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I'm heading across the continent... Wow, that's amazing.

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...deep beneath the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean...

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...to get to the bottom of the most cataclysmic shipwreck

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in history-- the sinking of the Titanic.

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My mission?

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To explore the perfect storm of events

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that led to the Titanic's demise

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and to investigate advances that have been made

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to prevent a catastrophe of that magnitude

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from ever happening again.

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I'm Don Wildman.

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I've explored the world's greatest mysteries,

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examined rare artifacts and epic monuments. That's amazing!

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Now I'm digging deeper into some of the most perplexing

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and famous cases in history.

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My goal? To get closer to the truth.

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It's a totally alien environment down there.

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This is "Mysteries at the Museum: Titanic."

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The sinking of the Titanic was one of the greatest

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maritime disasters in history.

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Made of more than 24,000 tons of steel,

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this state-of-the-art ship was considered unsinkable.

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Titanic set sail from Southampton, England,

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bound for New York City, on April 10, 1912.

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Four days later,

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on a pitch-black night, the behemoth liner

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struck an iceberg, tearing apart its starboard hull.

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In less than three hours, the ship broke apart

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and sank to the bottom of the sea,

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killing more than 1,500 people.

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It was a disaster that rocked the world.

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For the past 100 years, experts from around the world

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have come up with theories as to how and why the Titanic sank.

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On the surface, the answer seems simple--

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it struck an iceberg-- but that's not the whole story.

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So much about that night is still shrouded in mystery.

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I want to explore the factors that led to the sinking

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of this majestic ship and find out

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if any one of those events had not happened,

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would the Titanic have sunk?

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To start my investigation, I'm heading to the island

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of Newfoundland in Canada.

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It's the home of Iceberg Alley, a region that stretches

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from the coast of Labrador to the northeast coast of Newfoundland.

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Depending on the tides,

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this area is populated with hundreds

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or even thousands of icebergs.

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It was in these frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean

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that the revered Titanic met its fate.

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Newfoundland is the easternmost province of Canada

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and North America-- it has a population of about

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1/2 million people spread out over an immense area.

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But it's the shipping lanes

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off the coast that are so important,

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major thoroughfares for all the vessels

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transiting between Europe and the U.S.,

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and it was on this very route the Titanic crashed into an iceberg.

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To find out exactly how this happened, I have to first

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find out all I can about icebergs,

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so I'm meeting with polar oceanographer

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and iceberg specialist, Dr. Alon Stern from Princeton University.

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The Titanic was the crown jewel

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of the White Star Line.

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This impressive ship took 3,000 people

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about three years to build

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and cost about $7.5 million.

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Today, that would be approximately $171 million.

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Pricey vessel.

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The lavishly appointed ship was transporting

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2,224 passengers and crew.

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The manifest included some of the world's wealthiest people

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as well as hundreds of emigrants in search of a new life in America.

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Just four days into its maiden voyage,

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disaster hit.

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The Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912.

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But how did this even happen?

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I need to find out more about these lethal objects

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floating in the water and why

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there might have been more of them that night.

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Alon? Hey, Don.

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Nice to meet you. Welcome aboard.

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Thanks for the invite. Yeah, it's a pleasure to have you.

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So you've made a career out of studying these icebergs, right? Yeah.

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Why so fascinated?

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They're just so massive-- they're massive chunks of ice

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in the ocean, and the part we see above the water Right.

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is just the beginning-- like, to really get a sense

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of the scale, we're gonna put you out in the water today. Excellent.

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Let's go find ourselves some icebergs.

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One thing I've learned in my short time in Newfoundland--

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the weather here is very unpredictable.

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One minute it's sunny,

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the next, you're socked in by fog.

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Somewhere out there is an iceberg.

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I can't wait to see it, you know?

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An iceberg is a mass of freshwater ice

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that has cracked off from a glacier or an ice shelf

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and is floating in the open ocean.

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The world's largest was B-15.

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It broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

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It was around 183 miles long,

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23 miles wide, and had a surface area

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as big as the state of Connecticut.

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I feel like actually seeing an iceberg is gonna help me

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truly understand what happened to the Titanic.

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Wow, that is a pretty thing to see!

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Thousands of years of ice

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drifting down the coast very, very slowly.

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And look at the beautiful colors, this beautiful blue line

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sliced through-- it looks like a jewel almost.

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It's awesome and intimidating.

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It's one of these grand nature moments, you know?

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Like standing on the Grand Canyon. This is that level.

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They claim that the iceberg the Titanic struck was

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about 100 feet high and a few hundred feet wide.

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This one here is approximately half as high

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and about 1/4-mile wide.

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But looks can be deceiving.

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Only a small fraction of the iceberg is visible

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above the surface of the water-- 90 percent of it

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is concealed in the watery depths, and from the surface,

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there's no way to know its true shape and scope.

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These gigantic floating blocks of ice can weigh in

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between 100,000 and 500,000 tons.

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For some perspective, Titanic was bigger

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than an 80-story building, and it weighed

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around 46,000 tons.

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Puts you in a state of awe.

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By diving this iceberg, I can get a fuller picture

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of what Titanic really faced.

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You ready for your dive? I am ready, yes.

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We're gonna be monitoring you from the top.

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You got me on coms? Yeah, I got you.

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Good luck, okay? All right, thank you very much.

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Enjoy. All right, let's get suited up here.

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Brrrrrr.

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For my safety, I'm going down with a team

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who specializes in iceberg dives.

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What is the temperature of this water, Nick?

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It's about 32 to 37 degrees Fahrenheit.

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Wow! It's cold, very cold.

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If I went in there, how soon would I be killed in that water?

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Without the proper protection, minutes.

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So that's why we're doing a dry suit today.

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Yes, very much. Proper protection will keep you alive for sure.

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Okay, here we go.

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The night the Titanic sank, the North Atlantic

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was 28 degrees Fahrenheit.

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When a human body is exposed to freezing water,

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hypothermia sets in.

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In a matter of minutes, internal organs shut down,

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and death quickly follows.

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This was the fate of the majority of the ship's souls who perished.

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I'm a pretty good diver,

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but this is a whole different thing than I've ever been used to.

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It's dangerous. It is very dangerous-- the iceberg is very unpredictable.

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It could break apart, it could roll over--

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anything could happen in seconds.

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If there's any loud bangs or cracks,

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we have to swim away from the iceberg as quick as possible.

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Okay.

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Cold weather-- there's a lot more gear. Ooh!

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It's a workout, this thing.

