Tag: Titanic

The Reason Icebergs Sink Ships

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The reason that an iceberg is able to cut into the side hull of a ship (e.g. Titanic etc.) or any other marine vessel is dual fold. The first reason is because steel becomes more brittle, the colder it gets. Steel created during the early 20th century was not tempered as steel is during the modern day. The second reason is because of inertia, weight, and force. An iceberg can slash through steel the same way a tree can rip through a vehicle that has hit it. An iceberg is a large, immovable object, so whether the hull is comprised of wood or titanium, the ice will always win out as it has more inertia and mass. To provide a frame of reference, bone is incredibly strong and tensile, however if a brick which is harmless while at rest, slams down from a height above the arm, the force it imparts is enough to break said bone

The Discovery of the Sunken Titanic

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The Titanic’s shipwreck site was found by the U.S. Navy whilst embarking upon a clandestine military submarine sea voyage operation in 1982. The intent of the mission was to surpass the Russians on every front, including land, sea, air, and space. Geologist and Navy Captain Robert Ballard was the person who developed the mission idea by suggesting that the U.S. Navy scour the seafloor to gather intelligence and search for evidence of Soviet placed hardware. The original intention of the mission was to locate and recover 2 U.S. Navy submarines which were classified as top secret nuclear attack vessels and lost during the 1960’s. The first submarine was the U.S.S. Scorpion, lost in 1968 with 99 onboard, and the second was the U.S.S. Thresher, lost in 1963 with 129 onboard. Recovery of these vessels during the 1960’s was limited to the Sound Navigation and Ranging technology of the era, commonly abbreviated as “SONAR”. Ballard only had 12 days to locate the S.S. Titanic during the mission without exposing his cover story, a feat which was unable to be completed by the French and the Americans, despite having much longer time spans and multiple expeditions to achieve this goal. Ballard narrowed down the search area to 80 square kilometers and focused towards the south as he believed that ocean currents would have carried sunken debris in that direction. Ballard continued searching for a trail of scattered debris from the S.S. Titanic and on the 9th day of the expedition, with time quickly running out, the operators of the remotely operated vehicle ARGO, found wreckage from a modern iron ship which appeared to be from the early 20th century. It was confirmed shortly after on September 1, 1985 at 12:48 AM that these remains were 1 of the 29 boilers belonging to the S.S. Titanic. It had been 73 years since the S.S. Titanic was last seen, resting nearly 4 kilometers below sea level, with it’s 1500 onboard passengers and crew

The Origin of Film Scores and the Drama Film Scores Add to Cinema

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In the early days of film, soundtracks were implemented to cover up the noise of the film protector as it played film. As time progressed however, movie scores became more and more crucial to the pacing, tensing, and emotion of films (e.g. 1997’s Titanic with Celine Dion singing The Heart Does Go On). Max Steiner’s score for King Kong in 1933 was a watershed moment for cinema as it introduced orchestral music into film for the first time. King Kong demonstrated for the first time that music could be leveraged to add drama or comedy to a scene

The Tragic and Untimely Sinking of the Titanic

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After hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage, the Titanic stayed afloat for less than 3 hours. Rivets used in the manufacturing process which were also used for many of the United States’ modern megastructures, were fit using a technique in which the rivet is heated and then hammered through a hole subsequently cooling and contracting, which pulled together the pieces of anything it was attached to. As the rivets of the Titanic popped out after impact, it allowed for a zipper like opening of the ship which conceded water to flush inward. Modern ships do not use rivets for this very reason and instead opt for welded hulls. It is impossible to build a ship which can withstand either an iceberg or a rock edifice with both being found below the surface of the ocean quite frequently. The only resolution is to use Radio Detection and Ranging or Radio Direction And Ranging (RADAR) and a global positioning system to steer clear of these hazards. Modern oil tankers have double hulls which reach right upside the entire ship but modern commercial ships normally do not bring their doubled hulls this high as it is an expensive safety feature which is bypassed as commercial ships do not carry oil which is financially and environmentally costly when spilled, alongside the fact that double hulled ships take up valuable space which could otherwise be used for cargo transportation. Instead commercial and industrial ships invest resources into safety systems better equipped for the needs of the people and/or goods which they transport