All language subtitles for Unearthed.(2016).S04E01.Titanic.The.Last.Secrets.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DD+2.0.H.264-Cinefeel_track3_[eng]

Narrator:
The legendary titanic.

The most advanced
Ship of its age,

Sunk on its maiden
Voyage by an iceberg.

Despite more than
100 years of investigation,

Nobody knows exactly how
This tragedy happened.

We're still baffled by
How ice could actually

Break through a ship
And tear it open.

Narrator: now,
Groundbreaking investigations

Could finally reveal
How an iceberg ripped

Apart a ship hailed
As unsinkable.

♪♪

Was it human error or a design
Flaw that led to the deaths

Of over 1,500 people?

♪♪

The only way to discover
The titanic's sunken secrets

Is to pry this massive
Shipwreck apart.

Diving inside its shattered hull

Will reveal what really
Happened on that fateful night.

--captions by vitac--
Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by
Discovery communications

♪♪

Over 1,000 miles northeast
Of new york city,

In the middle of
The atlantic ocean.

♪♪

The united states coast guard

Is on a pilgrimage to remember
One of the largest ever

Losses of life at sea
In peace time.

[ filtered voice ] On behalf of
The united states coast guard,

We casts these wreaths.

We now pause for
A moment of silence

To reflect on
The events which occurred

And to remember
The over 1,500 souls

Who perished on that
Fateful morning.

♪♪

Narrator:
The story of this luxury

Passenger ship is well-known.

She was on her maiden voyage,
Carrying over 2,000 people

From england to new york.

At 11:40 p.M. On
April 14, 1912,

She collided with
An iceberg and sank.

But despite being one
Of the most famous

Maritime disasters of all time,

The real reasons for her sinking

Continue to mystify the experts.

♪♪

Today, this mighty
Vessel rests two miles

Beneath the ocean's surface,

Lying in a field of debris
Covering 15 square miles.

♪♪

The stern has been
Flattened by the impact

Of hitting the ocean floor,

Its decks crushed and crumpled.

The bow rests almost
2,000 feet away.

The sea floor
Conceals all evidence

Of the ship's collision
With an iceberg.

So how exactly did
Ice alone take down

What was once the most
Advanced ship in the world?

♪♪

Newfoundland in canada,

400 miles from
The titanic's resting place.

Professor claude daley
Thinks there are parts

Of the well-known tale
That simply don't add up.

This is iceberg alley.

Icebergs here are a major threat
Because of their size.

Narrator: claude is one of
The leading specialists

In polar shipping design.

He investigates the mysterious

Destructive properties
Of icebergs.

♪♪

We've been studying ice
For several decades now,

And we're still
Fascinated by it,

We're still baffled by
How ice can actually

Break through a ship
And tear it open.

Narrator:
Claude wants to know precisely

How mere ice sank
A ship believed to be

The sturdiest ever built.

Weighing 52,000 tons,

The titanic was the largest ship
In the world.

Her design led people to
Believe that she was unsinkable.

♪♪

Her interior was divided up
By waterproof bulkheads,

With state-of-the-art
Automatic watertight doors

Designed to isolate flooding
If the ship was ever damaged.

The hull itself was
Made of over 2,000

Overlapping steel plates,

Each one more than
An inch thick.

So what exactly
Would it take to sink

The most technologically
Advanced ship of its age?

♪♪

Absolutely no ship
Is unsinkable.

Nothing that humans design
Or construct can ever be done

In a way that there's
Absolutely no risk

Or no uncertainty
About what's going on.

Narrator: how strong was
The titanic, really?

To investigate, claude is
Building what he believes to be

The largest indoor iceberg
Collision test in the world.

This is our ice
Impact apparatus.

It's a double-pendulum device.

Narrator: this huge contraption
Smashes objects together

With the same force as
A shipping collision.

♪♪

On one side is a steel plate
Similar to a ship's hull.

Daley: this is a piece of
Steel the same thickness

As on the side of the titanic.

3/4 of an inch shell plating
On a hull is very thick.

Narrator: on the other will
Be a three-foot slab

Of synthetic iceberg.

Daley: okay, here we go.

