Two Captains Made Fateful Decisions

Indifference to danger was a 'direct and contributing cause' of the loss of the Titanic, according to one inquest.”

Captain Edward Smith of the steamship RMS Titanic, pride of the White Star Line, knew he was entering iceberg-filled waters before the fateful collision. The captain of our ship-of-state believes it is an expensive hoax that polluting gases accumulating in the atmosphere are responsible for the planet-wide transformation of the environment. These tragic decisions afforded by their positions of authority were derived in part from their perceptions of reality and their biases and personalities.

The consequences of Capt. Smith’s decision led to the abrupt loss of 1,500 lives. In the second case, it is hard even to estimate the myriad short and long-term problems we are enduring due to our captain’s willful ignorance of how the worsening climate changes our lives. In 2050, will our descendants even recognize the way things were in 2025 after our forests, plains, coastlines, and oceans are utterly transformed?

The Titanic boasted the most recent technical advances for 1912: luxury rooms, wireless communication with Marconi radios, and watertight compartments (although these barriers did not extend from the floor to the ceiling). The Titanic could easily cruise at 22 knots (about 25 miles per hour). At that speed, her owners and the passengers expected the Titanic to cross the Atlantic in record time. Just think of the notoriety and public acclaim! Everyone will be a celebrity! Pass the champagne!

The seas were calm April 14, 1912, and by afternoon, the Titanic was more than halfway across the North Atlantic following the well-traveled course from Southampton to New York. Lookouts were on duty high in the masts, and the Marconi operators were sending and receiving messages, mostly from passengers but also from other ships.

Indeed, the Titanic received marconigrams from six nearby ships that described large icebergs they were encountering. The Titanic received, read, and relayed one such message reporting “three large icebergs in our vicinity” to the U.S. Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C.

It is unclear if this particular message reached the captain or anyone outside the radio room. Yet another marconigram was received in the afternoon of April 14 and addressed to a VIP passenger, J. Bruce Ismay, who was the Director of the White Star Line and thus Capt. Smith’s boss.

Mr. Ismay’s message said (again) that ships following the 42nd parallel of latitude, the course of the Titanic, had seen icebergs and field ice in the shipping lane earlier on the 14th. Ismay summoned Capt. Smith for a chat. We can only imagine what they said about the risks and rewards of the situation. Are icebergs a threat to a ship like ours? Should we change course? Slow down? Lose the record for the fastest crossing? Or full speed ahead and damn the icebergs? Imagine the commercial benefits if we set a record!

They decided to go for it. Hours later that moonless evening, hours after the conversation, the Titanic’s lookouts spotted the fatal iceberg, but only 40 seconds before the collision. Titanic side-swiped the iceberg that ripped open her starboard hull. The short watertight compartments were useless as the water poured in. Ismay survived, but Capt. Smith did not.

Indifference to danger was a “direct and contributing cause” of the loss of the Titanic, according to one inquest.

The pace of climate change is slower than the loss of the Titanic, but at least we recognize the cause of global warming. The way we live, build, and travel produces 44 billion tons of extra greenhouse gas each year. Much of the carbon dioxide dissolves in the ocean, making the water more acidic. We humans have evolved to respond well to immediate threats (like the roar of a sabertooth tiger), but we’re poor at responding to low-probability, high-consequence events, like global climate change.

Sadly, our captain threw our lookouts overboard by cutting the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA provided very modest funding for the CO2 observatory it had sponsored in Hawaii. This lab has given us a record of rising worldwide CO2 levels in the air over Mauna Loa for over 70 years. The lab was started by Charles Keeling in 1958 and is now directed by his son, Ralph Keeling. NOAA’s data has been confirmed by labs in other countries.

Before the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the CO2 level (measured from tiny gas bubbles in ice) was 270 parts per million. In 1958, the level in the air was 316 ppm. Since then, observatory data show that the CO2 level has followed a smooth increase over time and now stands at nearly 440 parts per million. The cause of all this? It’s us, due to all the oil, gas, and coal we burn.

Our captain ignores or tries to suppress facts he does not like or that clash with his version of reality, behaving like a petulant, disobedient child. Other actions the current administration is taking appear desperate: the accusations made by our captain and his crew read like confessions. Why would you fire the lookouts?

I would like to believe that resistance is not futile for free people. What will the captain of our ship-of-state do when the people who elected him become aware of how he’s hurting them?

Richard Gelinas, Ph.D., whose early work earned a Nobel prize, lives in Lakebay. 

References:

Introduction to CO2 Chemistry in Seawater Part 1

Sinking of the Titanic - Wikipedia

"After 7 Decades of Measurements From a Peak in Hawaii, Trump’s Budget Would End Them," Rebecca Dzombak, New York Times, July 17, 2025.

The Titanic: Sinking & Facts | HISTORY