Preface to "What Really Sank the Titanic: New Forensic Discoveries"

Unless you subscribe to some of the more unlikely conspiracy theories that are floating around the Internet, the wreck of the RMS Titanic is not a crime scene, but for nearly one hundred years the public has been enthralled by her story.

As the largest man-made moving object of her time, the construction of the RMS Titanic was a technological feat, yet her sinking comprised one of the most famous disasters of the twentieth century. A colossal tragedy, the sinking has been shrouded in mystery ever since, and has led to unending speculation concerning the details of that fateful evening. Heightened interest has produced a plethora of books, films, and exhibitions in recent years, all probing an answer to the most intriguing question: How and why did the Titanic, believed to be man's technological triumph over nature, sink in less than three hours time?

What follows is the first, hands-on forensic investigation into the details of the collision between the ship and the iceberg, how the ship was damaged, and how she eventually sank. The authors have nearly 10 years experience working directly with recovered steel and wrought iron from the wreck, as well as mechanical testing and microscopy of these and contemporary materials, extensive computer modeling, and exhaustive historical research on the ship’s construction and best practices and quality control of the materials that made up Titanic. We propose a scenario whereby substandard materials that went into some of the riveted joints of the ill-fated liner caused the first six compartments to flood after the iceberg impact, and allowed the largest man-made moving object of the time to sink in a little more than 2 hours on that night in April, 1912.