The titanic WAS the iceberg! I feel like I’m going insane why can’t anyone remember this?? It was made of pykrete as part of Project Habakkuk and repurposed as an ocean liner because they thought it would be cheaper than building ships out of metal. And there weren’t any lifeboats, ice floats and the survivors could and did just cling to the wreckage. We didn’t (and still don’t) know what sunk it! It’s a whole mystery and apparently now we’re just pretending it’s solved??
!joke disclosure this is a joke!<
Pykrete was invented by the cousin of the science TV presenter whose voice can be heard on Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science”.
One thing that always struck me as weird is that when the wreck of the Titanic was found, the swimming pool was still full.
Tragic story, the maintenance crew died so no one was there to drain it
Ok this one got me laughing. Congrats.
You are quite welcome, I stole it from WTYP pod
This is a common misconception, the Ice berg actually hit the Titanic, but the Ice berg drove away before they got there License plate.
Not to mention the cumulative years I’ve spent traveling the roads without a single iceberg in sight but somehow the Titanic finds one within a week of leaving port (and at night, no less)? Color me skeptical.
I’ve been in the navy for 15 years. I’ve never seen an iceberg floating anywhere.
This is a genuinely good point, what are the chances of hitting an Iceberg on a trip from England to America? It has to be astronomically low, right?
For sad reasons, yes. Probably a lot lower chance than it was 100 years ago.
Has the shipping lanes changed since then?
I’d imagine that they went further north back then to be closer to land and help if something happened (obviously didn’t help much in this case though)
From random searching around it seems lanes haven’t necessarily changed (basically this route is still used) but technology helps a lot. There are definitely fewer icebergs at that location these days but despite many reddit commenters claiming none it seems there are a few icebergs that make it there: https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/sites/default/files/images/iip/data/2017/20170426_NAIS65.gif
Sinking location: https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Sinking_of_the_Titanic¶ms=41_43_32_N_49_56_49_W_scale%3A5000000
Apparently radar makes sure ships know about any icebergs well in advance, and there are also ice patrol planes and satellite tracking to make them pretty much a non-issue. Unless you’re the MV Explorer cruise ship that sunk in the Antarctic after hitting an iceberg in 2007. But that was outside of shipping lanes and monitoring areas as far as I can tell.
