Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • April 10. 2013 sion through overconfidence or, to put it more bluntly, sheer negligence. Icebergs were not an isolated occurrence in 1912. Lowry runs through a list of ships that were damaged or sunk by icebergs in the North Atlantic before 1912. The list contains more than 100 names. In 1893, two steamers, the “Horn Head” and the “Naronic,” disappeared. Both ships vanished entirely, but months later, notes that were tucked into bottles as the ships went down described collisions with icebergs. The ship known as “Vaillant” lost 74 crewman out of 78 in an iceberg collision. The danger was well known, but the size of “Titanic” may have insulated Captain Smith against the fear of iceberg damage. However, given the mass and speed of “Titanic,” the force of the collisions was subsequently estimated as having the power to lift 10 Washington Monuments from their pedestals. Cut to the fatal day, April 14, 1912: Ten iceberg warnings had been sent out by wireless and “Titanic” had the best wireless system afloat. At 11:45, the steamer “Amerika” reported ice in a message that was addressed to “Titanic” by name. At 1 p.m., Captain Smith had an ice warning from the steamer “Baltic” in his hand. “We will speed through the ice,” Captain Smith decided. Then he posted the ice warning on the board in the officers’ chart room. No one at dinner saw him take a drink, and the urban legend that he was drunk is entirely bogus -- but he did not reduce speed. At 10 p.m., a passenger named C.E.M. Stengel, experienced in mechanical matters, remembered that “the engines were running faster than ever before.” About that time, Captain Smith went to bed. At 11:45 p.m., he was awakened by the bump and returned to the bridge. Appalled by the deaths of so many prominent Americans -- and many British and other foreign passengers -- the U.S. Senate convened extensive hearings. “No general discussion took place among the officers; no conference was called to consider these warnings; no heed was given to them; speed was not relaxed,” they concluded. In short, an experienced captain actually increased speed, which continued after darkness, despite iceberg warnings. Once the spotted the iceberg, the crew on the bridge was unable to reduce speed, reduce the impact, or steer clear. When they attempted to swing away from the iceberg, “Titanic” struck the mass diagonally and opened seven compartments below the waterline. The watertight compartments were not watertight on top. Water that flooded the first seven compartments spilled over the tops, one after the other, until the water and the angle knocked out the engines and pumps. The ship sank with an inadequate number of lifeboats. Of the 2,223 souls aboard there were only 706 survivors, predominantly women and children from first class. Most of the crew drowned -- as did most of the immigrants in third class, which Dr. Lowry, in a rare error, calls “steerage.” There was no “steerage” on the “Titanic” and even third class passengers had decent accommodations and meat at every meal. What they did not have was enough lifeboats. Arrogance has always been the principal theory in the huge loss of life. The inadequate number of lifeboats, in hindsight, is appalling, but at the time it was entirely legal. No one appears to have been killed in the first impact, and evacuation of the passengers was rather orderly until the lifeboat seats ran out. The failure of other ships -- one of them with lights visible in the distance -- to respond to wireless calls for help and the “Titanic’s” distress rockets probably doubled the number of fatalities. But the reason for the collision has never been explained better than Dr. Lowry explained it: Early Alzheimer’s impacting on habitual self-confidence and the habit of absolute authority. Yet some people will not have it. Perhaps nobody in his mature years wants to think about Alzheimer’s disease, or perhaps the other theories -- human vanity and arrogance of nation, race, or class -- are grounded in personal psychology or politics. There are theories, and there are facts -- and there are opinions that will never allow the theories to be examined to find out whether they may be facts. Max Planck used to say the problem with new physics was old physicists. Once physicists got to a certain age, they simply could not alter what they had been taught or had discovered in order to deal with new information. Einstein flabbergasted a number of the old-timers in 1906. Planck and his contemporaries later put more old-timers on the shelf. You do not need to be a physicist to experience the phenomenon. History also has its examples. If a writer who has the facts straight offers any version of what happened, or might have happened, which does not comport with the prejudices or politics of what the readers believe, want to believe, or desperately need to believe, he or she has big troubles. Dr. Thomas Lowry was a licensed psychiatrist before his voluntary retirement. He was an experienced yachtsman and, as a young man, had shipped on tankers and other merchant vessels on the high seas. He is also the author of more than 30 books on topics where medicine interfaces with military or social history. The one expert review I have seen on his latest book, “Titanic Madness: What Really Sank the Great Ship,” suffered a hatchet job with a very blunt ax. The reviewer dragged in references to Marc Antony and Cleopatra and Shakespeare’s