the economic impact of the titanic's sinking essay

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The Sinking of the Titanic and its Cultural and Economic Impact

│By Yasmin Metto, Gale Ambassador at the University of Queen Mary│

The Titanic is one of the most famous and prolific ships in the world, inspiring adventures to the depths of where it sunk as well as creating a legacy that has lasted generations. Unfortunately, this can shroud the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic, which was almost as devastating as the event itself. The sinking of the Titanic marked a multitude of impacts, especially culturally and economically. By using Gale Primary Sources to explore the cultural and economic effects of the Titanic sinking, it becomes evident that all of society was affected by the event.

End of the Edwardian Period

One important cultural impact of the sinking of the Titanic was that it signified the end of the Edwardian period. As we know, the Titanic was sinkable, juxtaposing the commonly held belief that the Titanic was infallible to Mother Nature – rumours that circulated in the public, as many articles from The Times Digital Archive show .

But where did this idea originate from? This narrative stemmed from not only the state-of-the-art technology with new advancements that highlighted the Titanic’s superiority, but also the overconfidence that Edwardian society had. A key feature of the Edwardian era was the British Empire. Contextually, the British Empire colonised many regions of the world, demonstrating itself to be one of the most powerful empires of its time. As a result of this, a boastful attitude was developed.

This was then applied to the Titanic; since the British Empire and, by extension, Edwardian society considered itself to be superior, it was believed that the Titanic was one of the greatest forms of transportation on Earth. When the Titanic sunk, the core foundations of the belief in the British Empire wavered and revealed the weaknesses in it. Therefore, the end of the Edwardian era was underlined by the Titanic.

Improved Lifeboat Supply

Another cultural impact of the sinking of the Titanic was the increased safety on boats. Whilst there were some efficient precautions on the Titanic, like watertight compartments, there was still a lack of safety features on the ship itself. For example, there were insufficient lifeboats for the passengers onboard, many officers did not possess search lights or binoculars, and the scheduled drill was cancelled – all measures that might have changed the Titanic’s fate.

Here, the ‘ Shipowners’ Parliamentary Committee ’ illustrates the subsequent increase in safety measures:

They demand that lifeboats should be on all ships and that they reflect the number of passengers onboard, enabling for the survival of said passengers and crew.

Ice Patrols

Another change that occurred was the International Ice Patrol, which was founded to detect icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Sea in 1914. This was to avoid an incident like the Titanic again.

This article from the Mirror Historical Archive outlines that part of the duties of the International Ice Patrol was to report and track the movements of icebergs, ensuring the safety of ships and the individuals onboard. It seemed to have been beneficial because the International Ice Patrol’s presence continues today. There is an article in March of 1936, labelling the International Ice Patrol as the ‘The Iceberg Navy’ .

Further Safety Measures

Lifeboat safety drills were also considered to be mandatory on all ships – the drill that was cancelled on the Titanic on the day that the ship hit the iceberg was a lifeboat safety drill. Furthermore, there were remodifications of ships. One remodification was the double hull, which the British shipping line company White Star Line gave their boats.

The regulation of radio waves was another change that occurred. Radio communication brought issues, especially during the days after the Titanic sunk. Through the radio, there was miscommunication on the survival of the passengers to the media outlets of the UK. Newspapers announced that whilst it was not verified, the passengers were saved, and the Titanic was on its way to Halifax. Due to this, ships have attempted to limit the amount of miscommunication shared, instead verifying before acting. This then contributes to the safety of the ship itself.

Economic Impacts

One economic impact of the Titanic sinking was of the White Star Line company. Not only did White Star Line own the Titanic, but they were also liable for the cost of the ship. This was $7.5 million, which is equivalent to $180 million today. By losing the Titanic, it was the beginning of the end for White Star Line’s bankruptcy. Eventually, they merged with another shipping company in 1933, but they arguably lost their influence and power as an independent shipping company.

Additionally, many survivors of the Titanic were reimbursed by the company. To emphasise the economic blow, White Star Line settled and paid the survivors. The sinking of one ship manifested major economic issues for one company, causing them to lose colossal amounts of money.

In conclusion, the Titanic was a horrific tragedy for the deceased passengers and crew. They endured a terrible suffering, traumatising the survivors. However, their memory lives on through the aftermath of the Titanic. This affected many individuals economically, socially, and culturally.

If you enjoyed reading about the cultural and economic impacts of the Titanic sinking, check out these posts:

• The Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic – Who Was Bruce Ismay?
• From Yellow Journalism to Internet Echo Chambers – Exploring the History of “Fake News”
• The Only Way is Wessex: Thomas Hardy’s Cultural Impressions

Blog post cover image citation:

Image obtained from Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash , link to image: French brothers, Titanic survivors photo – Free Titanic Image on Unsplash

About the Author

Yasmin is an ambassador for Gale, advocating for its plethora of primary sources. This enables Yasmin’s interest in history, specifically history that is not discussed often. She currently studies a humanities degree with a course on the social, intellectual, and cultural challenges in the medieval era. Visit Jasmin's LinkedIn profile here .

