Lawrence Hall, HSG
Physics Always
Follows the Rules
RMS Titanic has fascinated people for well over a
century now, its construction, technology, launch, passengers, and sinking the
subject of thousands of books, movies, and television specials churning up the
same old factoids over and over. The reality is that there is probably nothing
about Titanic that we don’t know despite tabloid-ish advertisements
promoting solved and unsolved mysteries, purported riddles, discoveries that
aren’t really discoveries, and even ghosts and curses.
As a tee-shirt said during all the giddiness about the
Jack and Rose film, “The Ship Sank; Get Over It.”
But the continuing fascination is understandable. In a
time when most people did not have electricity or running water the Titanic
might have seemed as high-tech to them as the science-fiction Enterprise
does now. The famous and wealthy passengers, the jewels, servants, and strictly
observed class divisions are the sorts of things we decry while watching Upstairs,
Downstairs, Downton Abbey, and Sanditon. In this manifestation
of the “ship of fools” theme Titanic features the best and worst of
technology, human nature, and Edwardian décor.
There is no evidence that Captain Smith or anyone else
said, “Madam, God Himself couldn’t sink this ship,” but as demonstrated in the
tabloids, television, and now the InterGossip humans seldom allow reality to
interfere with fantasy.
The nature of hubris and the minutiae of ignored lifeboat
drills and careless seamanship have been discussed to the point of obsessiveness,
but the disaster occurred because of one inexplicable error in judgement: the
captain was driving too fast at night without headlights.
Recently, forced comparisons between Titanic and the
recent loss of what appears to be an imaginatively but maybe inadequately
designed submersible occupied our Orwellian telescreens for a week, and I
confess that I followed events closely.
I was aware that those whose pockets are loaded with the
green stuff could take tourist visits to the wreckage of Titanic but
paid little attention to it. Like most people I generally assumed that planes,
trains, ferryboats, ships, underground railways, trolleys, busses, and other
forms of public transportation are regulated by the appropriate government
agencies and thus safe for the general public.
However, in following the frequent and almost breathless
bulletins we learned that the Titan (clever name, eh?) appears not to
have been inspected by or registered with any responsible board or agency.
“I
think it was General MacArthur who said you’re remembered for the rules…And
I’ve broken some rules to make this. I think I’ve broken them with logic and
good engineering behind me.”
Stockton Rush: What we know about the Titan
submersible's pilot | CNN Business
The many reported flaw designs of Titan have been
discussed at length, but ultimately there is this: except for the 19-year-old, the
four other crew / passengers / “mission specialists” / tourists were
middle-aged men of great accomplishments in science and business, and thus
brilliant in solving problems. Why did they not see a problem in crowding
themselves and a teenager into a large pipe, bolted and sealed from the
outside, from which there was no possible escape?
In most of the possible failure scenarios escape was a
null concept anyway – you can’t escape a vessel at however-many-thousands of
feet down. But even if the Titan had remained intact and surfaced the
only way out was for the technicians on the mother ship to locate the
submersible, board it or retrieve it, and then free the many bolts. But what if
the mother ship weren’t there? What if it caught fire and sank? What if a Gilligan
dropped into the ocean the one specialty wrench needed?
Physics is an absolute judge, and will not accept any
special pleadings from those who don’t follow its rules.
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