Inquiries
What does SOLAS stand for?
Sinking of the RMS Titanic
In the aftermath of the sinking, public inquiries were set up in Britain and the United States. The US inquiry began on 19 April under the chairmanship of Senator William Alden Smith, while the British inquiry commenced in London under Lord Mersey on 2 May 1912. They reached broadly similar conclusions: the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate; Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings; the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed; and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a danger area at too high a speed. Captain Lord of the "Californian" was strongly criticised by both inquiries for failing to render assistance to "Titanic". However neither inquiry found negligence by IMM or the White Star Line as a factor. The US inquiry concluded that those involved had merely followed standard practice, and the disaster could thus only be categorised as an "act of God", and the British inquiry concluded that Smith had followed long-standing practice which had not previously been shown to be unsafe (the inquiry noted that British ships alone had carried 3.5 million passengers over the previous decade with the loss of just 10 lives) and concluded that he had done "only that which other skilled men would have done in the same position." The British inquiry also warned that "What was a mistake in the case of the "Titanic" would without doubt be negligence in any similar case in the future. "The disaster led to major changes in maritime regulations to implement new safety measures, such as ensuring that more lifeboats were provided, that lifeboat drills were properly carried out and that radio equipment on passenger ships was manned around the clock. An International Ice Patrol was set up to monitor the presence of icebergs in the North Atlantic, and maritime safety regulations were harmonised internationally through the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS); both measures are still in force today.