Narrator: although this berg
Is grown in a lab...

Daley: keep coming forward.

Narrator: ...It's just as strong
As the real thing.

We have multiple tons
Of swinging mass.

Narrator: and its set to
Smash the hull plate

With a force comparable to
The titanic's collision.

The hull system is live now.

♪♪

There's a lot of
Energy stored here.

The countdown is on!

Five, four, three, two, one, go!

♪♪

♪♪

Daley: wow, let's go
And see what happened.

[ chuckles ]

Well, that plate
Was stronger than that ice.

[ laughs ]

That ice really got destroyed.

Narrator: the hull plate
Isn't even dented.

The mystery of why
The titanic sank

Just got bigger.

A lot of ships today
Would've been thinner steel

And they would've
Got damaged by this impact.

But what we're seeing here
Is no damage whatsoever.

[ steel thuds ]

Narrator: clearly the titanic
Had no ordinary collision.

What actually
Happened that night?

Claude needs to do
More tests to find out.

♪♪

But first, he wants
To take a closer look

At the vessel's design

To see what other safeguards
She had in place.

♪♪

Even if her rock-solid
Hull were breached,

The ship's designers
Had a supposedly

Water-tight plan to
Contain the problem.

Daley: bulkheads are basically
Walls inside ships

That are completely waterproof.

They create separate
Watertight compartments

So that if you
Damage one of them,

If you get a big hole right
Here, this whole space floods,

But only that part
Of the ship floods.

Narrator:
The titanic had 15 bulkheads,

Creating 16 waterproof
Sub-compartments.

We're not required even today

To have this level
Of subdivision.

Narrator: the ship's creators
Believed her design

Meant she could survive
Virtually any kind of impact

Including a head-on collision.

♪♪

To find out just how much damage

Ice would need to do
To sink the titanic,

Claude's team marks out
A full-scale plan of the ship.

This is the bow of the titanic.

Okay, next one at 17.

♪♪

Narrator: with a length of
20 school buses,

At the time,
The titanic was the largest

Moving object ever built.

Hey bruce, hello, I can
Barely see you down there.

This is an impressive ship.

That's right, it's a quarter
Of a kilometer from me to you.

Narrator: the iceberg would've
Needed to breach

At least the front
Five waterproof

Compartments to cause
The ship to sink.

That's about
200 feet of carnage.

Daley: look at the distance,
All the way from the golf cart.

Ripping this much of
The hull open is what

You need to do to
Get the titanic into

A serious situation.

Ice damages aren't this big,

Ice damages are, you know,
The size of me,

Or three or four times
The size of me.

Narrator: so how on earth could
The iceberg have

Caused this much destruction?

Did the ship's
Creators massively

Misjudge the titanic's design?

Or was it human error
That caused her to sink?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: in 1912,
The titanic was considered

By her creators to be
The last word

In nautical safety.

But she failed to complete
Her first ocean crossing.

The iceberg that sank
Her needed to cause

Around 200 feet of
Damage to her hull.

That's more
Destruction than anyone

At the time thought possible.

♪♪

Wow.

Narrator: professor claude daley
Believes a hull breach

This big could've been caused
By a high speed collision.

With the extent of
Damage on the titanic,

One question to look at is

Were they at the right speed
For the conditions?

Narrator: was the titanic's
Captain edward john smith

Trying to cross
The atlantic too quickly?

The largest passenger ship

In the world was also one
Of the fastest.

The titanic was fueled by
A network of 29 boilers.

These ferociously burned through

600 tons of coal a day,
Feeding two steam engines

Each one the size of
A three story house.

Along with
The revolutionary new turbine,

The engines provided more
Than 45,000 horsepower

To the ship's three
Supersized propellers.

These drove
The huge vessel towards

The iceberg at
25 miles per hour.

So was the titanic
Simply going too fast?

♪♪

Information gathered by
A special marine safety unit

Formed after the disaster
Could hold the answer.

Looks good for flying!

Narrator:
Commander kristen serumgard

Runs the u.S. Coast guard's
International ice patrol.

We patrol the icebergs in
The vicinity of the grand banks

And more mariners of
The extent of that region.