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Unlike the passengers and crew of the Titanic,

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I get to wear a fleece base layer and will have

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waterproof gloves and a full facemask.

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We're doing the helmet to help protect you.

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What's it look like down there?

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I've been reading about the Titanic tragedy

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for more than 40 years, but until this dive

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I have never fully grasped how much of an iceberg

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is truly underwater.

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It gives me such appreciation of what the crew of the Titanic

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faced over a century ago.

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I'm four miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada,

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investigating the sinking of the greatest ship in history,

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the Titanic.

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I'm trying to find out what brought this amazing ship down

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and if a tragedy like this could happen again today.

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To gain a better understanding

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of what caused the ship's demise,

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I'm iceberg diving in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.

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We went down another 40 feet, but we still couldn't see

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the end of the iceberg.

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This iceberg is wider than two football fields,

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and with 90 percent of it underwater,

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the crew of a ship would have no idea where it ends.

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Okay, good.

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Wow!

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All right, bring me up.

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One of the most intense experiences I've ever been through.

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So amazing.

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And that much ice--you can see how it would just rip the hull

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of the Titanic like it was a piece of tin foil.

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I mean, unbelievable.

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So much confusion, so much disorientation.

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I mean, it's cold, it's, uh...

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it's a totally alien environment down there.

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So immense under the water-- I couldn't believe how much ice there was.

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Yeah, and if you think of a huge object like the Titanic,

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a huge ship, it really takes a big iceberg to knock it out,

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and these things are massive.

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I've never seen an iceberg so flat.

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Icebergs, broadly speaking, come in two types.

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There's the large, tabular icebergs which are big, long, flat ones.

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Okay. And this one that we're looking at is a tabular berg.

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And then there's the taller ones, the pinnacle icebergs.

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Titanic ran into one that was 100 feet tall.

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That's a pinnacle. Exactly.

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Pinnacled icebergs, also known as non-tabular,

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have spires-- other shapes include

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dome, the wedge, and the block.

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Regardless of the shapes, the true threat lies beneath

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the waterline-- the iceberg the Titanic hit

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was a massive block of ice

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descending about 900 feet below the surface.

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And an iceberg like this, on average, would move at about

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1/2 mile per hour, which is pretty quick, Mmhm.

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but the biggest ones can get along at, like, two miles per hour.

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And that's dependent on current and the size of the berg.

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An iceberg is driven by ocean currents, it's driven by wind.

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Depending on the size, that will determine whether

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it's driven more by currents or by wind.

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The vast majority of icebergs in the North Atlantic Ocean,

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approximately 40,000 of them, originate from glaciers

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in western Greenland-- the glacial ice reaches

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the Greenland coast, and the end of the glaciers break off.

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This process is called cavving.

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The ocean current carries the icebergs south towards Newfoundland,

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creating Iceberg Alley.

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This is the only place in the world where this much floating ice

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intersects with the major shipping lanes.

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Now I have a much better understanding of icebergs,

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but that still doesn't explain why Titanic hit one.

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Some people believe there were just a lot more icebergs

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in this area that year-- I need to understand

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why that was the case.

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So let's talk about that night, 1912.

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There were more icebergs in the shipping lanes, right?

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There's a theory that the increased volume of icebergs

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was caused by an ultra-rare alignment

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of the Earth, the moon, and the sun.

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Firstly, the Earth, the moon, and the sun were all lined up.

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Secondly, at the same time, the moon was at the closest point

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in its orbit to the Earth.

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A supermoon. Exactly.

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And during a supermoon, the ocean tide is higher.

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At the same time as those two events happening,

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a third event was that the Earth was at the closest point

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in its orbit to the sun, and those three events

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happening all at the same time is exceptionally rare

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and would've led to increased tides.

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If this theory is true, increased tides

255
00:15:10,030 --> 00:15:13,930
would've pulled more icebergs into the shipping lanes,

256
00:15:14,030 --> 00:15:17,130
and Titanic would've had to navigate an unusually large

257
00:15:17,230 --> 00:15:20,670
number of icebergs, increasing the probability of collision.

258
00:15:20,770 --> 00:15:23,470
If the tidal effect had never occurred,

259
00:15:23,570 --> 00:15:26,910
the ship, very likely, would've averted disaster.

260
00:15:34,120 --> 00:15:36,820
Well, to understand just how difficult it is to navigate

261
00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:39,620
in these obstructive waters, I'm gonna take the helm of the boat,

262
00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,330
and I'm gonna do it in the daytime, 'cause that's a better idea.

263
00:15:47,530 --> 00:15:50,630
Skipper Bill here has been navigating these waters for a good, long time.

264
00:15:50,740 --> 00:15:52,970
How long, Bill? Jeez, 17 years.

265
00:15:53,070 --> 00:15:55,940
Seventeen years. So--now granted,

266
00:15:56,040 --> 00:15:58,510
Titanic was a lot bigger than this boat, right?

267
00:15:58,610 --> 00:16:01,840
This was how big? This vessel here is 45 feet in length.

268
00:16:01,950 --> 00:16:05,410
Forty-five feet, Titanic, 883 feet.

269
00:16:05,520 --> 00:16:08,080
More than 20 times the size, right? Yeah.

270
00:16:08,190 --> 00:16:11,390
But no matter how big the boat... That's right, the danger's always there.

271
00:16:11,490 --> 00:16:14,190
You mind if I take the helm? Oh, no problem at all.

272
00:16:14,290 --> 00:16:16,690
Oh, you're very willing. Thank you very much.

273
00:16:18,830 --> 00:16:21,600
Captain Edward John Smith was the most experienced officer

274
00:16:21,700 --> 00:16:25,170
in the White Star Line, having sailed for 25 years.

275
00:16:25,270 --> 00:16:27,200
The Titanic's voyage

276
00:16:27,300 --> 00:16:29,610
was meant to be his last trip before retiring.

277
00:16:29,710 --> 00:16:33,180
In the wake of the wreck, Smith was criticized for going

278
00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:35,640
at full speed in a known ice field

279
00:16:35,750 --> 00:16:38,710
instead of slowing down or even stopping.

280
00:16:41,890 --> 00:16:45,450
According to records, he was traveling at 22.5 knots

281
00:16:45,560 --> 00:16:47,790
or 25 miles an hour.

282
00:16:47,890 --> 00:16:51,760
Boats respond to navigational commands based upon their size

283
00:16:51,860 --> 00:16:54,230
and the speed they're traveling.

