Ignore the answers about the binocular locker. That is an absurd, invented story that has nothing to do with the real reasons. The actual reasons why the Titanic failed to avoid the iceberg are as follows:
- The collision happened in the middle of the night.
- It happened to be a moonless night, so there was nothing to light up any obstacle in the ship’s path. Searchlight technology was very primitive back then, and they didn’t turn them on unless there was a very good reason to. Nobody was expecting any trouble, so they didn’t see any reason to shine a light ahead of the ship.
- The sea happened to be flat calm that night, with no waves. This was very unusual. If there had been waves the lookouts would have seen and heard them breaking on the edge of the iceberg. But there were none on this night.
- The iceberg was drifting far from the usual position for icebergs at that time of year, so nobody on the ship was expecting it.
- The ship was trying to cross the ocean as rapidly as it could, because this was considered important for transatlantic liners. As a result, it was steaming at a very fast rate, and when the iceberg was spotted it couldn’t turn aside in time.
- Over the past 50 years, no transatlantic liner had ever had a fatal accident. This was considered to be the safest mode of transportation in the world. So the crew didn’t expect any problems, and so were not keeping an especially careful lookout.
Read other answers by Michael McClennen on Quora:
- Why did the Union and Confederacy give their battles different names?
- Does this post have any truth to it?
- Which is the oldest human civilisation still in existence?
from Quora http://ift.tt/2cdw3aZ
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