Narrator: but today,
Kristen is investigating

Whether the titanic's
Speed was recklessly high.

Man: all right, rolling takeoff.

♪♪

Narrator: they're flying over

The area nicknamed
Iceberg alley,

Close to where the titanic sank.

Should the ship's captain have

Given the command to slow down,

Or would he have assumed
There was no danger of ice?

Narrator:
At the time of the titanic,

No one counted icebergs.

We don't know how many
There were in 1912.

Can I have you take
A look at the one

That's way far to
The south right there?

Narrator: the team counts
This april's icebergs

To investigate the chances of

Hitting one at
This time of year.

Okay, left window area,
I've got visual on your iceberg.

♪♪

Narrator:
After seven hours in the air,

The numbers are finally in.

And kristen can
Analyze her results.

This represents
The iceberg chart

That we're seeing this year

And the ice is up
Mostly around newfoundland.

The titanic sank almost
Six degrees of latitude

Further south than where
The current ice limit is.

Narrator:
This appears to put the titanic

400 miles clear of
The danger zone.

You would think that in april,

Titanic would be safe

And traveling in
Ice free waters.

Narrator: the titanic's crew
Had adjusted their course

From the shortest route
To avoid icebergs completely.

But earlier in the day,

The crew received radio
Reports of ice ahead.

Should they have
Been more cautious?

The first report mentioned ice

From 49 to 52 west longitude.

That's an area that
Covers almost 120 miles.

That's a large area.

Narrator: but other messages
Were more detailed.

One pinpointed
An iceberg half a degree

Of longitude from
Where the titanic sank.

It might look close,
But in reality

Those areas are miles apart.

Narrator: the chances of
Hitting an iceberg

Still seemed very small.

So the captain put his faith in

The ship's lookouts
And pushed on.

Serumgard: back then, the ship
Captain took all the knowledge

And experience that he had

And in my understanding
Did no different

Than any other ship
Captain of the day.

Narrator:
By maintaining his speed,

The titanic's captain

Wasn't doing anything
Unusual for the time.

So did the problem
Lie with the lookouts?

Why did the watchman fail to
Spot an iceberg big enough to

Sink the world's largest
Ship until it was too late?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the titanic,
The queen of the ocean.

♪♪

She was hailed as the safest
Ship ever to set sail.

♪♪

Sinking her would
Require an impact zone

Longer than two
Basketball courts.

Why was there so much damage?

Was it caused by the maneuver?

♪♪

Narrator: did the titanic's
Angle of impact

Play a key role in the disaster?

Claude daley recruits
A colleague to investigate.

Captain chris hearn
Runs one of the world's

Most advanced
Nautical simulators.

June, if we can load
Up the titanic, please.

♪♪

Narrator: today, chris retraces
The crew's footsteps

To work out exactly how
The ship hit the iceberg.

First, he needs to
Know why the lookout

Spotted it with only
37 seconds to spare.

What we're here
To do today is try

To figure out why
The two lookouts seemed

To have missed a piece of ice
On a beautiful, clear night.

Narrator: to do this,

He first needs to
Examine the iceberg.

This photo was taken
The morning after the disaster.

And many suspect it could be
The berg that sank the titanic.

This fearsome piece
Of ice right here,

Very, very pointed and jagged
With tall pinnacles

It floating immediately
In the vicinity

Of the area the titanic sank
And is a leading culprit.

Narrator: chris estimates this
Iceberg to be 100 feet high.

He can't understand why
It wasn't spotted sooner.

He programs a similar sized
Iceberg into the computer

To get a sense of
The lookouts' view.

Let's try and make
It dark, june,

And see what they could see.

Narrator: the night in
Question had a clear,

Moonless sky,
Meaning it was very dark.

The only way to spot
A berg is to see

Where it's pinnacles
Block out the stars

In the night sky.

So in this situation,

The pinnacle can plainly
Be seen.

So the two lookouts,

From the perspective of
The crow's nest

Should've been able
To see this piece of ice.

Narrator: for this reason,
Chris doesn't believe

This iceberg was the killer.

Witnesses spotted
Another in the area.

