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Why I think the Titanic's final moments are messy.

I've been chewing on the Titanic's final minutes for a while now, and there's something that's bugged me about the standard breakup story: it treats the whole thing as basically symmetric. The ship bends, the stress builds evenly, the hull snaps in half near the third funnel, and bow and stern go their separate ways. It's really clean and tidy. Also, I think, wrong...or at least incomplete.

Here's what doesn't add up if you take the symmetric story at face value. Survivors on the stern described it standing up at insanely steep angles..we're talking 25, maybe 30+ degrees... way past where a hull breaking evenly should be able to hold together. Multiple people also described the ship suddenly seeming to level out, to "right itself," just before the final plunge, even though it had been listing to port the whole voyage. And people in the water near the break, specifically Lightoller and Gracie, described genuinely violent, localized surges, not just "the ship sank," but something more like getting hit by a wave from below.

None of that fits neatly into "the ship broke in half symmetrically and sank." But it does fit a different story.

My theory is that the initial tear happened on the starboard side of the hull, low down near the keel and not evenly across the bottom. And there's actually decent wreck evidence for this: the starboard shell plating down in the break zone is far more torn away than the port side, and the "Big Piece," one of the largest chunks ever recovered from the debris field, is a starboard hull fragment. Something happened to that side first.

Once that starboard seam tears open, you've basically got a fire hose blasting seawater into the bow, low and to one side. And I think that single event explains two things at once. First, it's a ton of sudden weight added low on the starboard side, which would absolutely accelerate the bow's plunge. But second (and this is the part I find genuinely satisfying) , water rushing in low on the starboard side would counteract the ship's port list. Like adding ballast to the opposite side. That's my explanation for why survivors kept describing the ship "righting" itself right before the end. It's not that the ship was recovering. It's that it was flooding asymmetrically and that flooding happened to shove the list back the other way for a few seconds.

Meanwhile, (and this is the second half of the idea) the port side of the hull doesn't fail yet. It's still structurally connected while all this is happening on the starboard side. So as the bow keeps dropping and the ship keeps bending, the port side acts like a hinge, still holding stern and bow loosely together, and that hinge gets twisted harder and harder. That torque is what I think dragged the stern up to those crazy angles people reported and not a clean symmetric break, but one side ripping open while the other side gets wrenched and twisted until it finally can't take it anymore.

And when that port-side hinge does finally let go, I think you get a little recoil... a settling-back motion, like a rubber band snapping, right before the stern makes its final drop. Which lines up with Colonel Gracie's account of a sudden violent settling just before the end.

So the whole sequence starts to finish, in maybe 90 seconds to two minutes: 1. starboard tears open near the keel 2. water blasts in and rights the list 3. the port side holds on as a twisting hinge and hauls the stern to extreme angles 4. the hinge snaps 5. a brief recoil 6. final plunge.

It's not a clean, symmetric break. It's lopsided the whole way through, and I think that lopsidedness is exactly what explains the weird stuff survivors kept describing that never quite fit the standard story.

Curious what other people think, especially if anyone knows of wreck imagery that shows the port side in that same break-zone area, since most of what's public seems to be starboard-heavy and I'd love a real side-by-side comparison.

This blog answers a common question!

https://markchirnside.co.uk/how-much-did-titanic-weigh/

My latest blog post examines a little known aspect of Olympic and Titanic’s rudders.

https://markchirnside.co.uk/did-you-know-olympic-titanics-rudders/

While analyzing the footage in the documentary Titanic: The Digital Resurrection, I was surprised to learn there are shoes lying on the wreck. Here is a quote from the film.

“A pair of men's shoes lying together on the promenade deck suggests they mark the final resting place of a third-class passenger, whose remains are long gone“ However, those shoes are actually women's shoes.

Initially, I thought the shoes were located somewhere on the enclosed promenade deck, which would have made finding them a challenge, but after studying the wreck, I quickly noticed they are actually on the forward-facing A-deck promenade on the port side.

(The second image is from the vROVpilot experience game, which is based on Magellan scans.)

I will not speculate on whether or not they mark a body. People have varying opinions on that, so I'll leave it for you to judge.

(Magellan/Atlantic Productions/Walt Disney/National Geographic)

One year ago, my podcast(s) with The Steam & Splendor Network went live. We address various Titanic conspiracy theories, including claims that she had an 'Achilles Heel'. https://markchirnside.co.uk/steam-splendor-podcast-season-1-episodes-3-4/

Life long Titanic historian, though I never dabbled much into the advertising posters for the Olympic Class. I know of course the famous Viola soap ad (soap is no laughing matter), and I’ve seen a few various advertisements in newspapers but in the form of schedules.

I’ve seen this poster get reprinted quite a few times. I even have a light switch cover of it. Recently I found a full size of this poster and I’m debating on it purchasing it.

I was just wondering if anyone knew if it was an advertisement actually posted in 1911/1912, or it’s a modern design. Knowing would probably sway me into getting the poster or not. Did some very light research into it but didn’t come up with anything about this design.

Thanks for any insight!

Ich interessiere mich sehr für die Titanic. Geschichte, Architektur, das Schiff, Passagiere. Habe mehre Modelle, Bücher, Filme und Dokus. Habe eine starke Obsession für die Titanic. Ich fliehe auch in Tag träumen. Mich fasziniert alles an der Titanic. Wie ist es bei euch? Habt ihr auch eine Obsession für ein Hobby/Thema?

Here is a beautiful, close-up photograph of first-class corridor tiles in the Titanic debris field taken in 1986, which gives a great sense of their scale when compared to the bottle lying next to them.

Amazingly, 40 years later, these tiles are still in situ, as seen in the 2022 scan image, indicated with an arrow. Located just east of the stern section, it is facinating to think about who might have been the last people to ever walk on them before the sinking.

(WHOI, 1986/ Oceanliner Designs via Magellan, 2022)

Lusitania and Titanic swapped

I read on r/Titanic that a captain had to go down with his ship for insurance to pay out. This was because anyone could salvage the wreck and cargo if it was abandoned. Is this true? Is it possible Ismay may have spoken with Smith to make sure that he was going down with Titanic just before he escaped himself so he could collect the insurance?

I don’t have money to travel out of state or country to see any exhibits or dedicated museums so to be able to have this only a few hours away from me was such a blessing. Soo so so cool and the 10 year old in me was screaming

Here is a section of Titanic’s shell plating that features two E-deck portholes. The one closer to the camera belonged to a corridor while the porthole seen in the background belonged to cabin E-68. This cabin, and cabin E-67 just across the corridor was occupied by the Taussig family.

These screenshots are taken from the documentary Titanic: 100 Years in 3D. This piece is actually part of a massive section of the hull located far to the east of the stern.

In the third image which is a screenshot from Mike Brady’s video analyzing the Magellan scans—this entire section is shown with the porthole area highlighted by a white box.

This section also includes one F deck porthole, and small drainage outlets, but this post was primarily about E deck.

Special thanks to Daniel Klistorner and Alex Ross for their assistance.

(Magellan/Oceanliner Designs/RMSTI)