Material Failures

Design flaws, effects of the disaster, ship design, safety regulations.

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• Journal of Economic Perspectives
• Winter 2011

Behavior under Extreme Conditions: The Titanic Disaster

• Bruno S. Frey
• David A. Savage
• Benno Torgler
• Article Information
• Comments ( 0 )

JEL Classification

• Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification

Berkeley Program in Law and Economics

Surviving the Titantic Disaster: Economic, Natural and Social Determinants

• Frey, Bruno S ;
• Savage, David A ;
• Torgler, Benno

The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912 took the lives of 68 percent of the people aboard. Who survived? It was women and children who had a higher probability of being saved, not men. Likewise, people traveling in first class had a better chance of survival than those in second and third class. British passengers were more likely to perish than members of other nations. This extreme event represents a rare case of a well-documented life and death situation where social norms were enforced. This paper shows that economic analysis can account for human behavior in such situations.

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How the Titanic Changed the World

The repercussions of the infamous shipwreck of the Titanic on 15 April 1912, still resonate today. The National Maritime Museum’s new exhibition, Titanic Stories, proves that we are still captivated by the personal testimonies from the event, generations after the survivors have told their stories.

Dr Eric Kentley, the guest curator of the Titanic Stories exhibition, explains that the sinking of the Titanic had both a practical and emotional impact on the world.

‘After the tragedy of the loss of 1,496 people , ships were required to carry enough lifeboats for everyone on board, radios were required to be kept on for 24 hours a day and an international ice patrol was established. But it also had a huge social impact’, he said.

‘This was the first major international disaster. It impacted the lives of people all over the Northern hemisphere. Southampton, where a great many of the crew lived, was hit the hardest, but even people from Cornwall, where the exhibition is being held, lost their lives. All around the world, even as far as Australia, monuments were erected and huge sums of money were raised for the dependents of those that had been lost.’

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The tragedy of the Titanic has remained prominent and well known, even 100 years after the event. Dr Kentley suggests that our fascination with the Titanic ‘may be partly because we imagine—erroneously—that Titanic represented a golden age that was symbolically lost when the ship went down (and the world was indeed turned upside down two years later when the First World War began). It’s possible also because it’s a story of, as Walter Lord, the author of A Night to Remember put it, ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Every type of human behaviour imaginable seems to have been there—including cowardice, bravery, incompetence, dutifulness, self-sacrifice, selfishness and genuine heroism. I also think that, because it is only just over the horizon of human memory, it is very easy to imagine oneself on that ship on that night and wonder how we might behave ourselves .’

The Titanic Stories exhibition, currently being held at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall from March 2018 until January 2019, presents never-before-seen objects of survivors, victims and descendants of the disaster . Dr Kentley’s favourite relic, he explains, would be ‘a life jacket worn by one of the survivors, a love poem taken from the pocket of a victim… but actually [he’d] choose the 30-foot lifeboat that the National Maritime Museum Cornwall has constructed. It’s a very well researched reconstruction, and it brings home how terrifying it must have been to have been lowered from the deck of the Titanic to the sea, and how vulnerable the survivors must have felt in the Atlantic.’

Many people become familiar with the Titanic tragedy through depictions of the event in the blockbuster movie , starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, or other documentaries. Dr Kentley suggests that the many media representations of the tragedy have led to a false perception of what actually happened on board the ship.

‘What we know about what happened that night is based almost entirely on survivors’ accounts, [who] often disagree. Take for example the idea that “Nearer My God to Thee” was the last tune played. Almost every film ever made plays this, but the evidence is from a single person who had left the ship long ago. Similarly, there is no evidence for locked gates keeping the Third Class passengers in, or the shipbuilders claiming the ship was unsinkable. Yet the shock of the loss of this ship seems to be so great that we can’t accept the simple explanation that she was going too fast and struck an iceberg—documentaries are always looking for another theory.’

The story of the Titanic has united us all to this day. Over 1,000 victims of different races, classes and religions were lost in the shipwreck, leaving countless loved ones behind. It has been over a century since the tragedy, yet we still imagine ourselves onboard the ship and wonder how we might have acted in the circumstances. Dr Kentley claims that ‘We will never really know what happened that night, so perhaps we should think of the Titanic not as a history lesson but as a modern morality play.’

National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Discovery Quay, Falmouth, UK , +44 1326 313388

This article was written in association with Wessex Scene , a student publication based at the University of Southampton.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Titanic — Impact Of Sinking of the Titanic On U.S. Capital Markets

Impact of Sinking of The Titanic on U.s. Capital Markets

• Categories: Titanic

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Words: 893 |

Published: Jul 30, 2019

Words: 893 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

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The titanic: a test of the efficiency of u.s. capital markets, imm and the titanic, the cost of the sinking titanic to imm.

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The economic impact of the Titanic’s sinking….

