Do you ever find yourself asking, what if?

What if you had taken that other job?

What if you had asked your crush out on a date?

What if you had just left your house five minutes earlier?

Everything in your life could have turned out totally different.

It's easy to get hung up on what if, and for good reason, because some of the most

consequential moments in history have hinged on that very question. This is the story behind

one of those questions. What if a single decision could have prevented one of the most

infamous disasters of all time.

On today's episode, The Titanic Question, this is a twist of history.

It's the afternoon of April 4th, 1912. 37-year-old David Blair darts across the upper deck of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic.

He weaves around crew members hauling crates of fine china into the dining room

and skirts past deckhand scrubbing coal dust off the newly sealed wood floor.

He has two minutes to run the length of the ship and make it to the command bridge for a meeting.

That's no small task aboard the RMS Titanic. The deck is almost 1,000 feet long.

In six short days, the Titanic will make its maiden voyage across the Atlantic,

carrying more than 2,200 passengers and crew members from the Port City of Southampton, England, to New York.

Already newspapers are buzzing about the trip.

The Titanic is the largest and most luxurious ocean liner ever built, and by all accounts, a marvel of engineering.

They're calling it the unsinkable ship, because its hall is comprised of a series of watertight

compartments that will keep it afloat even if the boat takes on water.

David will be the second officer in command, making him one of the highest-ranking people on board.

...