Could Titanic's passengers have used the iceberg as a Lifeboat?

In this video we discuss the possibility of using the Iceberg the Titanic hit as a way to evacuate everyone on the ship before she sank. Would climbing onto this iceberg have saved everyone onboard the ship? Well watch this video to find out!

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#titanic #history #sea #sinkingship #shipwrecks #ww1 #lusitania #hmhsbritannic #iceberg

[AmazingKevinWClark]

That's also assuming that the iceberg has a flat enough surface area for over 2000 people to stand on.

[shawnkeith]

Not only are bergs unstable but what lies below the waterline is a complete unknown. No captain in his right mind would deliberately maneuver an already-damaged ship close to a berg and risk further damage when he already knows his ship is sinking. What, risk having it sink faster? It's a fool's errand.

[alarmassist]

When I was in the navy doing basic sea survival we did an experiment and concluded the best way to have evacuated the most people would of been to raft up the lifeboats. By bringing them alongside each other, running the ores across the tops and tying them down. This created an incredibly firm platform and increased each boats capacity by over 50%.

[MegCazalet]

When I was a kid I saw a Weekly World News tabloid cover claim “TITANIC SURVIVORS FOUND ON ICEBERG - THINK IT’S 1912”. For some reason, THAT headline got under my skin and creeped me out more than the more overtly scary stuff. Though prophecies of the end of the world would always scare me, and those are big in those publications. But somehow time traveling Titanic passengers being found on an iceberg really unsettled me, and I’ve never explored why.

[GuentherVanRaven]

In my honest opinion, you could do a video on any history related topic and I would watch it. The way you present it makes it so enjoyable!

[NealBones]

Short answer, NO! 😅 I don't know if you've ever watched footage of bergs or anyone attempting to climb one, but they're beyond unstable(they are just floating after all) and can very easily shift out from underneath you, dumping you back into the freezing ocean and potentially crushing you as it rolls over.

[jesselong]

Lol could you imagine all the first class passengers in the fancy outfits sitting on top of an iceberg?😂

[Tina]

WOW! James Cameron should've never made this suggestion!!! Thank you for this exceptional, educated video. It's eye opening. I forgot icebergs flip over whenever they want. Those people were just doomed. Very sad.

[stevencooper]

As icebergs melt, they lose most of their mass below the water line; as a result, they become top-heavy and roll over; and they will roll over many many times before they are completely melted.
Then there's the simple question of "How would the Carpathia find them if they're all on a drifting iceberg?"

[clairecelestin]

You did a great job with this one. As soon as you mentioned the premise, I kept thinking about footage I've seen of iceberg overturn. It's very likely the 'berg got cracked below the water line, and very likely it would flip over. If they had tried the iceberg plan, the newspapers would have read "all hands lost" and we wouldn't know anything about the disaster except the wireless messages.

[alisonrainbowz]

They did a fantastic job at rescuing Titanic's survivors, in extremely tragic, challenging circumstances 🙏

[Dan_Ben_Michael]

Icebergs are very unstable and can easily tip over.

Edit: I should’ve known Sam would cover that in the video.

[truthteller]

I've often wondered about makeshift rafts. I mean they had over 2 hours to build something/anything. Scrap the ship of its doors and chairs. Their was rope on board to fasten the doors, chairs and tables together to at least attempt to get something to float in order to save more people. In a situation like that it's worth a shot.

[MegCazalet]

Thank you for mentioning the time crunch. I think many people forget how complex and time consuming loading and launching lifeboats is. Titanic sank slowly compared to other famous ship disasters like Empress of Ireland or Lusitania but very quickly compared to disasters where near everyone was rescued - like the Andrea Doria, which involved a highly dramatic rescue operation that took almost every possible moment they had, over 12 hours, I think.

I say this every time I comment, but for the same reason, the Californian was NEVER viable as a means of rescuing every passenger. It was also too poorly organized for such a big operation, didn’t have a big enough crew, didn’t have enough space, and didn’t have enough time, even if it had rushed to the scene. In ideal conditions would’ve worked only as part of a larger operation.

Best it could’ve done was facilitate picking people out of the water. The men balanced on the overturned collapsible A would’ve certainly appreciated it. But I always push back when anyone brings up the Californian as a game-changer. It’s no iceberg of course!

[whitewolf]

I really like this channel a lot. Covering not just the sinking of ships but also what-if scenario’s, the reasons why it happened, stories about exceptional crew members or passengers, you name it. You’re not making a spectacle out if it, which is great. I have a fear of the ocean, but also a fascination and i would like more stories about things like this, and especially from this channel. Keep up the great work!

[leeedwards]

often thought myself a large scale crew cordinated cabin door removal and chuck over the side would have been very helpful to keep people out of the water ... but on the night people were being told off by some crew for damaging fixtures and fittings .... hindsight is a wonderful thing at the time many things are overlooked also people act on their training ....

[recessional]

It’s interesting to hear stories from someone obsessed who loves eats and breathes the Titanic. Thank you for taking your time to make videos.

[sergioruiz]

It would've been so cool Thomas Andrews coming up with a way to build fast and easily deployable rafts with the wood materials at hand as plan B for the people left out from the life boats.

[sallobo]

Can you make a detailed video about 'Stanley Lord' the captain of SS Californian?
I know you made a brief video about the Californian years ago, but I felt the story after the sinking as also interesting.
Stanley Lord was looked at as being the main bad guy at the time.
His life was pretty much ruined after that; I think this may have been Captain Smith's fate had he survived.
He lived pretty long and tried to clear his name daily for 50 years, even months before his death as an +80-year-old he was still filling petitions in courts to clear his name.
I think most people associated with that Titanic, that where there or had family there, moved on with their lives, but Stanley Lord was haunted by it every single day of his life for the next 50 years.
People say he was an arrogant captain, but it seems all naval captains at the time came out as arrogant to people that met them. It was just how naval culture was at the time.

[therazieltroller]

Hey sam! I don't know if you will see this but I've been following this channel for awhile now and I can say I've grown to love it. I just keep another window and do my work while listening to titanic facts and theories. I've always had a intense interest in titanic since I was in 4th grade. I can't wait for new videos!