ICE BERG WARNINGS!

The Titanic: a ship of magnificent, awe-inspiring wonder cruising the North Atlantic ocean from its embark in Southampton, England to its destination in New York City, America. The world was standing by at the port as the expedition commenced and the excitement of its splendorous arrival left everyone enticed. Newspapers drenched in the anticipation of a modernized ,state of the art, strength imposed liner arriving in record time. It never made it.... The final headline: The grand Titanic sinks: struck by a forbidding iceberg! Within the final moments, the crew members caught sight of the disastrous iceberg that sourced the incident within the ship’s final minutes before its collision. The tragic event of the sinking of Titanic was unexp

cted and unannounced and influences the remains of distinctive queries that lie at the bottom of the vast Atlantic Ocean. Were the crew members ever warned of an abundance of icebergs in the North Atlantic Ocean? Did they ever consider taking necessary precautions?

During the fatal and final day: the 14th of April 1912, the Titanic was speedily gliding through the Atlantic ocean in target for destined arrival in New York. Operations were running in command to previous days despite an increase in speed, ensuring a record early arrival. The ship was optimistically traveling upon the route to success when peculiar disturbances developed. In the ship’s advanced wireless operations unit, operators picked up their first warning about the infliction of icebergs along their path. At 9:00am, British ocean liner RMS Caronia transmitted the message “bergs, growlers and field ice”. The frank message left little influence upon the Commander because it was strongly supposed that Ocean Liners would be least effected by icebergs. Unsurprisingly, a second warning was received at 13:42 from RMS Baltic advising that another steamer: The Athenia had experienced distress with icebergs:

Steamship “Baltic”, April 14, 1912.

To Capt. SMITH, Titanic:

Have had moderate variable winds and clear fine weather since leaving. Greek steamer The Athinai reports passing icebergs and large quantity of field ice today in latitude 41.51 north, longitude 49.52 west. Last night we spoke German oil tank Deutschland, Stettin to Philadelphia, not under control; short of coal: latitude 40.42 north, longitude 55.11. Wishes to be reported to New York and other steamers. Wish you and Titanic all success.

COMMANDER.

These were instructive warnings that were passed onto Captain Smith and he initiated a consultation with chairman of White Star Line (the shipping company that owned the Titanic): Joseph Bruce Ismay to change the destined route of the Titanic further south. The actions were imposed and approximately 3 minutes later, a nearby German ship SS Amerika sent a message to the Titanic’s operators:

Amerika passed two icebergs in 41º 27’ N., 50º 8’ W., on April 14.

However, the message was never delivered to the captain and the crew in command, speculations have evolved describing that the operators experienced difficulties fixing minor issues with the receiver.

The next message was obstructed through an interception made by the Titanic’s operators. It was from SS Californian and directed to steamship Antillian at 5:35pm (New York Time) conveying the concern of ice around 19 miles north of the Titanic’s alternated route.

To Captain, Antillian:

Six-Thirty p.m., apparent ship’s time: latitude 42º3’ north, longitude 49º9’ west. Three large bergs 5 miles to southward of us. Regards.

(Sig.).Lord.

The dispatched news was claimed to be communicated to an officer on duty by Titanic’s operator Harold Bride, however these actions were not recalled submissive and therefore might not have reached the Bridge: a ship’s command area. A further message was relayed to the operators of the Titanic at 7:40pm from the steamer Mesaba:

From “Mesaba” to “Titanic” and all east-bound ships:

Ice Report in latitude 42º to 41º 25’ N., longitude 49º to longitude 50º 30’ W. Saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs. Also field ice. Weather good, clear.

The reliable and distressed message established threatening ice warnings located around the Titanic’s surrounding area. If delivered to the Bridge, the transmission would have influenced a great alarm upon the captain and therefore actions might have been implemented to redirect the vessel. In contrast, the report was never announced in command by the cause of intense drama that the radio operators experienced with recording messages sent to passengers through Cape Race transmitting station in Newfoundland. The operator at the time Jack Philips was suppressed within an intense situation to record the accumulated messages that had developed. The build up of messages were sourced by the earlier mechanical issues with the wireless radio communicator. This depicts the reason why the transmission was never sent to the bridge and was confided in Second Officer, Charles Lightoller’s report accounted in his autobiography:

Phillips explained when I (Lightoller) said that I did not recollect any Mesaba report: “I put the message under a paper weight at my elbow, just until I squared up with what I was doing before sending it to the Bridge”. That delay proved fatal and was the main contributory cause to the loss of that magnificent ship and hundreds of lives.

The concluding report was received at 8:30pm (New York Time), from radio operator Cyril Evans of the SS Californian, proclaiming that they had stopped for the night due to the mass field of ice. The Californian was ahead and relatively close to the Titanic but the only respond from Titanic’s Operator Phillips was:

“Shut up! Shut up! I’m working Cape Race.”

In contribution, Operator Evans closed his communication set and went to bed. The maneuver of closing the wireless operations unit prevented the Titanic’s destined sinking and distraught signals to be received by the nearest ship, The Californian. These were two disastrous calamities that effected the amount of lives that could have been saved upon the Titanic. If the matters of these precautions were successfully delivered to the Bridge, it would have assuringly impacted the officers with concern about actions to prevent and avoid the proceeding journey.