RMS Titanic simulation

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Oberon

The early sinking test video is particularly eerie:

Very eerie indeed, no need for music to create that feeling just the moaning of the ships hull being pulled under.

[Gargamel]

Ha, I thought it was a "can you avoid the sinking" simulator. I was like, slow down and turn left. There, done.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

I was like, slow down and turn left. There, done.

That's exactly what they did!

Murdoch ordered the rudder to hard starboard and engines to full astern in an attempt to 'port around' the iceberg by swinging the ship to the left but the speed was too high and the distance too short for the ship to avoid the iceberg.

There's another school of thought that says that if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on that it might not have caused as much damage as the glancing blow to the starboard side of the ship did.

[Gargamel]

I meant way earlier.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

I meant way earlier.

That would have helped, but there was no way of knowing that there was an iceberg ahead until the lookouts spotted it. Going slower in general would have helped though, especially after the warning was received, but Smith had a deadline to meet and a lot of pressure on him...he still should have taken the safety of the ship first, but hindsight and all that.

[CCIP]

This looks really cool. Hope it gets fully funded

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Oberon

That's exactly what they did!

Murdoch ordered the rudder to hard starboard and engines to full astern in an attempt to 'port around' the iceberg by swinging the ship to the left but the speed was too high and the distance too short for the ship to avoid the iceberg.

That's what I was going to say, but then decided against it. Ships actually turn tighter the faster they go. If they had turned and kept to full speed they might have missed it altogether. Slowing down was the wrong thing to do.

There's another school of thought that says that if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on that it might not have caused as much damage as the glancing blow to the starboard side of the ship did.

I subscribe to that school. A head-on collision would have crushed the bow, but would not have exposed several sections to flooding at the same time.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I subscribe to that school. A head-on collision would have crushed the bow, but would not have exposed several sections to flooding at the same time.

I did do a brief search into that theory, and found this article:
http://www.rmstitanicremembered.com/?page_id=282

It makes some interesting points in detriment of the theory, in particular the force of the collision.

[Hans Schultz]

I'd love to see this get made. I love old ocean liners. I wish I could get my Titanic:Adventure out of Time game to work.

Originally Posted by Hans Schultz

I'd love to see this get made. I love old ocean liners.

Me too man.
They were so classy and beautiful.
Not like modern liners that are just giant swimming hotels.
They disgust me. Would love to torp all of them.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Oberon

I did do a brief search into that theory, and found this article:
http://www.rmstitanicremembered.com/?page_id=282

It makes some interesting points in detriment of the theory, in particular the force of the collision.

Good article. Lots to consider.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

That's what I was going to say, but then decided against it. Ships actually turn tighter the faster they go. If they had turned and kept to full speed they might have missed it altogether. Slowing down was the wrong thing to do.

There is some evidence that the turn was made at the speed the ship was going at before the collision.

*rummage rummage rummage*

 

Thomas Dillon (Trimmer)

3715. Did you feel the shock when the ship struck?
- Slightly.

3716. And shortly before that had the telegraph rung?
- Yes.

3717. Can you say at all how long before she struck that was?
- Two seconds.

3718. What was the order given by the telegraph?
- I could not tell you.

3719. You just heard it ring. Then a few seconds after that you felt a slight shock?
- Yes.

3720. Was anything done to the engines? Did they stop or did they go on?
- They stopped.

3721. Was that immediately after you felt the shock or some little time after?
- About a minute and a half.

***

Frederick Scott (Greaser)

5520. We have that from the plan. You were standing by the door. Just tell us before you felt anything at all, did you see anything done?
- No.

5521. You felt something; what was it?
- I felt a shock and I thought it was something in the main engine room which had gone wrong.

5522. We know it was about 11.40?
- Yes, about 20 minutes to 12.

5523. Did you notice the two telegraphs in the engine room?
- Yes; four telegraphs rang.

5524. Were there four telegraphs?
- She got four telegraphs, two emergency ones.

5525. Two emergency?
- Yes, and two for the main engine.

5526. What did you notice?
- I noticed "Stop" first.

5527. To which telegraph did that come?
- On the main engines.

***

George Beauchamp (Fireman)

661a. (Mr. Raymond Asquith - To the Witness.) Did you notice the shock when the ship struck?
- Yes, Sir, I noticed the shock.

662. Was it a severe shock?
- Just like thunder, the roar of thunder.

663. And immediately after the shock was any order given?
- Yes.

664. What order?
- To stand by, to stop. The telegraph went "Stop."

664a. (The Commissioner.) You got that order from the bridge, "Stop"?
- Yes.

664b. (Mr. Raymond Asquith.) And were the engines stopped at once or not?
- The telegraph rung off "Stop," so I suppose they were.

Source: http://www.titanicinquiry.org/

[james_nix]

I thought at first it'd be a sim and you'd drive the boat!

[Oberon]

I think you can drive the Titanic in Ship Simulator 2008, but the actual innards of the ship are relatively limited.

In regards to the collision itself, IIRC the steam powered tiller took about 30 seconds to move the rudder and the ship itself was travelling around 22.5 knots, getting the engines into reverse would have taken a couple of minutes to get going, especially from forward speed. There's some testimony that Murdoch waited about thirty seconds after spotting the iceberg before issuing his orders, in order to see if the Titanics course would have missed the iceberg, rather than turn and risk the berg hitting her in the stern.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...med-liner.html

Honestly though, I think Murdoch went through the actions as any steamship officer would have done, evaluate the threat, and take the necessary actions. Unfortunately due to no single factor but a number of factors, his actions were too little too late.

[Platapus]

One of the issues with the mate reversing the engines is that only the two outboard engines were reciprocating engines. The middle one was a turbine and was not able to be reversed. This meant that when the order to reverse engines was made, the middle engine was disengaged. Unfortunately, this turbine engine's prop was in front of the rudder.

As already stated, reversing engines (and the necessary disengagement of the middle engine) resulted in the ship turning slower than normal.

Oberon, there is no evidence that Smith was under any specific pressure to make a schedule. The schedule planned was reasonable and took into account the season. White Star, at that time, did not put a priority on speed (like Cunard did) . White Star put a priority on comfort and a predictable arrival time.

Alcon, in hind sight, ramming a brand new ship directly into an iceberg may have been a better decision. However any officer who would make this decision, given the information they had, would have been rightfully fired for lack of judgment. While ramming head on into an iceberg may have limited the crush damage to the first few compartment, it is also important to remember that the Titanic was traveling at about 22 knots (which was under her max speed).

Hitting what would be an essentially unmovable iceberg with a 46,000 ton boat at 22 knots will result in a large amount of energy transferred back to the Titanic. I seriously doubt the engineering department (boilers and such) were designed with mountings that could withstand that much deceleration. Certainly the passenger related compartments would not survive this impact well. The resulting internal damage may have caused more damage to the hull then the iceberg did.

In addition, hitting an iceberg head on to reduce the damage to the entire ship would depend on being able to hit the iceberg exactly perpendicular, which is almost impossible due to the shapes of icebergs. If the Titanic would have hit the iceberg nose on but at even a slight angle, the Titanic probably would have pivoted after the impact and slammed one if its sides into the iceberg, probably causing the same or even more damage than the glancing blow that actually happened.

I do not think it is a safe assumption that the Titanic would have survived a head on collision with an iceberg. The only advantage would be that the Titanic might not have sunk as fast as it did and therefore more passengers could have been saved.