Should Titanic Have Hit The Iceberg Head On

From pratically the day after Titanic sank, scores of people have theorized that the ship would have survived if they had struck the iceberg head on. In this video I describe how this would be impossible, and result in a much worse loss of life on that fateful night.

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#titanic #iceberg #theory

[bmused]

This shock wave theory has been soundly debunked. You're using a very poor understanding of physics.
The 1999 paper on the mechanics of ship collisions by Shengming Zhang covers this well.

In a nutshell: The very method of construction and material used make ships makes this "shock wave" idea not possible.

These ships were made of steel with giant forming ribs (also known as frames) and frames with steel plating.
Steel is relatively soft and has a good deal of elasticity and plasticity.
The way the ships were made, the hull forming frames, bulkheads and longitudinal frames would telescope, thus absorbing a lot of the energy.

This happened to two ships and both hit an iceberg head on, suffered telescoping, but ultimately survived the impact, we repaired and continued plying the waters thereafter.

SS Arizona - 1879.
SS Grampian - 1919.

With Titanic being much bigger than these two other liners, she would stand just as good a chance of survival if not more. It essentially boils down to the fact that the more steel there is, the more force is absorbed.

[FallenAngelFilmsLLC]

I've never given this "theory" too much thought really -- the idea that Murdoch would be standing on the bridge of the Titanic and decide that the best course of action is to willingly drive her straight into a iceberg is absolutely ridiculous.

[dudestir]

I never liked the "they should've hit head on" argument. Simply put, why would Murdoch just stand there and not turn to try to avoid the iceberg entirely. He wasn't going for a side swipe instead of head on crash, he thought he could avoid a collision entirely.

[lanchus]

As someone pointed out, the video by Ocean Liner Designs explains this theory very well. It talks about the plasticity and elasticity properties of steel and why it would have probably survived the hit or at the very least buy more time for Carpathia to arrive.
I do agree though that no one in their right mind would think to strike an iceberg head on, so Murdoch did the expected, try to avoid the collision

[raynoraynov]

With all due respect, this is just rubbish.

Edward Wilding, one the designers of the ship, said that the ship would survive the head on collision.
And he knew what he was talking about, since he calculated exactly how big was the damaged area after the real collision.

You keep on repeating that the iceberg was many times bigger than the ship.
But you know, there are examples of other ships colliding with icebergs (which also were way bigger than the ships), and these ships survived.
The Titanic was not built in a different way, with different technology or materials, she was just like the older ships, just bigger.

[hindentanicdisaster]

Walter Lord dryly points out in "The Night Lives On" that had Murdoch chosen instead to ram the iceberg, we would all then be ironically second-guessing why he just didn't merely try to steer around it.

[griffith]

If Titanic hit the iceberg head on maybe the V-break theory would make sense

[davinp]

Good point. The designers designed Titanic to survive a collision with another ship, not an iceberg. Also note that only the tip of the iceberg appears above water, meaning a majority of the iceberg is underwater

[tristan_]

Yes Philip I couldn’t agree more hitting the iceberg head on would have killed everyone sleeping in the forward bow. And would have warped the ships frames leaving the water tight doors inoperable

[AppetiteRose]

Interesting since Ocean Liner Designs put out a video about a week ago which said that it would have withstood a head-on collision… would be good if somebody did a scale model real life simulation to see exactly what would likely have happened

[Michael-zfko]

What I see a lot is that people assume that the iceberg is a solid wall, when it is in fact a free-floating body. I see estimates that the iceberg that night was around 2x-4x the mass of Titanic. So it's not so much a car vs. immovable wall or a parked semi-truck (easily 10x the mass), but car vs. a parked SUV or larger van. Surely, over the course of a 22mph collision, the iceberg would absorb some of the energy and be pushed along a little bit, effectively yielding a tiny bit and causing less damage than an actual solid wall or a rocky cliff coastline.

[mkphilly]

I won't even pretend to agree or disagree with my understanding of physics. All I can say is your animations are magnificent. Well done.

[ZoidiusPlasmaReaper]

I always figured that since the iceberg is several times the size of Titanic and completely solid all the way through, a collision would send a shockwave through the ship which would damage everything along the way. The time between spotting the iceberg and colliding with it was mere minutes, her fate was already sealed. But thanks to the crew's quick reactions, they prevented something that was already a disaster in the making from becoming a worst case scenario.

[SQUAREHEADSAM]

I honestly absolutely agree, a head on collision would mean all crew sleeping forward would be killed in the collision, warping the ships bulkheads, and since the wtd were still open, they warped bulkhead would make it nearly impossible for the doors to close, and allow water to flow freely.

[TitanicAnimations]

Thank you for watching, and your support!

[thexxx]

I'd wonder if a proper debate between yourself and Oceanliner Designs would be worth having, seeing as you both have released video in the Head-on theoy in a relitivly short period of time. I would watch that. Maybe even get Casual Navigation involved.

[NCMA]

Sorry, but this video is entirely inaccurate. I am a reserve officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and we spent a great deal of time in training for damage control. Interior watertight bulkheads are designed for exactly what their name indicates - they create watertight compartments. There are no "crumple zones" in ships. It simply is not a thing. And even cars did not have crumple zones until the 1990s of thereabouts. I doubt it was even a concept back in 1912.

Furthermore, while it sounds like an interesting theory, this "catastrophic pressure wave" simply does not happen. The passenger ships ARIZONA and GRAMPIAN are examples of large vessels running into icebergs where no such pressure wave was demonstrated. As an even more extreme example, the Canadian destroyer HMCS COLUMBIA ran directly into a sheer cliff with no foot, at high speed on the coast of Newfoundland. Again, no pressure wave and the ship was later brought safely into port.

Ships do not and cannot be brought to a full immediate stop. They have far too much bulk and weight for this to happen, so the idea that all the interior momentum would rip the ship apart is nonsense. The bunkers, incidentally, are where the coal is stored, not burned, so it would not be "searing hot" while there. The coal is burned in the furnaces, which have doors and do not have large openings, so little to no burning coal would be flying about in the boiler rooms in a collision.

Rivets would not have been "popping" in most cases. Riveted hulls were generally found to be stronger than welded hulls, but they require far more steel and specialised labour, making them more expensive than today's welded hulls. Ultimately, you're forgetting that the bow was mostly made up of empty hollow compartments. Thus, in a collision, the bows would have crumpled and much of the energy you claim would have ravaged the hull further aft would have been absorbed in the peeling back of the steel forward.

It's an interesting theory, but neither the physics, not the real-life examples of similar collisions back it up in the slightest.

[redseagaming]

the Titanic at full speed and hit the iceberg head on just like a car everybody would want to move forward toward the the iceberg people would be injured no seat belts on the Titanic

[RFToob]

No officer in their right mind would drive directly into an iceberg - it defies training, and human instinct and logic. Yes, I tend to agree with you... It would’ve been even more catastrophic. And imagine the officer defending such actions later in a court, - if they survived it.

[Adamu]

Its also possible that the bow would fold into itself up to the well deck, but in the end we don't fully know because a ship of titanic's size and speed never done this.