My 2¢ on Titanic

Many events chained togther made the Titanic disaster what it was.

Loss of Life

Many of the life boats went out with room to spare - there was room for another 600 or more on the life boats.
Too many people thought the ship was unsinkable until it was too late

The water tight bulkheads did not go high enough, their tops were only about 10 feet up from the normal water line. When Titanic started taking on water their tops were quickly brought below the water line as to flood more compartments.
The steel was strong, but brittle Titanic used the best quality steel for that day. That type of steel was proven as some ships had used that type of steel for almost 20 years before Titanic went into the water.
The rudder was too small The middle propeller was infront of the rudder as to give Titanic decent steering control. Besides the Titanic is not even 1/5000th the size of the Atlantic Ocean, so How well does it need to corner? Tug boats near port handle the tight spots.

Counter Flooding In my opinion that would have brought the ship down much faster. Look at how fast the Britainic sank because all her water tight doors were open along with the windows. Britainic sank on one piece unlike Titanic which split in two.
Stopping / Reversing Engines Dumb move. Stopping the middle propeller robbed the rudder of the water flow which it needed to control the ship. Without the flow Titanic lost some of her cornering ability (in my opinion)

How many pairs of binoculars did they have?
*1 *
and they were LOST

A few dollars well spent is a good investment

Change smoke dector batteries regularly (don't wait until the landlord does it - it's your life, spend the few $)
Before going to bed:
- Are all the doors locked? (House, Car, etc...)
- Is everything that should be off turned off?
  - Stove/Oven
  - Eletric Heaters
Brake on your car - how good are they?
Tires - they are the only thing holding your car to the road
Don't scrimp on eletrical or gas repairs!