Titanic And Lusitania Research Paper

Maritime transport is a common way to travel, even today. Over the past 10,000 years, there have been over three million ship wrecks on the ocean floor. Only one percent of shipwrecks have been explored. (Bennett 2017) Two common ships that are in the one percentile are the Titanic and the Lusitania. Both sunk within three years of each other. The Titanic and the Lusitania are sharing the ocean floor with millions of other ships. The Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, due to colliding into an iceberg. It sunk on April 15, 1912, killing over 1,500 passengers. On the start of the voyage, there was 2, 224 passengers and crew. The sinking of the Titanic became one of the deadliest commercial peacetime …show more content…
Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk” (Alchin, 2018) The Lusitania attracted wealthy passengers. Many people thought the notice was a joke. When it appeared in newspapers, it was often put next to a Lusitania advertisement, yet, no one had canceled their trip. William Turner called it “Berlin’s lastest bluff.” When the ship was sinking, one passenger said it reminded her of “a swarm of bees who do not know where the queen has gone.” The lifeboats were unable to be launched due to the tilt and movement of the ship. (Greenspan …show more content…
This delayed the rescue. The Marconi radio system was already obsolete after only being installed for a couple of weeks. Marconi used his research, patents, and power to keep his products from the competition. Fifteen minutes prior to the Titanic hitting the iceberg, a wireless operator tried to contact the Titanic to warn them they were surrounding dangerous icebergs. One day after the Titanic sunk, the afternoon papers said that all passengers had been rescued. Later people found out this was not true and were furious. Reporters were trying to get to the information out of some of the Marconi operators. Two weeks later, the US Senate Committee started focusing on the safety issues, like the lack of life boats. The whole disaster could have been avoided if the radios had been properly used. The fact that the operator had been told to get off the air, was the reason for the tragedy. (“Radio and the Titanic”