Engineering Ethics of Titanic Sinking
Steven Miller
Phl 3221
Professor Tapp
5/24/2007
Utilitarianism Look at the Titanic
When engineers design a product many things go in to the decision making process when it comes to selecting materials, design, and the manufacturing processes. One concern that has always been in the decision making process is trying to make sure the outcome will always be ethically good, although this isn’t always the case. Try as they might, no person is perfect, and accidents do happen. When engineering disasters happen there are many factors that may be involved, such as human factors, design flaws, extreme conditions, and materials failures. When these things do happen it is important to look at the ethical aspect of each part of the failure and try to analyze if any one person could be put at fault. One very famous and very disastrous engineering failure was when the “unsinkable Titanic” hit an iceberg and sank. The Titanic was a British ship originally conceived in 1907 to be a mail and passenger line to go from England to New York by the Harland and Wolff Irish Shipbuilding Company and The White Star Line to compete with the Lusitania and Mauritania which were the two biggest and fastest steamships at the time. When the Titanic was constructed weighed and astounding 46,000 tons, which was one and a half times heavier than the Lusitania and Mauritania. The Titanic was to be far more extravagant than its counterparts. It had luxurious accommodations for its first class passengers including on-board swimming pools, a gymnasium, bathrooms with stained glass windows and comfortable furniture, and even the styles of decor differed from cabin to cabin. The Titanic also had a great number of less glamorous rooms to accommodate middle class passengers, which is where they planned to make a lot of their profit. Although it was more luxurious, the Titanic was slightly slower than its competitors. The ship set sail on April 10, 1912 for its maiden voyage. It stopped at
Phl 3221
Professor Tapp
5/24/2007
Utilitarianism Look at the Titanic
When engineers design a product many things go in to the decision making process when it comes to selecting materials, design, and the manufacturing processes. One concern that has always been in the decision making process is trying to make sure the outcome will always be ethically good, although this isn’t always the case. Try as they might, no person is perfect, and accidents do happen. When engineering disasters happen there are many factors that may be involved, such as human factors, design flaws, extreme conditions, and materials failures. When these things do happen it is important to look at the ethical aspect of each part of the failure and try to analyze if any one person could be put at fault. One very famous and very disastrous engineering failure was when the “unsinkable Titanic” hit an iceberg and sank. The Titanic was a British ship originally conceived in 1907 to be a mail and passenger line to go from England to New York by the Harland and Wolff Irish Shipbuilding Company and The White Star Line to compete with the Lusitania and Mauritania which were the two biggest and fastest steamships at the time. When the Titanic was constructed weighed and astounding 46,000 tons, which was one and a half times heavier than the Lusitania and Mauritania. The Titanic was to be far more extravagant than its counterparts. It had luxurious accommodations for its first class passengers including on-board swimming pools, a gymnasium, bathrooms with stained glass windows and comfortable furniture, and even the styles of decor differed from cabin to cabin. The Titanic also had a great number of less glamorous rooms to accommodate middle class passengers, which is where they planned to make a lot of their profit. Although it was more luxurious, the Titanic was slightly slower than its competitors. The ship set sail on April 10, 1912 for its maiden voyage. It stopped at
Bibliography: 1. http://www.matscieng.sunysb.edu/disaster/ 2. http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9801/Felkins-9801.html 3. http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/ 4. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/titanic.htm 5. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary 6. http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/uer/bassett.html 7. http://www.titanicuniverse.com/