284
00:16:54,330 --> 00:16:57,370
In fact, the captain of the ship nearest to Titanic,

285
00:16:57,470 --> 00:17:00,300
the Californian, deemed the waters too treacherous

286
00:17:00,400 --> 00:17:02,840
and stopped for the night.

287
00:17:02,940 --> 00:17:05,940
All right, nice and slow. Yeah, go slow.

288
00:17:06,040 --> 00:17:09,440
What's my biggest concern?

289
00:17:09,550 --> 00:17:11,750
You've got quite a swell on right now, so...

290
00:17:11,850 --> 00:17:13,620
Oh, yeah, pull it out. Pull it out.

291
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:16,250
I had to say, it's pretty difficult driving,

292
00:17:16,350 --> 00:17:19,090
and this boat is nothing compared to the Titanic.

293
00:17:19,190 --> 00:17:21,560
I can see how dangerous this is

294
00:17:21,660 --> 00:17:23,690
to even get a little bit too close.

295
00:17:23,790 --> 00:17:26,230
The swell hits you and pulls you in there. Yeah.

296
00:17:26,330 --> 00:17:28,830
That would be true at--at even farther out to sea, right?

297
00:17:28,930 --> 00:17:31,470
Yeah, certainly, and then you add the nightfall, you know.

298
00:17:31,570 --> 00:17:33,470
We're in daylight now, so you imagine the night,

299
00:17:33,570 --> 00:17:36,310
somethin' like that just lurking in front of you. Exactly.

300
00:17:36,410 --> 00:17:39,070
That's crazy to even be running at night. Yeah.

301
00:17:41,110 --> 00:17:43,750
Even in my short experience steering this thing,

302
00:17:43,850 --> 00:17:47,220
if you saw an iceberg dead ahead late in the game,

303
00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:49,550
very tough to avoid it.

304
00:17:49,650 --> 00:17:53,720
By the time the Titanic's lookout finally alerted the bridge

305
00:17:53,820 --> 00:17:56,860
and the first office gave the order, "Hard to starboard,"

306
00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:58,860
to turn the boat...

307
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,060
they were too late.

308
00:18:01,170 --> 00:18:04,200
The unwieldy ship grazed the iceberg on its starboard,

309
00:18:04,300 --> 00:18:06,840
or righthand side.

310
00:18:06,940 --> 00:18:09,570
With so many more icebergs in the shipping lanes

311
00:18:09,670 --> 00:18:11,810
plus the conditions that night,

312
00:18:11,910 --> 00:18:14,280
the Titanic never had a chance,

313
00:18:14,380 --> 00:18:17,080
but even though the iceberg may not have been avoidable,

314
00:18:17,180 --> 00:18:20,320
some believe that what occurred in the hours leading up

315
00:18:20,420 --> 00:18:22,890
to this collision could have been prevented.

316
00:18:26,020 --> 00:18:28,690
I'm exploring why the Titanic sank,

317
00:18:28,790 --> 00:18:32,160
if it could've been prevented, and could it happen again today.

318
00:18:35,670 --> 00:18:38,070
The night the ship went down, there was a series of events

319
00:18:38,170 --> 00:18:40,240
that contributed to its fate. Hard to starboard!

320
00:18:40,340 --> 00:18:42,310
I wanna know what these were.

321
00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:46,340
To find out, I have to go back

322
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:49,280
to early 20th century radio communication.

323
00:18:49,380 --> 00:18:52,320
The Marconi Company held the maritime contract

324
00:18:52,420 --> 00:18:54,780
for the Titanic and other liners.

325
00:18:54,890 --> 00:18:57,890
They also operated land-based wireless stations.

326
00:18:57,990 --> 00:19:02,160
Beginning at 9am, the Titanic started receiving warnings

327
00:19:02,260 --> 00:19:05,260
of ice in its area-- over the course of the day,

328
00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:08,100
the Titanic received at least five warnings,

329
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,700
but only two or three made their way to the bridge.

330
00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:14,900
The last and most critical alert,

331
00:19:15,010 --> 00:19:18,010
citing the exact location of the fateful iceberg,

332
00:19:18,110 --> 00:19:22,010
never made its way to the captain, so what happened to that alert?

333
00:19:22,110 --> 00:19:24,110
To try and find out,

334
00:19:24,220 --> 00:19:26,350
I'm heading to East Greenwich, Rhode Island.

335
00:19:26,450 --> 00:19:29,290
This small town is at the center of the state,

336
00:19:29,390 --> 00:19:32,120
along the western shore of Narragansett Bay.

337
00:19:32,220 --> 00:19:34,160
It also happens to be the home

338
00:19:34,260 --> 00:19:36,460
of the New England Wireless & Steam Museum.

339
00:19:42,630 --> 00:19:45,430
Look at this place, so cool!

340
00:19:47,170 --> 00:19:49,710
This is a private museum here

341
00:19:49,810 --> 00:19:52,840
that contains all this old radio equipment

342
00:19:52,940 --> 00:19:55,340
from the days of Titanic-- I wanna find out

343
00:19:55,450 --> 00:19:58,110
what role the communications problems had

344
00:19:58,220 --> 00:20:00,750
in the disaster.

345
00:20:00,850 --> 00:20:03,520
I'm meeting this guy here-- hey, how you doing? Hi--hi, Don.

346
00:20:03,620 --> 00:20:04,850
Nice to meet you-- Don Wildman. Craig Moody.

347
00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:06,190
Nice to meet you. Nice meeting you.

348
00:20:06,290 --> 00:20:08,960
Well, this is one hip place! Welcome, it sure is.

349
00:20:12,460 --> 00:20:15,060
This is a replica of a 1920 ship's radio room.

350
00:20:15,170 --> 00:20:17,070
Look at this!

351
00:20:17,170 --> 00:20:20,670
Look at this stuff--you have all the great names--

352
00:20:20,770 --> 00:20:24,140
Crosley, Atwater Kent. Right.

353
00:20:24,240 --> 00:20:26,880
This is all the equipment that made

354
00:20:26,980 --> 00:20:29,350
wireless communication possible, right? Right.

355
00:20:29,450 --> 00:20:32,980
So how much did the newness of this technology have to do with the disaster?

356
00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:35,950
That I can show you in the other room. All right.

357
00:20:36,050 --> 00:20:39,320
Come on into the radio room and learn some Morse code.

358
00:20:39,420 --> 00:20:42,490
I set up a little training station for you.

359
00:20:42,590 --> 00:20:44,230
All right.

360
00:20:44,330 --> 00:20:48,130
And Morse code is a very simple means of communication.

