Titanic sunk by steering blunder, new book claims.

[Kazuaki Shimazaki II]

Originally Posted by kiwi_2005

When First Officer William Murdoch spotted the iceberg two miles away, his "hard a-starboard" order was misinterpreted by the Quartermaster Robert Hitchins. He turned the ship right instead of left and, even though he was almost immediately told to correct it, it was too late and the side of the starboard bow was ripped out by the iceberg.

I don't know what evidence this woman uses to support this new Titanic conspiracy theory, but it fails the prima facie test. With a ~650yd class turning radius, two miles of sea room and the iceberg ahead (heck, in fact, in any direction), it hardly matters which way the quartermaster turned the wheel. The ship is supposed to turn a hair faster left than right because of its propellers rotation but it is not a huge factor.

In this case, the big mistake would have been to "correct" the "wrong" turn, but even then, with TWO whole miles of sea room, the turn could likely have been reversed with room to spare.

There, Lightoller heard not only about the fatal mistake, but also what happened next, up on the bridge. While Hitchins had made a straightforward error, what followed was a deliberate decision. Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic’s owner, the White Star Line, persuaded the Captain to continue sailing.

Oh I've heard this one before and can believe it.