The Role Of Iron Rivets In The Construction Of The Titanic

The wrecked “Titanic” was searched for and located by Robert Ballard in 1985 (The Ship That Never Sunk). Upon review of the footage and pictures of the wreck, the propeller caught the attention of many. The propeller was clearly stamped with the number 401 (The Ship That Never Sunk). This number was the ID given to the Titanic during its construction. Although this seemingly proves that the Titanic really is the wreck at the bottom of the ocean, supposedly the Olympic's propeller was damaged in the crash with the HMS Hawke. The propeller needed to be replaced, and one theory is that it was fitted with the Titanic's propeller instead of building and shipping a new one. This small detail contributes to the point that the Olympic is the
the iron rivets used for the construction of the Titanic were cheaply made and resulted in the damage from the iceberg to be more extensive than normal. The problem of the iron rivets were the way they were created. The usual composition for iron rivets would use about two percent of a substance called slag (Spignesi 265). “Slag is glass residue that is left over from smelting metallic ores” (Spignesi 265) It is used in iron rivets to make them structurally stronger, otherwise the metal would be too soft and give way to deformation. Paul Foecke, a metallurgist, experimented on two iron rivets pulled directly from the wreck of the presumed Titanic (Spignesi 261). When testing the levels of slag in the Rivets, Paul found that there was a nine percent concentration of slag instead of the regular two percent. This over saturation of slag would make the rivets more brittle and susceptible to snapping (Spignesi 261). This factor greatly contributed to the Titanic's sinking. Although the idea of a deliberate sinking would come long after most of the rivets were placed into the Titanic, this revelation actually works in favor of the theory because of the brute strength of the “Olympic” post sinking of the