361
00:20:48,230 --> 00:20:52,130
It's a series of dits and dahs, or short tones, long tones.

362
00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:55,710
Each Morse code symbol represents a letter, a numeral,

363
00:20:55,810 --> 00:20:59,010
or a small set of punctuation and procedural signals.

364
00:20:59,110 --> 00:21:02,780
The duration of the dots or dashes

365
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:04,950
is what determines the message.

366
00:21:07,050 --> 00:21:10,150
In 1844, Samuel Morse delivered his first message

367
00:21:10,250 --> 00:21:12,890
from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland.

368
00:21:12,990 --> 00:21:16,130
Forty-six years later,

369
00:21:16,230 --> 00:21:18,260
Titanic used Morse code

370
00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:21,200
to communicate with other ships and land stations.

371
00:21:21,300 --> 00:21:24,130
This is a replica

372
00:21:24,240 --> 00:21:27,240
of the Titanic called a straight key.

373
00:21:27,340 --> 00:21:29,240
Today we have...

374
00:21:29,340 --> 00:21:31,440
Okay. Nice, clear tones, but back in the day,

375
00:21:31,540 --> 00:21:34,440
you'd have quite a raw-sounding buzz.

376
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,910
SOS, save our ship.

377
00:21:39,020 --> 00:21:41,220
Not necessarily.

378
00:21:41,320 --> 00:21:44,820
SOS is a very easy to remember series of dits and dahs. Okay.

379
00:21:44,920 --> 00:21:46,490
S is...

380
00:21:46,590 --> 00:21:47,990
O is...

381
00:21:48,090 --> 00:21:49,490
S...

382
00:21:49,590 --> 00:21:52,960
You string it together...

383
00:21:53,060 --> 00:21:55,300
Fascinating.

384
00:21:55,400 --> 00:21:58,330
And you have what was an internationally agreed upon distress call.

385
00:21:58,440 --> 00:21:59,840
Let me try.

386
00:22:02,840 --> 00:22:06,010
SOS became a worldwide standard distress signal

387
00:22:06,110 --> 00:22:08,710
effective July 1st, 1908,

388
00:22:08,810 --> 00:22:12,180
so it was less than four years old when Titanic set sail.

389
00:22:12,280 --> 00:22:14,750
So this was a new signal in those days, yeah? Right.

390
00:22:14,850 --> 00:22:16,950
Did SOS delay the rescue?

391
00:22:17,060 --> 00:22:19,420
The Marconi operators worked for Marconi Company.

392
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,790
They weren't necessarily trained in maritime protocol. Oh, okay.

393
00:22:22,890 --> 00:22:25,190
For example, any message that came to the Titanic

394
00:22:25,300 --> 00:22:27,800
that was to be hand-delivered to the captain

395
00:22:27,900 --> 00:22:31,800
needed to be started with the letters MSG.

396
00:22:31,900 --> 00:22:35,710
At least two or three of the communications regarding

397
00:22:35,810 --> 00:22:38,810
icebergs in the area did not bear those letters,

398
00:22:38,910 --> 00:22:42,140
including the most important, the one that gave the latitude

399
00:22:42,250 --> 00:22:45,950
and longitude of the deadly iceberg directly in Titanic's path.

400
00:22:46,050 --> 00:22:49,390
So Captain Smith was never alerted that he was on

401
00:22:49,490 --> 00:22:52,320
a collision course with a massive iceberg,

402
00:22:52,420 --> 00:22:55,490
and this was not the only failed communication

403
00:22:55,590 --> 00:22:57,390
on that fateful night.

404
00:22:57,500 --> 00:23:00,530
The lack of MSG in front of some of the messages was not

405
00:23:00,630 --> 00:23:02,870
the only issue at hand.

406
00:23:02,970 --> 00:23:05,370
Craig has replicated the actual distress signals

407
00:23:05,470 --> 00:23:07,340
sent out by Titanic.

408
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,370
This is the Titanic sending out distress calls--

409
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:12,370
CQD first.

410
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:15,080
And then you'll hear SOS.

411
00:23:15,180 --> 00:23:18,210
There were several ships in the vicinity.

412
00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:20,650
Oh, man, so I can hear the other ships...

413
00:23:20,750 --> 00:23:23,390
That's two ships, and now you're gonna hear three.

414
00:23:23,490 --> 00:23:27,360
Radio operators could talk over each other,

415
00:23:27,460 --> 00:23:31,030
which happened as soon as Titanic sent out its distress call

416
00:23:31,130 --> 00:23:33,630
and created havoc on the airwaves.

417
00:23:33,730 --> 00:23:36,500
One of the ships is saying, "Titanic is sending out a signal."

418
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:38,800
He can't hear me, so they're telling other ships.

419
00:23:38,900 --> 00:23:41,170
It's chaos! It's chaos.

420
00:23:44,680 --> 00:23:47,740
Wow! That's amazing.

421
00:23:47,850 --> 00:23:51,750
And also, Don, the Californian was only two hours away.

422
00:23:51,850 --> 00:23:55,320
Their radio operator had shut down for the night and already gone to bed.

423
00:23:55,420 --> 00:23:58,220
There was no requirement to be on duty 24 hours a day.

424
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,490
The Titanic stays afloat for two hours and 40 minutes. Right.

425
00:24:01,590 --> 00:24:04,290
So they could've made it. They could've rescued those people.

426
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:07,060
That's what is widely believed. Man.

427
00:24:10,940 --> 00:24:14,400
Several communications factors played a part in this huge loss of life.

428
00:24:14,510 --> 00:24:18,740
If that crucial ice warning had reached the captain,

429
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,610
he may have stopped and averted disaster.

430
00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:24,910
If the radios had not been shut down on the Californian,

431
00:24:25,020 --> 00:24:27,180
they may have reached them in time.

432
00:24:27,290 --> 00:24:30,620
If the operators were not operating in this cacophony of talk over,

433
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,020
they may have heard the distress signals...

434
00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:34,560
but they didn't.

435
00:24:34,660 --> 00:24:36,690
A lot of ifs, only one certainty--

436
00:24:36,790 --> 00:24:38,930
a lot of people died.

437
00:24:39,030 --> 00:24:42,900
So now I know what role communication played,

438
00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:46,400
but what about the actual design of the ship?

439
00:24:46,500 --> 00:24:50,740
Was there something structurally wrong with the Titanic?

