Thank Goodness It's Monday #352B

A RIVETING TALE

WITH A TITANIC LESSON 

I have a sinking feeling …

Oh, wait. Maybe I should find a slightly different turn of phrase to begin this TGIM since the intended central theme of it is the presumed-unsinkable ship RMS Titanic. 



RMS Titanic departing Southhampton
April 10, 1912

So, let’s just ask – 

Had enough Titanic talk yet? On this day after the 100^th anniversary of the tragic disaster, I for one have. At least on one level. 

Here’s why: Blame it on Jack and Rose and that movie. I wasn’t a great fan of the now re-released-in-3D 1997 Titanic movie.  

Sorry all you fans. I just didn’t find it all that riveting and compelling, largely because, while I understand there was much historic accuracy, the central theme of the multiple Academy Award winner was king-of-the-world scale fictional hoo-hah.  

That seems to me to be a shame because there were so many real-life dramas involving both the noteworthy and unknowns of the time; plenty of real heroes and heroines as well as “villains” to draw life lessons from. 

But don’t quit reading yet. I do like the rediscovered, reinvestigated real history that’s being aired. And certainly the events surrounding the actual 1912 sinking provide many inspirational moments and even business lessons for the self-improvement-minded among us in.  

So let’s focus on one bit of reality – perhaps the most obvious -- from the tragedy: 

Titanic overconfidence. Boy, you better not be bragging that you’ve got a virtually “unsinkable” ship unless you’ve got your quality-control ducks all swimming in synchronized formation.  

In that spirit: It’s not new Titanic news, but it’s still TGIM newsworthy. It turns on a discovery by Dr. Timothy Foecke. 

 It’s known as The Rivet Theory. Dr. Foecke maintains that the unsinkable ship may have been sunk by defects in some of the smallest, least expensive parts. 

Since 1996, he has been involved in the forensic examination of the structure and mechanical properties of metals recovered from the wreck of the RMS Titanic. His initial report on the hull steel and rivets was published in 1998.  

I’ll sum it up for you: Two of the over 3 million of rivets that held the Titanic together were hauled up from her watery grave in the early rediscovery/salvage days. And -- 

The rivets were riddled with slag. Slag is the undesirable glassy residue of melting. 

In other words: Poor quality control of a critical element in making the ship virtually unsinkable. Striking the iceberg is now thought to have popped these brittle rivets opening the seams between the plates of the ship’s hull and beginning the infamous nautical “night to remember.”  

An aside to Titanic 1997 fans: To his credit, this is actually depicted in the James Cameron film. And I certainly value him as a deep-sea explorer and part-scientist/part-artist in the spirit of Jacques Cousteau. (BTW: A Night To Remember was also the name of a 1953 British film version of the sinking based on a book of the same era, often hailed as most historically accurate). 

TGIM Takeaway: This scientific discovery is a stark reminder of the proverb of childhood: 

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.

For want of a horse, the rider was lost.

For want of a rider, the battle was lost.

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.

A version of this cautionary accounting appeared in Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1758 and in a nursery rhyme book in 1898. 

The Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes notes that a copy of it was “framed and kept on the wall of Anglo-American Supply Headquarters in London during the Second World War.” 

Perhaps it should hang in every business and home. 

Bon voyage for now. I wish you smooth sailing this week. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S. Just coincidence? Another sort-of-riveting tale of seagoing tragedy is Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan.  

Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan
First edition 1898

That’s the title of a novella written by Morgan Robertson in 1898 – 14 years before the actual Titanic disaster; at least a decade before the doomed ship was even begun to be built. The completely fictional story features the ocean liner Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg.  

More to compare and contrast:  

·         The Titanic was the world's largest luxury liner (882 feet, displacing 63,000 long tons), and was once described as being practically "unsinkable".

·         The Titan of the story was the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men (800 feet, displacing 75,000 tons), and was considered "unsinkable". 

In 1912 Futility was re-printed
with the extended title
 on its cover to capitalize on
the recent sinking of the Titanic.
It's featured the full title ever since.

·         The Titanic carried only 16 lifeboats, plus 4 folding lifeboats, less than half the number required for her passenger capacity of 3000.

·         The Titan carried "as few as the law allowed", 24 lifeboats, less than half needed for her 3000 capacity. 

·         Moving too fast at 22½ knots, the Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on the night of April 14, 1912 in the North Atlantic 400 miles away from Newfoundland.

·         Also on an April night, in the North Atlantic 400 miles from Terranova (Newfoundland), the Titan hit an iceberg, also on the starboard side, while traveling at 25 knots. 

·         The unsinkable Titanic sank, and more than half of her 2200 passengers died.

·         The indestructible Titan also sank, more than half of her 2500 passengers drowning.

I guess truth is, sometimes, no stranger than fiction. 

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