Titanic: A Tragic Tale of Hubris and Nemesis

When RMS Titanic was launched on 31 May 1911 at the Belfast shipyard of Harland and Wolff, she was the largest ship afloat and the most luxurious ocean liner in the world. Yet on the night of 14-15 April 1912, on her maiden voyage, she sank as a result of a collision with an iceberg. At the time, this was regarded as a tragic but unfortunate accident, with no blame attaching to her captain, Edward J. Smith. In fact, a statue was erected in the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire to his memory. The truth was, however, that Smith, even though he was warned on several occasions that there were icebergs in the vicinity - in fact in the very path of his ship - made no attempt to take evasive action. Instead, he sat down to dinner with his first class passengers, some of whom were the wealthiest people in the world. How can this be explained? Drawing on his medical knowledge and experience the author, for the first time, provides a possible answer to a question that had exercised the minds of Titanic scholars and the public at large ever since.