How different would the world have been if the Titanic had survived its maiden voyage?

Question

I just watched Titanic for the first time and, while the story was a little silly, I enjoyed it but I started wondering about what would've happened if it hadn't sunk.

The designers were confident - overconfident perhaps - and had it survived, the plans would surely have been the basis for an entire series of new ships and designs.

But would the world of today be much different?

Answer 1

The world would not be greatly different, except for maybe a few hundred more people around. The advances in shipping technology would still have developed to much the same stage as it is now, because wars and trade are the main driving forces. Tourism comes second.

Answer 2

not only have ship design and safety improved since the titanic disaster, but the international ice patrol was established after the sinking because of the sinking. they also made it mandatory that each ships wireless room be manned 24/7. if the californian, a ship within 15 miles of the titanic had their wireless room open at the time, they could have come to the rescue a lot sooner than the carpathia did which was 56 miles away. if the ship hadn't sank, the world would be very different because you also have to think about all the people that died that could still be alive and how they could have changed the world.  

Answer 3

Not really, one huge shipcould have been the basis but the lifeboat problem would have turned out sooner or later as many ships do sink. Ship building was already starting to advance because WW1 started 10 years after and the UK had just built the Dreadnought, one of the best batleships ever.

Answer 4

~Ignoring the contributions that the dead (or their offspring) may have made had they survived, not much would be different, although some of the changes in shipbuilding and operation may have been slower in coming.  

Direct results of the include:

the rerouting of shipping lanes to the south, especially during ice conditions,

regulations requiring lifeboats for all aboard (Titanic carried far more than regulations required),

Boarding of all passengers in lifeboats rather than women and children first is required (lifeboats were launched at far less than full capacity because men were not allowed aboard and many women refused to board without their husband's or adult children)

manning of radios at all times (Titanic's was operating - was California's and did California ignore the distress call, causing all those unnecessary deaths?),

reduction of speed in the presence of ice (Captain Smith was following standard accepted procedure when he did not reduce speed:  he was not trying to set a crossing record because Titanic was not built for speed and was not physically capable of establishing a record - she never once hit full speed on the voyage.  Smith was the most respected ship's master at White Star and one of the most able in the world at the time.  He was not about to risk his ship or his passengers and crew (or himself) over such foolishness as a crossing record.  He was not going to retire soon and had plenty of time to try for a record in a ship capable of setting one in conditions conducive to doing so had that been his desire),

full bulkheads and watertight compartments (Titanic's did not seal her completely internally but exceeded industry standards)

full double hulls are required.  Titanic's double bottom reached higher than industry regulations of the day required, but a full double hull may have saved her.

Posting of additional lookouts in the presence of ice (Titanic had the required number on duty - more may have helped but taking the berg head on instead of offering up her side to the berg by taking an impossible evasive action (she was too close and moving too fast to bypass the berg or to stop before impact)  would have helped more)

Ship's steel is tested for embrittleness as well as tensile strength.  Titanic's steel was as well tested as was required and as could have been under the standards of the day.

These changes were already in the offing, however, and would have been in place in due time had Titanic not gone down.

Titanic was neither the first nor last of her class.  Olympic was launched before Titanic. Gigantic, even larger than Titanic, was renamed  HMHS Britannic and launched after some of the foregoing design changes were incorporated.  Later, even larger and more luxurious ships were built.  Air travel spelled the doom of large opulent liners, not the sinking of the Titanic.

Neither White Star Lines (the owner) nor Harland & Wolff (the builders) ever called Titanic unsinkable.    Harland & Wolff had every reason to be confident of Titanic's seaworthiness.  She met or exceeded all regulations of the day,  she was state of the art and several innovations were incorporated into her construction and design that advanced seagoing and shipbuilding technology.  She was probably the safest and best built vessel on the water when she went down.

The movie is a joke.  It is a pathetic attempt to make a pointless love story, using the tragedy as a backdrop.  Even the few feeble allusions it makes to the voyage and the sinking are replete with historical and factual errors.  The mythology about Titanic has already all but buried the truth and the movie just makes things worse.  The US and British inquiries of the event are a great source for real information.

Answer 5

Most importantly we might not have the rule of enough life boats per people on board a ship because that was a direct change that took place due to the Titanic.