Judging from the series of operations including the construction, launching, and navigation of the Titanic, as well as the state of the rescue after the accident, we can see that the era at that time was indeed in the arrogance stage of capital.

Judging from the series of operations including the construction, launching, and navigation of the Titanic , as well as the rescue status after the accident, we can see that the era at that time was indeed in the arrogance stage of capital. The arrogance of capital leads to contempt or even neglect of basic rules such as law and morality. The Titanic tragedy is a typical man-made tragedy.

On April 15, 1912, the so-called "unsinkable" luxury liner Titanic sank into the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew on board, more than 1,500 died, and only 333 bodies were recovered. This was a rare maritime disaster in peacetime. It cast a huge shadow on the British and American shipping communities and has always been a taboo topic.

Ever since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been endless debate as to why it sank. However, there is no dispute among academic circles that the direct cause of the sinking of the Titanic was hitting an iceberg. However, with the release of new research results in recent years, it has been discovered that the impact of the iceberg was not the core reason for its sinking. There were a series of other complex factors behind it.

Five major theories of the Titanic tragedy

Behind the construction and operation of the Titanic was the great game between British and American capital for the transatlantic immigration shipping business. Whether from a design, transportation or technical perspective, there were many problems with the Titanic's maiden voyage. Therefore, after the sinking of the Titanic, both Britain and the United States organized investigation teams to investigate the reasons.

Judging from the survey results in Britain and the United States, they are similar. The American investigative team believes that Captain Smith should be responsible for the sinking of the Titanic. Traveling in icy water, a large ship should not travel at such a fast speed. Of course, the British investigation team believes that driving at such a speed in icy water is not a big problem.

However, the investigation teams from both countries came to the common conclusion that Stanley, the captain of the Californian, was most responsible. The Californian was the closest to the Titanic. If they had arrived in time, so many people would not have died. On the basis of these views, Britain and the United States formed five major theories on the analysis of the Titanic tragedy.

The first theory is that the shipyards in Belfast are responsible. Millions of rivets were used throughout the Titanic. A portion of the rivets have been salvaged from the ship's wreckage for study. Research results showed that these rivets were made of substandard steel and were completely substandard, posing a huge safety hazard to the ship. When the ship hit an iceberg, the heads of some of the rivets fell off, causing the ship's keel to break.

The second theory is that it was Captain Smith's fault. The captain clearly received seven iceberg warnings, but still asked the ship to move forward at full speed. The third theory is similar to the second and suggests that it was the fault of Bruce Ismay, the general manager of the White Star Company to which the ship was owned. To compete for immigration and commercial shipping across the Atlantic, he had to make the voyage in six days. He pressured the captain to keep the ship moving at full speed and deliberately ignored the threat posed by the iceberg.

A fourth theory is that it was the ship's designer, Thomas Andrew, who was at fault. When designing the ship, he made changes to some important details of the ship in order to ensure enough space in the first-class cabin. None of the sixteen waterproof parts of the ship reached a sufficient height, so that after hitting the iceberg, the entire ship collapsed completely.

The fifth theory is that it was Stanley Lord's fault. He was the captain of the Californian and missed the rescue due to some negligence. Had the ship arrived in time, more lives would have been saved. This view is shared by both the United Kingdom and the United States, which ultimately led to new changes in ocean rescue and other matters in both countries. These five theories of

are traditional views that have been discussed for hundreds of years, and many people still insist on them. However, these alone are not enough to analyze the real reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. Of course, the ship did hit the iceberg. So, if it hits an iceberg, will it definitely sink? Will so many people definitely die if it hits an iceberg?

In fact, there are more unsolved mysteries about the reasons for the sinking of the Titanic. In fact, these mysteries have always existed on a small scale, but they have not been announced to the public.Some British and American scholars found some clues from the diaries, notes, and letters of many people at that time, discovered other reasons, and gave a new explanation for the sinking of the ship.

The strange coal bunker caught fire before the voyage

The latest research data shows that the part where the Titanic hit the iceberg happened to be the part where the coal bunker caught fire. Because the coal bunker was on fire, the temperature was too high, and the keel of the ship was burned and deformed, so that the part collapsed immediately after hitting the iceberg. Although the impact of the iceberg was the direct cause of the ship's sinking, without the assistance of the coal bunker fire, the impact of the iceberg was not enough to cause the ship to sink.

This theory is very bold and reveals the little-known secret behind the Titanic. Irish journalist Seann Moroney pointed out in his documentary "Titanic: New Evidence" in January 2017 that the keel of the Titanic had gone through a test before the ship sailed, and one of the coal bunkers It spontaneously combusted unintentionally.

After reviewing a large amount of information and conducting interviews, Moroni finally believed that this spontaneous combustion and the treatment of spontaneous combustion basically determined the fate of the Titanic. However, the reason why spontaneous combustion led to the unknown fate of the Titanic is also related to the design of the ship. The Titanic differed from contemporary ships in that it had only one keel, whereas contemporary ships had two keels.

What was even more fatal for the Titanic was that the coal bunker that provided coal for the engine was located next to the keel. If spontaneous combustion occurs here, the strong heat energy will make the keel very fragile. On the Titanic, it all came together, ultimately leading to the sinking of the Titanic.

