasses

they would know that but you did not

call their attention to it

no

i did not

do you think that if you had had glasses

you could have seen the iceberg sooner

certainly how much sooner do you think

you could have seen it

it's time for the ship to get out of the

way so that it is your view that if you

had had glasses it would have made all

the difference between safety and

disaster

yes

[Music]

the lookout still haven't seen the

iceberg it is only one thousand yards

away

[Music]

ice big right ahead

harder starboard

after putting the ship's engines into

reverse the officer on the bridge's

instinct is to steer away from the

iceberg

[Music]

come on

[Music]

[Music]

the collision is so gentle that many of

the passengers and crew sleep through it

cooper mccarty re-examines the survivor

testimonies

some people barely felt it some

explained it as sort of a glancing blow

a shudder

but not something that moved them across

the ship

fireman barrett was one of the most

important pieces of testimony he talked

about being standing in boiler room

number six and seeing water coming in

your name is frederick barrett

yes

now just tell us what happened that you

saw

in the stokehold

a red light goes on when the ship's

supposed to stop

this red light came on

i'm the man in charge of the watch

i called out

shots all dampers what was the next

thing that happened

the clash happened before we had the

where was this crash

water came pouring in or two feet above

the stockhold plate

can you point to where that is on the

ship

[Music]

[Music]

the ship's side was torn

from the third stokehold to the forward

end

barrett is one of the few firemen that

manages to escape before the bulkhead

doors close

forensic meddler just hooper mccarty

believes the only way the sight of the

ship could tear is if the seams had

split open

suggesting that maybe there was a

problem with the rivets

fireman barrett's testimony suggests

that

the damage

wasn't due to

fracture

mid plate or within the hole plates

instead it suggests that there may be

something wrong with the seams maybe the

question was really in the the rivets

the quality of the rivets

[Music]

her suspicions are confirmed when she

analyzes the 46 rivets retrieved in 1998

during an expedition to the wreck of the

titanic

some are found to be made of steel and

some are wrought iron

the first step in the forensic

investigation was to find out what those

rivets were made of and how that

material would act

under different mechanical tests

the builders of the titanic are

convinced that iron rivets in the bow

section would be strong enough to seal

the plates

[Music]

to explore the effects of using wrought

iron rather than steel a section of the

titanic's hall is reproduced using steel

plates held together by iron rivets

we compared a wrought iron rivet to

a steel rivet

and found that with just very little

movement of the steel plate five

millimeters you would reach a point in

the wrought iron rivet or when it would

begin to fail

the test simulates the amount of

pressure the titanic's hull would have

been under after the collision

as the rivets snap one at a time the

titanic's hull opens up like a zipper

so here we have a ship that's unsinkable

that's state of the art for 1912 that's

built with one and a half inch thick

steel plates and wrought iron rivets

wrought iron produced in 1911 was about

one-third weaker than steel of the same

era but still it should have been strong

enough to hold the hull together

could something else have weakened the

rivets

to find out hooper mccarty examines the

hundred-year-old rivets under an

electron microscope and finds large

impurities embedded in the structure of

the iron

when you look at wrought iron you see a

combination of both iron or pure iron

and these impurities that are caught in

particles known as slag

slag can actually strengthen the wrought

iron in one direction but it can weaken

it in the opposite direction in the

perpendicular direction

using iron was a compromise anyway but

this particular iron was flawed

when the wrought iron rivets were

hammered into place the slag particles

were at a 90 degree angle

it created a weakness in the head of the

rivets

it is a defect that might have gone

unnoticed had the ship not struck the

iceberg

during the collision that night those

weak rivets couldn't withstand that

force and their heads popped

what fireman barrett was probably

describing

was a parted seam due to

the popping of rivet heads

from the very day that she was designed

she was almost doomed

so this is the if you like you could put

it as bluntly as this is almost the

achilles heel

of the titanic

what did we hit an iceberg sir close the

watertight doors you run the warning

bell yes sir i said box also look for

any damage

the watertight doors were shut off as

the collision took place but design

compromises made earlier will now become

apparent

[Music]

