i believe it was captain smith's. i mean seriously. you get iceberg warning that are very high and you order more speed for publicity and highlights in newspapers?? idk thats what i believe and soem other people too. who do you believe was the fault in this tragic incident?

not all the messages made it to the bridge...jack phillips was in the middle of cape race...and was catching up on sending out passengers messages...one came in and was so close it blasted in his ears...instead of taking the iceberg message, he replied,"shut up shut up i'm busy, i'm in the middle of cape race"...captain smith had been at sea since 1888..he was a seasoned seaman..i believe that if that last message had made it to him he would have taken action...remember after bruce ismay was on the carpathia..he had a few messages in his pocket...so no the captain didn't get them all.....i don't think pinning it on one man is right...yes he was the captain...but he never knew about all the warnings...there is fault with many people that night...but i think jack phillips should have taken that last message and delieved it to the bridge...

Indeed, I dont think you can single out anyone for the loss of Titanic, it was a collection of errors, by different people at different times. I mean come on, you could probably blame carsile for not desinging a ship to withstand a collsion like that, he couldnt of forseen such an accident, just like smith couldnt, nor issmay and indeed nor anyone. The accident was just that, you cant pin the blame on any solitary figure.

it was no1s falt actually. but there were errors. like they should of hit the berg head frist. or the lookouts should of had binoculars & so on.

I agree, there are many factors, but I have always wondered why Smith was so complacent. Everyone marveled that he was the highest paid and experienced captain and so forth, but he had his share of accidents under his command, and not just Olympic and Hawk.

I always wished that he would have put extra lookouts say on the focsle deck, like Captain Rostron did when he came to the rescue. I don't know if he knew the lookouts did not have binoculars, but it seems like if he did, he would accomodate this problem, not just go to bed that night.

You know who I think really felt guilty about being responsible for the ship sinking? Lookout Fredrick Fleet. He ended up hanging himself in his back yard years later, a lonely and broke man. His obituary in (The Echo?) said something like "he lived in the shadow of an iceberg".

I agree with you but can't blame Fleet. It was ,as you know, standard shipping practice at that time NOT to slow down in ice fields, and it was the flattest, calmest sea that any of the officers had ever seen, the Mersey report did not blame any one individual, but, I think my favourite quote is that the Titanic is a majestic, rusting memorial at the bottom of the sea dedicated to the arrogance of a bygone era!

everyone played a role in the sinking.you can't just blame one person.its everyones fault and everyones accident.

I say it is Bruse Ismays fault. He was pressuring Captain Smith to light the last four boilers. And he was making it sound so good. I mean telling him retire with a bang. I say it was his fault. All he wanted to do was make headlines. ON HIS SHIP. It was his fault. No offence Mr. Ismay.-Titanic Fan

# 1 Titanic Fan, I think James Cameron used a little artistic liscense when he had Ismay say "retire with a bang". Cameron made this scean in refference to a first class lady (Luciean P Smith maybe?) stating at one of the inquiries that she overheard Ismay talking to Smith about beating the Olympic and getting into New York early. This was of course denied by Ismay. He even said that the company had nothing to gain by getting into New York way ahead of schedule.

Nevertheless, even if this conversation happened, and it might have, it would trickle down to Captain Smith as being responsible. The captain of a ship at sea is the closest thing to God on earth. There is no over -ruling his authority (unless mutiny), even if you are his boss.

Agreed, besides, runing a ship at a higher speed is more expensive, all the factors that go to make it so. Smith didnt get all the warnings, he was under a bit of a ego trip, since he was incharge of the greatest ship in existence, what could possibly befall a near 900 foot monster, and sink it. Ice berg collisions where more rare than air plan crashes, all there has to be said, fate was against them.