A thought I had today: as I understand it, when the Titanic hit that iceberg, at first the crew didn't think it was so bad. The ship's hull was divided into watertight compartments, and not enough of them had been ripped open to sink the ship. But the flooding from the initial hole tipped the ship, and the compartments were open at the top, so that compartments that hadn't been ripped open by the impact of the iceberg started filling up, tipping the ship even more, flooding more compartments ...
Remind you of anything in the news lately?