Sinking of The Titanic

The Onion newspaperÆs faux headline for the sinking of the Titanic is æWorldÆs Largest Metaphor Hits IcebergÆ. The irony of an æunsinkableÆ ship sinking on its maiden voyage is an obvious testament to the hubris of mankind in the face of the Real (125).

Indeed, the Queen Elizabeth, II, recently took to the seas, a ship as large as the Chrysler Building in Manhattan if stood on end. Yet the ship that was labeled æunsinkableÆ did sink, taking with it many lives. In reviewing the incidents surrounding what the Apr 16, 1912, edition of the Daily Sketch called ôthe first disaster of such magnitude to befall a mammoth liner at seaö, one comes to the conclusion that of all the factors most responsible for the sinking of the Titanic, human pride remains chief among them (1).

The headline of the Apr 16, 1912, edition of the Baltimore American read: ôTITANIC SINKS WITH 1,200 MEN; 866 WOMEN AND CHILDREN SAVEDö (1). Only a day earlier, Logan Marshall (1998), author of The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, reports that on Mon Apr 15, 1912, a wireless message was sent that read, ôThe Titanic in collision, bu

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that nobody thought could ever happen, happened with even more frightening consequences: We can now estimate that a gash was torn in her almost 100 meters long. The shipÆs builder, Thomas Andrews, inspected the damage with the Captain. They found that the first five compartments were flooding rapidly and the sixth leaking. As the front compartments filled, and the bow sank, the transverse hull between the fifth and sixth compartments would drop over 10 feet below the waterline. The water would spill over into the next compartment. So the ship would sink further. Andrews underestimated her remaining time at only an hour. She lasted nearly two. (Anesi 1998, 3) Despite flawed design, many felt the waterline should have been higher than 10 feet. Other factors contributing to the disaster include poor judgment on behalf of Captain Smith. Despite repeated warnings that the vessel was entering an ice field, Smith refused to lower the shipÆs speed, moving full speed ahead when it collided with the iceberg. In the inquiry into the disaster in July of 1912, the Mersey Wreck Commissioner determined the cause of the accident to be a direct result of the vesselÆs speed in dangerous waters, ôThe Court finds, that the loss of the sa
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Approximate Word count = 2733
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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