After the Titanic sank, I know that there was an enquiry into what had gone wrong, and significant changes (arguably well overdue) to maritime law and practice around safety procedures were made as a result. Having lost so many people at a swoop, no one wanted to do that again!

However, I also know that there was initially some confusion around what had happened to the Titanic. The earliest speculative reports I’ve seen on the morning after describe a collision, but still a more or less functional ship which ultimately should have been capable of limping into port without any deaths.

If these initial reports had been accurate - the ship severely damaged, but not sunk - are there any recommendations from the enquiry which would still have been relevant?

Did the enquiry lead to any changes or proposals that would have still applied to a living ship?

How (or where) would large, medieval or even ancient/roman ships have been assembled? I'm asking of ships the size of dutch galleons and of the 13/1400's possibly

Did they have the concept of dry docks? Were they assembled on ship cradles? or simply on land, propped up?

If they were assembled on land was it in the open or sheltered and how would they roll it into the sea? Would this have been at an open point on the coast, or inside a harbour/dock?

When searching how ships were built, you can find lots of information about techniques like wood bending, but not where it was all put together

Saw this viral Tweet today: "Lots of Americans confused about Irish twitter because our Anglo-centric education taught us Ireland suffered a “famine” when it was really a British led genocide."

That... just doesn't seem accurate? There was a potato blight that was the primary cause of the Irish famine, correct?

We should consume about 2.7 liters a day, right? So how did they get all that water on the ship to last them for weeks at sea?

An example: Columbus sailed 10 weeks with 90 men on three ships. I have a hard time imagining room for both liquids and food. And especially would they have loaded up with other cargo?

Bonus question: What liquids was it?

Thankful for any responses :-)

It is kind of counterintuitive to start counting the hours of the day in the middle of the night. Wouldn’t it make more sense to start let’s say when the sun rises?

When and how did this start?

Propeller beanie optional. Was this actually a popular look for children at some time and place? Did it catch on as a concept because of a media depiction? Was it a marketing thing?

A few weeks ago, I learned that Alexander Stevens (Vice President of the Confederacy, orator of the "Cornerstone Speech") served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1873-1882. Less than ten years after the Civil War, he was back in a position of power serving the country he just tried to tear apart. My big takeaway from this was "Reconstruction failed. Why?" and originally, I came here to ask that.

But then I realized that I only thought to ask that question because something I stumbled across elucidated a gap in my education -- and that's not going to happen often. I don't know what I don't know and, more likely than not, I'll never think to ask "why?" when it comes to my gaps. So I'm asking for your help!

(I limited my question to U.S. history because selfishly, I'm an American, and American history is particularly relevant to me.)

Caesar official turned the Roman Republic into an Empire, but even before him, Rome ruled over many different people much like an Empire. Could Rome be considered an Empire before Caesar?

Some examples:

Bill Ayers - education professor

Bernardine Dohrn - law professor at Northwestern, without bar admittance

Ayers and Dorhn together hosted a campaign announcement for then-future-POTUS Barack Obama in 1995 and are the adoptive parents of 29th District Attorney of San Fransisco Chesa Boudin, biological child of two other Weather Underground members who did receive long prison sentences - without suggesting that the association should have hurt Boudin, it seems significant that it didn't

Eric Mann - journalist/author

Mark Rudd - mathematics professor

Eleanor Raskin - administrative law judge, law professor

Matthew Steen - county level politician in Santa Barbara and San Francisco

There's probably more, but six seemed like enough for me to stop looking up members.

I know COINTELPRO-related rights violation led to a lot of charges being dismissed, but it seems odd that there wasn't enough legitimately collected evidence of lesser crimes (both before and after they went into hiding) to for everyone to go to prison (some of the above did, just not for very long). And that at least four became professors (At least TWO being LAW professors!!! One of whom didn't even try to pass the "Character and Fitness" requirements!) is pretty wild.

How were the borders enforced in the larger area between both countries? What was blocking people from just escaping through the countryside in larger numbers?

Most books on Mesopotamian History begin with the Sumerians and end with Babylon's fall to Cyrus in 539 BC. What about Mesopotamian history for the next five centuries?

So since the death of the queen I have seen many people talk about the legacy of the British empire on twitter. Now being a bengali I know about the bengal famine but a lot of people that were born the generation after partition seem to view the empire quite positively; its the younger generation that are behind the whole "decolonize" movement. Could anyone here recommmend some balanced books on the history of the British in India, or some pro empire and anti empire books that I should read?

Did cities that are very large today such as Chicago gobble up smaller towns as they grew?

I've been thinking lately about the Quad Cities, and how I find it strange that it is an urban area composed of several towns close to each other instead of one or two big ones. Riverdale for example is a town of about 400 but unlike most such sized towns in Iowa is within an overall urban area, being just a short 10 minute drive from a supermarket, movie theater, etc. To compare, other small towns in Iowa such as Sac City are isolated in cornfields and may require drives of 30 minutes to an hour to get to a large supermarket like Walmart or Hyvee. The local governments in the Quad Cities sometimes have disagreements about issues, for example the city of Bettendorf sued Riverdale for closing off a path that many cyclists in the Quad Cities use.

So did New York just grow and eat up the towns like Riverdale? Why is the Quad Cities a cluster of cities mashed together, whereas New York, San Francisco, and Chicago are just one big city? Or am I wrong, and actually New York DOES have a bunch of little towns in it that I just don't know about?

Thanks a bunch, hope you have a nice day.

I am also interested in the Electorate (and later Kingdom) of Hanover's place in the British sphere of influence. Did this personal union of Hanover and Great Britain's sovereign result in an increase of British influence in Northern Germany?

Something I've wondered for a while, and then compounded by recent events, is what happens to the relatives of landed nobility following multiple generations of succession. Partly inspired by Crusader Kings, partly by ASoIaF stories, and partly by current real-world events.

If I'm second or third in line to succession, I assume I'd be married off, either for alliances with other realms/nobles, or internally to subjects to stabilise and show favour as needed, or maybe become part of the household? Maybe if I'm a prince, I might be granted a new castle or demesne somewhere, or overlordship of an existing area.

But if I'm a third son, am I ever going to hold land, or even be married off? I have multiple niblings set to inherit before myself, my father owns some land, but the realm is stable, and there's not likely to any free land to grant to me. Is the best I can hope for being a knight in service to my elder brother, or joining a monastery later in life?

It seems that from about the 1500s and onward, nobles and royals stopped building castles for both residential and defensive purposes and preferred to build palaces with little to no defensive utility for their residences while purely military installations such as star forts replaced the castles of the middle ages. When did this take place? When was the earliest residence only palace (ie. no arrow slits, bastions, turrets or any defensive structures) constructed in medieval Europe or Early Modern Europe?

I know that they had a fire department but did Ancient Rome have what we would consider a police force and if so did each province or city have one and how did it work in an empire that size