Nicole J. PaddockPUR 3000

Professor ApplequistSeptember 16, 2016

Public Relations Case StudyAnalysis Paper

Titanic’s “Unsinkable” LegacyApril 15, 1912

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On a cold and dark April night in 1912, the world’s most modern luxurious, and

“unsinkable” had struck an iceberg and begin her terrifying journey to the bottom of the

North Atlantic sea. Leaving over 2,200 passengers behind as the Titanic sank, of which

only just 700 survived. The loss of over 1,513 men, women, and children was a tragedy.

The question here is how did the “unsinkable” Titanic become so sinkable? Every crisis

occurs with a set of situations that make it possible.

Primary and secondary sources were carried out of the Titanic. Researchers of

the Titanic itself analyzed primary data. The process of the deep sea had went to work.

Marine organisms consumed wood and other organic material, including human

remains (Delgado, 2012). Bacteria had begin to eat away at the steel, leaving behind

puddles of red, orange, and yellow byproducts (Delgado, 2012). The Titanic had

officially started to dissolve below the sea, and over decades the wreck became a harbor

for deep-sea creatures. Seventy-three years after the Titanic sank, a deep-sea vehicle

went below the darkness for the first time (Delgado, 2012). Carrying video cameras and

collecting real time images from the deep, this was the first that the world had seen of

the Titanic (Delgado, 2012). Humans had first visited the Titanic in the research

submarine Alvin. In 1987, another submarine Nautile viewed the wreck (Delgado,

2012). In 2010, two robotic vehicles viewed the wreck with high-resolution sonar and

camera systems, creating the first completed map of the Titanic site (Delgado, 2012).

Because of the rapid technology, archeologist now have a whole new viewpoint of the

Titanic. The lack of sufficient lifeboats was among several reasons for the enormous

loss of passengers. The Titanic carried more than the minimum number of lifeboats

required, yet there was still not enough spaces for several passengers to safely escape

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the sinking ship (Gavin & Zarr, 2012). The Carpathia was the ship that responded to

Titanic’s distress signals. The Titanic Relief Fund, raised $161,600.95 for Titanic

survivors and families of the victims (Gavin & Zarr, 2012). The highest percentage of

victims killed in the wreck were “third cabin” passengers, who were mostly poor

immigrants coming to America (Gavin & Zarr, 2012). An ethical question as to how

first-class passengers were allowed to get onto lifeboats ahead of those who were in

second and third class had become an issue for future investigation (Gavin & Zarr,

2012). Several individuals were appalled by the disaster and wrote to the President of

the United States. Many letters came to President William H. Taft from citizens who

were angry and upset by the tragic loss of the Titanic. Citizens demanded an

investigation into the sinking and shared opinions, and ideas for similar disasters in the

future (Gavin & Zarr, 2012). For decades after the disaster, there was numerous doubts

about what had made the Titanic sink. Two government investigations conducted

immediately after the disaster agreed it was the iceberg, and the incident had fallen onto

the deceased ships captain, E.J. Smith, who was destined for sailing at 22 knots through

a known ice field in the dark (Ewers, 2008). The questions to what really sunk the ship

never fully disappeared. When oceanographer Robert Ballard, finally located the ships

remains 2.5 miles down on the oceans bottom, he discovered it had broken in two on the

surface before sinking (Ewers, 2008). After pieces of the ship were brought to the

surface, physical evidence had brought attention to the fact that low-quality steel might

have caused the disaster (Ewers, 2008). Jennifer Hooper McCarty and Tim Foecke both

scientist make the case that it wasn’t actually the ships steel that caused the wreck; it

was the rivets, the important metal pins that held the steel hull plates together (Ewers,

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2008). Stronger rivets may have slowed the sinking process, but once the water begin to

flood six of the Titanic’s compartments, it was only a matter of time before the ship

would sink (Ewers, 2008). Primary sources like these matter why? Because research on

how the ship broke into two is extremely important to the survivors of the wreck as well

as the rest of the world who were hurt by the disaster. For Titanic’s passengers, it could

have been the difference between life and death as to why the ship sank. The fact that

the Titanic had only half the amount of lifeboats they needed for the ship, this was the

cause as to why several people were never going to even make it off the ship alive.

