“There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers.” Phillip Franklin, White Star Line vice-president, 1912
Every man-made disaster and catastrophe has at least six Cascade Events leading up to the final event, the catastrophe according to the Rule of Seven. This is a quick read of the Cascade Events that led up to the sinking of the Titanic. The Titanic is a classic example of systematic cascade events, many unrelated to each other, any of which if corrected, would have averted the final event.
This examines the Rule of Seven, and how human error plays a role in many catastrophes. Nothing happens in isolation or as a result of a single event. Thus, by learning from history, we can gain insight into preventing a similar catastrophe in the future. A key lesson from the Titanic is that by constructing the largest passenger ship of the time, they had outstripped the safety requirements several times over and this was not factored into the plans.
