[UKönig]

One of the complaints the war correspondent makes in Das Boot is that the U-boat has a terrible turning radius for several reasons. It's too long, too narrow, too slow, and its propellers are too close together, and the rudder surface area itself is too small.

too small a surface area on the rudder is what allowed the Titanic to graze the iceberg. That accident was caused when the watch officer reversed engines and *then* put the rudder hard over. The time took to reverse gear slowed the ship down and the too small rudder had less deflection effect to begin the turn in time. Ironically, the best maneuver in that regard would have been to speed up and then hard over. The way history records it is what you would do to ensure a collision. Of course, I can't really fault the guy for not wanting to smash their brand new flagship ocean liner head on into a mountain of ice...

Above all, speed is life. The faster you are going, the longer you will live. The best defense against an attack is: not be in range of it.