The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most well remembered of all passenger ship disasters. When the luxurious ocean liner struck an iceberg in the north Atlantic on the night of 15th April 1912, she sank with the loss of 1,500 souls. It was her maiden voyage.
In the fallout following the disaster there was much to unpick, and alongside the grief and shock there was blame and culpability to be assigned. The Titanic’s design, which allowed flooding to eventually bypass the supposedly “unsinkable” watertight system of compartments, was considered a primary cause, as was the lack of lifeboats.
However, for one man back in Britain, the guilt was much more personal. David Blair, the second officer of the Titanic, had left the boat shortly before she was to sail: with the most senior of the company’s captains and his command crew coming over to operate the Titanic, Blair was surplus to requirements.
However, the change was last minute and Blair has left with a seemingly small and unimportant item in his pocket: a key. However, as it turns out, this key could have saved the Titanic.
