I think the iceberg had something to do with the sinking. On 4/10/12 8:44 AM, "Editor, Finest Hour" <[email protected]> wrote:
>Dmitry: > >Below are from a draft for FINEST HOUR 155 (Summer 2012). This is an >unpublished draft but I have sent you the full text by email. >Available to any reader--contact me offline. > > >Churchill Sank the Titanic! >LONDON, MARCH 30TH‹ Robert Strange, a British investigative >journalist, in his book *Who Sank The Titanic? Final Verdict, holds >Churchill responsible for the century-old disaster, The Sun reports. >(This makes a nice duo with the charge made a generation ago that >Churchill also sank the Lusitania.) > >Strange writes: ³From the start, he [Churchill] seems to have washed >his hands of the Marine Division. Supervision of Titanic's >construction was passed to Francis Carruthers, a poorly-trained and >underpaid Board of Trade engineer who failed to spot flaws in the >ship's constructionŠ.By the time the Titanic was finally launched, >Churchill had achieved his aim of promotion to Home Secretary and >thereby escaped public examination about his role in the Titanic >debacle. [But] the ship was first proposed, designed and had its keel >laid down on his watch." > > >FH's Opinion: > >Churchill was President of the Board of Trade from 12 April 1908 to 18 >February 1910. RMS Titanic, and her sister ship Olympic, were >conceived in mid-1907 and the plans drawn in late 1907/early 1908. It >is therefore incorrect to say that Churchill was in charge of the BoT >when the ships were proposed or designed. > >Churchill WAS at the Board of Trade when the plans were approved (July >1908) and the hulls laid down (December 1908/March 1909). And he was >pursuing his future wife in the summer of 1908. But Titanic complied >with all current Board of Trade regulations. Her lifeboat capacity >(1178) actually exceeded the requirement (990). And if Francis >Carruthers, the engineer assigned, ³failed to spot flaws² in the >ship¹s construction, how was it possible for Churchill to spot them? > >What were the flaws? Earlier researchers have suggested weaknesses in >Titanic¹s steel plates and rivets which contributed to her rapid >sinking. This begs the question of how her sister the Olympic managed >an illustrious 24-year career, including troop transport during World >War I, and several collisions, earning the nickname ³Old Reliable,² >with faulty rivets and weak plates. (She was refitted with a double >hull after the Titanic disaster.) In any case, to suggest Churchill >was responsible for design defects reminds one of the author who >criticized his urgent despatch of tanks to North Africa in 1941 before >they¹d been fully tested. FINEST HOUR 45 commented: ³The Premier must >also be a mechanic!² > >The specific charge that Churchill was warned and ignored the question >of lifeboats must await our review of Mr. Strange¹s book and the >sources he offers for this conclusion. For the nonce, all we can make >of his argument is that, as President of the Board of Trade in 1908, >the buck stopped with Churchill‹just as it did with George W. Bush on >11 September 2001, and Franklin Roosevelt on 7 December 1941. > >-- >You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >"ChurchillChat" group. >To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >[email protected]. >For more options, visit this group at >http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat?hl=en.
