The Effects of the Sinking of the Titanic on White Star Lines Company - Research Paper Example

24th November The Effects of the Sinking of the Titanic on White Star Lines Company The sinking of the luxurious ocean liner, The Titanic, has become one of history’s worst maritime disasters. The cause of the rapid demise of what was perceived to be “an unsinkable ship” still remains to be a mystery, with various theories been developed in an attempt to put in plain words the fateful events that occurred on that night, the 15th of April 1912 (Ziakas 109). However, none of the theories has been able to successfully explain the cause, leaving the entire world curious about the cause of the deadly maritime tragedy that claimed the lives of 1, 502 people. The world has always fixed all attention on identifying the cause of the tragedy, while little effort has been shifted towards identifying the effect of the Titanic tragedy on the White Star Lines Company, the Liverpool-based company that owned the mega ship. The following report analyzes how the sinking of the Titanic impacted on the White Star Line company. The company prided itself with being the maker of the most luxurious ship at the time. The name of this wonder ship was Titanic. So much was the hype behind Titanic that it was commonly regarded as the unsinkable ship (Ziakas 109). By building the ship, the company had made set the benchmark for the trend in luxurious ships. The massive size of Titanic also increased the pride that came along with the ship since it was the biggest at the time. This intense over confidence in the success of the ship contributed majorly to the disaster, since adequate preventive measures were not put in place. The sinking of the ship had massive impact on the parent company, White Star Line, as illustrated in this report. White Star Line Company Overview The White Star Line refers to a ship building company which originally made traditional sailing ships that travelled from UK to Australia in the 1860s. The company majored on this route due to gold in Australia. This venture turned out to be very competitive hence it merged with other rival companies. The company merged with other companies such as The Black Ball and The Eagle Lines of ship (Butler 104). Under this partnership, the first White Star Line ship was launched in August 1870. The ship, known as Oceanic, was a break from the norm with its size, appearance and a host of other innovations. It was to be the world’s first true super liner and it gained popularity from all corners of the world. Later that year, the company launched three other identical ships, known as Atlantic, Republic and Baltic. In the following year, the company launched another ship, slightly larger than the previous ones. These vessels were then released with the core aim of dominating the Australian marine business as well as the transatlantic routes (Butler 107). After the merging failed to work out, the White Star Line went solo. After going solo, the company specialized in the Liverpool – New York route. This was because of the many emigrants going to the United States of America. In 1902, the ownership of the company became a complex affair after it was taken over by American owned IMM (International Mercantile Marine Company). At the time, IMM was under the leadership of J. Pierpont Morgan. In the late 1900s, competition in the marine business became stiff as a result of the immense success of White Star’s competitor called Cunard. Curnad’s flagships were fast, due to improved turbines, something that White Star was incapable of. To counter attack this, White Star Line resulted in making more luxurious vessels so as to gain a competitive advantage on the transatlantic marine business (Chirnside 11). One of these luxurious vessels was the Titanic, which forms the subject of this report. The mega ship left Southampton with New York as her destination on 1912 with 2,208 people on board. Those on board were mostly the affluent and renowned although there were also the poor travelling to America with the intention of searching for a better life. The ship however hit an iceberg on the fourth night of the voyage, killing 1,502 of the 2,208 passengers on board (Wall Street Journal 7). Prior to the sinking of the Titanic, White Star Line had previously lost several ships through the same fate, with loss of life. For instance, RMS Tayleur sank in 1854 killing 276 of the 558 passengers on board. In 1873, RMS Atlantic sank near Nova Scotia killing 546, SS Naronic sank in 1893 killing all 74 passengers on board. In 1909, three years before the Titanic disaster, RMS Republic sank near the coast of Nantucket with 6 fatalities. During the World War I, another one of the White Star Line of ships, Britannic, sank killing 34. Of all these marine disasters, the Titanic disaster impacted the most on White Star Line and is believed to be the main cause of the company’s demise (Time Life Books 9). The sinking of Titanic When the RMS Titanic sank, the White Star Line company suffered a major blow. The hype surrounding meant that the news of the sinking reached many as well. This led to questioning the standards of ship building followed by the company. This questionability was emphasized by the inadequate number of life boats that were on the ship (Gracie 33). The company had put so much effort in making the ship into a luxury of sorts and completely neglected the safety precautions. This kind of neglect resulted from the dismissal of the probability of mishaps. The logic behind the dismissal arose from the fact that the Titanic had been assembled by the best of the finest in the