Everyone has heard of the
tragic sinking of the famous ship, the RMS Titanic, but no one knows what truly
happened that caused such a horrific imprint in history. Ever since that
fateful night on April 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic has become one of the most
famous tragedies at sea the world has ever known. This is partly due to the
effects of Murphy’s Law (which states, everything that can go wrong, will go
wrong) and the corrupted structure of the 1900s social classes. But mainly,
it’s the shear mystery that keeps this sorrowful moment in time alive. Why
wasn’t the iceberg seen sooner? Why were there so few lifeboats? Why did no one
come to their aid? For years, these questions and the many more that followed,
were unable to have the definitive answers everyone was looking for. That was
until scientists traveled to the depths of the Atlantic and saw the wreckage
for themselves. I took it upon myself to discover as much as I possibly could
about the actual happenings that occurred during the sinking of the Titanic
through the wonderful world of Wikipedia.
While reading through the extensive article about
Titanic’s Sinking offered by Wikipedia, a quote referring to the collision
between Titanic and the iceberg caught my eye. It read,
“The
impact with the iceberg was long thought to have produced a huge opening in
Titanic’s hull, ‘not less than 300 feet (91m) in length, 10 feet (3.0m) above
the level of the keel’….Modern ultrasound surveys of the wreck have found that
the damage consisted of six narrow openings in an area of the hull covering
only about 12 to 13 square feet (1.1 to 1.2m^2) in total” (Wikipedia).
Due
to my curious nature, I wanted to verify the accuracy of this statement. Thus,
I researched the source it originated from, which was an article published by
the New York Times in April 1997. The article did indeed confirm the iceberg
had left several small openings along the side of the ship instead of one long gash.
While reading, I also discovered that what truly doomed the Titanic was the
unfortunate placement of the openings combined with the ship’s intense speed
which caused water to act like “jets from firemen’s hoses, filling the ships
interior with some 39,000 tons of water just before sinking” (The New York
Times). I believe having this bit of information would have been a great
contribution to Wikipedia’s article, due to its more in-depth analysis of how
the ship sank.
As I continued my reading of Wikipedia’s article, I came
across another interesting piece of information that caught my attention. It
was in regards to a man named J. Bruce Ismay who was said to be the chairman
and managing director of the Titanic who was, a “controversial survivor” due to
his, at the time, unethical escape from the ship which later publicly condemned
him of cowardice. Unfortunately, the article never went into any detail about
why his escape was made out to be so controversial. Thus, I again went to check
where the information was sourced from. Which was a book written by Robert D.
Ballard called The Discovery of the
Titanic. In this book I was able to find out that Ismay escaped on a boat
meant only for women and children during the early moments of her sinking. This
additional information would have done a great service to the article, for it
explained the reasonings behind such a tremendous public outrage against the
man who funded the design and build of the Titanic herself.
As I neared the end of Wikipedia’s article, there was a
small section that talked about a third class steward named John Edward Hart.
Who, as Wikipedia put it, “organized three trips into the ship’s interior to
escort groups of third-class passengers up to the boat deck.” I was able to
find the original source this information was taken from, which was in a book
called A Night to Remember by the
author Walter Lord. While reading through the pages of this book, I learned
that the information on the Wikipedia article was incorrect. Although John
Edward Hart did escort third-class passengers to the boat decks and was a third
class steward, he only made two trips to the boat deck with third-class
passengers instead of three, as reported by Wikipedia. Though the information
may have been slightly incorrect, it is a prime example of the everyday faults
of any Wikipedia article.
Once I finished reading the article in its entirety, I
wanted to get a deeper sense of who the writers of this Wikipedia article were.