If you think the movie Titanic was merely a work of fiction, then you better get ready for a rethink. That movie was a figment of reality. The largest ship of their time sunk, carrying with it humans, property, and years of blood and sweat worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

It was 1912, when the world stood in awe of the biggest ship yet, built at an estimated cost of $7.5 million in 1912, which today would cost roughly $400 million to construct.

Building a ship like the Titanic was not something that happened overnight. It took two years and two months to complete. Inside the ship was “turn-of-the-century” designs and high-end technology. All of these fancy things cost a lot of money to have on board. It was planned that in the long run, the ship would make plenty of money. The White Star Line, owners of this massive sea monster knew they would make a huge profit on the many voyages of the Titanic. A first-class ticket would cost about $80,000 today, second-class $1,375, and third-class, $350-$900. The passengers would basically pay for how they wanted to be treated.

Described succinctly as “ Even God himself could not sink the ship ”, many of the wealthy people of Titanic’s time were on board this ship, on their way to New York and because these wealthy people were onboard, they brought with them their valuables unknown to them that the night between the 14th and the 15th of April 1912 was the date it would sink due to a collision with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. Titanic received sporadic reports of ice from other ships, but she was sailing on calm seas under a moonless, clear sky. However, at about 11:30 p.m., a lookout saw an iceberg coming out of a slight haze dead ahead, then rang the warning bell and telephoned the bridge. The engines were quickly reversed and the ship was turned sharply—instead of making direct impact, Titanic seemed to graze along the side of the berg, sprinkling ice fragments on the forward deck.

This tragedy took the lives of 1517 people but historians said it could have been fewer.

Sensing no collision, the lookouts were relieved. They had no idea that the iceberg had a jagged underwater spur, which slashed a 300-foot gash in the hull below the ship’s waterline.

By the time the captain toured the damaged area with Harland and Wolff’s Thomas Andrews, five compartments were already filling with seawater, and the bow of the doomed ship was alarmingly pitched downward, allowing seawater to pour from one bulkhead into the neighbouring compartment.

Andrews did a quick calculation and estimated that the Titanic might remain afloat for an hour and a half, perhaps slightly more. At that point, the captain, who had already instructed his wireless operator to call for help, ordered the lifeboats to be loaded.

Here comes the twist :

A little more than an hour after contact with the iceberg, a largely disorganized and haphazard evacuation began with the lowering of the first lifeboat – designed to hold 65 people; it left with only 28 aboard.

During the confusion and chaos during the precious hours before Titanic plunged into the sea, nearly every lifeboat would be launched woefully under-filled, some with only a handful of passengers. In compliance with the law of the sea, women and children boarded the boats first; only when there were no women or children nearby were men permitted to board. Yet many of the victims were in fact women and children, the result of disorderly procedures that failed to get them to the boats in the first place.

Titanic stubbornly stayed afloat for close to three hours witnessing hundreds of human dramas unfold between the order to load the lifeboats and the ship’s final plunge: Men saw off wives and children, families were separated in the confusion and selfless individuals gave up their spots to remain with loved ones or allow a more vulnerable passenger to escape. In the end, 706 people survived the sinking of the Titanic.

At what cost?

What many may not know, is the ship also took with it millions of dollars in mail, packages and cargo, valued at approximately $9.5 million today. Destinations for the goods included high-end stores such as B. Altman & Co., Tiffany & Co. and sporting and leather goods retailer, A.G Spalding & Bro. Among the cargo were 3,500 bags of mail and 750 packages bound for the United States.

Also headed to America was a vast array of goods, including five grand pianos, 1,500 bottles of wine, 800 cigars and 50 cases of toothpaste. From diamond necklaces to marmalade machines and party dresses, every item had value to shippers and recipients.

The White Star Line insured the Titanic for the equivalent of $133 million in today’s currency. After the accident, cargo insurance policies covered almost all of the property claims totalling $9.42 million. Much like today, insurance companies were able to step in and absorb the losses.

Before there was auto insurance, there was cargo insurance. First-class passenger William Carter and his family survived the Titanic disaster, but his automobile, a  Renault Type CB Coupe de Ville  went down with the ship. Today, car owners are required to carry automobile insurance to cover loss and damage, but no such product existed in 1912. Carter filed what was probably the first-ever automobile claim for $5,000 against the White Star Line. A reproduction of the vehicle sold at auction in 2003, for $269,500.

Survivors filed insurance claims on everything from the most expensive cargo to everyday belongings. Some of the most famous objects lost at sea included a hand-bound book of poetry inlaid with 1,500 precious gemstones, which took two years to make. It was being shipped by Sotheby’s auction house to an American buyer. The owners of the masterpiece, by the artist Blondel, filed a claim against the White Star Line for $100,000.

The Titanic disaster was a perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances that culminated in tragedy. One that leaves us fascinated even now. Despite many people believing the ship was infallible, the disaster illustrates that even a state-of-the-art ship can meet with unexpected catastrophes. Fortunately, as a result of the incident, maritime regulations and shipbuilding practices became stricter. The round-the-clock wireless operation went into effect on all ships and GPS and tracking systems became more sophisticated.

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