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Parallels Between the 9-11 and Titanic
Tragedies
By Lawrence Lufkin
Read about Larry Lufkin
Frozen in time for me was when I heard from
a bank teller, while I was making a transaction, that
a passenger jet had just hit the Pentagon... At the
time, I was working at a restaurant where I live in
Framingham, Massachusetts. When I returned from the
bank, my staff was in the dining room watching the news
in horror. I, too, watched the screen in disbelief as
the huge Twin Towers were billowing smoke into the sky.
I assumed that eventually the fires would be put out
and that only some people would be injured or killed.
I remember while viewing the 9-11 tragedy that back
in 1945 the Empire State Building had received a direct
hit from a B-25 twin-engine bomber when, in heavy fog,
it crashed into the 79th floor. Amazingly the building
survived. I thought that certainly the World Trade Center
Twin Towers would have been constructed strong enough
to survive a plane crash, but sadly, I was wrong. Also
being a Titanic buff, I thought back to the many questions
surrounding the sinking of the “unsinkable”
Titanic, and how people were shocked and saddened because
of this horrific event and in a quandary as to how the
Titanic, a “Monmouth Wonder” could possibly
flounder. I thought, it took almost 92 years to unravel
some of the mysteries, situations, and circumstances
involved in the demise of the Titanic, how long would
it take, I question, to discover the events, situations,
and circumstances surrounding the 9-11 attack and the
destruction of the Twin Towers?
Over time, it was revealed that the designer of the
Twin Towers, completed in 1971, did not foresee the
possibility that an invention of a plane, such as the
Boeing 747, loaded with fuel, could be used as a terrorist
weapon of devastating destruction. A weapon that due
partially to the design, construction, and materials
used in the Towers would lead to the Towers’ destruction.
I was in a quandary as to how the collapse of the Towers
was possible as people of the Titanic time were in a
quandary as to how the Titanic floundered. Through various
television documentaries and reading newspapers and
magazine articles, I began to understand how the destruction
of the Towers might have occurred. It was revealed that
the steel bolts that held the structural beams were
of insufficient strength to withstand the plane collision.
The failure of the steel bolts caused the floor joists
to collapse and then floor after floor collapsed until
the Towers were completely destroyed.
Also, the lack of adequate fireproofing surrounding
key structural elements resulted in the heat from the
raging fire twisting steel beams and supports until
the integrity of the mammoth structure was weakened.
This, too, was an additional fatal flaw in design and
construction of the Towers that exacerbated the loss
of property and lives. It occurred to me that in terms
of design, construction and materials, that there were
some parallels between the Twin Towers and Titanic disasters.
Because of my intense interest in the Titanic, a fascination
which began in my youth, I saw similarities between
some of the fatal flaws in the design, construction
and materials employed in the building of the Titanic
as well as fatal flaws in the design, construction,
and materials employed in the building of the Twin Towers.
These were fatal flaws that exacerbate the total destruction
of both the Twin Towers and the Titanic… fatal
flaws that lead to enormous loss of property and horrific
loss of lives.
As a child, I read many books about the Titanic disaster.
I also saw the film, “A Night to Remember.”
In later years, I saw the movies, “Titanic.”
After the wondrous James Cameron film, my daily life
was saturated with discussion of the Titanic. As my
interest in the Titanic grew, I received important information
from the Titanic Society about details of the Titanic’s
demise. I continue to read Titanic information and joined
Titanic chat rooms to learn as much as I could about
the Titanic. In 1985, I followed, with great interest,
Dr. Robert Ballard’s Research team’s discovery
of the location of the wreck of the Titanic. Then, in
1986, I was most interested when Ballard took the submersible
ALVIN to a depth of 13,000 feet below the Atlantic and
explored the Titanic’s wreckage.
Finally, Titanic’s long hidden story began to
unfold and I was really excited to learn as much as
I could about Ballard’s team’s discoveries.
One of the many discoveries that Ballard and his team
made was that the Titanic’s bow and stern sections
were lying nearly 2,000 feet apart. This discovery verified
what Jack Thayer, a survivor of the Titanic, reported
almost 74 years ago. Throughout Jack’s life, he
had insisted that he saw the Titanic break in two as
she sank into the icy Atlantic. This new information
made me wonder about the structural integrity of the
steel used in the Titanic’s construction. I reasoned
if buildings as massive as the World Trade Center Towers
collapsed in part due to a failure in the steel used
in its construction, then it was reasonable in my mind
to suspect that there may have been problems associated
with the steel used in the construction of the Titanic.
In 1998, RMS Titanic, Inc. raised a piece of the hull
of the Titanic. The steel hull plate was apply named
‘big piece.”
Living near Boston, I was fortunate to be able to visit
the Titanic exhibit just after the “big piece”
was brought up and put on exhibit. It was a cold and
rainy day when I set out on my trip to the exhibit,
located in the waterfront area of Boston, across the
street from the Queen Mary pier. Arriving at the entrance,
I saw dozens upon dozens of display cases filled with
artifacts that had been brought up from the Titanic
debris field.
What was startling to me was the condition of some of
the items recovered from the sunken ship - articles
of clothing, jewelry, china, crystal and many other
treasured items. Some of the Titanic items were quite
fragile, but appeared to be as good as when they were
first manufactured.
After walking down long aisles lined with fascinating
displays, I was directed to what looked like an exit.
