After many years of reading and watching videos of why the Titanic sank, I saw one on the National Geographic Channel that gave yet another theory. It was new to me and may also be new to some of you.
A forensic expert was wondering how the ship took on so much water so quickly. The survey on the Titanic should no huge rents that would account for it.
Eventually he ended up looking at the rivets used in the specific area. Because of the shape of the hull at the point of impact, the normal steel rivets were almost impossible to use. Consequently iron rivets were used instead. These were more malleable and easier to get into the holes. Unfortunately, they were not as strong as steel. He theorized that when the ship hit the iceberg that the rivets ruptured allowing a seam to open up along the ship's side.
To validate this theory he calculated the force that would have been exerted upon each rivet by the iceberg. He then tested rivets manufactured in a similar manner to those found in the Titanic. They would not withstand the necessary forces.
SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) examination of the fracture sites revealed very similar fractures to those of the rivets recovered from the ship itself.
Seems logical to me, but, I still wonder when the next revelation will occur.

i saw that too! now if the ship builders had even considered that, do you think they would have welded those areas instead?

you know in the movie that's pretty much how they had that part scripted out. Darn scary how the writer of the movie did that and now they are finding it could be very true that's how it happened.

I actually heard that exact thing quite a long time ago. The rivets basically gave-way when it hit the iceberg and and entire panels came off the hull, and the seam line of rivets completely opened up.

This is interesting---another thought--the ship was designed to withstand a head-on collision, something that had happened to another White Star ship, the Atlantic, I believe. The Titanic was specifically designed so that she'd stay afloat with her first 3 bow compartments flooded.

Since head on collisions are so rare, and a giant ship sideswiping a berg or another ship on the open sea even more rare, no one in their wildest dreams imagined such a scenario that befell the poor Titanic.

i heard of the grounding theory.where the iceberg,as it melts,creates a bottom that potrudes outward but is underwater and the ship slides over it.it may have been that the titanic grounded the iceberg,penetrating the bottom of the ship so that it takes on water faster.but when they examined the ship not too long ago,they never foung damage near the bottom.yea rendova is right.if the titanic would have stopped right when they saw the iceberg,they still would have been moving fast,but only hit the berg headon and been able to continue her voyage,bc only the first two or three compartments would have flooded.but instead,she turned and damaged more compartments than they would have.

Here's Harlands take on the boat.

Not that they will say she was built wrong.

http://www.titanicinbelfast.com/welcome.aspx

Oldtimer I saw a special on the Titanic recently and it was more concerned with how fast she sank. According to this show, the limited number of lifeboats wasn't purely for looks. The ship was designed to stay afloat so much longer, the designers were counting on her being her own lifeboat.

The guy this show was following believed there was a problem with I think they called it the "Expansion Joist". If as he was theorizing it was designed wrong it may have accounted for the speed with which she sank.

In the end it turned out that they determined the joist was actually built better than it needed to be. So this guys theory was shot to hell.

I know this isn't about the show you saw, but it's still related and I thought it was interesting. Most shows like this show the lead scientist either being right or on the right track to being right. Rarely do you see a show where he admits in the end, he was wrong. I though it was cool.

With the weather and never testing any of this out.. being the maiden voyage and all.. there were bound to be problems..Care and caution was not taken...There were many negatives to this trip.. not enough life rafts and what some consider shoddy workmanship.. hard to say but I watched that documentary also and have another by national geographic on vhs...

Sad so many lifes were lost..