440
00:24:57,050 --> 00:25:01,120
Conventional wisdom says that once the Titanic hit the massive iceberg

441
00:25:01,220 --> 00:25:03,490
on April 12, 1912,

442
00:25:03,590 --> 00:25:06,160
the disaster that followed was inevitable,

443
00:25:06,260 --> 00:25:09,730
but there are theories that say that design flaws on the ship itself

444
00:25:09,830 --> 00:25:12,430
made the tragedy worse than it needed to be.

445
00:25:12,530 --> 00:25:16,200
Some argue that even at the speed they were traveling,

446
00:25:16,300 --> 00:25:18,930
there's still a way they could have struck an iceberg

447
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:20,740
and remained afloat.

448
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,940
And to explore this theory, I'm headed for Seattle, Washington.

449
00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:28,910
The city of Seattle knows something about ships.

450
00:25:29,010 --> 00:25:32,150
It's home to the 14th largest port in North America

451
00:25:32,250 --> 00:25:34,680
and the 57th largest in the world.

452
00:25:34,790 --> 00:25:37,620
The seaport division here

453
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:40,290
handles over two million containers a year.

454
00:25:42,860 --> 00:25:45,490
One Coho! One Coho!

455
00:25:48,870 --> 00:25:50,900
This is truly a maritime city, where fresh seafood

456
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,940
is a way of life-- here at Pike Place Fish Market,

457
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,940
they sell over 1.5 million pounds of seafood every year.

458
00:25:58,040 --> 00:26:00,940
There we go. Look what we got!

459
00:26:01,050 --> 00:26:03,280
Look what we got! Whoo!

460
00:26:03,380 --> 00:26:06,520
As much as I would love to hang out with these guys,

461
00:26:06,620 --> 00:26:10,490
I'm here to investigate if Titanic had a disastrous design flaw.

462
00:26:13,460 --> 00:26:16,530
In its hull, Titanic had 16 watertight compartments

463
00:26:16,630 --> 00:26:19,330
separated by transverse bulkheads.

464
00:26:19,430 --> 00:26:22,900
It could stay afloat if four of them were flooded.

465
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:27,000
Designers envisioned that a head-on collision was most likely,

466
00:26:27,100 --> 00:26:31,040
so the first two bulkheads, called the collision bulkheads,

467
00:26:31,140 --> 00:26:33,380
were tallest, to prevent water

468
00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,310
from overflowing into the other compartments.

469
00:26:36,410 --> 00:26:40,180
But no one envisioned a hit along the ship's side,

470
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:44,520
so the next 14 bulkheads were shorter, only rising 10 feet

471
00:26:44,620 --> 00:26:47,990
above the waterline-- when the ship hit the iceberg,

472
00:26:48,090 --> 00:26:51,260
six of the compartments along its side were opened,

473
00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:55,000
and the water began to overflow from one compartment to the next.

474
00:26:55,100 --> 00:26:59,000
Water was flooding the ship at 400 tons a minute.

475
00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,470
Not only were the compartments not controlling the flooding,

476
00:27:03,570 --> 00:27:06,240
they were also containing the water in the bow,

477
00:27:06,340 --> 00:27:08,980
which increased the rate of sinking.

478
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:12,820
If the ship had hit straight-on, many believed

479
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,850
the impact would've been absorbed by the collision bulkheads,

480
00:27:15,950 --> 00:27:18,650
and the flooding would've been contained, saving the ship,

481
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:22,220
but beyond the bulkheads, some believed the Titanic had

482
00:27:22,330 --> 00:27:24,960
an even greater structural flaw.

483
00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:28,560
Titanic was made of steel plates held together

484
00:27:28,670 --> 00:27:31,600
by three million rivets, and it's been proven

485
00:27:31,700 --> 00:27:34,970
a number of those rivets were made of iron and not steel.

486
00:27:35,070 --> 00:27:38,910
Iron is considered to be inferior in strength and quality,

487
00:27:39,010 --> 00:27:42,080
but if it isn't pure, it can be even weaker.

488
00:27:42,180 --> 00:27:45,650
Records show that a percentage of Titanic's rivets

489
00:27:45,750 --> 00:27:49,250
were low-grade wrought iron, which contains a large amount

490
00:27:49,350 --> 00:27:51,950
of impurities.

491
00:27:52,060 --> 00:27:55,620
Some scientists have developed a theory that because these rivets were used,

492
00:27:55,730 --> 00:27:58,330
they failed too easily during the collision.

493
00:27:58,430 --> 00:28:01,160
To test this theory,

494
00:28:01,270 --> 00:28:02,830
I am going to make a set

495
00:28:02,930 --> 00:28:05,530
of wrought iron rivets and a set of steel

496
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:08,640
and subject them both to an intense amount of force.

497
00:28:08,740 --> 00:28:12,110
Dallas Puckett and his team specialize in fabricating

498
00:28:12,210 --> 00:28:14,840
marine hardware and are gonna help me make the rivets.

499
00:28:14,950 --> 00:28:17,680
All right, have at it.

500
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:24,150
Wow, it heats up fast! Yeah.

501
00:28:27,090 --> 00:28:29,260
What's amazing is that these vintage machines

502
00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:31,430
are from the early 20th century.

503
00:28:31,530 --> 00:28:33,130
And that one's ready.

504
00:28:33,230 --> 00:28:36,870
We're making rivets the same way they did in the age of Titanic.

505
00:28:36,970 --> 00:28:39,400
For the test,

506
00:28:39,500 --> 00:28:42,200
I need one set of iron and another of steel.

507
00:28:42,310 --> 00:28:44,470
That's cool!

508
00:28:44,580 --> 00:28:46,880
That's how you make a rivet!

509
00:28:46,980 --> 00:28:49,850
I'm driving each set into steel plates

510
00:28:49,950 --> 00:28:53,180
that are the same composition as Titanic's hull.

511
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:55,580
You ready? Let's roll.

512
00:28:55,690 --> 00:28:57,690
Here we go--one, two, three!

513
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,020
There we go--oh, look at that.

514
00:29:05,130 --> 00:29:07,530
This is properly attached? All is well? Yes, yes it is.

515
00:29:07,630 --> 00:29:10,330
Okay, so I'm ready for my test. Mmhm.

516
00:29:12,170 --> 00:29:14,100
The Dwight Company just outside Seattle

517
00:29:14,210 --> 00:29:16,270
specializes in metal fatigue testing

518
00:29:16,370 --> 00:29:18,810
with big clients like the U.S. Navy.

519
00:29:18,910 --> 00:29:22,610
First, we're gonna put the iron rivets through a stress test

520
00:29:22,710 --> 00:29:25,650
at room temperature by subjecting them to a force

521
00:29:25,750 --> 00:29:28,250
similar to a ship hitting an iceberg.

