Comment by swerveonem

What percentage of ships had fires in their coal holds on the day the titanic launched, by your estimation? I'm struggling to understand how rare a persistent coal fire was during that era. Would they in deed be forced to burn the coal, would this also force a high speed? If I'm to believe what LEO has me, speed is an enormous factor in all accidents, one of the most impactful variables, reduce it to 0 and you get the authors point.