Louise Patten revealed in her new book, Good As Gold, that human error was the main cause of the great Titanic disaster in 1912.
The granddaughter of Second Officer Charles Lightoller who served in the liner and knew what happened on April 14 1912, revealed that the ship had plenty of time to avoid crashing into the iceberg and not because it failed to see it earlier as widely believed.
According to the book, the disaster was caused by a steering error where the helmsman panicked, took a wrong turn, and caused the famous voyeur to struck the iceberg, the Telegraph reported.
"They could have easily avoided the iceberg if it wasn't for the blunder," she was quoted as saying in the daily.
Patten's book also claimed that the First Officer William Murdoch saw the iceberg two miles away but his command "hard a starboard" was misinterpreted.
She blamed the Tiller and Rudder steering systems in operation for the disaster as the command "hard a starboard" meant turn the wheel right under the Tiller system, but turn left under the Rudder system.
The family secret was kept for nearly 100 years because Lightoller decided to cover up the error worrying that it might cause White Star Line, Titanic's owner, to go bankrupt while his colleagues lose their jobs.
Titanic hit the iceberg on April 14 1912 and sank in between 11.40pm until 2.20am on April 15, causing some 1,500 casualties.
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