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Titanic
Senan Molony caused a worldwide media flurry in 2017 by revealing publicly that there was an uncontrolled coal bunker fire on the Titanic. Experts said the fire would have significantly weakened a linchpin bulkhead, the failure of which hastened the sinking. The Titanic might otherwise have lasted until daylight, with many more being saved by a flotilla of arriving ships. In Titanic: why she collided, why she sank, why she should never have sailed, Senan goes much further and outlines numerous theories about what led to the Titanic's sinking. Senan appeared on CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC, along with NPR (National Public Radio) in the US after his Channel 4 documentary Titanic: The New Evidence, on which this book is based, was aired.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published March 5, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 5, 2021
Molony's careful dissection of the testimony, stories, and artifacts after the sinking of the TITANIC does a great job highlighting several key aspects of how the ship was mishandled:
- It's more important than anyone previously has mentioned that the coal bunker fire went as long as it did. Molony uses the well-documented but oft-ignored conflagration to explain why the ship was going as fast as it did, why it didn't veer south to avoid the ice, and why the ship sank as quickly as it did.
- Molony uncovers quite a few places that the investigations and court cases were much more focused on limiting blame and controlling the narrative than they were on finding the root causes of the wreck. That more blame deserved to be heaped on the inspectors was crucial.
Facts that I haven't encountered much before:
- The coal supply was far inferior, both in quantity and quality, than it should have been for the voyage because of the coal strike.
- The bunker fire was already smoldering before the ship left port, and resulted in trouble throughout.
- The iceberg was probably seen well in advance of the collision, but the initial reaction was probably to have turned to starboard, because that was the usual rule. Then, when it was clear the iceberg extended significantly to starboard, the helm was redirected to port. This is heavily implied in much of the discussion but not proven as much as I'd like to have seen.
- One of the bulkheads probably gave way because of the damage due to the fire.
- The watertight doors were re-opened after the collision and probably not closed again. The automatic system that would close them in case of flooding depended on electricity, which testimony suggests shorted out.
The main thing that didn't work for me was that lots of conclusions and arguments hinged on what people didn't say or hadn't said. Molony makes reasonable leaps of logic to explain the gaps and what they imply, but it isn't as strong as I'd have liked to rely on it.
Either way, this is a damning drawing of the state of British shipping and the appalling actions of the White Star line before, during, and after the tragedy. Probably the best TITANIC book I've read after LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC.
- It's more important than anyone previously has mentioned that the coal bunker fire went as long as it did. Molony uses the well-documented but oft-ignored conflagration to explain why the ship was going as fast as it did, why it didn't veer south to avoid the ice, and why the ship sank as quickly as it did.
- Molony uncovers quite a few places that the investigations and court cases were much more focused on limiting blame and controlling the narrative than they were on finding the root causes of the wreck. That more blame deserved to be heaped on the inspectors was crucial.
Facts that I haven't encountered much before:
- The coal supply was far inferior, both in quantity and quality, than it should have been for the voyage because of the coal strike.
- The bunker fire was already smoldering before the ship left port, and resulted in trouble throughout.
- The iceberg was probably seen well in advance of the collision, but the initial reaction was probably to have turned to starboard, because that was the usual rule. Then, when it was clear the iceberg extended significantly to starboard, the helm was redirected to port. This is heavily implied in much of the discussion but not proven as much as I'd like to have seen.
- One of the bulkheads probably gave way because of the damage due to the fire.
- The watertight doors were re-opened after the collision and probably not closed again. The automatic system that would close them in case of flooding depended on electricity, which testimony suggests shorted out.
The main thing that didn't work for me was that lots of conclusions and arguments hinged on what people didn't say or hadn't said. Molony makes reasonable leaps of logic to explain the gaps and what they imply, but it isn't as strong as I'd have liked to rely on it.
Either way, this is a damning drawing of the state of British shipping and the appalling actions of the White Star line before, during, and after the tragedy. Probably the best TITANIC book I've read after LAST LOG OF THE TITANIC.
