Did Thomas Andrews Think that the Ship would Capsize?

[Kyle Naber]

Thomas Andrews gave the Titanic about an hour less than she actually stayed afloat. Do you think this is because he thought the ship would tip over and capsize at some point? Nearly every other ship that sinks rolls over on its side, but Titanic went almost straight down on a level keel (besides the 9 degree port list).

 

[Harland Duzen]

I guessing you thought of this from the idea that had the ship not developed a Port List from the Coal Fire, having hit the iceberg, Titanic would have continued listing to Starboard and eventually capsized?

Either way, it;s a logical assumption since every other sinking ship in history has listed / capsized and if Andrews had thought the Port List might counter act it, the chances were extremely low.

 

[David G. Brown]

We don't really know what Thomas Andrews said (or did not say) during the sinking. What we have are not his words, but something called "hearsay" which is somebody else saying what they thought they heard the man say. Or, worse, what they would have had him say if they had been in charge of the situation. Hearsay is notoriously biased and wrong. That's why it is generally not admissible in a court of law. Anyone who has ever played the childhood game of "telephone" knows just how wrong a message can become when passed from ear to mouth to ear to mouth, etc.

-- David G. Brown

 

[Samuel Halpern]

When Andrews told Smith, according to Boxhall, that the ship had from 1 to 1 1/2 hours left it was based on what little information he had at that point in time. It was a pure guess at best based on a quick back of the envelope calculation that took into account the amount of water that he estimated had entered the vessel by that point in time and where the flooding was taking place. Given that he was seen by at least two people rushing up to the bridge about 40 minutes after the collision with a look or terror on his face, his 1 to 1 1/2 hours falls into the range of 1:20 to 1:50am. Engineers and architects do that kind of work, called guesstimating, all the time when forced to give their best take on a given situation when there is not enough time or information to do any detailed analysis.

 

[Emilie]

We will newer knew what were on Andrew's thought that night.
My guess is that although he might have thought about some hypothesis over technical aspects of the sinking, the guy's mind would had primarily focus on how many and how quickly he could save as much lives as possible. As recounts of his behaviours that night shows, he was mainly busy assisting crew.