[CW] SOS Prinsendam / PJTA

[N2EY@aol.com]

In a message dated 10/4/03 8:10:39 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
SergeantL@starband.net writes:


> In 1912 we had an idiot Captain,
> who despite many warnings about icebergs, chose a route and speed that ended
> up drowning over 1500 people and sending the Titanic to the bottom. 

One tiny bit of correction, from a rivet-counter....

Most of Titanic's victims did not drown, even though that was the official 
ruling. There were plenty of life jackets, people actually put them on, and 
there was little suction when the ship sank. 

Most of those lost died of hypothermia from the freezing water. Many of their 
bodies, still in life jackets, were collected by ships other than Carpathia, 
first on the scene. Most of those recovered were buried in Halifax, Nova 
Scotia.

Captain Smith had received at least six warnings of ice dead ahead. There was 
no moon and the lookouts had no binoculars because no one could find them on 
the new ship. The sea was unusually calm, and it had been an unusually warm 
spring in the North Atlantic (which meant more icebergs). Other ships had 
reported stopping or slowing down because of ice. 

Smith knew all this and yet ordered no speed reduction, course change or 
extra lookouts.

It wasn't a hostile act, technological failure or natural forces that sank 
Titanic. It was simple human error.

73 de Jim, N2EY


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