“Some say the world will end in fire,” goes the Robert Frost poem. “Some say in ice.”
Historians are questioning whether the luxury ocean liner Titanic met its end due primarily to ice—or fire.
The long-held view is that the shipped dubbed “unsinkable” sank because of an iceberg. But why did that iceberg cause so much damage to the vessel, which was said to be unsurpassed in strength? That’s where the fire comes in.
Irish journalist Senan Molony produced a documentary film about the fateful event, which occurred in the Atlantic Ocean near Newfoundland on April 15, 1912. The Smithsonian Channel aired the piece, called Titanic: The New Evidence, in late January. Molony suggests fire on board the RMS Titanic weakened the metal hull—so much that it became vulnerable to tearing when it hit the iceberg.
Molony believes the fire was the critical element in making the unsinkable sinkable.
Photos belonging to the ship’s chief electrical engineer, John Kempster, fueled the theory. Some depict the ship before departure. Two of those photos show a long black streak—about 30 feet—along the outside of the hull in the same area where the iceberg impacted it. Molony believes the streaks are damage from a coal fire known to have started on board.
He also claims that Titanic’s owners knew about the fire and chose to sail anyway. “It’s a perfect storm of extraordinary factors: fire, ice, and criminal negligence,” Molony says in the documentary.
The fire originated in the coal supplies that fueled the engines. Coal burns at very high temperatures, but it doesn’t blaze openly. The solid fuel smolders within for a long, long time. (Picture a glowing charcoal brick and you’ll get the idea.) Some say the best way to manage the fire was to use up the coal—by firing up the coal-powered boilers and heading to sea.
Molony’s theory is that the damage was primarily caused by fire and secondarily iceberg. He has much present-day support. But not everyone agrees.
David Hill of the British Titanic Society has studied the ship also. The rip in the hull extended 300 feet—much longer than the area apparently weakened by fire. Hill concludes that, regardless of the fire, the ship would not have withstood the hit. It would have sunk anyway.
Titanic left port loaded with 2,224 passengers and crew. About 1,500 people died in the tragedy.
