Why wasn't the titanic strong enough?

Answer 1

It's believed that some of the steel used during construction, especially rivets, was defective.

Also, the ship, was seen on Nat Geo TV, had a poorly designed gap point, which may or may not be true. Also, were as the first sentence is correct, the decided on using steel rivets number 3, a cheaper alternative to the recommended brand of number 2.

Addendum: The Titanic WAS strong, but no ship afloat was strong enough to NOT snap at the angle to which the Titanic's stern had risen (10-15 degrees from the surface). There are immense physical loads being placed upon a comparatively small portion of the ship's structure in that situation.

The flaws of Titanic were its insufficient complement of lifeboats, the slow and disorganized initial reaction of the crew and the decision to ignore numerous warnings from other ships in the area about pack ice in its path (some of which never even made it from the wireless room to the bridge). Icebergs are a danger no matter how strong the ship, with huge ocean liners at MORE risk, not less. The night she sank was also moonless and the sea calm-both of these conditions limited the ability of lookouts to spot ice (the advantage of moonlight is obvious, but turbulent water breaking against icebergs also helps to spot them). While White Star tried to cover up some facts about the sinking (such as the fact that the ship snapped in two), believing they may have built a weak ship, the truth is, they didn't need to-the ship itself was plenty strong.

Answer 2

The original "weak steel" theory was that because of the steel's heightened sulfur content, the icy water made it brittle. However, further research has determined that this might not be the case--the pieces tested for strength during the original studies were pieces that had been on the bottom of the ocean for 70+ years...which would make any steel brittle. In actuality, the steel used to build the Titanic was perfectly serviceable for the time period; the creators, in fact, made it a point to use the best steel for the job.

The best evidence of this comes from a photo of the aftermath of Olympic's collision with the cruiser Hawke in 1911. (The Olympic and the Titanic were near-identical ships, built with the same materials, so Olympic makes for a good comparison model.) It shows that the steel around the hole in its hull was bent inward, evidence that it gave before breaking. Brittle steel would simply shatter.

One of the reigning theories now is that it was the rivets, not the steel, that was the problem. Many of the rivets were found to have high quantities of a substance called glassy slag, which are small weak points in the rivets. The collision with the iceberg would not have caused a gash, as was originally thought. Instead, the rivets in that area simply broke apart, causing the plates of steel to buckle, allowing water in.