The Ship They Said God Could Not Sink

Name: The Ship They Said God Could Not Sink
Genre: Documentary

Titanic sailed as the ultimate monument to technology, luxury, and a confidence so great that it invited comparison with divine power.

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Transcript

An ice warning passed through the radio room of a ship called unsinkable.
That ship was Titanic, the largest passenger vessel yet built.
At Titanic’s launch, the statement was attributed to a White Star Line employee.
Titanic was touted as an “unsinkable” feat of shipbuilding.
A White Star Line employee reportedly said, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
Owners and builders rejected plans for as many as 64 lifeboats.
When it left Southampton, Titanic was the largest, most sumptuous luxury liner afloat.
It was presented as a monument to technology and Victorian elegance.
It was described as 882 feet long, 66,000 tons, and capable of 24 knots.
Yet Titanic carried only 20 lifeboats for everyone aboard.
Together, they could hold only about half of the 2,228 people aboard.
Even that inadequate total exceeded the government standards then in force.
Soon, the sinking would puncture an era’s faith in humanity’s triumph over nature.
On April 10th, 1912, Titanic departed Southampton bound for New York.
Ice reports were issued daily, and ice was reported near the site on several days.
The Hydrographer wrote that heeding Titanic’s transmitted warning probably would have saved the ship.
The German steamer Amerika had reported passing two large icebergs.
On the fourth day of its maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg.
But 14 years earlier, Morgan Robertson published Futility about another North Atlantic ship.

But the “unsinkable” Titanic already had a fictional double named Titan—and that ship had met the same fate.

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