A few years back (like a decade) while my mother worked with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, they had recovered pieces of the Titanic there which were being tested. They had a piece of hull plating and some rivets. What they found was that the Irish hull plating was stronger than the rivets, but more importantly, the rivets became brittle long before the steel in the cold Atlantic. They determined that the side swiping of the berg cause the rivets to pop, thus unzipping the seams, which cause the great degree of flooding.

The findings even made the news, and somewhere, I have the clipping from the paper. I'll have to see if I can dig it out. This may be old news for some of you, but I thought I'd share it.

Daniel

Yes I had read about that on a site somewhere. I think there was to much slag in the rivets?? Either way they were not as strong as thought and could not take the impact. Had they been stronger there may not have been such catastrophic flooding (I think). It would be great if you could post the article up here I'd like to see it again.

So your mom tested some of the Titanics rivits? That's really cool.

She didn't personally, but she knew some of the researchers who did. I didn't get to meet any of them, but when the article was published, she made sure to save it for me. I have it here somewhere. I'll have to scan it in and post it.

Daniel

Hi Cap'n Dan and Fellow Posters!

I'm new to this site, but this thread caught my eye...I recently saw a piece on NG on this very subject. The piece posited the theory that, while the iron used in Titanic was the highest quality of the day (most ships were built using the same stuff), her rivits were in fact slaggy, and brittle when exposed to the colder temperatures of the N. Atlantic.

It also revealed the fact that the metal used in the rivits was much like that of wroght iron. A riviting machine was used for most of her construction, but the machine was too large to fit in to Titanics' forward section.

Many of the rivits (particularly those used on the doubling seaming between watertight compartments) were done by hand due to the size of the riviting machine. The iron used by the workmen was even softer than the iron used in the machine.

Freezing water, stress and hydro-dynamics caused those rivits to spring like they'ed been shot out of cannon at impact with the iceberg. Once the rivits were out and her plates began to shift... well you know the rest of the story.

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth to an interesting thread.

Cheers,
Lisa

The rivets popped, the plates buckled, Titanic sank. Lets blame the rivets!!!!!!!

The plates were stronger than the rivets because they are made in a different way. As metal is heated and cooled, its properties change, so it becomes weaker, but it needs to be slightly weaker so it can be hammered(rivetted)on the other side of a plate, sealing it together. (I have tried to explain this basic engineering principle as simply as I can)
The rivets were the best they could have been made in their day. With hindsight they weren't great quality by today's standard, but don't forget - every ship at that time was built with them.
Olympic used them, and as well as surviving her collision with HMS Hawke, crashed into the Nantucket Lightship and survived until she was scrapped in 1935.
Nomadic was also built using the same rivets, and she is sitting in Belfast Harbour right now, 96 years after she was launched.

Rivets were designed to hold the plates together. Ships weren't designed to crash into icebergs at full speed. Titanic sank due to a number of factors, the rivets being only one of them. Lets not blame them when they were only doing their job.

Strider_uk

Absolutely, Strider.

Not blaming the rivets; just thought it was another factor that would have never been an issue had it not been for the unique circumstances of the collision. It seemed that for Titanic, numerous smaller factors all came together at that one moment in time.

Certainly, had the crew made better preparations and different decisions, the collision would never have happened. Titanic, Olympic, and Britanic were probably the strongest ships of their day, rivets and all.

Daniel

Gentlemen,

I was simply relating the information I gleaned from the NG program. I in no way meant to impugn rivits or rivtors...

IMHO there was a long list of circumstances that lead to Titanic's demise.

Cheers,
Lisa :

A very long list indeed!

Daniel

I have a question. You say the hull was stronger than the rivets that makeup the side. My question is wasn't the hull of Titanic doubled when made?

And yeah that's sweet your mom was involved with that.