Several
weeks ago while visiting family in Northern Ireland, I spent an afternoon in a
museum that was dedicated to a disaster. The maritime disaster depicted was the
sinking of the Titanic. The sinking is of such historical interest that there
are at least five major museums worldwide dedicated to the event including one
in the unusual location of the inland Branson, Missouri. We spent almost four
hours exploring the museum in Belfast where the Titanic was designed, built,
and launched. This massive museum vividly portrays the tragedy from the ship’s
design to its ultimate demise in the icy waters of the North Atlantic in the
early morning of April 15, 1912. The ship collided with an iceberg just four days
into its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage from Southampton to New York City. In 160
minutes the ship sank, and tragically more than 1,500 died.
The ship was a sensation in the city of
Belfast. The White Star Line, the shipping company that built the Titanic and
its sister ship the Olympic, claimed in a promotional piece that "as far
as it is possible to do so, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be
unsinkable." However, an iceberg, first sighted 30 seconds before impact
by a lookout, proved to be the undoing of the assumptions of the designers,
owners, and the ship’s captain. The Titanic could sink and indeed did so
quickly.
How could such a disaster occur? When the ship’s
construction began in March 1909, the talents and energy of some 15,000 men
labored with pride on the Titanic and its smaller sister ship the Olympic. All
of Belfast could see the progress as the massive ships loomed over the city.
Lead designers at the Harland and Wolff shipyards had been given a liberal
budget and were authorized to spend what they needed to on the ships. Finally
on May 31, 1911, the ship was launched. It was then berthed and fitted out with
its engines, upper decks, and all the interior features and furnishings. After
sea trials a year later it was declared seaworthy and the Titanic prepared to
receive passengers and begin its maiden trans-Atlantic voyage on April 10, 1912.
It was designed for safety with its double hulled design. In fact one White Star employee
reportedly said, “Not even God himself could sink this ship.”
With that popular assumption in mind,
Captain Earl Smith set his course for New York Harbor. He received warnings of
icebergs in the area of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland but maintained his
course and continued at full speed in keeping prevailing maritime practices. It
was believed at that time that icebergs posed little danger to a large vessel.
Captain Smith himself declared in 1907 that he "could not imagine any
condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone
beyond that” (Barczewski, Stephanie, Titanic:
A Night Remembered) His assumption was wrong and it became a
pathway for arrogance and ultimately led to catastrophe.
As I
looked through the museum’s rain streaked windows at the slipways from which
the Titanic was launched, I wondered if the builders and captain were seduced
by the assumption that the ship was too grand to fail. After all, this ship
represented the cumulative wisdom and design abilities of modern humanity.
Builders had access to vast wealth and unlimited resources to do the
construction. Craftsmen had invested vast amounts of their skill and energy in
this endeavor. Perhaps those assumptions led to arrogance. Maybe this minimized
the necessity of carrying sufficient lifeboats. Maybe diligence was diminished
as the prospect of peril was reduced. Could a delusion of invincibility have anesthetized
the passengers to danger when they refused to enter the available lifeboats after
the ship had struck the iceberg? Assumptions too easily can lead to arrogance
and disaster.
Perhaps humans are prone to such
disastrous pathways. We live with the notion that what has happened to others
would certainly not happen to us. We are too wise to become addicted to some
substance or practice. We are too powerful to succumb to a temptation with
which we may be dallying. We are too resourceful and intelligent to worry about
some dalliance that has ruined other lesser beings. How easily it is for
arrogance to flourish in our deluded assumptions.
Perhaps this is the reason the Bible gives
a number of warnings to humanity about attitudes and choices they make as a
result. The writer of Proverbs warns, “There is a path before each person that
seems right, but it ends in death” (14:12). Perhaps that is why he earlier
observed, “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others”
(12:15). Humility is the antidote to arrogance. Peter advises people to, “Clothe
yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.’ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s
mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).
Perhaps we should be careful about the
assumptions we make and the arrogance they may develop in our lives. Such
attitudes may just sink our ship!
