“The obvious question you might come up with at this point is, “why can’t you just put out the fire?” That’s because of the incendiary nature of coal. In general, a coal fire is extremely difficult to deal with under the best circumstances. If you had all the resources in the world and a good deal of space to work, they can be impossible to put out. Aboard a ship in tight quarters, it gets even more difficult.
An example of the difficulties with a coal fire would be the coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania. This fire broke out in a mine in the Northeast United States and has proven impossible to put out. How impossible you ask? It’s been burning since May 27, 1962.”
Holy shit
“Another issue that has always caused confusion was the Titanic’s speed. It was running at full speed when crossing the Atlantic Ocean, even when there were warnings of icebergs in the area. There were rumors that the ship was trying to break some kind of speed record, but the Titanic was not built for speed. This mammoth ship was a luxury liner. Molony indicates that this could have been caused by the fire-fighting activities.
In order to fight the fire, the stokers had been shoveling the burning coal into furnaces to burn the fire away. If the stokers had been shoveling as much coal as possible that could be the reason for the speed of the ship. As excess coal was burnt, the engines would work harder, generating speed. The stokers had been shoveling coal into the furnaces nonstop for 3 days fighting the fire during the maiden voyage. Molony thinks this is the reason why the ship was going at full speed when it hit the iceberg.”
Wow that makes *so much sense.*
I saw this article and just assumed it was political satire. What the fuck.
Ditto. What the fuck.
(
DuPage County Register, 26 Apr 1912, Fri, Page 7
- I found this in the Snopes article on the subject)
Dilleys’ report was in newspapers in 1912; how did this not get into the massive cultural memory of the Titanic? I’ve heard accounts of how it sunk at least 10 times and never about this.
YES HI HELLO I WOULD LIKE TO ADD A FEW FACTS ABOUT THIS THEORY.
AND I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO EMPHASIZE THAT THE COAL FIRE DID NOT SINK THE TITANIC. Some publications might have you thinking that the coal fire weakened the steel plating and made it easier for the berg to rupture the ship and sink it. Very very wrong.
If you guys would look up explanations by actual Titanic and maritime historians regarding the “Fire and Ice Theory” you’d conclude that:
1) coal bunker fires were pretty common among steamships of that era.
2) they weren’t actual roaring fires as these publications might have you believe (they do it as clickbait), but were instead just smoldering embers.
3) thermal analysis on sheets of steel similar in composition to Titanic’s hull plates showed that they could withstand temperatures above those exhibited by coal bunker “fires” and that such prolonged exposure to heat would not have significntly weakened them beyond nominal parameters.
4) in the photograph that appears to show the smudged section on the ship where the supposed “raging fire” had damaged the hull plating, the area in question DOES NOT match the ACTUAL location of the bunker where the fire had been burning. In fact, it’s off by about 70 feet back and 10 feet lower than the smudged area. That smudge is nothing more than photographic damage.
5) the iceberg collision was much more violent than one might think. While the Titanic did strike the berg at a glancing blow and 99% of her passengers didn’t feel a thing, below the water was a different story. The kinetic energy of the moving ship along with the rigidity of the ice created enormous pressure on the steel plates that they simply bent or buckled, causing rivets to pop. Such pressures were high enough to damage even the best quality of steel on any ship, let alone the most technologically advanced ship in the world at the time.
6) Finally, here’s the REMARKABLE thing about the coal fire: since the stokers and firemen had been shoveling the burning embers out from the affected bunker and into the boilers in an attempt to keep the fire under control, one side of the ship became lighter than the other. So, during her voyage, the Titanic actually had a 2 degree list to port (right). Now, when she struck the berg on the starboard side (left) and started taking on water, the transverse compartments of the ship caused an uneven flooding, which resulted in a heavy list to starboard initially, which reached up to 6 degrees. HERE’S THE WTF PART: Modern forensic analysis determined that had it not been for that 2 degree counter balancing list to the opposite side caused by the coal fire, the Titanic might have actually rolled on its starboard side within an hour of the collision, thus killing MORE people, since the lifeboats on the elevated port side would have been rendered inoperable. IN SHORT: THE COAL FIRE MIGHT HAVE HELPED SAVE LIVES DURING THE SINKING.
In conclusion, DO YOUR RESEARCH and always keep an open mind and be critical when reading articles written by mainstream publications.