July 7, 2023
Journalist Senan Molony could not shake off the nagging feeling that the now well known flaws in the design of Titanic did not account entirely for her sinking so fast. The unexpected coming around of a photo album at an auction hit the nail square on the head. Pictures of the launching of the Queen of the Seas in Belfast show a large dark trace on the starboard hull, right where the iceberg would later tear metal! For one thing, the smudge can neither be the reflection of the water nor the same odd blemish on two different old photographs. Then evidence given after the wreck revealed that a smouldering fire took the crew off guard and that it had been going on in a coal bunker next to boiler number 6 ever since before taking to sea. The fire could not be put out (just think of it, fire in the dark depths of a huge heap of coal, 100 tons, 10 m. high that had been loaded onboard three weeks before!). The boasting directors of the White Star Line did not want such a snag to stand in the way of the good story telling of Titanic, so much so that the idea of postponing her maiden voyage was out of the question. Experts will nevertheless tell you that self-ignited fire in piles of coal can last several weeks so it is no wonder that out of the 160 crew, only 8 agreed to working on after the scheduled call at Southampton. They knew danger was simmering beneath their feet. but still had to make a living Replacements had to be hired at short notice!
There was meanwhile only one way out of the conundrum: shovelling the stuff into the boilers as fast as possible and the effort was rewarded just one day before tragedy struck. Yet the threat was anything but over. The standard quality steel the hull was all made of turned even more breakable as large plates had been red-scorched and stretched out of shape under the heat. 500° C? 1,000°C?
On another score, people have ever since been on at Captain Smith about what he thought he was doing, sailing at 22,5 knots in the dead of moonless night on a sea cluttered with icebergs. As a matter of fact, another fire broke out in another coal bunker and because miners had downed tools in 1912, the ship was already running out of coal. Smith and Ismay had an argument about it they patched up with deciding on a record breaking speed. In this matter, Ismay was the cat among the pigeons. He quickly disbanded what was left of the crew once in New York. In following court hearings he outdid himself in keeping surviving firemen out of the witness box or making their evidence irrelevant. Overspeed was to be the only reason for the disaster. Put the blame on those who could not defend themselves because they were dead and let bygones be bygones. That suited the company's best interests fine and Ismay made a good job of it.
In the end the book makes very good reading as both a historical record and an investigative narrative. It tells on the one hand that Titanic, a Leviathan of a steamer, was an extraordinarily challenging piece of engineering and machinery. On the other hand, it shows that there is often more to it than meets the eye when it comes to deciding who is liable for disaster and why.
There was meanwhile only one way out of the conundrum: shovelling the stuff into the boilers as fast as possible and the effort was rewarded just one day before tragedy struck. Yet the threat was anything but over. The standard quality steel the hull was all made of turned even more breakable as large plates had been red-scorched and stretched out of shape under the heat. 500° C? 1,000°C?
On another score, people have ever since been on at Captain Smith about what he thought he was doing, sailing at 22,5 knots in the dead of moonless night on a sea cluttered with icebergs. As a matter of fact, another fire broke out in another coal bunker and because miners had downed tools in 1912, the ship was already running out of coal. Smith and Ismay had an argument about it they patched up with deciding on a record breaking speed. In this matter, Ismay was the cat among the pigeons. He quickly disbanded what was left of the crew once in New York. In following court hearings he outdid himself in keeping surviving firemen out of the witness box or making their evidence irrelevant. Overspeed was to be the only reason for the disaster. Put the blame on those who could not defend themselves because they were dead and let bygones be bygones. That suited the company's best interests fine and Ismay made a good job of it.
In the end the book makes very good reading as both a historical record and an investigative narrative. It tells on the one hand that Titanic, a Leviathan of a steamer, was an extraordinarily challenging piece of engineering and machinery. On the other hand, it shows that there is often more to it than meets the eye when it comes to deciding who is liable for disaster and why.
June 27, 2025
Solid research and thorough background - I now feel like I can discuss this topic with certainty.
The difficulty of the read was unnecessarily elevated at times due to the desire to refrain from boring or repetitive phrases by either the author or editor as they crafted lengthy sentences without using the same name for the same person twice therein.
The difficulty of the read was unnecessarily elevated at times due to the desire to refrain from boring or repetitive phrases by either the author or editor as they crafted lengthy sentences without using the same name for the same person twice therein.
