The Titanic Did Not Need to Sink

By Raff Rafferty

Others have written about what could have been done differently in the design and construction of the Titanic or in the hours and moments before striking the iceberg that might have prevented its sinking.
Raff Rafferty presents the case that with no changes in design, and with the damage exactly as it was inflicted by the iceberg on April 14, 1912, the Titanic not only did not need to sink but also could actually have reached port in New York City, with all souls aboard and alive. He cites the specific actions that Capt. Edward Smith and his crew could have taken, as well as historical maritime precedents that lend credence to his claims.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514454220

Raff Rafferty

Born in 1921, Willard “Raff” S. Rafferty earned his degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Trained under the Command and General Staff School, he served in World War II European Theater for forty-four months and retired from the Army Reserves as colonel. From 1949 to 1960, he worked at Sperry Rail Service in Danbury, Connecticut, as an engineer, ending as the supervisor of the Railroad Engineering Group. From 1960 to 1981, he worked at Perkin-Elmer Corporation as Senior Engineer in engineering and program management of numerous classified electro-optical space surveillance programs. He also participated in several proposals of such devices and projects as the Lunar Lander, specifically in engineering, management, and senior editing. Corporation sales grew during this period, from $15 million to a billion.

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Copyright © 2016 by Raff Rafferty.

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Rev. date: 06/20/2016

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CONTENTS

Preface

Proposal

Introduction

Building the Titanic

The Voyage Starts

Iceberg Collision

Collision Evaluation

Factors influencing sinking

The Titanic Did Not Need to Sink

Three Powerful Teams

Three Powerful Words

Inspiration

This Time the Titanic Really Doesn’t Sink

Epilogue

About the Author

Bibliography

image001.jpg

Figure 1. The Titanic

Preface

The Titanic was the largest and most luxurious steamship vessel ever constructed. It was, at the time, the largest man-made object ever created in the world. It and a sister ship, the Olympic, were created to provide the passengers of the growing cross-Atlantic traffic with the most superb accommodations. The picture above shows the Titanic at the beginning of its first and last Atlantic crossing, which we describe in this book. It not only had luxury but also presumably the highest state-of-art shipbuilding safety measures that were available and prescribed at that time. Unfortunately, its sinking, as noted later in the book, did indicate several safety deficiencies that were not recognized until too late. The most significant deficiency was an insufficient number of lifeboats for the number of passengers and crew on the ship. It should be noted, however, that this insufficient number met all safety regulations of the period. Lifeboat requirements had been created for the smaller ships common at the time, based on the expected number of passengers and crew on those smaller ships. Titanic had originally been designed to carry thirty-two lifeboats and had enough supports, called davits, to hold sixty-four, but this number was reduced to twenty lifeboats to avoid a cluttered look on the deck. Sixteen of these were regular lifeboats and four were collapsible boats. Two were designed to hold forty, two would hold forty-seven, and the balance would hold sixty-five, for a total of one thousand one hundred seventy-eight lifeboat seats. Regulations were not updated until disaster made such need obvious. These regulations were changed as a result of the catastrophe of the Titanic sinking. Thereafter, every ship licensed by Great Britain and most other countries, including the United States, provided sufficient lifeboats to accommodate all the passengers and crew. They also required that radio transmission and reception would be available twenty-four hours a day on each passenger liner.

image002.jpg

Figure 2. Titanic Grand Staircase

The Titanic’s Grand Staircase in figure 2 is an indication of the almost obsessive luxury provided for the first- and second-class passengers. The staircase was constructed of solid carved oak and mahogany, good hardwood and softwood with the finest design ever imagined. Above the staircase was a spectacular domed skylight, which was unique in design. This same sort of luxury was indicated throughout the ship. Even second-class passengers had better accommodations and meals than most other ships provided for