The Unsinkable Titanic

10-Apr-1912:

Capt. Edward Smith was a contented man. It was the last voyage of his illustrious maritime career and what a way to end it . He was in command of the RMS Titanic! The largest and most luxurious ship afloat.

The liner carried the richest and the ship was suitably fitted; deluxe rooms, large pools , restaurants dining halls, the works ! It was also the most technologically advanced for its times .

The only worry he had was that he did not have the best of experienced staff who understood this part of the sea. But not to worry he told himself ; the Titanic was also called the “Unsinkable” . Not without reason - it was built by the best ship-builders.

What in fact had happened was –

.. ..the start date and destination was changed  a month before the actual voyage. Most of the stinking rich onboard had managed to influence “White Star line” ;( the company who operated the popular Olympic class liners for pleasure trips ) ; to change destination from the African coasts to America. The port of entry was New York now. The start date was changed from 25 April to 10-April.

This demanded many changes particularly in the crew that was required to take the ship that would now go Trans-Atlantic. The journey was also longer; across a new route ; and other major and minor alterations were needed to accommodate this change .  In particular some parts of the sea was freezing and needed special navigation.  

Capt. Edward was struggling even to meet the earlier planned date as he was short staffed. He had hence asked for a emergency meeting with the White Star Line Operations head;  Alberto Ugolini;  and asked him for a travel date of 10-May ; by which time he was sure he could get the required staff.

He explained that he was fine with all the top guys(who anyway just shouted out orders )  and most of the  workmen in the coal loading rooms . However most control staff he needed to bring on board plus navigators who knew the Atlantic well. He also needed overall 80 people additionally to run more shifts.

All requests were summarily rejected without mercy by Alberto. Edward  was allowed to take any number of  workmen but no experts in the control rooms.

Alberto had taken 50% more money from the British elite travelers for the US trip ; the new date suggested by Edward was not acceptable as there would be ticket cancelations and Alberto could not afford any.

He had no plans of providing more staff to Edward as it would eat into his profits. 
There was no place for more staff on deck too as every single nook and cranny was sold as tickets.  He could just squeeze workmen in the underbelly of the ship. Also the Board of White Star line would be more than happy to see

many workmen on the report. Only Workmen figured in the Utilization report as “Working” and Shareholders would be pleased ! The Captain, Radio engrs; Navigators etc could never be shown as “working” ! Policies and systems !!

He was under pressure to show more Profits on the Titanic having invested heavily in this Elephant; a fact that everyone discovered late . It was a poor acquisition done on Alberto’s  recommendation purely to satisfy his fancy ,  ego and only God knew what else.

Edward made one more vain attempt ; but gave up . Alberto told him that probably age was catching up with him and asked if he should find a new captain for the Titanic. “Its Unsinkable old man; what you fretting for ?!” ; bellowed Alberto.  

Finally he said “Take help from Jong ; he knows how to run in a tight situation.”

Jong Pinyin was the most feared person in Alberto’s team. 

He was recruited from a Chinese sweat shop where every man was only a number. He had no idea of the shippng business but  specialized in making big plans(most of them untenable) in spreadsheets and following up with his small army, to get it done. This army worked like Ants – they never slept. They could make out the most profitable liner look worthless from a manpower point of view. Making complicated reports was the full time work of  this army. Most went into asylums due to fatigue ; if not  getting themselves killed in action.

Some reports analysed how much time Radio engineers actually spoke on the  radio. “Why cant they load coal in the time gap between sending radio messages” was the question. Another award winning report in fact showed the ratio of the  time a person spent on the Crows nest to the distance traveled by the ship . If the distance was short the number of people allocated was reduced proportionately ! ( which put the ship at risk !! )

Edward had a personal experience where his Radio engineers were asked to load Coal in the name of job rotation . The actual idea was to mark them as “working” . Most of them quit in three weeks and Edward had to recruit afresh at double the cost.

So Edward knew better than to argue with Alberto or Jong or even take his concerns with the Star Line board or the Chief.  The Chief was mostly in the dark about Alberto ; and moreover he always managed to show great numbers in monthly Presentation decks at least.  

Alberto was from an Italian family and blood thirsty. Anyone who objected to his plans suddenly disappeared from the staff without a trace. None would know what happened to them. Moreover Edward did not want to lose his pension that was just few months away . A relaxed retired life was what  he was looking forward to after slogging so many years.

So in place of a required crew of 550 ; Edward had to make do with around 500 from the earlier crew. And most did not know the new route. The ship itself was new to all of them being the maiden voyage.

“She is Unsinkable, Unsinkable, Unsinkable ” Edward kept chanting for some time as he left Alberto’s office. Alberto himself was traveling, so he better know what he was doing thought Edward as a consolation.

And so; on D-day they set sail with literally all “Bells and whistles” as Big ships do.

People waved good byes to their friends and relatives on shore . It was a nice sunny morning.

First day most of the folks spent time going around the ship . They were enamoured by her size and opulence.

Alberto personally took them around in teams. There was none to beat him in showmanship.

2^nd day - There was merry making across the board. Drinking ; dancing and all that comes with a luxury trip .

But the operational staff were stretched to their limits. The shortage of key staff at the controls was felt badly and by the 5th day the guys in the radio ; electrical room & navigation were sleeping on their desks .

Edward was worried. He went to Alberto …....again.  Poor timing for Edward as Alberto was about to join for dinner with some 'Elite' ladies who were traveling alone.

Alberto heard him; took out his crew list ; and called Jong.  He handed the list to Jong and asked to him resolve Edward’s problem “immediately”

Jong clicked his fingers at Edward to follow him .

Jong went around the ship systematically along with his “Ant” army and  Edward in tow. Every nook and cranny was searched.

By the end of the trip he had pulled up 13 workmen . 

With a show of pride he handed them to Edward.  Edward meekly said “Jong; but what I need are people to sit on the Crow’s nest to watch and Navigators in the control room; We are crossing the coldest part of the Atlantic in 2 days and God forbid if we go astray”.

Jong said “These are all sea men with loads of experience; you have 48 full hours . So train them !!”

Edwards protested that it was impossible and defintely not in 2 days as these were not aligned to that kind of a job. Jong said “ if they don’t learn ; tell them they will be thrown into the sea” .

Edward ran to Alberto and explained that Jong had a crazy solution and he asked that the Titanic be stopped immediately until the workmen were trained. Alberto went crazy with fury . He could not afford the delay as he had a return trip booked for the Americans from New York to England planned in 3 days after landing.

Edward, depressed; went to the training room and did what he could do in the available time.

Edward put  a trained guy on the crow's nest and prayed. 

It was fine for 3 days ...
– the fourth day THE Iceberg was sighted. 
By the time  the new guys reaslised it was an iceberg a few precious minutes  were lost.  He moved what he thought was the warning lever to the navigators in the control room to change direction to left. No acknowledgement and so he pulled at multiple levers.

The Titanic was not moving away but continued hurtling straight into the mountain of ice......

 ……he ran down the ladder of the crows nest shouting;  “TURN LEFT YOU IDIOTS; ICEBERG; ICEBERG”.