Originally posted by blocula
reply to post by AngryCymraeg
Because in 1912 the german military's latest submarine would have been top secret technology and knowledge of its mission to sink the titanic
would have been held between a small group of people...
The titanics schedule,route and destinations were splashed all over the headlines of the day...
Thats why icebergs were claimed and reported as being the cause of the ships demise,because the german submarine and its mission were secret and the
torpedo caused the ship to lose its steering,suddenly veer off course uncontrollably and grind against a nearby iceberg...
At the time,icebergs were well known,submarines and torpedos were not...
Tiatnic starts sinking...Submarine sails away undetected...Iceberg gets full blame...
edit on 13-2-2012 by blocula because: (no reason given)
Are you being serious about this, or are you getting ridiculous?
(Sigh) Ok, let's presume that you're serious. The U-17 was not secret. It was not innovative. The Royal Navy had the equally good D-Class submarines
earlier, followed by the even better E-Class later in 1912.
The massive problem that exists over your sooper seekrit U-boat mission is that you need a crew, you need a commander, you need provisions, you need
orders. In other words you need an administrative nightmare to cover up. This is pre-WWI Germany we're talking about, not the KGB and even then the
KGB was notoriously useless. People talk, as do documents. None have ever surfaced.
As for the Titanic's route, this is the era before GPS. Titanic's route was altered to the south during the voyage to avoid what was feared to be a
larger than normal ice field in that general area of the Atlantic. There was no way to know where she'd be. And any submarine that did try to
intercept her would have been far too slow to do so.
I have mentioned, in other responses, a number of witnesses to the collision and to the iceberg scraping down the side of the ship. They all saw it,
they all felt it. They did not feel a torpedo hit.
Let me stress something else. To damage the Titanic's steering would mean a hit against its rudder. The rudder seems to be undamaged on the pictures
we have of it on the seabed. In addition a blow against the rudder would have damaged the hull which, when coupled with the damage to the front of the
ship, would have a) sunk the Titanic more quickly and b) sunk her on an even keel.
One last thing. U-17 did not, as has been stated again and again, have the range to sink Titanic.