field. This over confidence ended up costing the company all its credibility. As if by some sort of fate, the ship sunk when nobody thought it would. So much was the over confidence in the success of the ship that some people went as far as claiming that even ‘God could not sink it’ (Ziakas 109). The sinking of the ship resulted in it being regarded as the biggest and worst marine disaster of all time. The jewel that was Titanic went under two hours after hitting an iceberg. The casualties were more than the survivors bringing into question the regard of passenger life by the company. This was as a result of fewer life boats than the passenger. The life boats were fewer by half with some carrying less than capacity in order to cater for the comfort of upper classes passengers (Wall Street Journal, 7). The succumbing to death of the passengers of Titanic brought shame to the company thereby crippling it to a near bankruptcy. The hype behind the ship attracted top notch businessmen and the highly regarded members of the society. This also led to the hiring of the highest paid captain and the best musicians to be of service to the passengers. The captain commonly known as ‘the millionaire’s captain’ was a celebrity in his own right. He succumbed to his death while on board the Titanic which brought so much grief due to his many years of experience and high social status (Howells 21). Many saw his death as an indication of the incapability of the company to make quality ships since even the best captain could not prevent its doom. Due to this an inquiry team was to investigate the sinking of the ship. The company had a big break when the inquiry rid them of any blames and concluded that the sinking was merely an accident. The White Star Line suffered blow after blow in the aftermath of the ship sinking. Many stories and tales were created to mock or simulate the situation of the RMS Titanic sinking. The most famous of them all was the movie with the same name Titanic. This movie holds the record for being the second bestselling movie of all time (Kelleher 7). The success of the movie goes on to show the phenomenal impact of the sinking that the ship had on popular culture and the world at large. This especially is emphasized by the fact that the movie was made 85 years after the sinking. The amount of time that elapsed between the production of the movie and the time of sinking is enough to clear any immediate memories of the disaster. Additionally, most of the survivors and people who were present then were most probably dead. Nevertheless, the movie went on to become the bestselling movie in history and holding that record for 15 years (Kelleher 7). The movies’ theme mainly focuses on the cost of arrogance and ignorance, attributes which affected most of the crew and personnel managing RMS Titanic. This kind of open criticism which happened throughout the years following the sinking of the ship contributed greatly to the complete fall of the company (Kelleher 7). Effects of RMS Titanic sinking on White Star Line Company After the Titanic sank, the company faced its worst problems in its entire history. The criticism of its failure came from all corners with the most widespread of them being from newspapers. Newspapers which had earlier praised the impressiveness of the ship were amongst the first to turn around and report the disaster. Before the Titanic had taken off, White Star had launched a series of marketing campaigns, praising the design of the ship and the crew (Strutzin, Online). It was during these marketing campaigns when the company referred to the ship as ‘unsinkable’ (Ziakas 109). By doing this, the company had managed to capture the attention of the public, who anticipated seeing the megaship. Once the news of the ship’s demise reached newsrooms, the story about the arrival of the Titanic was quickly replaced with reporting the disaster. This had financial aims since the story would make a better read in the papers. Given the hype surrounding the Titanic, the story surely turned out as expected (Strutzin, Online). Another influencing factor was the great depression that happened during the 1930s that affected most of the companies. These factors all combined contributed in a major way to the total failure of the company. During the 1920s, the rival company Cunard line built a superliner ship which targeted at competing with the ones built by German companies. This happened at a time when white star line company was still trying to recover from the loss preceded by the titanic and change in management. This move made the company stuck in one place since it had no project that could counter the superliner in which case the white star line company would still be relevant. This made the companies stakes lower and worse. The years leading up to 1920 were marked by world wars hence there was decreased use of ships. This affected the company greatly just as it did to other shipping lines. White Star generated very little income during this period as at times, its ships were tied up at military service. Moreover, the company lacked sufficient workers to run its ships during the war period as most firemen and coal stokers had been recruited into the military. After the demise of the wonder ship, the Titanic, White Star Line’s image and reputation was greatly affected. More problems were to follow in terms of law suits for compensation filed by the survivors of the deadly crash (Cordato, Online). Most of the criticism revolved around highlighting the company’s failure to cater for the safety of all its passengers. The design and construction of the ship was questioned, with