Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL: The faulty rivets on the Titanic meant it was doomed to sink. If they rivets were properly made it would have survived hitting the iceberg. (www.nist.gov)

submitted 1 year ago by JCSpark@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/130729

Another note, it likely could have survived hitting the iceberg had it not turned to avoid it (it had no chance of avoiding it but turning meant the rivets took the full load of the collision).

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[–] YolkBrushWork402@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were the rivets really that weak?

[–] Thavron@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Evidently.

[–] Late_Settler@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Doing some searching online it seems the claim normally made is that all steel rivets wouldn't have prevented the sinking but could have slowed it enough to allow more passengers to be rescued.

To provide a bit more context lower grade iron rivets were used because of supply shortages at the time. Higher quality steel rivets were still used for the midsection of the boat with iron rivets being used on the ends.