Hearn: this second piece of ice,
It's much flatter,

It's not as pinnacled,
It's more tabular in its shape.

Narrator: this iceberg might

Be only half as
High as the first,

But it's brick-like shape gives
It a lower center of gravity.

A much bigger section
Could be hiding underwater.

For chris, it's a far
More plausible suspect.

So there we go,
Now we've got this flatter,

More tabular piece
You can see from the height

Of a crow's nest, no peaks
Are breaking the top.

It's much flatter,
It's much more difficult

To see for the lookouts.

It's a dark mass
Against a dark ocean.

Narrator: on a moonless night,
An iceberg sitting lower

Above the waterline
Would've been

Almost invisible
From the crow's nest.

The lookouts saw it too late,

Only around a quarter
Of a mile away.

But there is one
Way that the crew

Could've spotted it much sooner.

The titanic's main deck was
50 feet above the waterline.

The bridge was 75 feet high,

And the crow's nest

Was a dizzying 90 feet
Above the water.

In daylight, lookouts
Had a 12 mile view,

And could spot icebergs at least

25 minutes before reaching them.

On moonlit nights,
Low-laying icebergs

Below the horizon were visible.

But on nights with no moon,
They were difficult

To spot until
They were closer up.

Due to these
Specific conditions,

The first place to be able
To see such icebergs would've

Been lower down the ship,
Where the deck was.

Chris investigates what
Can be seen from here.

Looking out from deck level,

You can see that
This tabular piece of ice

Breaks the horizon line.

This goes against most
Traditional points of view.

We're down here much lower,
Almost on the deck level,

And this piece of
Ice is so plain.

That is very unusual.

Narrator: chris believes this
Is more likely to be

The berg that sank the titanic.

Back up in the crow's nest,
Are two lookouts who wouldn't

Have the chance to see this
Iceberg until it was too late.

Narrator: in fact, in these
Tricky conditions,

They did well to spot
The iceberg as soon as they did.

♪♪

-hey, chris.
-hey, claude, welcome aboard.

Narrator:
Claude daley believes that

Spotting the iceberg at
This shorter distance

Played a key role in the exact
Nature of the collision.

We're ready to go,
Chris, whenever you are.

Standing by.

Narrator:
Using the larger iceberg

For a clearer view,

Chris reenacts what
The reports say happened.

Daley: you're going.

Right now, the phone
Starts to ring.

"Iceberg right ahead."

Narrator: the crew then
Attempts a special,

Two-part maneuver for
Dodging incoming obstacles.

First thing to do, of course,
Is to try and get our bow

To clear this piece of ice.

They're going to
Go hard to port.

♪♪

Narrator: the bow moves clear,

But the stern is still on
Course to hit the iceberg.

So the crew turns
The bow back towards the ice

To swing the rear end free.

♪♪

Hearn:
Ships don't turn like cars, eh?

Narrator: but before
The ship can swing out,

It scrapes against the iceberg.

Aw, that's it.

It's just underneath that
Starboard bow

Right along the starboard side.

Narrator:
Chris believes this is exactly

How the titanic hit the iceberg,

And it seems to have
Maximized the ice's contact

With the hull.

The turn was keeping
Them just at the same

Distance from the center
Of gravity of the ice.

So they were just
Kind of kissing it.

Narrator: the iceberg needed to
Create around 200 feet

Of damage to sink the titanic.

And this maneuver led
To that much contact.

But the result raises
Another question.

There was a glancing contact,

How did it start to
Tear open the hull?

♪♪

Narrator: the chasm caused by
The iceberg has never been seen.

How did a scraping
Impact do so much

Damage to this
Floating fortress?

And did the titanic
Ultimately sink

As the result of a design flaw?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: the titanic in 1912,

The largest ocean liner
Of its time

Was carrying some of
The wealthiest people

In the world.

But she sank after
Hitting an iceberg

In a collision that at first,

Went largely unnoticed
By her passengers.

People wouldn't have felt
The impact on the titanic.

It was a glancing blow.

People wouldn't have
Been thrown sideways.

