Investigators:
Mr. William H. Garzke, Jr., Staff Naval Architect, Gibbs & Cox, Inc., Arlington, Virginia, Chairman, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Marine Forensic Panel (SD-7); Mr. David Wood, Staff Naval Architect, Gibbs & Cox, Inc., Arlington, Virginia; Mr. Arthur D. Sandiford, Consultant to Gibbs & Cox, Inc.; Mr. David Livingstone, Naval Architect, Harland and Wolff, United Kingdom; Mr. David K. Brown, Royal Institution of Naval Architects, United Kingdom; Dr. Timothy J. Foecke, Metallurgy Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland; Dr. Timothy Weihs, Materials Scientist, John Hopkins University; Ms. Jennifer Hooper, Ph.D. candidate, John Hopkins University; Dr. H.P. Leighly, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, Missouri; Mr. A. Jankovic, Materials Test Engineer, University of Missouri-Rolla;Ms. Katherine Felkins, Graduate Student, Department of Metallurgical Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla; Dr. Harold S. Reemsnyder, Homer Research Laboratory, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, PA; Dr. B. L. Bramfitt, Research Department, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, PA; Dr. S. J. Lawrence, Research Department, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Bethlehem, PA; Mr. Richard Silloway, Engineering Partners International, Inc., Kingwood, Texas; Dr. Henrietta Mann, Professor, Microbiology, St. Mary's University, Nova Scotia; Dr. Denis Roy Cullimore, President, Droycon Bioconcepts, Inc., Professor, Microbiology, University of Regina, Canada; Mr. Paul K. Matthias, Polaris Imaging, Inc.,Wakefield, Rhode Island
Description of Project:
Forensic science is the application of science to criminal investigations in order to provide evidence that can be used in the solution of criminal cases. The public awareness of this field of science has grown with the use of DNA analysis in criminal investigations and the dramatization of forensic investigations in many police and crime shows on television. In more general terms, however, forensic science is simply an investigation of the cause of a problem using knowledge developed from application of scientific methods.
Forensic science was applied in the case of RMS Titanic by a group of naval architects, marine engineers, metallurgists, microbiologists, and remote-sensing experts who investigated the potential causes of the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912. Mr. William Garzke, Jr., chairman of the Marine Forensic Panel (SD-7) of the Society for Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (SNAME), assembled this group of experts. The group was assembled at the request of the Discovery Channel for the 1997 documentary, Titanic, Anatomy of a Disaster.
The forensic investigation of RMS Titanic included a review of historical literature about construction of the vessel and the shipwreck event, debate of various theories about its sinking, examination of the bow for damage caused by collision with the iceberg, and metallurgical analyses of steel plate and rivets from the hull and other structural components of the vessel (e.g., bulkhead, channel beam, angle beam). Metallurgy is the scientific study and technology of metals.
The metallurgical analyses of steel and rivets (96/0018.01A) from RMS Titanic were conducted by researchers from the University of Missouri-Rolla, Bethlehem Steel Corporation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Johns Hopkins University. The purpose of the analyses was to confirm or disprove two theories about the cause of sinking: (1) brittle steel theory, and (2) weak rivet theory. The brittle steel theory had been proposed by Canadian metallurgists after analyses of a small piece of hull plate recovered from RMS Titanic during a 1991 expedition to film the IMAX production Titanica. Members of the Marine Forensics Panel (SD-7) proposed the weak rivet theory after recovery of hull plate from RMS Titanic during Expedition 1996.
RMS Titanic, Inc. recovered pieces of hull plate, other steel structural components of the vessel, and rivets from the site during Expedition 1996 and Expedition 1998. Specimens of these materials were then prepared to determine their chemistry, microstructure, and mechanical properties. The battery of analyses included examination of the hull plate and rivets with electron microscopes to determine their chemical and structural composition, and Charpy impact tests to determine the strength of the steel hull plate. The Charpy impact tests were performed over a range of temperatures from -55 degrees C to 179 degrees C and compared with the results from modern steel.
Researchers from the University of Missouri-Rolla and Bethlehem Steel Corporation found a large volume percent of silicate slag in specimens of steel hull plate. Slag is impurities (waste or foreign matter) found in processed metals. Silicate slag "is an important constituent of wrought iron, but is not a constituent that is desirable in steel because it is a type of glass and is brittle" (Bramfitt, Lawrence, and Leighly 1999:36). Based on the discovery of silicate slag and other results, these researchers favored the brittle steel theory, stating that "the steel plates, at the -2 degree C (20 degree F) seawater temperature, failed by brittle fracture during impact, creating cracks in the plate itself" (Bramfitt, Lawrence, and Leighly 1999:30). They acknowledged, however, that weak rivets may also have contributed to the hull damage, and recommended examination of other steel plates from RMS Titanic.
Researchers from the National Institute for Standards and Technology and John Hopkins University favor the weak rivet theory. They found that most of the rivets recovered from RMS Titanic also contained excessive amounts of slag that made them more brittle, and therefore, more likely to snap off at the head upon impact with the iceberg. Their analyses of steel hull plate indicated, however, that "it is possible that brittle steel contributed to the damage at the bow due to the impact with the iceberg, but much more likely that the brittle steel was a factor in the breakup of the ship at the surface" (Foecke 1998:14).
After reviewing and debating the results from these investigations, the Marine Forensics Panel (SD-7) in a 1997 report to the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers concluded that the cause of sinking was in large part due to the failure of the rivets that fastened together its hull. Metallurgical analyses are continuing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and John Hopkins University. The results of these additional analyses may shed better light on the influence of steel and rivets on the sinking of RMS Titanic during that dark night of April 14, 1912.
Future Research Interests:
Refining theories on the cause of sinking through forensic and other scientific evidence.
Information Sources:
Gibbs & Cox, Inc.
The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers
Metallurgy Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Bramfitt, B.L., S.J. Lawrence, and H.P. Leighly, Jr. 1999.
A Perspective on the Quality of Steel Plate from the RMS Titanic.
Iron & Steel Magazine, September 1999:29-40.
Brigham, R.J. and Y.A. Lafreniere. 1992.
Titanic Specimens.
CANMET Report 92-32(TR). CANMET Metals Technology Laboratories, Ottawa, Canada.
Felkins, Katherine, H.P. Leighly, Jr., and A. Jankovic. 1998.
The Royal Mail Ship Titanic: Did a Metallurgical Failure Cause a Night to Remember?
Journal of Metallurgy (JOM) 50(1):12-18.
Foecke, Timothy J. 1998.
NISTIR 6118: Metallurgy of the RMS Titanic
Metallurgy Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Garzke, William H., Jr., Timothy Foecke, Paul Matthias, and David Wood. 2001.
A Marine Forensics Analysis of the RMS Titanic.
Paper presented to the Chesapeake Section of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers.
Garzke, William H., Jr., David K. Brown, Paul K. Matthias, Roy Cullimore, David Wood, David Livingstone, H.P. Leighly, Jr., Timothy Foecke, and Arthur Sandiford. 1997.
Titanic, The Anatomy of a Disaster.
Proceedings of the 1997 Annual Meeting of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, SNAME, Jersey City, New Jersey.
Garzke, William H., Jr., David K. Brown, Arthur D. Sandiford, John Woodward, and Peter K. Hsu. 1996.
The Titanic and Lusitania: A Final Forensic Analysis.
Marine Technology 33(4):241-289.
Wels, Susan. 1997.
Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner.
TIME-LIFE Books, New York, NY. |