I decided to do some background research on three different editors. One of
them being a person that goes by the name Acroterion who recently made an edit
on the Sinking of the Titanic article on January 17, 2016. While researching
said person, I discovered that Acroterion has written and edited several
articles on Wikipedia, since the year 2006. During that time, they have
achieved five Wikipedia achievement stickers including having helped promote
two articles and uploading a featured photo. I’ve also learned that Acroteriorn
is a native West Virginian who traveled through every country in North America
and 20 countries in Europe. Acroterion is also fluent in both English and
French and has been an official administrator on the English Wikipedia since
November 19, 2007.
The second editor I decided to research was a man by the
name of Oshwah who made a contribution to the Sinking of the Titanic article on
December 9, 2015. One of the first things I noticed when researching his
official Wikipedia account was the several different stars awarded to him by
the site itself. For instance, he was given the Anti-Vandalism star 20 times
and the Tireless Contributor star 3 times. He has also been awarded the
Bufonite Editor Star which he displays on his page. I have learned that this
star is different from the others, in that it is awarded only to those who have
been named a Master Editor 3. This title gives him rollback rights,
autopatrolled rights, and pending changes reviewer rights on the English Wikipedia.
Also on Oshwah’s page, he has informed readers that he has a Bachelor of
Science degree in computer software with a minor in applied mathematics. While
reading through his bibliography, I was given the impression of him being a
humble, creative, and open-minded individual who appreciates the different
perceptions of the world through the eyes of influential people. As he lists
those such as Albert Einstein, Thomas Carlyle, and John Burroughs in his
“Quotes that speak for me” section.
The third and final editor I researched was a boy named
Rumiton who contributed several times on the Sinking of the Titanic article
between November 27, 2015 and December 6, 2015. Rumtion is a native Australian
fluent in English, German, and French who attends Normanhurst Boys’ High
School. Rumtion is an official Wikipedia member of the Guild of Copy Editors
and has received a punctuation sticker from the site in addition to the Iron
Editor Star he received when he became a Veteran Editor. One of Rumtion’s main
interests is in the translation of German to English which leads into his
passion for advocating proper cultural translation. He also has a WikiStress
Level meter on his page which indicates he has been “Pretty Stressed” as of
late.
After reading the article provided by Wikipedia in its
entirety, I reflected on parts that I would have liked to see more of. For
example, the inclusion of more eye-witness accounts. While reading through
Ballard’s book, I found an interesting bit of information in regards to one of
the survivors named Jack Thayer and his descriptions of the Titanic as it went
down.
“Her
deck was turned slightly towards us. We could see groups of the almost fifteen
hundred people aboard. Clinging in clusters or bunches, like swarming bees;
only to fall in masses. Gradually she turned her dock away from us, as though
to hide from our sight, the awful spectacle…I looked upwards-we were right
under the three enormous propellers. For an instance, I thought they were sure
to come right down on top of us. Then, with the deadened noise of the bursting
of her last few gallant bulkheads, she slid quietly away from us into the sea”
(Ballard 29).
After
doing much research on the Sinking of the RMS Titanic article given by
Wikipedia, I have concluded that although much of the information used was
accurate and had creditable sources, the same cannot be said for many of the
other five million or so articles on Wikipedia. I strongly believe that the use
of Wikipedia as one’s main or only reference source for any topic of research
is an unwise and unprofessional decision to make. With this being said, I would
not totally eliminate Wikipedia for research purposes completely. Rather, I would
urge those interested in gaining information about the use of other possible
sources to look at the Resources section of a Wikipedia article as a starting
point for their research. Overall, I believe that Wikipedia is not a source
that can be totally and completely relied on due to its untrained and unprofessional
editors and their use of non-creditable or opinionated/biased articles.
Sources:
Broad,
William J. (8 April 1997). “Toppling Theories, Scientists Find 6 Slits, Not Big
Gash, Sank Titanic” The New Times. Book.
Ballard,
Robert D. (1987). The Discovery of the Titanic. New York: Warner Books.
Lord,
Walter (1976). A Night to Remember. London: Penguin Books.
“The
Sinking of the RMS Titanic.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc. Web. 4 March 2016.
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