♪♪

Narrator: claude daley knows
That the titanic's

Speed and direction combined
To cause maximum damage.

But how did such light contact

Pry the hull open
In the first place?

♪♪

This once proud ship now lies

Wrecked at
The bottom of the sea.

Her top decks crumpled
By the impact of hitting

The ocean floor,
And her funnels ripped off.

But all this destruction
Happened as she sank.

No one knows what the damage
Caused by the iceberg looks like

Because the impact site
Is buried beneath the mud.

Witnesses claimed
Six of her 16 watertight

Compartments were ripped open.

They dragged her
Down as they flooded.

How was a grazing
Impact able to rip

Through the ship's
Solid steel hull?

♪♪

Claude daley suspects
The angle of collision

Actually helped the iceberg
Tear the titanic apart.

-okay. Okay, bruce?
-yep.

Narrator: to prove it,

He recruits
The help of a colleague.

Guys, we're good to go.

Narrator: engineer
Bruce quinton specializes

In investigating
Ship collisions.

So what we have here
Is steel plate.

It's similar to what many
Ships may be constructed from.

Narrator: bruce has created

This hydraulic
Crash test device.

It simulates both
Head-on collisions

And glancing contact.

Instead of ice,
He uses a metal wheel

Attached to a powerful
Hydraulic ram.

A steel wheel like this one is
Not a bad substitute

For ice for this
Particular scenario

Because what we're looking at is
Not so much the ice behavior,

It's the structural
Behavior responding to ice.

♪♪

This is gonna do forward
On top of the wheel.

Narrator: the team will first
Test a head-on impact.

Put this one up.
Okay, that's good.

This test establishes
Sort of base case

Of the load just
Going straight in.

That's sort of
The standard loading condition.

Everybody happy?

Narrator: once the plate is
Secured, the test begins.

-okay, everybody's ready?
-good to go.

Narrator: the hydraulic ram
Presses upwards,

Directly into the hull plate.

Cameras inside the machine
Record its progress.

♪♪

The experts listen for a pop,
Which indicates a breach.

♪♪

♪♪

Total silence,
It's complete ductile response.

Narrator:
The hull plate endures a massive

2.9 inch indentation
Without breaching.

It could've went
A lot further, I think.

Yeah, I mean, I wonder
How far we could've gone

Before we tore it.

Narrator: next,
Claude investigates

An angular collision.

What we're gonna do now
Is a situation that is

Replicating, in a simple way,
What happened on the titanic.

We're gonna go in and along.

Narrator: the team loads
The machine with a new plate.

Bruce sets the ram to make
The same amount of indentation,

But this time the plate
Will move sideways.

The angle of impact will be
Identical to the titanic's.

Three, two, one.

The test has begun.

We have simultaneous
Horizontal and vertical motion.

So we can see our
Force increasing.

Narrator: if the plate breaks,

It will help explain how
The titanic's hull breached.

You can see the plate
Deforming.

The iceberg is in,
And moving along,

And the plate's dishing in.

♪♪

Narrator: but the plate seems
To withstand the ram.

Until...

[ popping ]

-there we go
-oh, I think we have fracture.

Narrator: the hull has broken
In two places.

Oh, yeah, we tore
The heck out of that thing.

Quinton:
This is a great result.

Narrator:
It seems the angle at which

The titanic hit the ice
Triggered the breach.

And once the hull started
To tear, the ship was doomed.

The titanic's hull had
Vertical cross members,

Metal bars between the plates
Designed to strengthen it.

♪♪

These bars were more
Rigid than the plates,

So when the iceberg hit them,

The ship's momentum
Caused them to break,

Creating an even larger hole.

Something like this could've

Represented
The beginning of it all.

Yes, indeed.

♪♪

Narrator:
Claude and bruce have revealed

That speed and angle of
Impact worked together

To deal the fateful blow.

Once struck,
Over 1,000 lives depended

On how quickly the world's
Biggest ship would go down.

Why did the titanic sink
In just under three hours?

And could anything have
Been done to stop it?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
At 20 minutes to midnight,

On april 14, 1912,

The titanic suffered a fatal
Collision with an iceberg.

