Common sense alone tells us that, but melodrama dictates differently. Nothing to cause a panic. As a functionary providing mood music, he knew it was his job to prevent panic, not create it. So he ordered a diet of ragtime on that last night. It's a beautiful waltz and makes a much more fitting swan song than the wretched hymn.
Truth is always richer than fiction.
Two of the small metal fasteners salvaged from the ship were found to contain high concentrations of slag, which specialists say made them dangerously brittle, The New York Times reported yesterday. The specialists examined two wrought-iron rivets retrieved from the hull of the ship, which sank nearly 86 years ago off the coast of Newfoundland. We think they popped and allowed the plates to separate and let in the water,'' William Garzke, Jr., told the newspaper. Garzke, a naval architect, heads a team of forensic specialists looking at the disaster. Md. The 46,000-ton Titanic was held together by some 3 million rivets, securing steel beams and plates.