Titanic: A legacy of human error

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Apr 9, 2012: They’re 100 years apart but key moments are remarkably similar, a ship taking on water, passengers fleeing their cabins in a panic, widespread confusion over how to best evacuate a vessel in crisis.

One ship hit an iceberg, the other rammed into a rocky reef. Both drew collective disbelief at the loss of life at the time.

More than 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank in 1912. A century later, 32 were killed when a luxury cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, was shipwrecked off the Tuscan coast in January. The number of victims in the 2012 incident pales in comparison, but it was a wakeup call for many who believed large-scale ocean disasters were a phenomenon of the past.

 

 

Looking back at a century of marine innovation since the Titanic, observers agree that while what’s arguably the most famous ocean disaster triggered many changes at sea, the prevalence of human error is one of its most lasting legacies.

"It’s not a question of building better ships or building better technology. The fact is people make mistakes," says Joe Scanlon, who has been researching disasters for years and directs the emergency communications research unit at Carleton University in Ottawa.

 

 

For the Titanic, those mistakes included not slowing the ship in icy water, not having enough lifeboats and not having wireless radio operators at their stations around the clock.

 

 

Those particular errors triggered a series of changes. Ships now have lifeboats that can accommodate every occupant, radio stations are staffed at all times and shipping lanes avoid ice-routes with the help of the International Ice Patrol, founded after the Titanic went down.

Additionally, two years after the Titanic sank, the world’s maritime nations also adopted an international convention for Safety of Life at Sea, or SOLAS, which is still in effect today.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the role people play when things go wrong.

Some who have studied the Titanic point in particular to the ship’s captain, Edward Smith.

"I don’t think he should have ever been appointed captain," says Scanlon, adding that the Titanic’s maiden voyage was meant to be Smith’s last before retirement. "This was a guy who was banging into things in his career."

Ten decades later, many are scrutinizing the Costa Concordia’s captain, who is being investigated for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship during the evacuation. He has denied wrongdoing and claimed the reef that ripped a hole in his ship wasn’t marked on charts.

In hindsight, however, alleging a ship’s captain is the key person at fault is all too convenient, warns one Titanic enthusiast.

"The only truth has gone down with the ship," said Norm Lewis, president and founder of the Canadian Titanic Society. "As far as I’m concerned the (Titanic’s) captain did everything he could."

Overconfidence in a ship’s mechanical prowess hasn’t changed though, said Lewis.

"With this Costa Concordia I think what they’re doing in a way is making the same mistake they made back in 1912. They’re thinking that because of modern technology they can do this, they can do that."

Courtesy: The Canadian Press