Titanic sinking preventable?

Titanic rivets contained slag impurities which made them brittle and did cause them to snap when it hit an iceberg. Mettalurgical tests reveal impurities in the rivets caused them to be brittle. These substandard rivets had slag concentrations of 9% when they should have been 2%. These impurities weakened the rivets enough to cause failure.

Harland and Wolff, the builders of the Titanic, knowingly purchased the substandard rivets - many from small suppliers and used these in areas where they expected less pressure. It was precisely in this area that the iceberg struck. Had high quality rivets been used, perhaps the ship would not have sunk and history would be different. For one thing John Jacob Astor, the richest man in the world perish. The passengers were a whose who of important people. Of 2,227 passengers only 705 managed to survive.