Perhaps, but judging by the OP I thought the challenge had to rest within the sinking itself.
Yeah, but you need a commanding officer who understands the gravity of the situation and can respond well to a crisis. Smith wasn't that person.
Perhaps, but judging by the OP I thought the challenge had to rest within the sinking itself.
Yeah, but you need a commanding officer who understands the gravity of the situation and can respond well to a crisis. Smith wasn't that person.
Okay, but short of Wilde and or some other officer taking charge after the iceberg brushes past, there really isn't any other way to be rid of Smith's leadership now is there?
Bear in mind that the idea in those days was for the lifeboats to ferry people to other ships nearby, not for people to stay in them for hours or even days, and that for this purpose the number supplied would theoretically have been adequate: The problem was that the other ships didn't get there as quickly as it had been hoped would happen when the plans were originally made...Also if the Titanic had been provided with sufficient lifeboats instead of the bare minimum legal requirement,
Can you name an alternative candidate who did have that experience? And as I understand it, captains who'd been involved in major disasters like that tended not to be given new commands, anyway...The first thing you need to do if you want to reduce the body count is put someone other than Smith in command. Smith had never been wrecked or run aground and never been in an accident before the collision with HMS Hawke, while commanding the Olympic. As a result, he had no idea had to deal with a crisis on the order of the sinking of the Titanic.
I (think) I read somewhere that if Titanic had hit head-on, the number of water tight compartments would have saved her. It would have pierced up to 3 compartments (only), but how many passengers would have been killed by the actual collision is another story.
Ivan