In the “little known facts” category about the Titanic, we thought we would share some seemingly random factoids that had an interactive effect to help sink the Titanic. It involves a principle and two numbers—I know, it sounds like an episode of the high school musical show “Glee” (but that would be PrinciPAL…).
First is Archimedes’ Principle. As detailed in Britanica.com, “…any body completely or partially submerged in a fluid (gas or liquid) at rest is acted upon by an upward, or buoyant, force the magnitude of which is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body.” So what does that have to do with the Titanic? Well, the iceberg that was responsible for the Titanic’s demise, like all icebergs, is subject to Archimedes’ Principle. Given the relative density of water versus ice, the majority (specifically 90%) of the mass of an iceberg is below the water surface, or “hidden.” This is the visual metaphor for our use of the term “hidden debts” in regards to decisions founders must make without understanding all of the ramifications of those decisions. Because of Archimedes’ Principle, the far majority of the deadly iceberg was hidden from view of the ship’s watch on that fateful night.
Now the first number is called Froude’s number (Froude rhymes with food). In the late 1800’s, Cunard and White Star Line (the company that built and operated the Titanic) were in an arms race of their own, competing on speed. They traded off winning the Blue Riband award for the fastest passage across the Atlantic. But as ships got larger and tried to get faster, physics got in the way. Froude’s number is a measure of resistance in fluid dynamics. Technically, it is a ratio of "the inertia force on an element of fluid to the weight of the fluid element" (Engineeringtoolbox.com). In practice, it means that at higher speeds, an increase in speed comes at a much greater need for power—e.g., two times the speed might take eight times the power. So competing on speed was getting increasingly expensive at a time when competition was heated and profits slim. These factors drove White Star to change its strategy in the early 1900s to a focus on luxury and size over speed, the sources of differentiation that drove the Titanic design as well as her sister ships. These changes decreased safety and exacerbated the loss of life.
The second number is 48—more specifically, the 48th parallel. At 48 degrees north of the equator, the 48th parallel cuts through several continents including Europe, Asia, and North America. Where the 48th cuts across the Atlantic is where icebergs that have broken free from Greenland enter shipping lanes. The iceberg season was particularly prolific in 1912. In fact, a number of ships had communicated warnings to the Titanic regarding iceberg-laden water. But the communication system was bogged down with the newfangled invention the telegraph, sending passenger communications to the United States. As such, it is not clear that all the iceberg warnings reached the captain, at least not with enough vigor to reduce the speed of the ship. A number of safety standards were implemented following the loss of the Titanic, including the formation of the International Ice Patrol in 1913.
How does this fit together? A captain and company with speed in its DNA, trying to shift strategy to size and luxury; a plethora of icebergs largely hidden beneath the icy waters of the Atlantic; and a lack of communication process with new technology in the form of the telegraph combined into catastrophic failure. By the time the lookout spotted the Titanic iceberg, the giant ship did not have enough time to turn the rudder and avoid it. The rest, as we know, is history. A principle and two numbers helped create one of the largest maritime disasters. Be on the lookout for the principle and two numbers that might sink your startup. Some metrics will be full of uncertainties. Others will be immutable laws of physics you cannot change. You need to know the difference.
The iceberg believed to have sunk the Titanic. Credit: United States Coast Guard