Two hours and 40 minutes later,

Her stern sections
Slipped beneath the waves.

A little over
100 minutes after that,

A rescue ship
Arrived at the scene.

Two hours is such
A short amount of time.

It's almost a tick of the clock.

Narrator: if the titanic
Had gone down more slowly,

It's possible most people
Would've been rescued.

Lying near to the sunken
Wreck are huge lifeboat cranes

Over 500 feet away from
The stern of the ship.

Most of them were
Twisted and ripped off.

Only a few remain
Attached to the ship.

But on the ship's
Starboard side

Lies a clue to
The speed of the disaster.

A single crane that stretches
Eerily from the deck.

It's upright position
Reveals the lifeboat

At this station was
Not released in time.

Why did the titanic
Sink so quickly?

♪♪

Hey, david.

Narrator:
Claude suspects a simple change

To her bulkhead design would
Have slowed the titanic sinking.

He's going to test his theory.

We have a simple model
Of a floating object.

It's got multiple compartments.

What we're gonna do
Is show what happens

When we flood one
Set of compartments.

Narrator:
Claude's model is separated

Into four waterproof sections.

At the bottom of the vessel,

Corks in holes
Represent hull breaches.

To investigate what happened,

Claude lets water into
The front compartments.

We're gonna start the flooding.

♪♪

We're getting flooding
In the bow compartments, here.

Narrator:
The model ship takes in water.

But when the internal
Flooding matches

The exterior water level,
It stops sinking.

♪♪

Daley: we've pretty much
Achieved steady state now.

If this were the titanic,

She could've floated for days.

But she wasn't built like this.

Surprisingly,
Her bulkheads didn't rise

Right up to
The top of the ship.

The designers of the titanic,
They're making a luxury liner.

They needed large, open spaces
For ballrooms, dining rooms.

These were glorious spaces to
Have, beautiful to be inside.

But they, obviously,
Didn't want to run

Bulkheads all the way up,
Cutting those spaces.

Narrator: for this reason,

Most of the titanic bulkheads
Only went up five floors.

But this meant
Water could spill over them

If the ship sank deep enough.

So now, claude
Wants to investigate

The impact of these
Shorter bulkheads.

Back in the water. [ grunts ]

Narrator: he's drilled holes
In his model

To make the waterproof walls
Much lower.

Once again, he sinks the ship.

♪♪

Daley: the whole thing is like
A progressive problem.

Things are just getting
Worse and worse.

Narrator: the more water
The model lets in,

The faster it sinks.

♪♪

Daley: it's a kind of
Runaway instability.

Sinking, flooding,
This thing is going down.

Narrator: this cross flooding
Between bulkheads

Dramatically affected how
Fast the titanic sank.

♪♪

The more water
The titanic let in,

The further her
Bow sank forward.

She was designed to
Withstand the weight of water

In only her first
Four compartments.

But the iceberg caused
Flooding in the first six.

Her bow sank too low
And water spilled

Over her bulkheads into
The compartments behind.

The ship's stern rose out of

The water and the immense weight

Snapped the titanic in half,

Flooding the rest of the ship
And pulling it underwater.

But with taller bulkheads,
The titanic could

Potentially have
Stayed afloat for days,

Allowing enough time
For help to arrive.

♪♪

Like many ships of the day,
The titanic's designers

Had sacrificed
Safety for luxury.

And this contributed to
The loss of 1,500 lives.

Daley: if only a few things
Had been different,

The titanic would
Have still been

On the surface
When help arrived.

And that's one of the parts
Of the tragedy of it all.

♪♪

Narrator: the speed with which

The titanic sank
Doomed its passengers.

But one final question
Puzzles historians.

Could the scale of
The tragedy have been avoided?

Could there have been a way to
Save almost everyone onboard?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator:
In 1912, the titanic sank

After a glancing
Blow with an iceberg,

Taking with it
The lives of 1,500 people.

One final question intrigues
Investigators around the globe.

Could the huge loss of
Life have been avoided?

♪♪

Narrator: andrew nancarrow is
A historical boat builder from

The national maritime museum
Of cornwall, in england.

He's making an exact replica

Of one of
The titanic's lifeboats.

