>>For those of us who have always had trouble with the iceberg story from the beginning (thought problems that include: ice does not cut steel,<<
I would point out that nobody outside of the media of the day EVER asserted or implied that the iceberg 'cut' through steel. Impact damage alone was all it took. Very BAD things happen when 52,310 longs tons of mass moving at 21 to 22 knots gets into a shoving contest with something which is going absolutely nowhere when the ship tries to.
Icebergs have been crunching through steel plates and even caving bows in...like what you saw on the Arizona....for as long as there have been iron and steel hulled ships. Impact is demonstrably more than enough to buckle plates, sheer rivets and split seams and that was exactly what happened. The through hull damage...per Edward Wilding's testimony...amounted to no more that 12 or so square feet BUT it breeched six compartments and there was no way the pumps could keep up with the ingress.
It's not complicated and when you get down to the brass tacks, there was nothing else around which could have damaged the ship in this manner.
