LONDON — The Titanic hit an iceberg in 1912 because of a basic steering
error, and only sank as fast as it did because an official persuaded the
captain to continue sailing, an author said in an interview published
Wednesday.


Louise Patten, a writer and granddaughter of Titanic second officer
Charles Lightoller, said the truth about what happened nearly 100 years
ago had been hidden for fear of tarnishing the reputation of her
grandfather, who later became a war hero.

Lightoller, the most senior officer to have survived the disaster,
covered up the error in two inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic
because he was worried it would bankrupt the ill-fated liner's owners
and put his colleagues out of a job.

"They could easily have avoided the iceberg if it wasn't for the
blunder," Patten told the Daily Telegraph.


"Instead of steering Titanic safely round to the left of the iceberg,
once it had been spotted dead ahead, the steersman, Robert Hitchins,
had panicked and turned it the wrong way."


Patten, who made the revelations to coincide with the publication of
her new novel "Good as Gold" into which her account of events are
woven, said that the conversion from sailing ships to steam meant there were two different steering systems.

(sailing ships had a wheel and pulley system, turn the helm right to go left, and vice versa)

Crucially, one system meant turning the wheel one way and the other in completely the opposite direction.


Once the mistake had been made, Patten added, "they only had four
minutes to change course, and by the time (first officer William)
Murdoch spotted Hitchins' mistake and then tried to rectify it, it was
too late."

Patten's grandfather was not on watch at the time of the collision, but
he was present at a final meeting of the ship's officers before the
Titanic went down.


There he heard not only about the fatal mistake but also the fact that
J. Bruce Ismay — chairman of Titanic's owner, the White Star Line —
persuaded the captain to continue sailing, sinking the ship hours
faster than would otherwise have happened.


"If Titanic had stood still, she would have survived at least until the
rescue ship came and no one need have died," Patten said.


The RMS Titanic was the world's biggest passenger liner when it left
Southampton, England, for New York on its maiden voyage on April 10,
1912. Four days into the trip, the ship hit an iceberg and sank, taking
more than 1,500 passengers with it.

 

I remember drivers education on the test track where they had you drive at a line of traffic cones and at the last second the instructor would say left or right and you had to react without thinking. Maybe the captain barely passed drivers ed.

 

I read somewhere that historians tried to blame the Jewish people for the sinking of the Titanic.

...Wiseberg, Silverberg, Iceberg, they're all the same...

 

If you watch the 1998 movie, they did a good job of the lookouts willing the ship to turn, but it didn't until it was too late. Turning the wrong way, then correcting would explain the type of collision damage.

As for going on after collision, it would explain why the ship wasn't anywhere near the coordinates given during the first ever S.O.S. It took many expeditions before the great ship was found.

 

who the fuck cares anymore.

 

1) There have been seven movies about the tragedy, three of which have won Oscars. The last movie grossed hundreds of millions of dollars.


2) 18 months until the 100th anniversary of the great tragedy. The 100th memorial cruise to the location, featuring trappings of the initial cruise, is nearly sold out, and them tickets ain't cheap.

 

theres 2 things in my eyes they could of done that night, but didnt

1, they could of reversed the ship towards rescuing ships..
the hole was at the front, it would of slowed the water entering by going backwards..

2, reveresd up to the iceberg, put the folks they could fit in lifeboats on it.. that wasnt sinking like the ship

 

i say..........and..........

 

no , it was obama that did it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,:awesome::awesome::awesome:

 

I told them not to let me sail the damn thing, wasn't my fault.

 

Read the book "Her Name, Titanic" by Charles Pellegrino.That will put all this nonsense to rest. Not only is it an extremely informative book, its hard to put it down.It was a realy good read. Alot better than that rediculous movie.He was on the second expidition with Robert Ballard that actualy explored the Titanic so he isnt just some crack head who wrote a book.

The people making the claim about the ship not stopping are...to be blunt...attention whores looking for a spot light.Nothing more. Never mind the fact that to stop a ship the size of Titanic traveling at a speed of 22 knots takes a mile and a half to two miles even at full reverse.

 

It was news to me that 19th century sailing vessels had wheels that operated in reverse (since they were a refinement of the tiller mechanism on earlier ships). I'm told that they were eventually changed to make them operate in a manner analogous to a motor vehicle's steering wheel.

Now that I know it, I'm going to do my best to forget it.

 

So drivers ed wouldn't have done any good, left being right and vice versa.

 

The whole story smells like a heap big pile of buffalo dung to me.

This lady is conveniently the ONLY person on the entire planet who can know whether this story is true or not. Sounds like a great way to sell some books to me.

I have to give her credit for coming up with such a clever twist to the sinking of the Titanic. I guess she deserves whatever she can make off this, while laughing all the way to the bank at how simple it was to change what will now become the historical record of what occurred that night.

 

No shit - can you say attention whore? Of course, there is no one around to dispute her claims.

The real truth - the Titanic sunk because there was a big ass hole in it.

 

Oh hell you got that all wrong! Obama told me it was all Bush's fault. <grin>

 

I thought it sank because it filled up with water?..but then I am blonde

 

Now I heard and I don't know if it is true that a Los Angeles class Submarine hit it with friendly fire during a training exercise in the pacific, the CIA and NWO moved it to the North Atlantic as part of a cover up.

 

wondwer if she would take a lie detector test

bet se wont

 

I heard the reason that the Titantic was travelling so fast that night was that a fire had started in the coal stores and they were trying to use up the coal in order to prevent any damage to the ship.