User Reviews

It didn't have to happen. In so many ways, the legendary tragedy of Titanic could have been prevented.

This well-illustrated documentary, sonorously narrated by Richard Mitchley, points out that:

1) The ship had bulkheads meant to keep it afloat even if the vessel's lower compartments flooded. Yet the bulkheads weren't as high as they could have been -- so as not to impinge on the comfort of passengers overhead.

2) The reputedly unsinkable ocean liner had just half the lifeboats it required. Yet no expense had been spared on constructing the ship -- its builders spent what they wanted, and let fare-payers pick up the difference.

3) Capt. EJ Smith, described as "a bit of a chancer" but popular with elite passengers, had helmed the launching of Titanic's sister ship, Olympic, less than a year before Titanic set sail -- when it collided with a British Navy vessel. Was the 62-year-old the best man for the job?

4) Though many warnings about ice had arrived on Titanic's fateful day, Smith kept the ship moving full-speed-ahead toward New York, assigning no extra crew to keep watch. Famed polar explorer Ernest Shackleton later testified that in those conditions, the Titanic should have slowed down and posted additional lookouts.

A lengthy inquiry into the tragedy 400 miles south of Newfoundland was a "complete whitewash largely concocted to get the Board of Trade off the hook," we're told.

Smith famously went down with the ship, with 1,521 others who died in the wee hours of April 15, 1912. We're reminded of how the band played on till the end.

It seemed the only person blamed in the disaster was Stanley Lord, captain of a ship some 19 miles away, ultimately deemed too distant to have rendered aid.

J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of Titanic's parent company, White Star Line, was among the men who boarded a lifeboat, subsequently to "withdraw to obscurity," we learn.

We also find out that the father of a third-class passenger who died won a lawsuit against the shipping line. I'd have thought that many such suits would have been filed.

This heart-rending tale will never cease to amaze...