If the Titanic made it?

This is one of those questions which has no answer. It is only speculation, based upon the 1,513 dead out of 2,224 people who sailed on that trip, the investors in the White Star Line, and the builders of the ship. How would history have been altered? What did the loss of that ship cause to happen in the world because it sank on that day, in that way?

First: The investors of the shipping line. Principal investor was the investment firm owned by American banker, J.P. Morgan. There has always been a story that Morgan got advance reports of the sinking several hours before it hit the newspapers, and sold stock , and took little loss in the sinking. The company was well insured, and recovered about $5.5 million of the $8 million costs of the building of the ship.

After the sinking in 1912, The White Star Line merged with the Cunard Line, but that was decades later, in 1934, at the height of the depression. Had there been huge lawsuits for wrongful death in those days, perhaps the corporations would have been more seriously impacted.

The vast majority of victims of the disaster were passengers in the 3rd-class cabins below. This was to be a source of profits for the Line in carrying immigrants to America. Had Titanic arrived, those thousands , and the success of the speedy ship in bringing thousands of people on each voyage, would have spelled perhaps more that 100,000 immigrants to America over the lifespan of the ship. If those people, and their children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren had lived on, it might have meant a larger number of descendants alive in America today.

Had the Titanic not sunk, and the British and American hearings not taken place in the aftermath of the sinkings, the revised safety rules that mandated sufficient lifeboats for all passengers in the future, would not have happened, or would not have happened for many years thereafter. Rules for the composition of the hulls and survivability rules in ship construction would have occurred much later in time, perhaps not until the outbreak of war between Germany and England in the First World War.

The novel new wireless transmissions, using the newly established Morse Code, might not have evolved as it did until years later. This would have pushed the development of radio (and of course, later, televsion) further into the future, with unknown consequences for our modern world. A young teenage wireless operator for the Marconi wireless station who heard the first SOS calls, and the reports of the sinking of Titanic, and spread the news, became famous. His name was David Sarnoff > He would go on to become the head of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), and head that corporation for decades, resulting in the establishment of national and international news and broadcasting, as well as the development of radar, sonar and television, and eventually, all sorts of elecrtical experimentation in the industry.

The millionaires who died on that ship, had they lived, might have invested their wealth differently, and managed their companies to greater successes (or lost everything years later.) No one could have any prediction of what the result would have been.

The late Victorian belief in the inevitability of success in industrial progress took a serious hit with the sinking of Titanic, thought to be the best of the best...a metaphor for the world view that progress was inevitable, bringing the benefits of technology inevitably ever forward . People developed doubts. Doubts about the infallibility of modern science and engineering. Doubts about huge corporations. Doubts about shipping. Doubts about safety and travel. Doubts about the future and what it held in store. Had Titanic not sunk, perhaps the shiny optimism of 1912 might have survived a bit longer, but certainly not outlast the First World War.

Speculating about this sort of thing is fun. But there are some factors that are imponderables. So much is chance, so much is luck, so much is out of our control. Perhaps that is why we engage in these types of questions.

Reminds me of the old thought that : "For want of the nail, the shoe was lost, for want of the shoe, the horse was lost, for want of the horse, the rider was lost, for want of the rider, the battle was lost, for want of the battle, a kingdom was lost. S0---for want of a single nail, the world was changed. "

Very little, actually. The vast majority of the passengers, were "just folks" looking to emigrate to America.

As far as the elite few JJ Astor, Guggenheims, etc, the imposition of income tax later that year, would've impacted their extravagant lifestyles. As it did their surviving family members.

We're talking 1500 people here after all. What made Titanic notable was the concentration of wealthy pax (in their day, they made headlines just by traveling around-like movie stars today.) And the "unsinkable" propaganda, that even today, 95 years later , popular historians still don't get right. (The phrase in the Shipbuilder was "PRACTICALLY unsinkable" .) Only the pax, and some of the wait staff spouted "unsinkable".

The surprising thing is something similar didn't happen years earlier, given the amazing lack of regulations of cross-ocean traffic.

WW1 would've happened, followed by WW2 and the Cold War.

We'd have still gotten cars, airplanes, radio, TV etc etc.

A terrific question; I'm completely enthralled with Titanic paraphanilia. If you ask me, the only reason it's so famous is because it sank. It was supposed to be unsinkable . . . oops! Hypothetically, it the Titanic did make it, I really don't think anything would be all that different. Remember, the phenomenen was that it DIDN"T make it, and everyone was anticipating that it would. I guess that if it made it, the biggest impact would be the billions of $ that hollywood would lose at the box office!

I don't believe that history would have changed all too dramatically.

The immigrants would have little or no effect because, despite their large size, they were just a small part of the huge number of immigrants coming to america.

nothing leads me to believe that much would have been different had the upper class survived the jourey either because they were part of that rich family, who inherited the wealth after their death. i would assume that their actions with the money would not have been all too different had they survived.

History would have been completely rewritten, but what impact it would have had is unknown. It's certain though that Celine Dion would not be singing My Heart Will Go on and there would be no movie by James Cameron.

Very good question. I've always asked myself. What makes the difference between an accident where many people die at the same time, together; from much more people dieing at the same time - because of hunger and poverty - but not together?

A crap movie would not have been made, and the great Morristown Train Wreck of 1913 would have taken its proper place as the definitive disaster of our time.

I think nothing much of importance.

People wouldn't have realized the dangers though, and maybe the next sometime something happens a tradgedy like that. It will have a worse affect...

Well, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio wouldn't be as famous as they are now.

I dont know thats a very good question and definatly something to think about lol.