522
00:29:28,350 --> 00:29:31,550
We'll start with wrought iron. All right.

523
00:29:35,030 --> 00:29:37,760
Using a tensile machine that pulls the steel plates

524
00:29:37,860 --> 00:29:40,430
in opposite directions, we're going to measure

525
00:29:40,530 --> 00:29:43,030
the amount of force that the rivets holding the plates together

526
00:29:43,130 --> 00:29:45,530
can withstand... The number's going up!

527
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:47,270
...before they fail.

528
00:29:47,370 --> 00:29:49,810
It's gonna break any moment now, isn't it?

529
00:29:49,910 --> 00:29:53,810
9,731...96...

530
00:29:53,910 --> 00:29:55,840
So that's 9,000...whoa!

531
00:29:55,950 --> 00:29:58,780
Oh, my goodness!

532
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:01,680
The max load on this

533
00:30:01,790 --> 00:30:05,050
was...10,031 pounds.

534
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,890
So the iron rivets failed at 10,031 pounds.

535
00:30:08,990 --> 00:30:12,690
You can see they were brittle, like glass, and sheared right off.

536
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:14,830
So now we test the steel.

537
00:30:14,930 --> 00:30:16,900
Let's do it. I've got it right here.

538
00:30:25,510 --> 00:30:28,010
We're at 9,000. Nine thousand pounds!

539
00:30:31,550 --> 00:30:33,680
Wow, it's really holding up!

540
00:30:33,780 --> 00:30:36,080
Yeah, not bad.

541
00:30:38,390 --> 00:30:39,960
Holy... Here it goes, here it goes, here it goes.

542
00:30:40,060 --> 00:30:41,790
It's bending... there she is!

543
00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,330
Fifteen 122. Yeah, 15,122.3.

544
00:30:49,570 --> 00:30:52,940
The steel rivets failed at a little over 15,000 pounds.

545
00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:57,010
Unlike the iron, these rivets were more elastic or ductile

546
00:30:57,110 --> 00:31:00,540
and actually bent from the force before they gave out.

547
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,950
So this is conclusive. This is very conclusive.

548
00:31:04,050 --> 00:31:06,620
This test shows that the wrought iron rivets made

549
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,750
to replicate the ones that held Titanic's hull together

550
00:31:09,850 --> 00:31:13,790
were roughly 1/3 weaker than steel rivets would've been.

551
00:31:13,890 --> 00:31:16,890
The steel showed superior strength and ductility.

552
00:31:16,990 --> 00:31:19,900
So this hypothesis might be true.

553
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:23,700
If the Titanic had been constructed only of steel rivets,

554
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,440
it might not've been torn apart,

555
00:31:26,540 --> 00:31:29,470
and it might not have sunk at all.

556
00:31:29,570 --> 00:31:32,370
But the bottom line is, Titanic ran into an iceberg,

557
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:36,210
a force of nature few structures could've withstood.

558
00:31:36,310 --> 00:31:38,550
A lot of people have criticized

559
00:31:38,650 --> 00:31:41,720
the materials used to manufacture the Titanic.

560
00:31:41,820 --> 00:31:44,090
On the flip side, some say the Titanic

561
00:31:44,190 --> 00:31:46,190
was designed so well

562
00:31:46,290 --> 00:31:49,160
that the ship didn't doom more than 1,500 people,

563
00:31:49,260 --> 00:31:52,390
it actually saved 705.

564
00:31:52,500 --> 00:31:54,400
Some of those same theorists

565
00:31:54,500 --> 00:31:56,470
believe that the Titanic's ultimate flaw

566
00:31:56,570 --> 00:31:58,470
wasn't what the ship was made of

567
00:31:58,570 --> 00:32:00,870
but rather the skill of its crew.

568
00:32:00,970 --> 00:32:04,870
The Titanic took two hours and 40 minutes to sink.

569
00:32:04,980 --> 00:32:08,410
That should've been more than enough time for the crew to mobilize

570
00:32:08,510 --> 00:32:11,280
and for all of the lifeboats to be launched.

571
00:32:11,380 --> 00:32:15,080
So with all this time, why weren't more people saved?

572
00:32:21,860 --> 00:32:24,960
In 1912, the ill-fated Titanic hit an iceberg

573
00:32:25,060 --> 00:32:28,430
and sank in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

574
00:32:28,530 --> 00:32:33,130
Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard,

575
00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,540
more than 1,500 died.

576
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,870
I've been testing theories that bring the design of the ship

577
00:32:39,980 --> 00:32:43,240
into question, but some say the tragic loss of life

578
00:32:43,350 --> 00:32:45,780
was more the result of human error,

579
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:49,180
but to examine this theory, we have to go all the way back

580
00:32:49,290 --> 00:32:52,620
to the very beginning, to before the ship was even made.

581
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:56,260
When the Titanic was designed, the plans called for the ship

582
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:58,860
to carry 64 wooden lifeboats

583
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,530
that each held 65 passengers--

584
00:33:01,630 --> 00:33:04,330
more than enough seats for the manifest.

585
00:33:04,430 --> 00:33:08,100
When the ship was completed, this number had plummeted.

586
00:33:08,210 --> 00:33:10,240
Rumors abound

587
00:33:10,340 --> 00:33:12,810
as to what actually transpired.

588
00:33:12,910 --> 00:33:16,280
One theory is that a top executive from the White Star Line

589
00:33:16,380 --> 00:33:19,810
saw the plans and was dissatisfied with the aesthetic

590
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:23,080
of that many lifeboats and demanded the number be reduced.

591
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,760
Whatever the reason, when the ship set sail,

592
00:33:27,860 --> 00:33:31,130
there were 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsible,

593
00:33:31,230 --> 00:33:34,530
only enough seats for roughly 1,100

594
00:33:34,630 --> 00:33:38,000
of the more than 2,200 passengers on board.

595
00:33:38,100 --> 00:33:41,040
But while the lack of lifeboats has long been discussed

596
00:33:41,140 --> 00:33:44,170
as a major part of this tragedy, I wanna examine

597
00:33:44,270 --> 00:33:46,410
another lesser-known theory,

598
00:33:46,510 --> 00:33:48,510
that it was untrained crewmembers

599
00:33:48,610 --> 00:33:51,480
who may have contributed substantially to this disaster.

600
00:33:51,580 --> 00:33:54,350
In addition to the lack thereof,

601
00:33:54,450 --> 00:33:57,290
the lifeboats that were launched were half full.

