When the Titanic was launched in 1912, it was the biggest ship in the world. It was as long as three football fields, it was 25 stories high, and it weighed 45, 000 tons. It was also a luxurious hotel, and some of the world's wealthiest people were on board for its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. Just four days into its voyage - about 11:40 on the night of April 14, 1912 – it struck ice in the North Atlantic, and sank in just two and a half hours. Tragically, out of 2,207 people on board, only 705 survived. The other 1,502 died because there were not enough lifeboats.
             I have been fascinated by the Titanic ever since I saw the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. I've read some books and a couple of articles. There's a lot of disagreement among experts over what actually happened that night. I've decided that the most reliable experts are two sea captains who have written about the sinking. One of them is Joseph Conrad, a novelist and former sea captain who wrote an article about the Titanic a few months after it sank. The other is David G. Brown, author of a new book, The Last Log of the Titanic. Brown has served as a ship's captain and he teaches U.S. Coast Guard safety courses. I find these two the most trustworthy because they write from many years of experience in handling large ships.
             Based on what these sea captains say, I want to show you that the Titanic disaster happened because of two beliefs that were tragically erroneous.
             Let's look at the first of these beliefs: The captain of the Titanic - Edward John Smith – believed that ice was just a nuisance, an inconvenience – not a great danger. In the past, some ships in the North Atlantic had hit icebergs or underwater ice shelves, and a few of these encounters had caused sinking and death. But Captain Smith thought that ice was no match for the mighty Titanic, with its m...