A new book, "What Really Sank the Titanic" has come out about the what caused the the famous ship to sink. The authors, Jennifer Cooper McCarty and Timothy Foecke, believe the ship was done in by a low grade rivets.
The builders, Harland and Wolff of Belfast, Northern Ireland, had to build the ship quickly and at reasonable cost and may have compromised quality. The company knew items were substandard, but not that bad that it would cause a ship to sink if it hit an iceberg. Of course, who would have figured it would hit one of those.
The authors spent two years going through the company's archives and also tested 48 of the Titanic's rivets where they found they contained 9% slag wheras 2-3% slag content is acceptable. This much slag makes the rivets weaker.
McCarty has been studying the Titanic for ten years and Foecke is a metallurgist.
My mom was nice enough to treat our family to a cruise around the British Isles two years ago, and one of the stops was at Belfast where we tied up opposite the drydock where the Titanic was built. That really put you in touch with the event. There are plans to turn it into a memorial.
Still a Great Story. --Cooter
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