Monthly Archives: April 2014

First, we will look at the accepted version of Titanic’s sinking, and its evolution.

In 1912, it was believed the Titanic went down in one piece with the stern rising 90 degrees in the air, pausing, and then sinking beneath the waters; as most survivors claimed.

On 1 September 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was found by Dr. Robert Ballard. The wreck was found in two pieces the bow section almost 2,000 feet from the stern. The bow is relatively intact, but the stern looks like it was the victim of an explosion. This proved the ship did not sink intact, but broke up on the surface then sank.

The decks of the Titanic on the bow section at the break were collapsed down upon themselves. The explanation was, “Yeah, that must have happened when the Titanic hit the ocean floor. It hit with such force it collapsed those decks.” The reason for the stern section being in such bad shape? The experts could not explain it and did not know what happened to the stern.

From 1985 until 2008, this was the accepted theory, with slight modifications over the years.

Then in 2008, the book “Titanic’s Last Secrets,” came out. This book is about the research and Titanic exploration of the renowned wreck divers, shipwreck historians, and explorers Richie Kohler and John Chatterton (Deep Sea Detectives series on History Channel). They found two pieces of the double bottom of Titanic. They had the steel examined by experts. The conclusion? The steel would have been so brittle at the 30 degrees water temperature when Titanic sank that the keel would have only supported the stern rising to between 7 and 11 degrees before breaking. At this colder temperature the steel would not bend and stretch, it would fracture and break clean as if cut by a knife. So, now the new mainstream theory was the Titanic stern did not rise between 45 degrees and 90 degrees (as most survivors claimed), but only to about 11 degrees.

I didn’t buy it, I didn’t buy it in 1985. For one thing, if the force was so great to collapse thick heavy decks on the bow, what about those flimsy deckhouses? I looked at the ocean currents in the area at that time, and how long the stern remained on the surface after the bow disappeared. The two halves should have been a lot further than 2,000 feet apart if the accepted theory of the sinking were correct. I believed the ship broke on the surface, but not into separate halves. With the bow filled with water it would have been pulling on the stern, and the air-filled stern would have been more buoyant and resisted the bow. If the stern pivoted on the broken, but still attached section (like a hinge), it could indeed rise between 45 and 90 degrees into the air as the bow sank even deeper in the water. The stern needed something of weight beneath the water to allow it to rise straight into the air. Take an empty glass, turn it upside down and stand it on water in a water-filled sink. When you let go the glass falls over it cannot stand. The stern should not have been able to stand without the bow attached to it. There had to be a way of explaining what ALL of the witnesses saw and what the scientists discovered. I thought my 1985 theory was it.

I studied the published work of Kohler’s and Chatterton’s experts, and realized they did not take into account the temperature of the decks inside the Titanic, decks that were made from the same steel (though at a different thickness) as the keel and hull plates.

The wealthy women survivors testified to giving their coats and shawls to the handful of survivors from Titanic’s engineering department. These men were dressed in very thin clothing. The Titanic’s engine room was very hot, and the boiler rooms (where the steam was made) could reach temperatures over one hundred degrees. The decks in those areas would not be at freezing temperatures, they would not be brittle but, would stretch and bend instead of fracturing and breaking.

The night Titanic sank, the bow filled with water going lower and lower into the water raising the stern into the air. At an angle between 7 and 11 degrees, two sections of the Titanic’s double bottom broke free from the ship. The weight that had been borne by the keel was now transferred to Titanic’s interior decks and bulkheads (floors and walls), and they collapsed under the weight, pancaking down on each other above where the double bottom broke away. The stern settled back on an even keel and then began to rise into the air, as witnesses stated.

As more air escaped the stern, eventually the bow pulled the stern under. At a point, most likely less than 1,000 feet, the stern would have gone deep enough that the sea pressure would have exceeded the strength of the stern. At this point, the stern imploded separating the two halves of Titanic. The few remaining air pockets and the effects of the implosion would slow the stern down in its decent enough to land on the ocean floor 1,970 feet from the bow.

No evidence or witnesses discounted, the laws of science taken into account.