MN4900-Professional Ethics
Group Assignments
Case Study
The RMS Titanic was the largest and most luxurious ship built at that time, and because of its superior
design and engineering features was considered to be “unsinkable”.
It began its maiden voyage to New York just before noon on April 10, 1912, from Southampton, England.
Two days later it struck an iceberg that was three to six times larger than its own mass, damaging the hull,
so that the six forward compartments were ruptured. The flooding of these compartments was sufficient to
cause the ship to sink within two hours and 40 minutes with a loss of more than 1,500 lives.
The Captain of the Titanic was a very senior officer of the White Star Lines, the owners of vessel, and
this was the Captain’s final voyage before retirement, and all he had to do was get to New York in record
time. Sometime before the Titanic's voyage he had said, "I cannot imagine any condition which would
cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.” In the two days after leaving
England, the Captain and received seven iceberg warnings from his crew and other ships, which he
ignored. If he had called for the ship to slow down then maybe the Titanic disaster would not have
happened.
The managing director of the White Star Line was aboard the Titanic. Competition for Atlantic
passengers was fierce and the White Star Line wanted to show that they could make a six-day crossing,
which would be the fastest at that time. To meet this schedule the Titanic could not afford to slow down
and it is believed that the MD put pressure on the Captain to maintain the speed of the ship at the
maximum of speed of about 21.5 knots.
The belief that the ship was unsinkable was, in part, due to the fact that the Titanic had sixteen watertight
compartments. The number of compartments that a particular ship has depends on the type and
requirement of the vessel. They divide the ship into watertight compartments which prevents seeping of
water to other parts of the ship in case the hull is broken. They provide maximum safety in times of
flooding or damage of hull. These type of bulkheads are used nowadays in all most all types of ships.
One of Titanic's greatest innovations was the placement of sixteen watertight bulkheads (with electrically
operated watertight doors) that extended from the ship's double bottom through four or five of her nine
decks and were said to make the ship "unsinkable”
However, the compartments did not reach as high as they should have done, because the White Star Line
did not want them to go all the way up because this would have reduced living space in first class cabins.
If the marine architect, who designed the ship, had insisted on making them the correct height then
maybe the integrity of the watertight would have been ensured.
On an expedition in 1991 to the Titanic wreck, scientists discovered a chunk of metal lying on the ocean
floor that once was a part of the Titanic's hull. Analysis showed that the steel used had high sulphur
content and low Manganese to Sulphur ratio, which results in brittle fracture in the steel under high
impact loading and low temperatures (sea temperature was 0 0C). Steel used today have a higher Mn:S
ratio and are tougher and tend to deform rather than fracture.
In the early 20th century, ships were constructed using wrought-iron rivets to attach steel plates to each
other or to a steel frame. The frame itself was held together by similar rivets, which could not withstand
the impact with the iceberg. The rivets were then either elongated or snapped in two, which broke the
caulking along the seams and provided another inlet for water to flood the ship. Huge holes were created
that allowed water to flood the hull of the ship when the iceberg tore through the hull plates.
The total capacity of the Titanic was 3,547 including crew. The number of lifeboats required by law to
carry was measured on the weight of the ship not on the number of passengers. The Titanic carried 20
lifeboats, enough for 1,178 people although there were 2,208 on board.. The existing Board of Trade
required a passenger ship to provide lifeboat capacity for 1060 people. Titanic’s lifeboats were situated on
the top deck. Lifeboats were expensive both in cost and the deck space they occupied. The Titanic was
designed to carry 32 lifeboats but this number was reduced to 20 because it was felt that the deck would
be too cluttered .and spoil the aesthetics of the Titanic.
In loading the lifeboats the crew did not follow the British maritime tradition (Birkenhead) of “women
and children first”. They discriminated by loading by class, resulting in 76% of the 3 rd Class cabin
passengers dying, and not loading the lifeboats to their full capacity of 65, most being only partially full.
Finally there were only 706 survivors.
Assignment 01
1. Why did the Captain disregard warnings of icebergs along the route and continue to travel at
maximum speed?
2. What was the justification for the owners wanting to complete the Atlantic crossing within six days,
and where did the owners sacrifice safety for commercial gains?
3. Although the marine architect/designer was the most competent person to gauge the technical
capabilities of the vessel, where did he compromise on critical issues?
4. Why did the watertight compartments fail in containing the excessive flooding
Assignment 02
1. It has now been shown that the quality of the steel plate used for the hull was brittle under certain
conditions and had low ductility: why do you think that steel of this quality was used.
2. Although the British Board of Trade Regulations did not provide lifeboats for all passengers, why did
to owners further reduced the lifeboats.
3. Critically analyze Ethical issues that surface in this case study?
Assignment guidelines
4-5 numbers of students per group
Use Times New Roman font size 12 and 1.5 line spacing
The word count for each assignment is 2000-2500 words
Both assignments need to be submitted as one document
Assignments should be submitted on or before 7th of June 2019 to the Department of
Management of Technology before 2.30pm.
