Today I Learned (TIL)

6522 readers

2 users here now

You learn something new every day; what did you learn today?

/c/til is a community for any true knowledge that you would like to share, regardless of topic or of source.

Share your knowledge and experience!

Rules

Information must be true
Follow site rules
No, you don't have to have literally learned the fact today
Posts must be about something you learned

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Kokomheart@lemmy.ca

JCSpark@lemmy.ca

TIL: The faulty rivets on the Titanic meant it was doomed to sink. If they rivets were properly made it would have survived hitting the iceberg. (www.nist.gov)

submitted 1 year ago by JCSpark@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/130729

Another note, it likely could have survived hitting the iceberg had it not turned to avoid it (it had no chance of avoiding it but turning meant the rivets took the full load of the collision).

top 3 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] YolkBrushWork402@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Were the rivets really that weak?

[–] Thavron@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Evidently.

[–] Late_Settler@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Doing some searching online it seems the claim normally made is that all steel rivets wouldn't have prevented the sinking but could have slowed it enough to allow more passengers to be rescued.

To provide a bit more context lower grade iron rivets were used because of supply shortages at the time. Higher quality steel rivets were still used for the midsection of the boat with iron rivets being used on the ends.