What if Titanic Hit the Iceberg Head-On?

Yes - Titanic probably could have survived an impact with the iceberg if she hit head-on! The wild stories of other ships - like the Arizona, Grampian, Florida and many more demonstrate how ships behave when they hit icebergs - and it may not happen the way that you expect!

Here is 'The Mechanics of Ship Collisions' by Zhang;
Other papers that support this;

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#titanic #history #engineering #documentary #steering #ships #oceanliners #sinking

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[jormungandr]

What’s funny to think about is that if this did happen and it did collide head on, then most of us would have never heard of the titanic.

[eriktruedson]

a front end collision would have felt like a complete disaster without them ever realizing how bad the alternative was

[GlutenEruption]

It’s crazy to think just how bad their luck was - if they had been a few seconds slower spotting the iceberg, they’d have his head on and survived, and if they had been a few seconds quicker, they’d have missed it entirely…

[attackoramic]

just imagine how badass it would be seeing the titanic with an annihilated bow cruising into the new york harbour.

[Brock_Landers]

It's sad to think that this could've been a reality. Titanic would've lived on to become a troop transport or possibly a hospital ship like her sisters. She could've possibly have lived a full life like Olympic did, but there are things that the sinking brought to light that we might've never had without the loss of Titanic, like the International Ice Patrol or the provision of lifeboats for all on board (which should've been commonplace regardless). With mankind we have to have disasters so that we can learn from our mistakes. I'm not saying that Titanic sinking taking 1500 souls with her was a good thing, FAR from it, but it brought around some much needed changes in maritime history that might have never happened without her loss.

[stevenbrown]

Seeing the animation of the titanic damaged like that, yet still afloat, is so eerie and fascinating

[infidelheretic]

This makes a lot of sense.
The only real downside would have been that people might have taken this kind of incident as proof that ships with water tight doors were “unsinkable”.

Which could have lulled people into complacency, and ultimately caused more deaths in the future.

[shelbycoffey]

I appreciate you making sure to clear up that despite it likely surviving a head on collision, it was still the right call to try to turn the ship. I cannot imagine what Murdock felt in that moment when he knew the ship was heading right for an iceberg, his quick reaction and effort to avoid it entirely is very honorable. He deserves to remembered with respect. He was handed an impossible situation.

[jamiecarter]

After 28 years building ships in my former career at Bath Iron Works, I'd say this is spot on. Ships can take one hell of a lot of abuse and stay afloat. The Samuel B. Roberts, FFG 58 hit a mine in 1988 and was taken back to BIW with her entire middle blown out, where we repaired her and sent her back into harms way.

[charlesgoff]

During a collision, the SS Vesta smashed it's bow directly into the side of the SS Arctic. Part of the bow was ripped completely off. Everyone thought the much smaller Vesta sank, but it somehow limped home, while the larger Arctic had it's side ripped open, and it sank a couple hours later. Collisions that hit the bow head on are still awful, but less likely to sink a ship than a side collision.

[AlashiaTuol]

That opening and the reveal cut to Titanic still afloat next to Carpathia hurt my heart in a good way 💯

[kamilapodolak]

I remember watching the 1997 movie with my dad for the first time at the age of 8-9. He told me then that the ship wouldn't have sunk if it had hit the iceberg head on. I was fascinated by that possibility, thank you for such a comprehensible explanation.

[tavi]

What it boils down to is the exact moment that the iceberg was spotted. A little sooner? The turn might have gotten her far enough to either avoid completely, or perhaps only damage a compartment or two. A little later? A terrible head-on collision that would have been survivable.

[silentgamer]

What's really eerie about the scene at 13:12 is this is what most passengers imagined would happen during the early stages of the sinking: they thought the Titanic would sink to a certain point, th but would still be afloat by the next morning.

[Bassalicious]

9:48 Did some quick napkin maths for anyone interested:
21 knots is roughly 11 m/s which has to dissipated in let's say 20 metres worth of bow crushing. That means 1.8 seconds of deceleration from 11 m/s to 0 m/s which comes out to ~6.1 m/s^2 or 0.62 G. Basically you'd have to hold a glass of water at ~30° for it to stay level during deceleration.
Actually not that bad at all, especially considering that an iceberg isn't an immovable object for a ship like Titanic, which would add some more distance and soften the deceleration further.

[elrjames]

Deliberately driving Titanic onto the Berg (without any attempt to avoid it) would probably have struck Murdock as being reckless in the extreme and maybe criminal; any subsequent Inquiry may well have reached a similar conclusion. Would it have been sensible for Murdock to release Titanic’s destructive kinetic energy (estimated at some 2, 070, 000, 000 ft lbs) when he had no way to determine if resulting catastrophic and unquantifiable damage (whilst simultaneously condemning several hundred people in the bow to immediate and certain death or horrific injury) would actually save the Ship? Yes (in extremis) it's a 'rule of the sea' to present the strongest part of the ship (the prow) to danger whilst simultaneously applying all power to stop, but the obviously preferable option is to turn away from an obstacle with maximum thrust. Murdock chose this most sensible second option, but It seems from the evidence he gave orders for power to come off. instead of acting forcefully to manoeuvre out of danger, As it was, he tried to 'hard-a-port' around the berg and came within inches of doing so, thus demonstrating a good case for attempting it. Had he succeeded, this would most likely have been considered a brilliant piece of seamanship.

[luca_maise]

I’ve had this ongoing hyperfixation with boats (specifically sinking disasters) but not enough so to do research cuz it’s overwhelming, your videos make it so much more accessible and easier to digest information!

[joelove]

I really like how this YouTuber explains everything about the titanic in a simple yet in depth way. There would have been a lot of casualties with a head on collision but the ship would have stayed afloat with many more years of service

[d.bruckner]

Being a now retired career structural steel fabricator and knowing just about everything there is to know about steel and "bolts" this video clip is telling the world exactly how Titanic would have "indeed" survived ! They are right on target ! (I have been saying this for decades !) Great video !