August 11, 2021
Interesting take on the Titanic that tries to challenge and revise the common story of its sinking. The first 100 pages or so are the worst part, as there is far too much "could be" and "might be said" and conjecture to help shape the info to fit his point. There's a lot of testimony and info and sometimes you think Molony is trying too hard to find the contrarian stuff. Also, once in a while, he'll use the same info to support two separate, conflicting theories. Example: Molony notes that the heat wasn't working in 3rd class and 2nd class cabins. Early on, it's evidence that the ship wasn't ready to be put too sea. Later on, it's evidence that the White Star Line was conserving coal for the voyage and wasn't going to waste electricity on the lower class accomodations. Well, which is it? One theory says the ship couldn't get the electricity to work and the other one it's a choice made by those in charge of the ship.
Still, despite it's issues, Molony makes a solid case for his key points. A major point: The coal situation caused all kinds of problems. There was a national coal strike in England that caused a caol shortage. Result: the Titanic left with less coal than it would want to have and the stuff was lower quality coal. The lower quality coal helped cause a fire in a major coal storage area. That fire wasn't put out until all the coal was removed from the storage area (a huge area, about three stories tall). One way to clear out the area was to use more coal - so go quicker. The ship had other reasons for going quicker but the fire added to them. Between the extra coal used and the lack of coal in the first place, by the time the Titanic reached the ice fields, she had no room to manuever. If the Captain moved the ship south of the ice, it would run out of coal before reaching NYC, a massive embarrassment for such a highly publicized initial voyage. Also, the coal fire may have damaged the walls down below, including an watetight bulkhead.
Molony offers other compelling theories - most notably on the iceberg striking the Titanic. The classic story is the berg came out of nowhere and the ship couldn't manuever in time otherwise. Molony sifts the evidence and makes a decent case that wasn't true. Example: why turn starboard? Naval rules was that if there's something in front of you, turn port. That way, if it's another ship, you both turn port and miss each other. But we're told the Titanic turned starboard - why? Molony theorizes that the ship first went port, only to realize as the iceberg approached that it extended further out that direction (and our knowledge of the iceberg indicates that was the case) so they couldn't avoid it that way, so only then shifted to starboard. This double manuever was costly. There's also a chance that the initial response was slow, as some statements by the lookouts seem to indicate. Molony notes that lookout Frederick Fleet gave really truculent and angry testimony, as he felt he was the fall guy. He certainly didn't sound like he felt guilty. Molony also provides good evidence that on the Carpathia, the surviving Titanic officers basically got surviving crew to shut their lip and adhere to the company line on what happened. That line because the official story, which might be a whitewash. (One passenger in a lifeboat recalls a lookout stating "No wonder Mr. Murdoch shot himself" before their boat was rescued by Carpathia).
Molony mostly blames J. Bruce Ismay for the disaster. "Just a passenger" my foot - he had private meetings with the engineer, told the captain to go faster, was in the bridge shortly after the accident, acted like a supercaptain, and may have ordered the boat to move half-speed AFTER the collision (which would've increased the boat's sinking speed, costing many lives that otherwise would've survived until the Carpathia arrived).
It's a lot of conjecture and hard to prove, but Molony does a decent job of it overall.
Still, despite it's issues, Molony makes a solid case for his key points. A major point: The coal situation caused all kinds of problems. There was a national coal strike in England that caused a caol shortage. Result: the Titanic left with less coal than it would want to have and the stuff was lower quality coal. The lower quality coal helped cause a fire in a major coal storage area. That fire wasn't put out until all the coal was removed from the storage area (a huge area, about three stories tall). One way to clear out the area was to use more coal - so go quicker. The ship had other reasons for going quicker but the fire added to them. Between the extra coal used and the lack of coal in the first place, by the time the Titanic reached the ice fields, she had no room to manuever. If the Captain moved the ship south of the ice, it would run out of coal before reaching NYC, a massive embarrassment for such a highly publicized initial voyage. Also, the coal fire may have damaged the walls down below, including an watetight bulkhead.
