RMS Titanic Doomed by Inferior Rivets

Titanic departing her Southampton pier on her maiden voyage.

Scientists have discovered that the builder of the Titanic struggled for years to obtain enough rivets and riveters and ultimately settled on faulty materials that doomed the ship, which sank 96 years ago Tuesday.

The builder's own archive, the two scientists say, harbors evidence of a deadly mix of low-quality rivets and lofty ambition as the builder labored to construct the world's three biggest ships at once — the Titanic and two sisters, Olympic and Britannic.

For a decade, scientists have argued that the storied liner went down fast after hitting the iceberg because the ship's builder used substandard rivets that popped their heads and let tons of icy seawater rush in.

RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. At the time of her launching in 1912, she was the largest passenger steamship.

On April 14, 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg , and sank two hours and forty minutes later on April 15, 1912.