My kid explained how the failure of the Titanic, WWII Liberty Ships, and Hinkley Nuclear Reactor...

[VMA131Marine]

8. That's debatable

The Titanic’s hill was riveted construction not welded. What’s been observed in the wreckage is that the rivets failed not the hull plates opening up the ship to the sea. It’s also not appreciated how small the total area of the openings were: only 12 to 13 square feet or about one square meter. It was enough to sink the ship, but only just because the first six compartments were penetrated and the sixth one only barely. Many of the rivets recovered from Titanic’s wreck have been found to have imperfections and slag inclusions that reduce their strength significantly. Further the steel became brittle in the cold temperatures.

All that said, RMS Olympic, Titanic’s older sister was built in the same yard under the same conditions, and with the same materials and she was in service until 1934 without experiencing any structural failures. She just became obsolete.