Molony offers other compelling theories - most notably on the iceberg striking the Titanic. The classic story is the berg came out of nowhere and the ship couldn't manuever in time otherwise. Molony sifts the evidence and makes a decent case that wasn't true. Example: why turn starboard? Naval rules was that if there's something in front of you, turn port. That way, if it's another ship, you both turn port and miss each other. But we're told the Titanic turned starboard - why? Molony theorizes that the ship first went port, only to realize as the iceberg approached that it extended further out that direction (and our knowledge of the iceberg indicates that was the case) so they couldn't avoid it that way, so only then shifted to starboard. This double manuever was costly. There's also a chance that the initial response was slow, as some statements by the lookouts seem to indicate. Molony notes that lookout Frederick Fleet gave really truculent and angry testimony, as he felt he was the fall guy. He certainly didn't sound like he felt guilty. Molony also provides good evidence that on the Carpathia, the surviving Titanic officers basically got surviving crew to shut their lip and adhere to the company line on what happened. That line because the official story, which might be a whitewash. (One passenger in a lifeboat recalls a lookout stating "No wonder Mr. Murdoch shot himself" before their boat was rescued by Carpathia).
Molony mostly blames J. Bruce Ismay for the disaster. "Just a passenger" my foot - he had private meetings with the engineer, told the captain to go faster, was in the bridge shortly after the accident, acted like a supercaptain, and may have ordered the boat to move half-speed AFTER the collision (which would've increased the boat's sinking speed, costing many lives that otherwise would've survived until the Carpathia arrived).
It's a lot of conjecture and hard to prove, but Molony does a decent job of it overall.
August 30, 2023
This book was well researched with lots of primary resources to back up arguments on why Titanic never should have set sail when it did. Senan Molony combs over passenger and crew testimony (from the abbreviated inquiry following the disaster) as well as news articles from prior to the sailing that indicate there was an active fire in the coal bunker while the Titanic was still sitting in port. It is well documented that there was a coal strike during the Titanic maiden voyage and she took lesser quality coal from other ships to set sail. Molony also presents a possible argument that the ship had to speed to reach NY in time before they ran out of coal. This book was very interesting and one I will want to go back and reference my book darts for particular points. Thank you for the new information provided.
July 2, 2022
Abandoned because it’s near unreadable. This book could have used an editor and would have benefited from better narrative. I’m sure it has lovely insights into the tragedy, but I’m too busy putting the book down to look things up only to find out a chapter or two later the author (poorly) explains the statement (coal combustion). Already in chapter 3 the author is talking about telegrams post-titanic sinking. I opened this book to get a narrative of the sinking, with new insights, and it isn’t that.
February 8, 2023
RMS Titanic truth revealed
This is perhaps the most detailed story of the RMS Titanic and its tragic ending.
It is obvious that the enquires into this disaster were lied to or otherwise obstructed in their findings.
This book to my mind answers many queries I have held over the years and helps to explain them in great detail
This is perhaps the most detailed story of the RMS Titanic and its tragic ending.
It is obvious that the enquires into this disaster were lied to or otherwise obstructed in their findings.
This book to my mind answers many queries I have held over the years and helps to explain them in great detail
September 9, 2021
I loved this book. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down.
Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in titanic history.
Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in titanic history.
November 25, 2021
This book was very interesting. It told about what happened with the Titanic and whether it was doomed to its fate before it even went to sea.
December 28, 2020
This would get six stars if that were a possibility.
Having read a variety of books on this ship I've been fascinated with since I was a child, Molony's recent one surely goes on top of the list. Granted, one has to have previous knowledge of Titanic to fully appreciate this book, but once that is established, let this one take you on a journey you will be thinking about afterwards. It's sad due to all that could have been but nonetheless eye-opening in all its revelations. What surely assists is Molony's sources and the beautiful writing that makes the reading even more enjoyable!
Having read a variety of books on this ship I've been fascinated with since I was a child, Molony's recent one surely goes on top of the list. Granted, one has to have previous knowledge of Titanic to fully appreciate this book, but once that is established, let this one take you on a journey you will be thinking about afterwards. It's sad due to all that could have been but nonetheless eye-opening in all its revelations. What surely assists is Molony's sources and the beautiful writing that makes the reading even more enjoyable!
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews