I read somewhere that the Titanic collision was caused in part due to the ship’s rudder. And had Murdock turned the ship only (instead of reversing the engines as well) the ship might have missed the ice entirely. Can someone clarify this theory for me?

Thank you.

you see reversing would slow down the ships speed and instead of crashing into the iceberg before it did.

If the titanic had not reversed it would have almost went straight into it causing more damage.

The theory as I understand it is that by both ordering the engines reversed and turning the rudder hard over, Murdock pretty much sealed the ship's fate. Not that he could have known that at the time, his actions were the textbook response to an impending collision.

You see much of the ship's turning power comes from the force of the propellors pushing against the rudder. Others have noted that her rudder was really too small so even with engines pushing against the rudder she probably turned very sluggishly. The Titanic's engines took time to spin down to a stop, shift into reverse gear and then spin back up again. During that time the turning force against the rudder is drastically reduced. If the engines had not been reversed and thrust against the rudder maintained, she might have turned faster thus missing or substancially reducing the impact against the spur of the berg. The difference of just one compartment would have saved her, so if the impact points were just a few feet less...

On the other paw, if she made no attempt to turn but just reversed engines, she would have plowed into the berg head on. Exactly the type of collision the designers had planned for and which she could easily survive. White Star would have lots of complaints from the rich passengers tossed out of their beds and the indignity of probably being towed into port on her maiden voyage but she would have survied.

Reversing slowed the ship true, but also slowed the rate of turning johno, It's like understeer on a car. The rudder was big enough to turn Titanic, many ppl say it was not but by todays standards it is still acceptiable.

The previous post to mine explains the relation of the rudder and propellers very well.

Good day

oh right, i got my facts wrong, thanks for correcting me bell

I think Clinton is happy; now that there are a few different view points. now lets see if he wants to know more so he can be more specific now that the generals are answered. Great every one that contributed here in this Post i didn't know we were that fast and knew that much!

would it not take a while for the rudders to stop turning and start reversing. After all they are very big and heavy.

The propeller's where heavy and would take a little while to stop. Is that what u meant to say Johno?

According to what i know, it takes a few minutes because steam engines have lower agility in thrust decrease/increase than diesel engines of today's marine technology. because the steam pressure is high but low in volume so the cylinders have to be very big. This contributed to heavy rotational parts, and that is not flexible when it comes to reversing them.

A good place to find more information about steam engines:
http://travel.howstuffworks.com/steam1.htm

I'm not an engineer so I can't speak with authority, most of what I know about reciprical steam engines I learned working as a conductor at an amusment park train that used live steam engines as well as second and third hand knowledge. My understanding is that as well as the propellers there is probably a flywheel on the drive shaft that added to the mass to slow down. I don't know if there was any sort of braking system to stop the drive shaft faster but I'm fairly certain that the shaft had to come to a complete stop before the reversing gear could be shifted in. Even worse is that in some engines not only did the shaft have to be stopped but it had to be in a certain point in the cycle. Not to mention the time bleeding off and building back up the steam pressure in the cylinders.

Remember that all of this was done manually with hand valves and levers, I would imagine the time it took to go from full ahead to full reverse would be measured in minutes, at least 2-3 probably quite a bit more. Minutes she just didn't have.