Tesla vs. Titanic: Is History Going To Repeat Itself In The Technology Blitz?

Pride, Reputation, and Tragedy

The Titanic’s captain, Edward John Smith, was under extreme pressure to display the formidability of the 46,000-ton ship.

New design technology at the turn of the century saw 16 modular water-tight compartments spanning the length of the ship, allowing the crew to quickly seal off any combination thereof to isolate the flooding of one to affect the other sections.

A design flaw would prove that the watertight compartments would, in fact, only slow the rate of flooding, and to a negligible degree (some actually believe this design accelerated the ships sink rate).

Designers were “certain” that, even in the worst possible accidents, the Titanic would be able to stay afloat for up to three days, thanks to this “revolutionary” new design.

This irrefutable certainty was disseminated like an Oval Office cigar scandal, and the world bought into the hype; the Titanic was indeed unsinkable! 

In one of the most tragic twists of irony, the hull of the 25-story-tall Titanic would be compromised by a collision with an iceberg that, for a long time, was thought to have torn a 300-foot gash down the starboard side of the hull.

In fact, when we actually got down there with the equipment to accurately measure the damage done by the chunk of ice, it was found “to be astonishingly small.” (New York Times.)

"“…a series of six thin openings across the Titanic’s starboard hull. The total area of the damage appears to be about 12 to 13 square feet, or less than the area of two sidewalk squares.” William J. Broad, New York Times, Apirl 8th, 1997"

TWO SIDEWALK SQUARES! That’s all it took to sink the invincible ship, along with 1,500 unfortunate souls, most of whom went down with the ship.

I think it’s imperative to highlight two key points here: misplaced confidence, and a combination of insidious design flaws that couldn’t be realized until put to the test.