♪♪

If you weren't able
To get yourself

In one of these lifeboats,
On that night,

Your chances of
Survival were zero.

Narrator: but there weren't
Enough lifeboats

To hold the ship's
2,200 passengers.

♪♪

Andrew wants to
Investigate how many people

Could have squeezed into
The 20 boats that night.

In the chaos of the sinking,

The lifeboats were loaded with
An average of 39 people.

Boats like this one were
Designed to hold 65.

On closer inspection,
Andrew believes

They could have held a lot more.

These boats are a good,
Strong sea boats.

They've got a lot of freeboard,

Which is the distance from
The top of the boat

To the water line.

Narrator:
This upright design means that,

In the calm waters that night,
They could've held

Much more weight than
Their maximum design load.

The sea conditions
Were near flat.

I think they could
Have, possibly,

Take a calculated risk
And put more people in.

If a decision was made
To overload the boats,

Probably about 80 people,

I would suggest
That would've been safe.

Narrator:
If every lifeboat, like this,

Had been over filled,
It would've almost

Doubled the number
Of passengers saved.

But that's still nowhere
Near everyone on board.

♪♪

In newfoundland,
Professor claude daley

Has developed
A controversial scenario,

Which he believes would
Have saved many more people.

Okay, you ready to go, chris?

Standing by here.

Narrator: he's returned to
The titanic simulator

And wants captain chris hearn
To ram the iceberg, head on.

Daley: okay, uh, ship's moving.
Just bear with me.

Narrator: it may look like
A suicide mission,

But he thinks this
Could limit the damage.

Well, I think it's about now,
Can you go into full reverse?

Right now, full reverse.

Full astern, aye,
Answering full astern.

Narrator: the crew tries to
Reduce the thrust

And allow the ship to drift
Directly into the iceberg.

♪♪

It seems like a crazy maneuver.

I'll come and see it,
We'll talk about it.

Narrator: but claude knows that
A head-on collision

Is likely to breach only
One waterproof compartment.

The titanic would
Have stayed afloat,

But with severe consequences.

Passengers would've
Been killed,

Some of them in stairways.

Saving the ship
Would have meant

Killing some people,
Consciously.

But not a thousand people.

Narrator: ramming the iceberg

Would've been the best
Way to save the ship.

But psychologically,
Was this ever an option?

Daley: would they have
The guts to do it?

It's the urge to try and save
As many people as possible.

And that's what they
Were trying to do.

Trying to do the right thing.

They were trying to
Do the right thing.

Any normal, sane person

Would've tried to steer away.

Narrator: in these desperate
Circumstances,

The bridge crew
Surely felt there

Was nothing else they could do.

♪♪

The titanic was traveling
Full steam ahead

In waters known to
Contain icebergs.

Her lookouts were ill equipped
For the conditions.

And her designers
Grossly underestimated

The destructive power of ice.

But lessons learned from
The sinking of this iconic ship

Continue to protect
The seafarers of today.

♪♪

In the wake of
The titanic's disaster,

Safety at sea was
Revolutionized.

Many ocean liners had
Their bulkheads extended

To make them fully waterproof.

To protect against
Sliding collisions,

Many ships had
Their hulls doubled,

Both along the keel
And up their sides.

The titanic's 20 lifeboats

Could only hold half of
Its passengers.

So after the disaster,
Ships were ordered

To carry lifeboats
For everyone on board.

And to prevent distress
Signals being missed,

The united states
Passed a new law --

Radios on passenger ships had
To be manned at all times.

♪♪

Narrator:
After more than a century,

There are still lessons to be

Taken onboard from the titanic.

It's sad, but we can
Sometimes learn more

From a tragic event than
We can from a success.

Without that learning,
We won't have future success.

You have to learn from
Your mistakes

And we're still learning.

Narrator:
And modern technology is,

At last, starting to
Strip away some of

The mysteries that
Surround this famous wreck.

But the ship itself remains at
The bottom of the sea,

Now a watery grave
For over 1,500 people.

♪♪

The titanic is a potent
Reminder that we should

Never underestimate
The destructive power of nature.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