lawyers arguing that White Star Line did not fulfil its duty of safe transportation. A major issue of contention was how such a mammoth ship could at such a rapid pace (2 hours). As required by the British Law, the owner of a vessel owes his passengers a general duty of safe transportation. Unfortunately, White Star Line did not honour this law and was said to be negligent and as a result was liable to paying a high amount of money for compensation of loss of life and damage to property on transit (Cordato, Online). With the help of their lawyers, the passengers who survived the disaster were determined to prove that White Star Line breached their duty of safe transportation. They pointed at scores of areas where the company did things short of the expected standards. For instance, they questioned the design and construction of the ship. Wreck inquiries found out that there was an omission in design of the bulkheads, whereby the bulkheads were not topped, and this was believed to be the main factor responsible for the sinking (Butler 126). There were several other instances brought up during the law suits including one that proved that the company did not heed to ice warnings that warned of heavy ice ahead, and not slow down or change course as another ship, the CALIFORNIAN, which was 5 miles away had done. Another instance identified, as discussed before, was the lack of life boats on board, that could not even save half of the vessel’s passengers (Sabella 57). A British investigation board was established, and its inquiry concluded without laying any blame on the White Star Lines company (Cordato, Online). Despite been cleared of all charges, the company’s image had been tarnished greatly, and the company gained a lot of negative publicity mainly from the British media and public as well as from the rest of the world. The negativity surrounding White Star Line after Titanic sank resulted in the company merging with its main rival, Cunard Line. The merge came in 1934 after the government offered to give the two companies 9.5 million pounds if they merge into a single company (Titanic and Other White Star line Ships, Online). With both companies facing financial jeopardy, the merger was the only way out. The two rival companies shared stakes, with Cunard holding 62 % of the total shares. However, Cunard managed to dig itself out of the merge, and bought all the remaining shares that were held by White Star Line. It completely took over in 1943, and this led to the complete absorption of White Star Line Company. Moreover, liquated most of White Star’s ships and holdings and by 1950, White Star had been wiped out of the market. This failure by White Star Line Company to recover was also influenced by the failed takeover by new staff. The new staff was changed because of the inadequate confidentiality in the previous that were part of the Titanic making crew. This goes on to show that White Star Line Company did not recover from the sinking of Titanic (Titanic and Other White Star line Ships, Online). Conclusion The sinking of the Titanic was very catastrophic and its effects left the British society as well as the entire world in awe (Collins, Online). The total recovery of White Star Line from a tragedy of such magnitude was unlikely. The Company’s reputation had been greatly bruised, with the faith that the general public and potential investors had in the company being shaken forever. The events that followed were as predicted, as the company’s share in the market decreased gradually until it was completely wiped out of the market by its long time competitor, Cunard, in 1950. However, the company still had a chance to salvage its image and reputation. If it had conducted itself appropriately during its marketing campaigns, the sinking and the post sinking period, it may have managed to reclaim its reputation (Wade 67). Therefore, it is safe to say that the company was a victim of its own arrogance and negligence. Works Cited Butler, Daniel. The Unsinkable: Full Story of RMS Titanic Pennyslvania: Stackpole Books, 1998. Print. Butler, Daniel. The Age of Cunard: A Transatlantic History 1839-2003, Culver City: ProStar Publications, 2004. Print. Chirnside, Mark. Olympic-class ships: Olympic, Britannic, Titanic, New Hampshire: Tempus Publishing, 2004. Print. Collins, Maria. How the sinking of the Titanic affected British society, 19 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 November 2012. Cordato, Anthony. When The Titanic Sank, The Law Suits Began, 5 April 2012. Web. 24 November 2012. Gracie, Archibald. The Truth about the Titanic, New York: Kennerley. 1913 Print. Howells, Richard. The Myth of the Titanic, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Publishers. 2012 Print. Mowbray, Jay Henry. The Sinking of Titanic. Harrisburg: The Minter Company. 1912 Print. Kelleher, Ed. ‘Titanic’. Film Journal International. 2007 Print. Sabella, Casey. Titanic Warning: Could this disaster have been prevented, Arkansas: New Leaf Publishing Group. Strutzin. Did White Star marketing affect the Titanic sinking?16 March 2012. Web. 24 November 2012. Titanic and Other White Star line Ships. An Era Ends: The Final Demise of White Star Line. n.d. Web. 24 November 2012. Time Life Books. The Great Liners. New York: Time Life Publishing, 1969 Print. Wade, Wyn. Titanic: End of a Dream, New York: Rawson-Wade Publishers, 1979 Print. Wall Street Journal. Of Titanic’s Passengers about 800 survive great sea tragedy. Wall Street Journal on the Titanic, 1912. Print. Ziakas, Taylor. “Titanic and public relations: A case study.” Journal of Public Relations  Research, 1999. Print.   Read More