I can't remember why now, but I started doing some research into that whole Titanic thing. And a thought occurred to me. Are you ready for this? Probably not. So let's get some basic facts out of the way first:

From factmonster.com: The exact size of the iceberg will probably never be known, but according to early newspaper reports the height and length of the iceberg was approximated at 50 to 100 feet high and 200 to 400 feet long.

Okay, so the 'tanic basically crashed into a small island. Then everybody who didn't get into a boat fell into the water. Most of the deaths were due to hypothermia.

So, here's my thought:

Why...

didn't...

everybody...

simply...

go to the iceburg??

The lifeboat people could've been rowing people from the area where the boat was sinking over to the iceberg. Back and forth, back and forth, taking people to safety. And folks in the water also could've just swam toward the 'berg. Right? Seriously, people. It would've been cold to sit on, but not as cold as the damn water!

Possible holes in my theory, with my answers:

1. They couldn't see the iceberg.

Fine. But they knew it was around there! They must've had flashlights. Just point 'em toward the direction where the ship had just come from, and, voila, a floating refuge.

2. The ship kept going after it hit, so the iceberg was, like, really far away.

The captain gave the "all-stop" order when they hit the 'berg. (Although I read somewhere else that he gave an order to "keep steaming," and they went on for twenty minutes. But that's just a theory.)

3. The sides of the 'berg were way too hard to climb up. They were, like, sheer cliffs.

How do you know? Were you there? I bet there was at least a chance that there was a way to climb up, rather than it being steep walls shooting up out of the water on all sides. Even in that case, you can still try to dig your fingers in and climb up. You're life's at stake, after all.

I guess I'm just curious about where the iceberg was. People went back the next day and took photos of two possible culprits in the area. One even had a line of red paint, according to a witness. Also, apparently they were sailing through floating ice for a while before they hit the big iceberg. So why wouldn't there have been lots of little icies around for people to climb onto? Maybe once they were in the water, they tried to swim but it was just too cold.

I don't know. Whatever. Another fact I discovered was that when the Carpathia brought all the survivors to New York, it docked at Pier 54. This past summer, Chan and I watched Jaws on Pier 54. Every survivor of that tragedy walked down that pier, through the archway, which is all that remains of the original, and is visible in my last photo on the linked page above. Cool.