602
00:33:57,390 --> 00:34:00,960
Four hundred and 72 spaces went unused.

603
00:34:01,060 --> 00:34:05,130
On top of the boats being launched before they were at capacity,

604
00:34:05,230 --> 00:34:08,360
it also took a long time to get them in the water.

605
00:34:08,470 --> 00:34:10,630
To figure out

606
00:34:10,730 --> 00:34:13,130
how lack of skill would impact the efficiency

607
00:34:13,240 --> 00:34:16,140
of deploying lifeboats, I'm gonna test my ability,

608
00:34:16,240 --> 00:34:19,640
or lack thereof, and try my hand at operating a davit.

609
00:34:19,740 --> 00:34:22,940
Davit is a fancy name for a crane.

610
00:34:23,050 --> 00:34:27,150
Each lifeboat on the Titanic had two davit arms, one at each end.

611
00:34:27,250 --> 00:34:30,080
Using a rope pulley system, two men,

612
00:34:30,190 --> 00:34:32,950
one on each davit, lowered the passenger-filled boat

613
00:34:33,060 --> 00:34:35,990
into the ocean-- at the time of the Titanic,

614
00:34:36,090 --> 00:34:38,930
it should've taken about three minutes to launch

615
00:34:39,030 --> 00:34:42,260
occupied lifeboats from a ship that size.

616
00:34:42,370 --> 00:34:46,030
Nowadays, most davits use both gravity and hydraulics,

617
00:34:46,140 --> 00:34:49,640
so they're a lot quicker, but the davit we're using today

618
00:34:49,740 --> 00:34:53,170
still requires a fair amount of manual labor to operate,

619
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:56,240
much like those used on the Titanic.

620
00:34:58,620 --> 00:35:01,280
Hey! Hey. Dave, this is Don.

621
00:35:01,380 --> 00:35:02,950
Don's gonna be watching us. Nice to meet you.

622
00:35:03,050 --> 00:35:04,990
Show me how it's done.

623
00:35:05,090 --> 00:35:07,620
Forward brake is released.

624
00:35:07,720 --> 00:35:10,890
Boat plug is in, and the man ropes it down.

625
00:35:10,990 --> 00:35:13,260
Lower the boat!

626
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,530
Here it comes! Here comes the lifeboat, she's comin' on down!

627
00:35:16,630 --> 00:35:18,970
'Cause you gotta get it

628
00:35:19,070 --> 00:35:21,500
down to the deck so that people can get in. Here we go.

629
00:35:21,610 --> 00:35:24,010
There she comes.

630
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:29,810
And hold! Hold!

631
00:35:29,910 --> 00:35:32,180
It took these guys less than a minute

632
00:35:32,280 --> 00:35:35,680
to get the lifeboat lowered-- time to test my skills.

633
00:35:35,790 --> 00:35:37,820
Make sure that the boat plug is in

634
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:39,850
and the man ropes are down.

635
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,860
All right!

636
00:35:41,960 --> 00:35:45,330
From the time the Titanic hit the iceberg... In the boat.

637
00:35:45,430 --> 00:35:49,300
...a full 60 minutes went by before the first lifeboat was set afloat.

638
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,470
Boat plug in! Why did it take so long?

639
00:35:52,570 --> 00:35:56,240
Several reports indicate that the crew onboard the Titanic

640
00:35:56,340 --> 00:35:59,540
was not trained properly on using lifeboat launching equipment,

641
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:03,180
so the launches were slower than they should've been.

642
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:06,480
Ironically, there was a lifeboat safety drill

643
00:36:06,580 --> 00:36:08,920
scheduled the day the Titanic sank,

644
00:36:09,020 --> 00:36:12,450
but it was canceled by the captain.

645
00:36:12,560 --> 00:36:16,290
Man ropes are down? Three man ropes down!

646
00:36:16,390 --> 00:36:19,660
Come on down!

647
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:21,960
Wow, this is stressful.

648
00:36:22,070 --> 00:36:24,130
I'm trying to be speedy.

649
00:36:24,230 --> 00:36:27,070
Pull the stern harbor pin! Pullin' stern harbor pin!

650
00:36:27,170 --> 00:36:29,770
Imagine what it would feel like on a ship that's sinking

651
00:36:29,870 --> 00:36:32,040
in the middle of the North Atlantic.

652
00:36:32,140 --> 00:36:33,780
Done!

653
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:35,510
Lower the boat.

654
00:36:35,610 --> 00:36:37,580
During the evacuation,

655
00:36:37,680 --> 00:36:40,010
women and children were given priority,

656
00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:43,550
and while it wasn't an order to prioritize the first-class passengers,

657
00:36:43,650 --> 00:36:46,960
far more of them survived than second or third.

658
00:36:47,060 --> 00:36:51,130
Ninety-two percent of men in second class perished

659
00:36:51,230 --> 00:36:54,930
as did 76 percent of all third class passengers.

660
00:36:55,030 --> 00:36:57,970
Stop!

661
00:36:58,070 --> 00:37:00,900
You're in the water!

662
00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,640
Yes, we did it! We're in the water!

663
00:37:03,740 --> 00:37:06,170
I can't believe it took me ten minutes.

664
00:37:06,280 --> 00:37:09,680
Obviously, if you're not well trained in this kind of system,

665
00:37:09,780 --> 00:37:12,350
it can be a time-consuming debacle.

666
00:37:12,450 --> 00:37:14,950
And in the case of Titanic,

667
00:37:15,050 --> 00:37:17,320
it may have cost a lot of people their lives.

668
00:37:19,790 --> 00:37:22,120
There's a lot of reasons why the ship went down

669
00:37:22,230 --> 00:37:24,630
and also a lot of ways it could've been avoided.

670
00:37:24,730 --> 00:37:27,360
For me, only one real question remains--

671
00:37:27,460 --> 00:37:30,100
could this disaster happen today?

672
00:37:36,940 --> 00:37:39,740
I started this journey by diving deep below sea level

673
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,280
to get a better perspective on how an iceberg

674
00:37:42,380 --> 00:37:44,710
could've taken down the Titanic.

675
00:37:44,820 --> 00:37:48,180
Now, I'm going 10,000 feet up in the air to find out

676
00:37:48,290 --> 00:37:50,320
if it could happen again today.

677
00:37:53,690 --> 00:37:56,520
So that is the St. John's Airport,

678
00:37:56,630 --> 00:37:58,860
and this--check it out--

679
00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:02,430
is the headquarters of the International Ice Patrol.

