The British investigation was sufficiently harsh that contemporaries could regard it as an attack on White Star Line. The company expected its connections to protect it, but some of those networks were damaged or lost with the ship. Alexander Carlisle's stature and links to the Institution of Naval Architects made it difficult to suppress his evidence about rejected safety proposals. The inquiry exposed commercial and design decisions that weakened White Star and contributed to its eventual combination with Cunard.
Notable Point · 2:19:52-2:20:48
Why the British inquiry hit White Star hard
The British investigation is presented as an unusually severe reckoning that denied White Star a comfortable institutional whitewash.