I followed the sign to an area that was actually a huge
tent that had what looked like a two story tall structure
in the middle. To my amazement, I realized that it was
the “big piece”, a giant piece of steel
hull salvaged from the Titanic wreck. A walkway surrounded
the enormous section of the hull. Water that was balanced
with chemicals was being sprayed onto the surface of
the “big piece” to help stabilize the steel
of the hull. There was a security rope to keep people
away from the hull piece of the Titanic, but I could
hardly resist reaching over and feeling the massive
one inch thick steel plate salvaged from the Titanic
and the rivets that were as solid as could possibly
be. I thought, “How could such a robust structure
made of this one inch thick steel with such solid rivets
be opened up like a sardine can when the Titanic collided
with the iceberg and then broke into enormous hunks
of steel scattered 2000 feet apart when it sank into
the Atlantic?” My thoughts immediately directed
me to, “Who would have believed that the Twin
Towers of the World Trade Center would collapse when
planes crashed into them?”
The collapse that was due in part to steel bolts of
insufficient strength made me think, “Could there
have been a problem with the steel used to construct
the Titanic?” I questioned, “Had the designers
and builders used a higher grade steel, could the Titanic
have survived the fatal collision and not break in two?”
Subsequently, I learned there had been testing done
on samples of steel brought up from the wreck as well
as from a divot (slug pieces that are removed when rivet
holes are drilled). Test results revealed that the steel
used to build the Titanic had high sulfur content. Both
the Titanic divot steel sample as well as the hull plate
sample contained high sulfur content. Tests showed that
the steel used to build the Titanic was so high in sulfur
content that when subjected to the Charpy Test (a test
to determine the fracture point of materials) found
that the steel samples were brittle and fractured. These
samples lacked the ductility found in a higher grade,
higher priced, low sulfur content steel. Additionally,
I was intrigued to learn that an accountant of Harland
and Wolff, the builders of the Titanic, originally owned
the supplied divot sample. The divot sample was passed
down to the accountant’s son, and the son supplied
the sample for testing.
I
realized that these, and many other questions and thoughts
about the sinking of the Titanic and the collapse of
the World Trade Center Towers would never be fully answered.
I, too, was aware that although technological problems
existed and human error occurred in both the 9-11 and
Titanic tragedies. It was failure of the mind and heart
that was the true cause of the horrific events.
In the case of 9-11, the evil hearts of the terrorists
were the root cause of that horror. In the case of the
Titanic, the ‘penny pinching’ greed, along
with putting luxury and speed ahead of safety was the
root cause of the sinking of the Titanic. Contemplating,
I realized that it was not fracturing or twisting of
steel, but minds twisted by hate that was the precursor
to the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
and Pentagon and greed entered into the sinking of the
Titanic. However, though, there were problems associated
with technology in both the Twin Towers and the Titanic,
there were human problems as well. For the most part,
we welcome technological advances, but at times, it
is not technology that is at fault, but human failure.
We discover that as we go through life that ‘common
sense’ is not very common and in the hearts and
minds of some lays hatred and greed. These rapacious
desires can turn the tools of technology into weapons
of destruction.
With the direction our country has taken in the Mid-East
in the past twelve months, the 9-11 terrorist attacks,
and with the threat of terrorism ever present, I guess
it is no wonder that the greatest ship in the world,
the new Queen Mary II, a real Ocean Liner (not a “fun”
cruise ship) had such a quite inaugural sailing in January
2003. The Queen Mary II located at the peer across the
street from the Titanic exhibition. I remember the report
of the great crowd of 100,000 who witnessed the Titanic’s
inauguration, I thought; “With all the mystery
and intrigue surrounding the Titanic disaster the dreams
and premonitions of the Titanic’s demise, could
it be possibly, that the “big piece” somehow
communicated a warning to those who were going to attended
the inaugural sailing of the QM2? And was this the root
cause of the “quiet inaugural?” Who really
knows all of the strange, situations and circumstances
surrounding the events of 9-11 and the Titanic tragedy?
To discover the ramifications of technology, human error,
and other situations and circumstances, investigations
are launched after horrific events occur. Just as after
the sinking of the Titanic, there were inquiries, court
cases and intense investigations, both to discover who
and what was to blame, and what could have prevented
such a disaster. Now, there are the Commissions who
investigated the September 11, 2001 attack. The same
scenarios of investigations, both to discover who and
what was to blame and what can be learned to prevent
such disasters that is now underway for 9-11, and except
for terrorism, also has parallels to the Titanic disaster
investigations. But, in the end, I believe that investigations
should reveal what we must learn to do to find ways
and means to deal with greed and hatred – the
‘Hurray for me and to hell with you” attitude.
If we, as a people, can solve this mystery, we will
be on our way to helping the world and its people to
be more kind, respectful and loving. For technology
can be advanced to prevent the fracturing and twisting
of steel, but only kindness, respect and love can help
to heal twisted minds.
Hatred and jealousy was the root cause and precursor
to the horrific tragedy of 9-11 and greed was the root
cause, the precursor to the sinking of the Titanic that
put luxury and speed ahead of safety and penny-pinching
in material purchase and construction ahead of common
sense. Now, frozen in time in my memory, are two significant
emotional events. The first being: When I viewed the
horrific scene of planes crashing into the World Trade
Center, Twin Towers as they came tumbling down amid
explosive bursts of billowing flames and smoke. The
second event frozen in my memory was when I actually
touched the “big piece,” the actual steel
hull plate of the Titanic. It was as though I vicariously
pictured those poor souls going down to their icy, watery
graves as the Titanic sank.
My hope, now, is that in my lifetime, as well as in
the lifetimes of others, that these frozen, horrific
memories that the world observed would be melted by
kindness, respect and love. This hope is especially
true for the family and friends who have lost loved
ones in the 9-11 terrorist attack and those who lost
loved ones in the Titanic disaster.
My wish for us all is: “Smooth sailing on calm
seas.”
Respectfully,
Lawrence
Lufkin
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