It was with incredulous belief that many received the information that the real ‘reason’ the Titanic sank was because one of the crew members was clueless about differentiating right from left. This was revealed in anew book by Louise Patten, the granddaughter of the Titanic’s Second Officer, Charles Lightoller. Lightoller happens to be the only surviving officer of the Titanic.

Given that the Titanic sunk about a century ago, where so many etiquette rules required the use of one’s left and right sides more often than not, this explanation is at best, a fallacy. Louise Patten goes on to say that, there was a misunderstanding between the then, commonly used nautical terms, ‘Hard to Starboard’ and ‘Hard to Port’.

This makes no sense whatsoever because it is very hard to believe that the White Star Lines would employ the services of someone who did not know the difference between Starboard and Port to navigate the world’s largest and most luxurious ocean liner.

The book goes on to inform readers that just before the ship sank, the officers had a meeting where they were informed of the crewmember’s mistake. It is ridiculous to expect that in the pandemonium caused by a ship on the verge of sinking, officers would have the time to fraternize and point fingers at the cause of the sinking ship.

This peddling of falsehoods can only be blamed on the need to increase the author’s sales and elevate her grandfather to hero status.

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