Why were regulators unable to better manage the system? After each panic or crash, they would step in with reforms, yet no matter how careful the design, at some point those reforms would fail, and catastrophe would return anew. At the time he was writing, regulators were confronting the savings and loan crisis, which itself was just the latest in a long series of financial and monetary debacles dating back to at least the Panic of 1873.

McNeill, explored a similar question in a 1989 essay, “Control and Catastrophe in Human Affairs.” McNeill had economic wrecks, not shipwrecks, in mind. It also presents a question: After a century of advances in naval engineering, why are we still unable to prevent deadly wrecks?

But the fate of the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground off the coast of western Italy in January, reminds us that no matter how much progress we make, disasters still happen.

In 2012, people move around the world more quickly and more safely than ever before. The hundredth anniversary of the wreck of the Titanic on April 15 provides a welcome moment to celebrate the many great strides made by engineers.

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