Moroni bought a rare picture of the Titanic from a descendant of the Titanic's construction engineer. This is a diagram of the interior of the Titanic when it was being built. As can be seen from the picture, the coal bunker is located next to the keel. Once the coal bunker catches fire, the keel will naturally be heated and softened. This was an important reason for the sinking of the Titanic. The second is the impact of the iceberg.

After some research, Moroni discovered that the fire in the coal bunker was not a secret at the time. Many people know about it, but they keep silent about it. The crew kept this secret to ensure White Star's voyage, its position in transatlantic operations, and the front-page headlines in major newspapers.

According to Moroney's findings, the spontaneous combustion of the Titanic's coal bunkers occurred three weeks before the ship set sail. This means that the fire in the coal bunker has been burning for three consecutive weeks. After three weeks of burning, the heat continued to soften the ship's keel. At this time, whatever the big ship hits will be damaged.

However, at this time, the keel near the coal bunker hit the iceberg, eventually causing the keel to break and the ship to sink to the bottom of the sea. All the coincidences came together to lead to the tragedy of the Titanic. This tragedy is more man-made than a natural disaster. Therefore, the competition for commercial capital led to the introduction of defective products to the market, which ultimately led to tragedy. Before

sailed, when interviewed by the media, almost all the staff on the ship mentioned the coal bunker fire. However, none of them wanted reporters to mention their names. None of them wanted this incident to affect the Titanic's great maiden voyage. However, it was such negligence that opened the door to an irreparable tragedy.

The consequences of pursuing big and fast

From the above analysis, it can be seen that the construction details of the Titanic were not perfect, and there were even obvious loopholes. Why do so many details go wrong when building a ship of this scale? In fact, this needs to be analyzed from the historical background at that time. The construction and operation of the Titanic itself was a special act of competition with its opponents. This has been mentioned sporadically above and will be analyzed in detail here.

From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Britain, the maritime hegemon, gradually declined, and Germany on the European continent and the United States across the Atlantic began to rise. The United States, in particular, has gradually replaced Britain on many levels and begun to challenge Britain's maritime supremacy in terms of capital. Among them, transatlantic shipping is an important breakthrough.

For half a century from 1850 to 1900, the three major British shipping companies, Cunard, Inman, and White Star, monopolized almost all transatlantic shipping business. The composition of these businesses: on the one hand is the booming immigration business, on the other hand is the business exchanges on both sides of the Atlantic. The latter has a high demand for high-end, luxury travel experiences.

With the decline of Britain, American shipping companies cooperated with American bankers, raised a large amount of money, and gradually acquired British shipping companies, which eventually led to Inman and White Star becoming American companies. The always proud British were dissatisfied with this. In order to maintain Britain's advantage in the shipping field, the British government invested in Cunard and built the two fastest giant ships at the time.

In order to compete with Cunard, American shipping companies prepared to build two of the world's largest and fastest ships to dominate the transoceanic shipping business. As a result, the White Star Line came to lead the production of these two ships. White Star's managing director, Bruce Ismay, was good friends with Sir Pierre, the boss of the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland. As a result, the shipyard took on the project. What’s even more interesting is that the chief designer, Thomas Andrew, was Ismay’s son-in-law.

White Star gave Thomas Andrew great freedom in design and construction. However, the shipyard and Andrew himself had never taken over such a large shipbuilding demand. The Titanic and the Olympia designed at the same time were both giants at the time. The difficulty of construction and design, as well as the testing of details, were all brand new.

What’s even more interesting is that in order to pursue largeness and luxury, three chimneys were originally needed, but in the end four chimneys were built, one of which was purely for aesthetics. Such huge chimneys are built elsewhere, then transported to the ship by crane and finally installed. It can be seen from this impetuous detail that safety is not the core factor considered by this shipyard.

Another impetuous detail is that the purpose of Titanic's maiden voyage was to compete with Cunard and win a place in the upper class. Therefore, a large number of first-class passengers did not have transatlantic business needs, but came purely to experience the luxury and speed of the big ship. Therefore, White Star's general manager Bruce Ismay had extreme requirements for sailing speed.

A large number of media reporters are waiting to interview him, and a large number of upper-class people will comment on their feelings about Titanic's reputation. Therefore, under various impetuous demands, he gave the captain the order to sail at full speed. As for such a trivial matter as a fire in the coal bunker, it was not within the scope of Lord Ismay's consideration at all.

Conclusion

Judging from the series of operations including the construction, launching, and navigation of the Titanic, as well as the state of the rescue after the accident, we can see that the era at that time was indeed in the arrogance stage of capital. The arrogance of capital leads to contempt or even neglect of basic rules such as law and morality. The Titanic tragedy is a typical man-made tragedy. It can be seen from Cameron's "Titanic" that the elite's cultural psychology towards this issue is still positive. From a global perspective, the mainstream public opinion on this issue is full of gloom and uncertainty, so much so that the shipyard in Belfast has been criticized and criticized for nearly a century.

References

1. Senan Moroney, "Titanic: New Evidence"

2. Danny Lewis, "Coal bunker fire accelerated Titanic's sinking"

3. Salem Media, " Why did the Titanic sink? Five theories that explain it"

4. Roger Cartwright, "Titanic: The Myth and Legend of a Disaster"

5. Danny Butler, "Titanic: The Whole History Behind It"