As part of our learning about the sinking of the Titanic the children had to use historical evidence to decide who or what was to blame for the sinking.
The children were given the evidence and then had to vote for the person or object they thought was to blame.
Was it the Captain of the Titanic, Edward John Smith, Captain Lord ( the captain of the Californian), Bruce Ismay the managing director of the White Star Line, the wireless operators, Titanic’s builders, not enough life boats or no key to the cupboard where the binoculars were kept.?
Having listened to the evidence the children voted.
The children voted that Bruce Ismay was to blame.
Bruce Ismay was the Managing Director of the White Star Line and he 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. To meet this schedule the Titanic could not afford to slow down. It is believed that Ismay put pressure on Captain Smith to maintain the speed of the ship.
Other popular reasons were the wireless radio operators who dismissed a key iceberg warning and the lookouts who had no binoculars.
Second officer David Blair, who held the key to the Titanic’s store of binoculars in his pocket, was transferred off the ship before it left for its maiden voyage from Southampton, and forgot to hand over the key to the officer who replaced him. At a later inquiry into the sinking, a lookout on the Titanic said binoculars might have helped them spot and dodge the iceberg in time. Blair kept the key as a memento of his near-miss; it was auctioned off in 2007 and fetched some £90,000.
Gabi said ‘I think Bruce Ismay was to blame because he told the Captain to go faster because he wanted to beat the record.’.
Emilia said ‘The fact there were no binoculars was to blame because if they had had them they would have seen the iceberg and moved away.’.
Having read our evidence who or what was to blame for the sinking of the Titanic?
