Can you imagine my pleasure today in finding a front page New York Times article that has two of my great loves: science and metal fabrication.

The article In Weak Rivets, a Possible Key to Tianic’s Doom, lays out the accumulating evidence that it was the use of cheaper, weaker, iron rivets, over stronger steel rivets that allowed the ice burg to to rip such gigantic gashes in the hull of the great ship.

Here are some of the key bits.

The scientists studied 48 rivets that divers recovered over two decades from the Titanic’s resting place — two miles down in the North Atlantic — and found many riddled with high concentrations of slag. A glassy residue of smelting, slag can make rivets brittle and prone to fracture.

…

The company [Harland & Wolff, who made the ship] also faced shortages of skilled riveters, according to archive papers. Dr. McCarty said that for a half year, from late 1911 to April 1912, when Titanic set sail, the company’s board addressed the shortfalls at every meeting.

In their research, the scientists found that good riveting took great skill. The iron had to be heated to a precise cherry red color and beaten by the right combination of hammer blows. Mediocre work could hide problems.

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Steel beckoned as a solution. Shipbuilders of the day were moving from iron to steel rivets, which were stronger. And machines could install them, improving workmanship and avoiding labor problems.

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The rival Cunard line, the scientists found, had switched to steel rivets years before, using them, for instance, throughout the Lusitania.

The scientists discovered that Harland & Wolff also used steel rivets — but only on Titanic’s central hull, where stresses were expected to be greatest. Iron rivets were chosen for the ship’s stern and bow.

And the bow, as fate would have it, is where the iceberg struck. Studies of the wreck show that six seams opened up in the ship’s bow plates. And the damage, Dr. Foecke noted, “ends close to where the rivets transition from iron to steel.”

The scientists argue that better rivets would have probably kept the Titanic afloat long enough for rescuers to have arrived before the icy plunge, saving hundreds of lives.

There is also a nifty slide show with some images of the tests done by scientists and blacksmiths on various rivets.

Samples of four different types of rivets recovered from the Titanic. While some ships of the time were built entirely with steel rivets, the Titanic used a mix of steel and iron rivets. In the bow, where the Titanic hit the iceberg, weaker iron rivets were used.

To test the theory of weak rivets on the Titanic, Chris Topp, a blacksmith in Yorkshire, England, recreated one of the Titanic’s double-riveted hull joints.

Stresses similar to what the Titanic experienced in its collision with the iceberg were applied to the joint, and the top of one of the rivets popped off, at a load only 60 percent of what a good quality rivet should have withstood.

The small “button” on the inside of the rivet head was similar in shape to broken rivets recovered from the Titanic wreckage.