Why did they say the Titanic was insubmersible ?

Question

Ok, the Titanic had a reputation of being insubmersible... tragic mistake, but they did believe it couldn't be sunk, even by an act of god.

What design features gave rise to this belief, or was it just a mendacious advertisement trick?

Answer 1

Well most thought that the titanic was unsinkable because it had so many doors that would shut if one part of the ship got a hole in it. The theory was that if one part got a hole they could just lock up that part of the ship with the waterproof doors and just sail to the nearest port to be repaired. the reason that didn't happen was because the hole in the side was to big, and when the went to close the doors that made that side of the ship to heavy=ship tipping over.

Answer 2

I believe keith has nailed the answer pretty much. I watched a documentary on the titanic as well. Basically the whole ship hull was divided into sections which could be sealed off if they got ruptured. So even if 2 or 3 sections got flooded the ship could still float. However the ship apparently hit the iceberg along its side instead of head-on, so the ice tore a huge hole along the side and flooded multiple sections. So the unsinkable ship sank. Lol.

Answer 3

As some people have said,  the bulkhead was compartmentalized so that if several sections filled with water, the ship could close them off and stay afloat.

"She was divided into 16 compartments by doors held up, i.e. in the open position, by electro-magnetic latches and which could be allowed to fall closed by means of a switch on the bridge. However, the watertight bulkheads did not reach the entire height of the decks, only going up as far as E-Deck. Titanic could stay afloat with any two of her compartments flooded, or with eleven of fourteen possible combinations of three compartments flooded, or with the first/last four compartments flooded: any more and the ship would sink."

However,  the iceberg ripped the entire side of the ship.  Part of the reason for that was that the metal was especially fragile in frigid waters.

"A detailed analysis of small pieces of the steel plating from the Titanic's wreck hull found that it was of a metallurgy that loses its elasticity and becomes brittle in cold or icy water, leaving it vulnerable to dent-induced ruptures. The pieces of steel were found to have very high content of phosphorus and sulfur (4x and 2x respectively, compared to modern steel), with manganese-sulfur ratio of 6.8:1 (compare with over 200:1 ratio for modern steels). High content of phosphorus initiates fractures, sulfur forms grains of iron sulfide that facilitate propagation of cracks, and lack of manganese makes the steel less ductile. The recovered samples were found to be undergoing ductile-brittle transition in temperatures of 32 °C (for longitudinal samples) and 56 °C (for transversal samples—compare with transition temperature of -27 °C common for modern steels—modern steel would became so brittle in between -60 and -70 °C). The anisotropy was likely caused by hot rolling influencing the orientation of the sulfide stringer inclusions. The steel was probably produced in the acid-lined, open-hearth furnaces in Glasgow, which would explain the high content of P and S, even for the times."

Answer 4

Since the Titanic was the biggest ship at the time, they probably assumed that the size would prevent the ship from sinking. I also think that a portion of it was just an advertisement trick because this ship could now fit more passengers, therefore leading to more money.

Answer 5

Somehow they got caught up in their own hype, and assumed because of its size, it could survive a collision with an iceberg.

Answer 6

Not insubmersible but unsinkable. They used new designs and waterproof bulkheads which were state of the art at that time. Research on sister ships and examination of the actual wreck have in fact "proven" that there was a design fault which greatly contributed to the disaster.

Answer 7

Because it was the most advanced ship at the time.  Or it could also be for a marketing strategy; would you rather buy a ticket for a regular cruise ship, or an unsinkable one?

Answer 8

it had that loads of sections, they thought nothing could have the potential to hit enough of them in one go lol. it could virtually still be afloat with a 40 meter hole

Answer 9

Prior to the Titanic, the Olympic was considered to be the greatest ship in the world, and the Titanic was built to resemble the Olympic, but with some of the design flaws from the Olympic corrected. It had the most technologically advanced features for the period like an extensive electrical subsystem with steam-powered generators and ship-wide electrical wiring feeding electric lights.

Okay, I know this isn’t the best comparison, but it’s sort of like comparing the iPod to the iPhone. When the first iPod came out everybody oohed and ahhed over it, and every generation of it since has been an improvement of the original. Kinks were smoothed out, the design became sleeker, the features cooler. The iPhone has some of the same basic components as the iPod everybody loved, and was supposed to be like revolutionary in its awesomeness,  so there was so much hype about it that people slept outside to be the first in line to get it. Then…..they realized the iPhone did indeed have its share of problems, and that it’s not an infallible device.

The Titanic had the iPhone hype.

I think one of the reasons the Titanic sunk was a need for speed. It had been touted as the world's fastest ship, and so after they lost an hour due to a near-accident at the port when they were departing, they increased the speed a bit more than they should have in order to make the record. This made it harder to slow down and change course when they saw the iceberg.

Astronomy played a part in the sinking, too.  The moon was not visible that night, and perhaps if the sky had not been so dark the crew would have spotted the iceberg sooner.

The hull was steel-plated so it had the appearance of being strong, but it became fragile in icy waters.

Hubris, ambition, arrogance, testosterone and bad luck all played into it sinking. Ego and vanity were the reasons for the tremendous loss of life. They believed that “God Himself could not even sink the Titanic" and so they viewed life boats are unnecessary. Also, the life boats were unattractive, so they wanted as few as possible and for them to be tucked out of sight.

Random bit of eerie trivia: 14 years before the Titanic sank, a novella about a luxurious ocean liner that carried far too few lifeboats and sinks in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg was published.

It was titled “Wreck of the Titan.”

Answer 10

It was the biggest strongest ship built at the time, it wasnt so much that it was truly infallible as the fact that the people who built it were arrogant and believed that they had built something that could withstand everything