Roger Long wrote:
The big question at this point is how much longer the ship would have
floated. She might have floated long enough for the rescue ship to
have arrived a couple hours later. It is not highly probable but
enough within the realm of possibility that we have to consider it.

Sure, although a parallel consideration is whether the ship
would have maintained stability in such a flooded condition.
She went thru a couple of scary rolls in the minutes before
she broke up & sank.


Even if the ship would only have floated for a few more minutes, the
hull fracture precipitating the final plunge instead of the reverse
greatly alters our understanding of the human experience for those who
were there. The low angle fracture would have occurred at a time when
the ship at least appeared to be in a relatively stable attitude and
flooding had slowed.

Actually, a number of the ships officers thought she might
be about to roll over and ordered passengers away from the side.

.... This was after the last boat had left

??

The "last boat" never did leave. The officers were still in
the process of rigging & launching the last two lifeboats
when she went down.


.... and there
is historical evidence that most of those left aboard were inside
where it was warm and the lights were still on.

Certainly a lot of them were inside. The difference between
the bodies recovered & the numbers lost suggest that at
least several hundred people were still inside.

One 'human aspect' of the story is the people who were
trapped inside long before the ship sank... the laundry crew
and the mail workers for example. Another group I wonder
about is the bos'un and a gang of AB's sent by 2nd Officer
Lightoller to open the gangway to facilitate loading
passengers into boats already launched.

....Remember, there was no
public address system or other means of mass communication. Nobody
knew what was going on.


And this was a big part of the problem. Nobody had even
thought it would be desirable to be able to talk to the
entire crew or passengers. "C3" had never been dreamed up yet.

On top of that, Captain Smith and Chief Wilde thought that
to spread the word was to spread panic, so they deliberately
told all the junior officers to pretend it was a drill as
long as possible.


Suddenly, in the midst of this period of apparent calm and stability,
when many certainly thought that they were simply awaiting rescue
aboard this unsinkable ship, there was a mass exodus from the warmth
and light into the cold and dark. What precipitated this panic and
rush to the stern of the ship? We believe that it was probably the
loud noises, impulsive shiver underfoot, and sudden tilting forward as
the hull girder fractured. Just minutes after this illusion of safety
was shattered, the ship was gone and hundreds were in the water.


You could very well be right.

This has been described & discussed before, often by peple
with the agenda of "proving" that the 3rd class passengers
were deliberately kept below, and they suddenly burst the
gates and/or found their way up.


We are working on a second show to air next spring and have uncovered
new information that should make for some block busting revelations.
Stay tuned.


Sounds interesting. FOr some years there was a very lively
discussion of all sort of details & aspects of the Titanic
(and maritime history in general) at the newsgroup
"alt.history.ocean-liners.titanic" which has unfortunately
gone moribund. I am curious what "new blockbuster" info
there is.

Regards
Doug King