18. A Missing Locker Keys Helped Sink the Titanic
Something as seemingly minor as missing keys played a significant role in sinking the Titanic. When it sailed on its maiden voyage, the Titanic had a new second officer, Charles Lightoller, who forgot to ask the guy he replaced for the keys to a locker that contained the ship’s binoculars. Considering how important binoculars are for a ship’s lookouts, one might have expected those in charge to simply break the lock, but no. The Titanic simply plowed through the Atlantic, with lookouts relying on their naked eyes to spot danger.
Around 11:40 PM on the voyage’s fourth day, a lookout spotted the fatal iceberg, and alerted the bridge. The officer in charge ordered the engines stopped and the ship steered around the obstacle. Unfortunately, given the distance to the iceberg when the alarm was sounded, the Titanic’s speed, and the ship’s mass, disaster was inevitable. Over 1500 lives were lost. In the subsequent investigation, the lookout testified that he would have spotted the iceberg sooner, and the ship would thus have had more reaction time to steer away from a collision if he’d only had binoculars.