A few posts ago I mentioned that a vessel struck an iceberg and didn't sink in the years after the Titanic disaster. It actually occured the year before Titanic sank. The ship, called the "Columbia" rammed headlong into an iceberg and had its bow crumpled pretty badly. But the bulkheads held and she didn't sink. Just another point to add to the "possibility" that Titanic could have survived until help arrived, or not sunk at all if she had rammed the iceberg head on.

Yeah, Bell said it pretty well. Murdoch did the right thing, it just turned out to be wrong. Imagine yourself driving a car, say 50 miles per hour, and an animal jumps in front of you, whats your reaction? In most cases, its to slam on the brakes and turn away from the object. This is pretty much what Murdoch tried to do. Reversing the engines was like Titanic slamming the brakes, since just putting them into "Stop" would be like letting off the accelerator in a car. His instinct told him this was the best thing to do, because I doubt he had time to say "well what if I steer Titanic head-on to the berg....maybe...". He just did what he knew was best.

Yeah, but when she hit the bottom, that was after a two and a half mile free fall, straight to the ocean floor. Hiting the berg directly would have crippled her but from the ships desing, in theroy she would of stayed afloat. Or atleast stayed up long enough for help to arrive. But Think of it from Murdochs point of view, bring the newst largest most luxurious ship in the world into new york harbour, and hes trashed it.........Doubt it would go down well......

I'd have to say that Titanic would have probably sank faster:

It is assumed that the bow of Titanic hit the ocean floor between 15 and 20 knots forward speed, fairly head on. The abrupt stop buckled and flayed the ships steel skin for the first two to three hundred feet of the vessel, in fact ripping tremendous holes in each side of the ship and buckling the bow down 10 to 15 degrees from horizontal at the forward well deck.

This indicates the sort of damage that would have happened to Titanic had she collided head on with a berg...

Well, lets look at some things here.

1.) Titanic was indeed designed to have her first 4 compartments entirely flooded and she wouldn't sink.

2.) Many ships have taken direct head-on hits from objects and been able to limp back to port. Take the Stockholm for example, she rammed into the Andrea Doria and the Doria sank, but Stockholm floated with a destroyed bow. Of course this was in the 1950's, and the ship was built different using modern technology, but still you get the idea. Also, another ship struck an iceberg head on in the years after Titanic's disaster, this ship didn't sink. It was a small steamer, and the story isn't widely known. I'll try to find its name and when it happened.

In conclusion I believe a direct hit to Titanic's bow would indeed have caused substantial damage to the ship, but I suspect that she would have definetly survived and would have been able to float until assistance arrived.

Interesting analyses. But would the Titanic actually be raised about 20 feet? Would the iceberg really function as a ramp, or would te iceberg's surface give way a little as Titanic collided with it? Also will the Titanic's hull crush at the front upon impact, so both the iceberg and Titanic change structure, I would think.

All this keeps the Titanic from going up the 'ramp'. But of course it would always go up a little. You really need to know the structure of the iceberg to be conclusive about this...

OK im back you guys, Ok let me tell you what i think would happen. I say that its a 50/50 chance of survival. Ok like i said earlier the engines would only slow the ship a little not stop it so that means it all depends on the slop of the iceburg. For example if the slop of the burg was paralell to the slope of the top of the bow to the bottom the ship would hit, go up a little( just like a ramp) and then come back down. While it hit and went up like lets say 20 ft up. More pressure would be applyed to the bottom of the bow. Now the titanic had a double bottom. Pretty hard to crack from the bottom but not so easy to slide it right off the ship with a forward impact. U see what im sayin? Soif the double bottom shifted just a couple of feet it would have produced major cracks along the edge where the bottom and side of the ship meet threfore filling the ship's ballast tanks and thefor making it sink front first (mabey a little slower than as to missing the burg like in the movie). NOW if the burg had a slope that was almost vertical the ship could have definatly survived. there would be an impact of the tip of the ship hitting theburg then going down to the bottom and compressing the ship about 10-20 feet b4 stopping. only 1 tank woul fill itself and mabey 2 but no more than 2. And titanic could become its own lifeboat and let everyone life. BUT we wouldent have the beautilful tip of the bow that we have today that is still very recognizeable even after 95 years of corrosin and rusting. The ship still stands strong

In the end, I think the ship could have survived a head on impact with the berg. I stress the phrase "could have". I am not saying it wouldn't have suffered any damage. But I do think the odds of it staying afloat would have been greater in this scenario then what happened in reality. I appreciate comando's analysis........but I am not totally convinced that hitting the berg head on would have resulted in catastrophic death and destruction.

Yes,she would have survived.Also,if her engines weren't reversed before she turned,she would have missed the iceberg

Yes....the Titanic could have been still afloat. If you analyze what would happen you can conclude that it would. If the Titanic struck head on, only one or maybe two compartments would be flooded. The enginners said that if 3-4 compartments were filled with water, the ship would float. It would have been an interesting situation. A huge ship like the Titanic stopping after just hitting the iceburg. A big jult would have been felt throughout the ship causing items to break. But none of the less she would have still floated.