is anything to matter have we hit

something

i'm afraid so we've struck an iceberg

how bad is it is she taking on water

she's

sinking mr esme

but that's impossible

in two hours she'll be at the bottom of

the ocean

can't we close off the compartments we

have trapping hundreds of men below

but it isn't working

i don't understand she's supposed to

stay afloat with four compartments

flooding we're flooding in five

compartments mr esme

i'll be in the wildest room mr maddock

shall i prepare the lifeboat sir

yes but

no need to panic the passengers

i understand sir

the majority of the crew and all the

passengers believe that the damage to

the ship is minimal unaware that the

ship is letting in water at 400 tons a

minute

ismae's decision to lower the bulkheads

means the ship is flooding rapidly

with higher bulkheads the flooding in

each compartment would have taken longer

to fill and overflow into the next

compartment

[Music]

but they didn't lower the front bulkhead

because they believed it to be the

crucial one

the designers were anticipating any

collision to be head-on

the water wouldn't flood beyond the

front collision bulkhead but they hit

the iceberg side on

and the sides weren't designed to take

the force of an impact

[Music]

i think if william murdoch had plowed

directly into the iceberg

titanic would have survived the main

impact would have been taken by her

collision bulkhead the steel wall right

up to the weather deck the highest deck

within the vessel

[Music]

the last time that a ship struck an

iceberg was in 1879

when ss arizona plowed into one head-on

the bow is badly crushed but she stays

afloat

the watertight doors are now failing but

there is still a chance of rescue as

long as the wireless continues to work

all steamships followed established

tracks across the atlantic it was

nicknamed the transatlantic railway

there were hundreds of ship movements

every day so there was always an

opportunity of remaining in radio

contact with another vessel or even

seeing another vessel you could call up

assistance

if you if you needed it

i don't know why the californians not

responding

the nearest the californian is two hours

away near enough to save everybody

but after receiving the rude message

from phillips their wireless will remain

switched off until morning

it's the carpathian

they're putting about and heading for us

[Music]

take this

[Music]

sir

she's from the carpathia side

she's turned around and coming along as

quickly as she can no other ships but

frank versus told us to stand by we're

trying to california but she's not

replying thank you mr bride

sir

anything

the olympic might be on its way

even with only 16 lifeboats everyone can

be saved if the carpathia reaches the

titanic within two hours

but she is four hours away

[Music]

she's 58 miles away sir

the carpathia's top speed is no more

than 15 knots

she's four hours away sir

but we can only stay afloat for another

two hours

[Music]

perhaps you'd better return to the boat

deck mr murdock

captain

[Music]

people don't pay to look at lifeboats

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

one mystery remains left to unravel why

will the titanic sink in less than two

hours when her designers predicted in

the event of a collision she could stay

afloat for days

hooper mccarty suspects the iron rivets

used throughout the ship's hall are

again to blame

she goes through the archives at the

shipyard where titanic was built

i went to belfast and looked through the

harland and wolf archives from ordering

contracts i was seeing number three iron

that was used instead of number four

which was the standard at the time

this lower grade of iron will have more

slag impurities and so the heads of the

rivets will have been even weaker

it was a small decision but one that had

terrible consequences

the critical issue is that with bad or

poor quality wrought iron you end up

with a weakness

at the head of the rivet

if you have good wrought iron you don't

have that same weakness it will break

the rivet will fail

but it's going to last a little longer

and

1500 people

their lives would have been saved and

then a boat could have gotten there and

rescued people

before the ship was doomed

two-month-old melvina dean is one of the

few third-class passengers to make it

into a lifeboat

now 96 she is the last living survivor

lots of people thought the ship was

unsinkable so they just stayed

my father was very quick on the uptake

he got us immediately up on deck

we better start getting the passengers

into the light boats sir

sir

yes

women and children first

yes let's do that

sir

and then my mother say goodbye to my

father

and then only married about four years

and so she's so brokenhearted that she

would never speak about it

because i was small they couldn't hold

me and had to put me in a sack

[Music]

women and children only sir

interprets captain smith's orders

as women and children only

part

[Applause]