Could the Titanic have been stronger? Most definitely it could have. But in the end, the

Titanic was built to be a passenger liner, not a battleship (Ewers, 2008). Primary

sources like these are crucially important to the public. They provide an opening into

the past of an incident, giving access to the records of technical and political thought

during a specific incident under evaluation, created by individuals who lived during that

period of time. Primary sources were used for the Titanic’s story because they brought

attention to the public on the actual events of the disaster. Several primary sources

regarding the accident of the Titanic are the only way the current population can truly

understand what really happened. Secondary sources were used as a part of research of

the Titanic as well, they were used to clarify the primary sources. For example, a

textbook or documentary about the incident. There were several books and films that

were known as secondary sources of the original Titanic tragedy. Titanic the movie is a

great example. James Cameron made a fictionalized story about the sinking of the

Titanic. Cameron’s creativeness of the film came from his attraction for shipwrecks; he

felt telling a love story about the Titanic combined with the human loss would be

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necessary to express the emotional influence of the actual tragedy. Secondary sources

like so were carried out to tell the story of the Titanic in non-fictional ways. This was to

intentionally connect with the public to express emotions and how it impacted many

people. The research methods used in the Titanic incident had a lot to do with the actual

content analysis. The Titanic weighed more than 46,000 tons a length of nearly 900

feet, and a height of more than 25 stories, the Titanic was the largest of the three sister

ships owned by the White Star Line (Bassett, 1998). At 11:40 on April 14, 1912 the

Titanic had struck an iceberg damaging nearly 300 feet of the right side of the hull

above and below the ships waterline

11:35 P.M. Lookouts spot the iceberg 1/4 mile ahead.

11:40 P.M. The Titanic sideswipes the iceberg, damaging nearly 300 feet of the hull.

12:00 A.M. Watertight compartments are filling; water begins to spill over the tops of the transverse bulkheads.

1:20 A.M. The bow pitches; water floods through anchor-chain holes.

2:00 A.M. The bow continues to submerge; propellers lift out of the water.

2:10 A.M. The Titanic tilts 45 degrees or more; the upper structure steel disintegrates.

2:12 A.M. The stern raises up out of the water; the bow, filling with water, grows heavier.

2:18 A.M. Weighing 16,000 tons, the bow rips loose; the stern rises to almost vertical.

2:20 A.M. The stern slips beneath the surface.

2:29 A.M. Coasting at about 13 mph, the bow strikes the ocean floor.

2:56 A.M. Falling at about 4 mph, the stern strikes the ocean floor.

(Bassett, 1998). The damage caused by the collision allowed water to flood six

of the sixteen major watertight compartments (Bassett, 1998). As water begin to rush

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into the side of the ship’s bow, the ship begin to tilt down in front and slightly to the

right (Bassett, 1998). Causes of the rapid sinking had been categorized under: Material

failures, the hull steel, the rivets, design flaws, ship design, and safety regulations

(Bassett, 1998). A timeline of the sinking of the Titanic in the appropriate time order

illustrated below.

The data collected for the content analysis research method of the Titanic

pointed out two possible failure routes cracking of the hull plates or failure of the

riveted seams. This specific research method was used for several reasons. The most

obvious reason was what made the Titanic sink? And why did the Titanic sink? Content

analysis of the tragic accident was crucial in determining why and how several lives

were lost on April 14, 1912. In examining the Titanic disaster from a perspective or

project management view, it is highly important to first find out which type of project

management the Titanic was set to create. Unlike several other products where the final

customer will own the final product, the Titanic was intended to deliver service to its

customers (Miller, 2008). This creates an interesting discussion in examining “Project

Titanic” since most people view project management as having a separate beginning

and end as well as clear-identified stakeholders (Miller, 2008). In such a case like the

Titanic we can look at two different opinions and approach the problem from two sides.

In the first case we have the project by which the three ships of the Olympic were made,

designed, built, and delivered to White Star Lines (Miller, 2008). In another case, we

know the Titanic as it was modified beyond the extend of its elder, the Olympic. The

project of testing, bug fixes, repairs, scope changes and enhancements that were applied

to the two sister ships after the sinking of the Titanic (Miller, 2008). It is obvious that

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the passengers and crew of the Titanic can clearly be identified as the stakeholders.

White Star Lines as well as the project engineers Harland Wolff as the constructors,

Alexander Carlisle and Thomas Andrews as shipwrights and designers at Harland

Wolff, Captain Edward John. Smith who was responsible for service delivery and White

Star director Joseph Bruce Ismay and his executive staff who were all in the role of

project sponsor (Miller, 2008). In any kind of project in this exact size, there will be

several important team leaders who have some accountability in the project. The Titanic

was given almost no time for testing on its performance. This was because the Olympic

had a serious accident and had to be taken away to be repaired. The Titanic was

scheduled for regular expedition and was needed instantly. Because of the sudden need

for the ship, additional testing that would have occurred was skipped and the Titanic

was sent out (Miller, 2008). The White Star Line took several risks in order to get the

ship out as quickly as possible. In the case of the Titanic we can see that the financial

stakeholders, Harland Wolff and White Star Lines were willing to put their passengers

lives at stake as well as themselves. There were many things overlooked about the

Titanic. The fact that the White Star Lines, the captain, and the crew decided to ignore

the fact that the Titanic had not went through proper testing before sailing to the sea was

extremely unethical. The safety of the ship and the passengers who were on board were

overlooked, because of this many lives were lost.

