I had no idea they used a Parsons turbine to drive the center propeller. Fascinating.

*promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Thursday, February 12th, 2015 3:02am PST - promote requested by radx.

What you just said is so far from fascinating I'm afraid to watch the video in case I die.

Me either. I ended up doing some Wikipedia reading, and it turns out that there was a sort of transitional phase where the combination of reciprocating engines with a cruising turbine wasn't entirely uncommon. I'd always thought it one or the other exclusively.

I also hadn't realized how many ships used turbine-electric setups instead of direct drive. Wiki page.

One quibble with the video--I didn't get all of the ships shown when he was talking about coal dust as the reason for black hulls, but at least a couple were late enough that I'm pretty sure they'd been build as oil-burners (SS Normandie for example).

I liked the video. very well done.

Good catch, so was the SS Europa.

It would be cool to know where the Olympics scraps ended up. Like if I die, who will inherit my organs?

Sounds to me like the real flaw to these ships was the thickness of steel used on the sides of the ship.
All three were sunk in similar fashion. One single hit to the side of the ship.

oh, and seriously, who forgot to ad this to *history

Adding video to channels (History) - requested by Sagemind.

*Raises hand*

There were multiple factors involved, and in the case of the Titanic sinking it was possibly partly related to the water temperature and the properties of both the steel hull and the rivets, as well as the design and the careless operation of the vessel.

Before the wreck was found, much more was made of the design of the watertight bulkheads which only went up to E deck. This allowed any four to be compromised without sinking the vessel, but six were breached in the Titanic, so as the boat tilted more, water could flow over the top of the bulkheads.

More recently, since inspection of the wreck became possible, metallurgy has been blamed much more. The hole made by the iceberg was straight and at the bottom of steel panels, indicating rivet failure. Testing of the steel used in the construction also found quality issues there, impurities would have made it more brittle than intended.

The first video on the subject that came up was this one:

The Titanic's Metal Mysteries has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.