[Music]

is on the starboard boat deck helping

women and children get into the last

lifeboat

[Music]

did you see how many passengers were put

into this lifeboat

no i

did not see at the time did she appear

to be full

she was very full

[Music]

and after all the people that were on

the deck had got in

i got in as she was being lured away

there was no order to you to get in

no

none

ismae is one of the few men to take a

place in the lifeboats

[Music]

the last of the 16 wooden lifeboats

leaves with

hundred people left on board

[Music]

the ship can stay afloat for only 30

more minutes

[Music]

when you've done your full duty you can

do nothing more

abandon your

cabin it's every man for himself now

[Music]

[Music]

captain smith is last seen on the bridge

he will go down with the ship

[Music]

so

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

the titanic finally sinks to the bottom

of the ocean

bride is one of 1500 people that are

plunged into the icy ocean

how did you come off from the boat deck

i was swept off with a collapsible boat

and was the water rising all the time

yes

and then the water was flush with the

boat deck

yes

and swept this boat off into the sea and

you with it

yes

the last i saw on phillips

he was standing on the deck house

so then you found yourself in the water

what happened next

[Music]

both bride and lighthauler managed to

stay out of the water by clinging onto

an upturned lifeboat

they will eventually be picked up by

another lifeboat

[Music]

[Music]

two hours after the titanic sinks the

carpathia arrives in the early morning

light to rescue passengers

bride survives suffering with only

frostbite on the feet

the carpathia arrives too late for his

friend and colleague phillips who dies

in the sea

of the 1522

that died at night only 328 bodies are

recovered

most are buried at fairview cemetery

many of the bodies cannot be identified

and are simply marked with a number

it was mostly men who died but that

doesn't mean it was only men

that was part of the tragedy

that there were women and children

in the water

and not in the lifeboats was was a part

of that tragedy

there were quite a few children and

women who did not make it into the

lifeboats

[Music]

the findings of the inquiry are that the

ship was traveling at excessive speed in

an ice region but none of the crew are

at fault

they were only carrying out standard

practice for the time it is recommended

that in the future the number of

lifeboat accommodations be sufficient

for all persons on board

but the inquiry makes no mention of the

british board of trade's out-of-date

safety regulations

[Music]

i think the inquiry is a whitewash

complete whitewash you have the the

board of trade in effect

um inquiring into a disaster that's

largely of its own making

the inquiry finds that isme had not

influenced the captain over speed and is

not at fault over the design of the ship

the press would brand izmia coward for

taking a place in the lifeboat he

resigns as chairman six months later and

dies at the age of 74.

the inquiry of 1912 is not able to solve

the mystery of why the titanic sinks so

quickly

nor could it conclude how a chain of

events and decisions caused the disaster

the 16 lifeboats

the height of the bulkheads

the change in the ship's direction

the wireless message that no officer

would receive

the wireless message that is ignored

the californian switching off its

wireless

the lack of binoculars in the crow's

nest

and the iceberg that is born at the same

time as the titanic and against all odds

travels further south than is thought

possible but it will take nearly a

hundred years to reveal the fatal flaw

located in the hall of the titanic which

causes her to sink so quickly just two

hours away from rescue

a national geographic event on titanic's

100th anniversary first the most

in-depth investigation of the sinking in

history with national geographic

explorer and academy award-winning

director james cameron i think we got an

airtight case then the man who found the

titanic national geographic explorer bob

ballard reveals the titanic story of

innovation luxury and loss the titanic's

at greater peril now than ever before a

two-night titanic event starts sunday

april 8th at 8 on the national

geographic channel