After the Titanic’s incident occurred, many impact objectives were made. The

Titanic was only provided with enough lifeboats and life jackets for half of its

maximum number of passengers. In 1894, the Merchant Shipping Act required that the

number of lifeboats be in direct proportion with the ship’s gross tonnage (Savage,

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2015). Lack of training came into an important role for many new ships, there is a lot of

confrontation that better training on the Titanic could have potentially saved more lives.

Having adequate tools and protection is now being overseen, having more emergency

backup plans, and agencies had performed a new protocol set (Savage, 2015). A treaty

was signed by the conference in January 1914, to monitor and report on the location of

the North Atlantic Ocean icebergs that could potentially pose a threat to transatlantic

sea traffic (Savage, 2015). These objectives were extremely important to the situation

like the Titanic. Taking appropriate precautions from now on for several ships that sail

the seas will protect many lives and avoid potential hazards along the way. If there were

such action strategies appropriately taken, the Titanic could have potentially been

avoided. There was no crisis communication involvement during the time of the

disaster. The captain, crew, and White Star Lines did not prioritize their actions and

communicate during the time of urgent situations like when the Titanic had to

immediately be sailed out before doing testing on the ship. An issue ignored is lack of

crisis communication and crisis management. A crisis is a major occurrence with a

potentially negative outcome. There was an extreme lack of communication among the

Titanic disaster. However, the Titanic did have a crisis management plan, but it was not

fully developed in the way that it should have been. They may have had distress signals

to other local boats as well as lifeboats attached to the ship, but in the end none of this

helped and lives were lost. Planning better could have also prevented this from

happening. Planning to have more lifeboats and life jackets could have saved many

more lives. The two-way symmetric model was not used during the Titanic. This is

because the two-way symmetric model is explained as a theory concentrated on making

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sure that decisions made by an organization are equally beneficial between itself and its

audiences. The Titanic had no awareness or interest on possible icebergs along their

voyage. These strategies were not appropriately chosen based on the several research

and facts as to why the Titanic sank and the possible precautions they could’ve taken,

but didn’t. The Titanic was a tragic accident that took place in 1912, although it may

have seemed like the Titanic was “unsinkable” and nothing could bring it down, it

surely was sinkable. Even though it may look like several evaluation measures were

used to build and maintain the Titanic, there were not. After the wreck had taken place,

several objective methods were measured appropriately. These measures varied from

the Merchant Shipping Act making it a crucial rule that lifeboats be in direct proportion

with the ships gross tonnage, that better training has taken place, having better tools and

protection, more emergency backup plans, and a new treaty has been signed to monitor

the report of icebergs amongst sailing ships. Such tasks like these are now going to ease

the mind of many individuals and the survivors of the Titanic knowing that certain

precautions are taking action to newly built ships. I don’t believe that the timing of the

evaluation of the Titanic was sufficient due to the fact that those evaluations should

have been made before the Titanic set sail. The Titanic was ultimately not set up for

success when it was not properly checked upon setting sail with the numerous amount

of passengers on board. I highly suggest that when newer ships are built as big as the

Titanic was, that there are far more serious precautions taken before the ship ever sets

sail so that a tragedy like the Titanic never replays itself.

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Online Portfolio Website: https://nicolepaddock.wordpress.com

References

Bassett, V. (1998). Causes and Effects of the Rapid Sinking of the Titanic. Retrieved September 16, 2016, from http://writing.engr.psu.edu/uer/bassett.html

Delgado, J. P. (2012). Archaeology of Titanic. Retrieved from http://archive.archaeology.org/1205/features/titanic_shipwreck_jean_charcot_site_map.html

Ewers, J. (2008). Retrieved September 16, 2016, from http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/09/25/the-secret-of-how-the-titanic-sunk

Gavin, A., & Zarr, C. (2012). They Said It Couldn't Sink. Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2012/spring/titanic.html

Miller, S. A. (2008). Project Management of the RMS Titanic and the Olympic Ships. Retrieved September 16, 2016, from http://www.sheepguardingllama.com/2008/02/project-management-of-the-rms-titanic-and-the-olympic-ships/

Savage, M. (2015). Five Safety Lessons Learned from the Sinking of the Titanic. Retrieved September 16, 2016, from http://ehstoday.com/safety/five-safety-lessons-learned-sinking-titanic

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