37. The fourth smoke stack made the Titanic look impressive, but it was completely unnecessary.
Many myths about the Titanic are simply not true. However, it is true that the ‘fourth smoke stack’ was indeed not needed, and just added to make the ship look better. In 1911, several large ships sailed with four smoke stacks, using all of them to draw heat and smoke from their huge boilers. Thanks to its advanced engineering, the Titanic only needed three. However, a fourth one was added anyway to make the ship look more impressive and balanced. Quite simply, the public would have disappointed if the greatest ship of all time was launched with ‘just’ three stacks.