Queen Elizabeth to savage Dr. Lowry for using psychology in history – something almost all modern historians do to some extent. The hostile reviewer tipped his hand when he mentioned that his own father died of Alzheimer’s disease at 88. This was not a reference to Dr. Lowry, but to Captain Edward Smith, the 62-year-old master of “Titanic.” Daniel Bernoulli, one of a family of brilliant Swiss mathematicians, published his description of Bernoulli’s Hydraulic Principle as early as 1738. Bernoulli said that as a ship under way moves past a moored ship, the water rushing between the two hulls creates a suction that, instead of pushing the water aside, pulls the two ships together, sometimes violently. The bigger the ships, the worse the bump. Captain Smith was on the bridge of the “Olympic” when that ship inexplicably collided with the British cruiser “HMA Hawke” in 1911. The British Admiralty and the White Star Line sued each other, and the protracted trial included evidence for the fact that something akin to Bernoulli’s Hydraulic Principle had led to suction between the huge liner and the large cruiser, throwing their navigation into disarray and leading to a collision at sea. A year later, as the “Titanic” was setting out for her maiden voyage, she passed the moored American liner “New York” and the suction of water flowing between the ships pulled the “New York” loose from her moorings, snapped the hawsers like threads, and almost led to another collision. Ships of this size had not existed when Captain Smith first went to sea, and Dr. Lowry believes that, at least on a subconscious level, Captain Smith had never absorbed the idea that suction between ships led to a danger that had not existed in earlier generations. This does not explain the physics of the collision between the “Titanic” and the fatal iceberg -- it explains the psychology that led to the colli- A titanic problem Ramsey Saint Paul Interparochial School in Ramsey will host its first Golf Outing fundraiser on Monday, June 24 at the Ramsey Golf & Country Club. The cost is $175 and includes lunch, golf with cart, buffet dinner with open bar, contests, prizes, and more. Non-golfers are welcome to come for dinner at $50 per person. The school is offering sponsorship opportunities for interested businesses or individuals. Proceeds from the event will be used for the school’s operating expenses. School to host June Golf Outing Founded in 1952, Saint Paul Interparochial School is a pre-K through grade eight Roman Catholic elementary school that serves the parishes of Saint Paul in Ramsey, Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, and Immaculate Conception and Immaculate Heart of Mary, both of which are located in Mahwah. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association. For more information about the outing, to receive a registration form for golf, or to arrange a sponsorship, contact Joe Kelly at jpkpga@yahoo.com or (201) 236-3874. Ramsey Council election (continued from page 7) and telecommunications at the NYSE. His responsibilities include all NYSE trading floor logistics and projects. He manages many large scale projects, divisional budgets, and emergency preparedness plans for the trading operation. Prior to joining the NYSE, he was senior project manager for Comdisco, Inc., where he developed technical and business emergency response and contingency programs for clients in various industries. He earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Manhattan College and an MBA in finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He also earned a graduate certificate in Network and Communications Management and just completed a master’s in project management from DeVry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management. Weber just completed his second year as a councilman in Ramsey. His name was placed on the November 2010 ballot after former Ramsey Council President Art Nalbandian announced that he would withdraw from the race for personal reasons. As a council member, Weber has served as chairman of the Utilities, Buildings, and Grounds Committee. He is liaison to the Ramsey Environmental Commission, the board of public works, the design review board, and the Recycling Committee. He has also served on the Finance Committee and the Public Safety Committee. “During this time, we have had many accomplishments that have benefitted Ramsey. Most notable, working with Blue Line Architects and many local contractors, we completed a beautiful monument, a tribute to the memory of those lost in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001,” Weber said. “Working with Ramsey’s Environmental Council, we completed an environmental resource inventory which documents Ramsey’s natural resources and is used a guide to the borough’s master plan for all development applications.” He said other initiatives include enhancements at the Ramsey Recycling Center, such as paving, covered containers, perimeter fencing, plantings, and the acceptance of additional recyclable items. He is active in the Ramsey Baseball Softball Association, and has served as softball league president and co-director of travel softball. He has also been a youth basketball and soccer coach. Weber is a parishioner of Saint Paul’s Church and a 4th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, Patrick Pindar Council in Ramsey, holding the position of treasurer. He is also a member of the Ramsey Office of Emergency Management.