The Titanic: Preconditions, the Trigger, the Crisis, Post-Crisis

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Preconditions
The Trigger
The Crisis
Post-Crisis
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The sinking of the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic is the subject of this report and seeks to analyze the tragedy through the lens of risk and crisis management. The ship sank in 1912 in the Atlantic Ocean during its maiden voyage and 1500 souls were lost, with 1300 passengers and 1000 crew on board. The destructive leadership theory will be applied in the preconditions section of this report while the Crichton theory will be applied in the crisis section. The destructive leadership theory is appropriate because the events precipitating the sinking of Titanic were majorly leadership flaws. Events during the actual crisis were caused by communication breaks and unfamiliarity, best explained by the Crichton theory.

Preconditions

The destructive leadership theory outlines the pursuit of idealized goals as a flaw in most corporations that may cause a crisis. Titanic was built with narrowly defined goals by the manufacturers who focused on profits at the expense of risk analysis. The 1900s were a period of fierce competition for passengers and every company wanted to outwit the other by building a larger and more comfortable ship. Risk management was neglected in the case of Titanic as the makers wanted to have a ship that would ensure their dominance in the market. The lack of sufficient lifeboats in the ship illustrates a destructive leadership policy where the manufacturers underestimated their importance (Kayes, 2005). The 1894 Merchant Shipping Act was the only regulation in place for shipbuilders during this period. The rule required ships weighing 10,000 tons to have 16 lifeboats during voyages. Titanic was 46,000 tons heavy and should have had 72 lifeboats instead of the 20 available during its catastrophic trip. The manufacturers of the ship downplayed the importance of lifeboats because they impended comfort.

The owners of Titanic wanted a high number of paying customers on the ship. The lifeboats were considered to take excessive space on the deck, which was considered more productive when occupied by customers. The lack of many lifeboats allowed travellers more area to pace around the promenade deck, a choice of comfort over safety. The result of inadequate lifeboats in Titanic was that a ship with a capacity of 2,200 people set sail with lifeboats capable of carrying 1,200 people only (Smith, 2019). The destructive leadership theory outlines an idealized future as a cause for many crises that happen with organizations and is relevant to Titanic (Kayes, 2005). Titanic sought to make history by arriving before the anticipated time in New York and making more money in the process. The owners and crew saw it wise to increase the speed of the ship to about 25 MPH before it hit the iceberg (Smith, 2019). The hurry was reckless for a vessel with Titanic’s size and endangered everybody on board.

The conditions in the winter sea were unfavourable for such a speed but the captains proceeded anyway. This shows a preference for the anticipated glory at the expense of safety, eventually leading to the accident. Public expectation was a challenge on the ship as Titanic was built for comfort (Jones et al., 2020). Public expectation in the destructive leadership theory is a crucial cause of crisis as the leaders in various sectors try to impress their customers and the public in general. This was the case in Titanic when communication was received from another ship in the sea which had sighted icebergs. The message came along with other messages from the customers making various complaints. The operators of the communication department dismissed the alert while choosing to continue listening to the customers. The priorities for this department were catastrophically wrong and jeopardized the lives of all souls on board.

The Trigger

The lookouts in the “bird’s nest” were poorly equipped to notice the changes in the sea and alert the captain on time. The sea was dark, the moonlight was unavailable, and these lookouts lacked binoculars to see far enough. It follows that they saw the ice in the water when Titanic was too close and sent alerts to the captains, giving them minimal time to react. When communication came from the “bird’s nest” about the spotted iceberg, the First Officer, William Murdoch ordered the crew to act. He instructed both “hard-a-starboard” (which meant an immediate left turn), and that engines be reversed (Jett, 2021). These instructions were meant to slow down the ship and make a turn that would enable Titanic to evade the iceberg. The decision was ill-advised as hitting the right side of the ship caused five of the sixteen compartments to become punctured by the iceberg. Experts believe that Titanic would not have sank entirely if the iceberg was hit by the front compartment instead of the side.

Another crucial flaw in the design was recognized during the process of flooding the compartments The 16 compartments were thought to be watertight, meaning damage to one section would not endanger other partitions. This was unfortunately not the case as the sections were not capped at the top. This means that when one compartment filled with water, there would be a spillover in the adjacent one and this is what happened as the ship gradually flooded with seawater. The flooding resulted in the speedy sinking of the ship and the death of a multitude of people, including crew and passengers. Perhaps inaccurate knowledge of the watertight nature of the ship misled the captains to hit the iceberg by the side, believing that such an impact would have minimal effect.

The Crisis

The Crichton theory provides situation assessment as the first crucial step during a crisis and which can help mitigate potential fatalities. This was absent in the case of Titanic as information gathering was inappropriate. There were no proper communication channels to enable the captains to communicate effectively with the passengers or the crew. The ship had lifeboats with the capacity of rescuing 1,178 people but ended up rescuing only 750 people. This was due to poor situational awareness by the crew who threw the lifeboats without properly inflating them so they could meet the required capacity. Decision-making is an essential component of the Crichton theory and was immensely lacking in Titanic. (Crichton et al., 2005) Decisions on what to do once the ship began sinking were not made effectively and this resulted in the massive loss of life.

