A sailor called David Blair forgot to leave behind a key as the Titanic set off on its maiden voyage. Without it, his shipmates were unable to open a locker in the crow's nest containing a pair of binoculars for the designated lookout. The binoculars were to look out for dangers in the distance including signs of bad weather - and icebergs.[/p]Lookout Fred Fleet, who survived the disaster in which 1,522 people lost their lives, later told an official inquiry that if they had binoculars they would have seen the iceberg sooner. When asked by a US senator how much sooner it might have been spotted, Mr Fleet replied: "Enough to get out of the way."[/p](//image/BlairTitanic.jpg)
Full story: [a href="vny!://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23410094-details/The+man+who+sank+the+Titanic+by+walking+off+with+vital+locker+key/article.do"]Did This Man Sink The Titanic?[/a]
Yikes! Wonder if he was Forrest Gump's grandfather?
Sounds like a trumped up story to elevate the value of a key. [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/more/bigs/c008.gif" border=0]
they can blame him all they want.. the guy that passed the radio message from teh other ships in the area about icebergs gave it to the Officer OF the Watch (OOW) and that guy was in a hurry to get off shift and get to a dinner party. So they in essence had a breakdown of comunications and didnt check their warning messages. The radio operator was off duty as well.. on the titanic as well as the nearest ship to them.
That's true Russ.....they can blame whoever they like....I think it might be a little too late to bring charges.