680
00:38:05,400 --> 00:38:07,540
Boat 2, I'm up.

681
00:38:07,640 --> 00:38:10,140
Roger.

682
00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:12,370
We're on two.

683
00:38:15,550 --> 00:38:17,450
A year after the Titanic sank,

684
00:38:17,550 --> 00:38:19,880
this organization was created.

685
00:38:19,980 --> 00:38:22,180
Operated by the United States Coast Guard,

686
00:38:22,290 --> 00:38:24,590
their job is to monitor the shipping lanes

687
00:38:24,690 --> 00:38:26,960
off of Newfoundland for iceberg danger.

688
00:38:43,210 --> 00:38:48,140
Uh, position for it is 4-8-1-8 North 4-6-5-1.

689
00:38:48,250 --> 00:38:51,450
Every day during iceberg season, which runs from February

690
00:38:51,550 --> 00:38:54,520
until July or August, they run reconnaissance missions

691
00:38:54,620 --> 00:38:56,950
with multi-engine jets.

692
00:38:57,050 --> 00:38:59,420
Back when they originally started patrolling these waters,

693
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,190
they used ships, but after World War II,

694
00:39:02,290 --> 00:39:04,660
they began to use aircraft.

695
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:07,230
In the 1960s, they actually attempted

696
00:39:07,330 --> 00:39:09,800
to bomb the icebergs.

697
00:39:09,900 --> 00:39:12,630
Today, they use radar and visual reference

698
00:39:12,740 --> 00:39:14,670
to record what they see.

699
00:39:14,770 --> 00:39:16,840
Our goal is to cover where there's cold water.

700
00:39:16,940 --> 00:39:19,210
So this is Iceberg Alley right here.

701
00:39:19,310 --> 00:39:22,110
The current brings the icebergs directly to that small path.

702
00:39:22,210 --> 00:39:25,180
When we do our message results, it'll come out with all

703
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:27,320
the positions of the icebergs that we found,

704
00:39:27,420 --> 00:39:29,550
and then we'll create our iceberg warning product

705
00:39:29,650 --> 00:39:31,790
that then is distributed to the maritime community.

706
00:39:31,890 --> 00:39:34,560
That's the mission, really, to clear these shipping lanes It is.

707
00:39:34,660 --> 00:39:36,560
and to keep them informed. Yes.

708
00:39:36,660 --> 00:39:39,430
Small circle around there.

709
00:39:39,530 --> 00:39:43,100
How many icebergs a year do you see?

710
00:39:43,200 --> 00:39:45,530
So we typically track--

711
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:47,670
it could be up to approximately 10,000 icebergs.

712
00:39:47,770 --> 00:39:49,370
This year, we've had approximately--

713
00:39:49,470 --> 00:39:51,640
almost 700 icebergs in the shipping lanes,

714
00:39:51,740 --> 00:39:55,010
a lot of icebergs getting into the region of where the Titanic sank.

715
00:39:55,110 --> 00:39:58,450
So 100 years later, a direct descendent of the Titanic tragedy,

716
00:39:58,550 --> 00:40:01,450
that's why we're here today. Yes, it is.

717
00:40:01,550 --> 00:40:04,020
I won't be able to see it. Can you give us a position on that?

718
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:07,520
4-8-1-8-4-6-5-1. 5-1, okay.

719
00:40:09,030 --> 00:40:12,360
Fascinating, uh, intricate operation.

720
00:40:12,460 --> 00:40:15,860
Simply to make sure

721
00:40:15,970 --> 00:40:18,200
that boats know where these icebergs are.

722
00:40:18,300 --> 00:40:20,400
That's how this system has worked for a century,

723
00:40:20,500 --> 00:40:23,270
keeping boats safe up here in the North Atlantic.

724
00:40:23,370 --> 00:40:27,180
Since the formation of the International Ice Patrol,

725
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:29,980
no vessel that has heeded their warnings

726
00:40:30,080 --> 00:40:32,450
has collided with an iceberg.

727
00:40:32,550 --> 00:40:35,120
That's a pretty good stat.

728
00:40:36,990 --> 00:40:39,750
In my quest to discover if the tragedy of the Titanic

729
00:40:39,860 --> 00:40:43,090
could've been avoided or if it could happen again today,

730
00:40:43,190 --> 00:40:45,230
I've tested several theories

731
00:40:45,330 --> 00:40:47,960
and explored a host of hypotheses.

732
00:40:48,060 --> 00:40:51,130
I have learned a lot about this famous maritime catastrophe,

733
00:40:51,230 --> 00:40:54,840
and a lot has changed since it happened.

734
00:40:54,940 --> 00:40:58,840
The 1914 International Safety of Life at Sea Convention

735
00:40:58,940 --> 00:41:01,940
enacted numerous rules to prevent a disaster

736
00:41:02,050 --> 00:41:04,450
like Titanic from ever reoccurring,

737
00:41:04,550 --> 00:41:07,120
specifically with regards to lifeboats.

738
00:41:07,220 --> 00:41:10,650
The law now strictly requires that there be enough lifeboats

739
00:41:10,750 --> 00:41:13,490
to accommodate everybody on board.

740
00:41:13,590 --> 00:41:16,930
There are mandatory drills, evacuation stations assigned

741
00:41:17,030 --> 00:41:20,330
for crews and passengers, and every lifeboat

742
00:41:20,430 --> 00:41:22,830
must clearly indicate capacity.

743
00:41:22,930 --> 00:41:25,230
Radio standards have also changed.

744
00:41:25,340 --> 00:41:27,470
The Radio Act of 1912 dictated

745
00:41:27,570 --> 00:41:30,510
that all wireless operators must be licensed,

746
00:41:30,610 --> 00:41:34,180
only use certain bandwidths, reserve channels for the Navy,

747
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,180
man their posts 24 hours a day,

748
00:41:37,280 --> 00:41:40,180
and establish direct communications with the bridge.

749
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,480
Given all these precautions,

750
00:41:42,590 --> 00:41:45,450
it's extremely unlikely that a disaster like Titanic

751
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,460
could happen today, but, unfortunately,

752
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,390
human error cannot be prevented and is still

753
00:41:51,490 --> 00:41:53,930
the number-one cause of maritime disasters.

754
00:41:54,030 --> 00:41:56,460
I'm Don Wildman-- thanks for watching

755
00:41:56,570 --> 00:41:58,800
"Mysteries at the Museum: The Titanic."

755
00:41:59,305 --> 00:42:59,471
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