Some passengers were unaware that the ship was sinking as some played with the ice on the deck. Others were asleep and unaware the ship was sinking until water began flooding their compartments. This illustrates indecision on the side of the leadership that wanted to reassure the passengers that everything was alright instead of providing realistic communication on the situation. It is reported that the band was encouraged to continue playing their music to prevent panic amongst the passengers. Despite the nobility of the intention, it instead resulted in a grossly misinformed and misguided populace of passengers. Teamwork was non-existence as a proper chain of command lacked in the ship. The crew members were reported to have abandoned their requirement to prioritize the lives of passengers, even at their peril. There was a declaration that it would be every man for themselves at the ship shortly before the complete sinking.

Coordination is an essential part of crisis management according to Crichton and this was absent in Titanic. The people who were able to escape to the lifeboats did so without proper guidance, leaving some groups that would have been prioritized in an ideal situation. Leadership is an integral part of Crichton’s theory and would have averted the disaster of Titanic if the proper direction was availed. Some crew members locked down third-class passengers, preventing them from escaping. Proper leadership would have held these crew members accountable and held them to task for these criminal and unethical practices.

The act of locking third-class travellers down meant that very few of them were able to escape death in the end. Communication with others is also essential and was absent during the sinking of Titanic. California was another ship in the Atlantic Ocean, within proximity of Titanic, and would have helped avert the disaster. The maritime protocol allowed California to switch off its communication lines for the night and this prevented reception of the distress signals from Titanic. If the maritime protocol had compelled the neighboring ship to keep its communication lines open for the night, the distress signal would have been received. California would have made efforts to reach Titanic and save countless lives from unnecessary demise.

Post-Crisis

Titanic finally sank to the bottom of the ocean and those who had not procured space in the lifeboats jumped into the open sea. There were cries for help amongst these people as they loudly wailed, hoping to be rescued. The lifeboats had a greater capacity to save more people but the early inhabitants refused to accept more people for fear that they would drown themselves. The temperature during the winter was low, reaching 32 degrees Celsius. This caused the death of most people and the sea was silent after a few minutes (Jett, 2021). The Carpathia was the ship that arrived about an hour after the sinking of Titanic and rescued some people. On April 18th the Carpathia arrived in New York with the survivors to a crowd of family members hoping to see their loved ones alive. In a ship with 710 3^rd class travellers, only 174 lived through the ordeal (Smith, 2019). Deaths were, however, encountered in the other classes too, and renown individuals constituted part of the fatalities.

The crowds back in New York demanded answers on how an invincible ship had sunk despite the massive marketing and sale of tickets. Investigations were conducted both in the US and England to determine the cause of the crisis and identify those responsible. The investigations revealed that California was close to Titanic at the time of sinking and that crew saw the lights on Titanic. They are recorded remarking that from the distance it appeared too small and could not possibly be the world’s largest ship. They woke their captain to seek guidance on further action but the captain told them to make no changes. This meant they retained their low dim lights, which were invisible from the position of Titanic. A few moments later after the sinking of Titanic, the crew reported they could not see the ship anymore. When queried, California’s leadership and crew remarked they thought the ship they saw earlier had continued on its journey.

Further investigations by both New York and England authorities resulted in English authorities shelving most of the blame for the accident. The British government was blamed for poor checkups on the builders of Titanic and inadequate investigations into potential flaws. The investigation also discovered that Captain Smith was partly responsible for the crisis. He was faulted for his inaction to slow the ship upon receiving the warnings about the ice in the sea and the winter situation. The reputation of the captain was forever damaged and is shamed through a terrible memory to date. The company’s reputation was also damaged in the process as it had built a reputation of an invincible corporation. The accident resulted in various new safety protocols established in the First International Conference for Safety of Life at Sea held in London in 1913. Sufficient lifeboats were deemed necessary alongside 24-hour radio watch to prevent California’s situation repetition (Smith, 2019). The lessons learned would be applied to future ships built, with an emphasis on safety over comfort.

Conclusion

The analysis of Titanic’s sinking reveals that overconfidence and ignorance of safety and crisis management are catastrophic to any enterprise. The destructive leadership theory and the Crichton theory were essential in highlighting the failures in various processes that ultimately caused the avoidable accident. The destructive leadership theory illustrates the events before the sinking and provides invaluable insights into the overall error of regarding comfort over safety. The Crichton theory offers a timely analysis of events during the actual crisis, showcasing the effect of unpreparedness in such scenarios. The two theoretical frameworks were essential in ensuring the analysis was guided and stepwise.

References

Crichton, M. T., Lauche, K., & Flin, R. (2005). Incident Command Skills in the Management of an Oil Industry Drilling Incident: a Case Study.Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 13(3), 116–128.

Jett, J. (2021). A Century After the Titanic Sank, a Film Tries to Rescue 6 Survivors’ Stories. The New York Times. Web.

Jones, K., Jones, S., & Waldrop, T. (2020). Radio used by Titanic to call for help can be salvaged, judge rules. CNN.

Kayes, D. C. (2005). The Destructive Pursuit of Idealized Goals. Organizational Dynamics, 34(4), 391–401.

Smith, K. N. (2019). 107 Years Later, the Titanic Sinking Helps Train Problem-Solving AI. Forbes. Web.

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