The Titanic and Lusitania: A Final Forensic Analysis

This paper represents the final forensic analyses concerning the losses of the passenger liners RMS Titanic and Lusitania based on photographic and other evidence taken from their wreck sites. It will detail the role of brittle fracture and notch sensitivity in the Titanic's steel plates that contributed to her loss on 14–15 April 1912 and the possibility of a similar occurrence in the Lusitania. The conclusions reached here are based upon six expeditions to the Titanic wreck site over a period of nine years, commencing with the Ballard-Michel Expedition in 1985 and ending with the 1994 IFREMER Expedition. The Lusitania analysis will reveal what brought about her loss on 7 May 1915, based upon the Ballard Expedition of 1993 and our own research into her loss, propulsion plant, and hull design.