In a recent article, Louise Patten, writer and granddaughter of Titanic's 2nd officer Charles Lightoller, tells of his lifetime silence on the real cause of the 1912 disaster. She stated that the family kept it quiet all these years in order to protect Lightoller's reputation and that of his fellow crew.
Lightoller stated that a steering mistake doomed the giant ocean liner and more than 1500 of the people on board. When the iceberg had been spotted, the ship could have been steered to the left and around it. However, panic on the part of a crew member at the helm resulted in the ship turning the wrong way and directly into the ice's oncoming path.
He also believed the Titanic could have stayed afloat much longer had the Captain not been convinced by a company executive to continue on after it was hit. The ship's sinking could have been delayed long enough for the rescue vessels to arrive and possibly saving all those lives.
What is believed to be the last known image of the Titanic as it leaves Queenstown on its' fatal voyage.
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