Talk:Sinking of the Titanic

Capt Smith's mental state during the sinking, helpful or in shock? Answer...Both!
I edited this before but it was reverted...The context, the current narrative for Capt Smith:

"and became lost in a trance-like daze, rendering him ineffective and inactive in attempting to mitigate the loss of life. However, according to survivors, Smith took charge and behaved coolly and calmly during the crisis. After the collision, Smith immediately began an investigation into the nature and extent of the damage, personally making two inspection trips below deck to look for damage, and preparing the wireless men for the possibility of having to call for help"

We have no direct sources yet everything Titanic has been greatly debated including Capt Smiths mental state as many want to know if his lack of action killed 100s more by him not ordering the lifeboats be filled closer to capacity.

I'm requesting at a minimum that some sort of update stating that it's possible he was at times helpful and at other times in a state of shock.

The consensus about his mental state was, because he assumed there was a ship nearby to rescue everyone he was helpful. It makes the most logical sense that if he suffered a state of shock, it would have been once he realized help won't arrive before the Titanic would sink and that roughly half will die. This is a very human response and something you cannot train for. Nothing wrong with stated something like "Some have speculated he was originally helpful yet perhaps went into a state of shock once he realized no ships could provide rescue assistance before the Titanic would sink. Perhaps his state of shock was only temporary and he somewhat overcame his state of shock and resumed being helpful.  While speculative, this is the most plausible explanation which validates all sources of his conflicting mental state" NotBond007 (talk) 08:28, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
 * This is entirely WP:or and WP:SYNTHESIS. We're an encyclopaedia not a comments/editorial section. You would need reliable sources to back all this up. As editors we cannot make conjecture as to the whys, we can only say what reliable sources say. Canterbury Tail talk 12:29, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
 * The only evidence we have are the statements made to the enquiry about Smith. But we do not have any professional judgements on how those statements might have accurately reflected on Smith's "mental state". The best we might find is speculation from recognised experts, who have written about the disaster, which might be added as attributed quotes. Do you have any of those? Martinevans123 (talk) 12:34, 22 February 2024 (UTC)

CNN special tonight, I think only available in the US
and others who have edited recently. and some previews at  Doug Weller  talk 13:03, 28 April 2024 (UTC)


 * Thanks Doug. I always understood that there were people in those shoes and they decomposed. I will definitely catch that show but I don't have high hopes for new info! Coretheapple (talk) 16:51, 28 April 2024 (UTC)

"Titanic" or "The Titanic"?
The former professional subeditor in me has long been a bit bothered by this. Is there a style guide for which term to use? It's extremely inconsistent throughout the article. 60.53.91.107 (talk) 06:18, 17 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Both the American and British inquiries into the disaster used the latter. Titanic, after all, is the ship's name, and I doubt any ship has "the" in its name. However, James Cameron's 1997 film used the ship's name without the definite article, and Cameron does not use the definite article in any interviews. On a Sea of Glass uses both "Titanic" and "the Titanic" interchangeably. I feel like we should simply use the ship's name for the sake of clarity and continuity. SSBelfastFanatic (talk) 21:11, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 June 2024
Change 'her voyage' to 'its voyage' for grammatical reasons and less ambuigity, as well as other her -> it changes SSsirena (talk) 22:22, 8 June 2024 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: See MOS:SHIP, Ships may be referred to using either neuter forms ("it", "its") or feminine forms ("she", "her", "hers"). Either usage is acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and employ one or the other exclusively.   [[User:CanonNi ]]  (talk • contribs) 00:19, 9 June 2024 (UTC)