True, there would have been damage to the bow if it had rammed the iceberg, although I'm not convinced that hundreds would have died as a result. I am just basing my response on the experts opinon (on video) who state that the Titianic reversed her engines before the collision. However, you are right, they were not there and we can not be 100% certain that the engines were reversed in attempts to slow the ship down. I do think that the Titanic did however, stand a better chance of surviving the impact had the ship hit the iceberg head on. Instead, the iceberg popped rivets and plates along nearly a third of the ship's length below the water line. There was no chance that the ship could survive such an impact (obviously).