Sinking of the RMS Titanic the hull plates. This suggests that the iron rivets along the plate seams snapped off or popped open to create narrow gaps through which water flooded. An engineer from "Titanic"s builders, Harland and Wolff, suggested this scenario at the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry following the disaster but his view was discounted. "Titanic"s discoverer Robert Ballard has commented that the assumption that the ship had suffered a major breach was "a by-product of the mystique of the "Titanic". No one could believe that the great ship was sunk by a little sliver." Faults in the ship's hull may have been a
RMS Titanic in popular culture there were no black people aboard. Lead Belly's song portrays the black American boxing champion Jack Johnson attempting to board "Titanic" but being refused by Captain Smith, who tells him: "I ain't hauling no coal." Johnson remains on shore, bitterly bidding "Titanic" farewell, and dances the Eagle Rock as the ship goes under. The legend of the "Titanic" merged with that of a character in black folklore known as "Shine", a sort of trickster figure who was probably named after shoeshine. He was converted into a mythical black stoker aboard "Titanic" whose exploits were commemorated in "Toasts", long narrative poems