“Suddenly a queer quivering ran under me, apparently the whole length of the ship. With too perfect a trust in that mighty vessel I again lay down. Someone knocked at my door telling me come quick to my cabin.” So much trust I had in the ship I didn’t think anything would happen. “Several hours later she’s sitting on a lifeboat over 28 degree water somewhere in the North Atlantic Ocean, realizing how her opinion could change about the unsinkable ship. Just as Shutes’ trust in the Titanic shifted over the hours the ship actually sank the perceptions of what caused this disaster and who may be to blame have changed significantly over time. The New York Times Article published on April 15, 1912 after the disaster provides the first account of the events on the ship. “Mr. Case and Mr. Roebling brave American men, saw us to the lifeboat, made no effort to save themselves, but stepped back on deck.” (Lines 72-73) “At 11:36 o’clock the Titanic informed the Olympic that they were putting the women off in boats and instructed the Olympic to have her boats read to transfer the passengers.”(Lines 48-50). You can’t blame one person for this, the history of the disaster shows that more than one worker screwed up and many people shared a responsibility for the incident. The inquiry transcript shows that Marconi operator is more to blame than any other person because he was the one putting the messages aside and not on task like he was supposed to be. “Were binoculars provided for and used by the lookout men?” No. “Should search lights have been provided and used?” No but searchlights at the time may be out of service, but they didn’t have them. The Marconi operator was very busy from 8 o’clock onward transmitting messages via Cape Race for passengers on board the “Titanic,” and importance of the message, and put it aside until he should be less busy. It was never acknowledged by Captain Smith and I am satisfied that it was not received by him. It proves that Captain Smith wasn’t doing his job correctly. They were reasonably safe tracks for the time of year, provided, of course, that great caution and vigilance when crossing the ice region were observed. The Maconi operator is to blame because he didn’t give the captain the letter so the captain could have stopped the ship. New discoveries concerning the weakness of the steel in cold water that beliefs that the fault is becoming more complicated on who to blame.
The crew, ship builders, and building material plus the environmental conditions present on the night of the disaster provides a new perception of the events April 14-15, 1912. The steel makers can’t be too blamed for this accident because in 1912 they didn’t have the equipment to test the steel. Technology has changed over the past years and testing shows that workers aren’t totally to blame as new information comes in it reveal the steel of the Titanic was Brittle. The UMR study is more credible because they had more material to study than the Canadian government. Also not only did the steel makers mess up, other people screwed up as well. Steel wasn’t the only thing that was tested for the Titanic also they tested the brittleness steel. The properties of the steel that led it to be more brittle than modern steel was high levels of sulfur, oxygen, and phosphorus, a low level of manganese. “Steel from the Titanic was about ten times more brittle then modern steel when tested at freezing temperature. “The modern and scientific theory at the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic shows the continued change in opinion about the cause of the disaster.
