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Through my regressions, and my subsequent research to verify my regression, I have melded the time line associated with Titanic, and Tommie's perspective of that event. This is how I understand the history of the Titanic tragedy:

J.P. Morgan purchased White Star Line in 1902. Although it still flew under the British flag, the island was buzzing in speculation. Could White Star ships, now under foreign ownership, be conscripted into the Royal Navy during time of war? Cunard's owners convinced the British Government to subsidize the building of three immense ships, built as liners, but really light cruisers that they could convert to wartime use. As a result, Lusitania, Mauritania and Aquitania were born. White Star, coveted the size, technological advances, speed and luxury, of the new Cunard ships. Fortunately, White Star did not need to look to the government for money. It had the deep pockets of J.P. Morgan. Bruce Ismay was placed under much pressure. Morgan wanted to get even bigger, more luxurious ships completed before Cunard's ships gained a greater foothold in the industry. Harland and Wolff's Chairperson, Lord Pirrie, was also an employee of J.P. Morgan. This arrangement occurred when Morgan bought White Star through the International Mercantile Marine company. Contractually, Harland and Wolff constructed all of White Star's fleet, so the Shipbuilding Company had that economic stake in White Star's success. They made Lord Pirrie a Director of the Mercantile Marine. Enter Thomas Andrews on the scene.

Andrews was a workaholic, obsessed by his love of shipbuilding. He was perhaps the most knowledgeable man at the Shipyard. He had a working knowledge of fifty-three departments in the Firm as managing Director and Chief Design Engineer. He oversaw all aspects of the design of ships going out of Harland and Wolf. They knew Andrews not only as a hard working perfectionist, but also as a man's man. He was not afraid to take his coat off and get in the thick of work with the men under him. He demanded perfection, but was also kind at heart. Had he lived, he undoubtedly would have gotten heavily involved in Labor Issues in his country, and represented the every day, working man.

When confronted with Ismay's proposition about bigger, more luxurious ships, Andrews was at first hesitant. He was concerned about some very real problems large ships would have. He took an avid interest in the building of Cunard's new ships. He no doubt wondered himself about the disposition of White Star's fleet in wartime. Tommie visited John Brown Yards, and made notes of their problems and techniques. His concerns were confirmation about building ships as large or even larger than Lusitania, when he learned of a few near-misses reported by Lusitania's Captain. The large ships were VERY unwieldy.

After exhaustive study, he and his design team came up with a design that would cover most of his major concerns for building large ships. This included: a double hull, complete bulkheads with watertight sub-compartments, a large rudder, rotating Welin davits and more than enough lifeboats to get passengers safely off a foundering ship. White Star Line was not beholding to the British government, but to the deep pockets of J. P. Morgan. Their orders were to build the ships quickly, make them as luxurious as possible, and certify them quickly. They were to be put to sea rapidly enough to absorb any advantage Cunard might have initially gained.

The Line approved Andrews' painstaking designs only where the requirements, stated above for White Stars was met. They drastically changed the designs in favor of capacity, and decor. Thomas Andrews fought a losing battle to have the ships built properly. Although the ships exceeded the safety regulations of the British Board of Trade, Tommie argued that the ships were still going out half-built. The rush to build the ships pushed the steel making technology to its limits. Tommie complained that they were pumping the wrought iron for rivets coming out of Colvilles and Company in Glasgow, out "like bilge water" and they were poor in quality. He instructed the riveters to inspect all the rivets for cracks and imperfections. Even then, given the poor quality of the wrought iron, that was only a haphazard approach. Whereas Lusitania took more than two months to certify, they certified both Olympic and Titanic in less than a day. Granted they built them under Andrews' strenuous direction, but nonetheless, they were still works in progress during their maiden voyages. Morgan's money bought certification under the understanding those "minor" problems would be fixed while underway or in New York Harbor.

In Titanic's case, one minor problem was a fire in the forward coal room, that threatened the hull's integrity. Andrews and his men were working to points past exhaustion during the voyage, and the fire only made matters worse. On April 13th, 1912, they decided that it got Titanic to New York faster, in case the fire, now under control, re-emerged as a problem. The Captain ordered the last two boilers lit and pressed on at twenty-two knots. Titanic was now exceeding her designed speed of twenty-one knots. When the collision with the iceberg occurred, all the factors that Andrews had originally feared came into fruition. The ship was unwieldy, and navigated by a crew unfamiliar with her handling characteristics. Titanic's small rudder exacerbated her unwieldiness. A double hull might have allowed Titanic to survive the glancing blow. Complete transverse bulkheads to "B" deck would have slowed the sinking. Finally enough lifeboats would have made Titanic more a lesson in irony-- that is the sinking of an "unsinkable" ship-- rather than a tragedy of infamous proportions.

Thomas Andrews and the cadre of engineers and apprentices he assembled to accompany him were all killed. Their full knowledge of what really happened died with them. Or did it?

A Historical Perspective