I subscribe to Nat Geo but have not had the chance to read this month's edition yet. It sits on my table, looking lonely.
Titanic - 100th Anniversary of The Disaster
- Thread starter JRS
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I subscribe to Nat Geo but have not had the chance to read this month's edition yet. It sits on my table, looking lonely.
I've always had an interest in the ship. The idea that the largest ship in the world, declared unsinkable by it's builders, would sink on it's maiden voyage, is just amazing. Yes there is the morbid fascination regarding the 1500 souls that were lost, a fact which most people interested in the disaster usually 'brush over', but it's always in the backs of people's minds.
I had heaps of books on the subject, mostly illustrated by the brilliant Ken Marschall, plus a few documentaries and a 1.2m long model (which due to me leaving home remains about 90% complete).
I have a mate who is attending a 100th anniversary dinner during which they get to eat the exact same food available to the first class diners - all 11 courses! Plus brandy and cigars afterwards.
I had heaps of books on the subject, mostly illustrated by the brilliant Ken Marschall, plus a few documentaries and a 1.2m long model (which due to me leaving home remains about 90% complete).
I have a mate who is attending a 100th anniversary dinner during which they get to eat the exact same food available to the first class diners - all 11 courses! Plus brandy and cigars afterwards.
But she wasn't declared "unsinkable" - not by her builders and designers nor by her owners.
Titanic was called "unsinkable" by many people due to her double-bottom and series of water-tight compartments.
I am skeptical of that, to say the least. One, there are no Royal Navy officers listed in any Titanic passenger lists; the searchable database at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/titanic/ turns up no non-crew results for "royal navy," "R.N.," "admiral," "captain," "commander," or "lieutenant." There is no testimony in official inquiries either from or about RN observers aboard the vessel.
Second, if the RN wanted to see what Titanic could do they could observe her sea trials where she could do whatever they wanted rather than a revenue voyage with its narrow timetable. Moreover, any questions of naval relevance could already have been answered with Olympic. And why so many officers? It's not like one liner was going to change the naval balance of power.
Even if it were true it wouldn't change responsibility, the captain was master of the vessel and would have absolutely no obligation to do anything for a naval observer, let alone something unsafe. If the naval officers were so unprofessional to suggest trial maneuvers at night in icy waters they could simply be ignored.
Justin
Actually, it's been that way for several years. I've been watching the local used DVD places for quite a while in order to replace my VHS copy with a DVD. They've been running $16 - $18 for used copies since around 2006. I've simply refused to pay that much when my VHS copy plays fine.
This is true. However beamMe is absolutely correct. Neither Harland and Wolfe or White Star referred to her as unsinkable. One White Star publication referred to Olympic and Titanic both as "practically unsinkable". That is the closest that either company came to referring to either ship as unsinkable. It is the press and the public that started referring to the Titanic as such.
I think that the most telling thing about the Titanic disaster is that of the 56 children, 55 where third class (steerage) passengers. First class male passengers had a higher survival rate that steerage children.
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Sadly true.
But "blame" for this has to go to the size of the Titanic and American immigration regulations at the time.
The group with the highest death rate was 2nd class males. if I remember correctly only about 8% of them survived.
Probably due to a combination of them being the smallest group of men aboard, the position of the lifeboats allocated for the 2nd class, and a somewhat higher influx of 3rd class passengers to that part of the boat deck.
Can't believe it's been a hundred years.
When I was younger, I was more fascinated by the ship than the history. I got myself a model of the ship and enjoyed seeing the 12-foot long version at the museum whenever I was there.
When I was younger, I was more fascinated by the ship than the history. I got myself a model of the ship and enjoyed seeing the 12-foot long version at the museum whenever I was there.
Knight Templar
Commodore
I read in the newspaper the other day that the folding iron gates that were supposedly used to lock the steerage passengers below decks in Camerons "Titanic" were never even installed on the actual ship.
The third class passengers died as a result of neglect rather than anythimg more deliberate.
The passengers had to find their way out through a maze of corridors and I don't think any crew member was sent below to help them. Most of them didn't emerge from below until after the last of the lifeboats had been cast off.
One of the first class males (maybe someone will be able to remember his name), who survived by swimming to a boat after the sinking, later wrote a book and he describesd his dismay at seeing dozens of third class women and children swarming onto the decks after all the lifeboats were gone.
Edited to add - I think the man I am think of might be Colonel Archibald Gracie. He died less than a year later before his book was punlished.
The passengers had to find their way out through a maze of corridors and I don't think any crew member was sent below to help them. Most of them didn't emerge from below until after the last of the lifeboats had been cast off.
One of the first class males (maybe someone will be able to remember his name), who survived by swimming to a boat after the sinking, later wrote a book and he describesd his dismay at seeing dozens of third class women and children swarming onto the decks after all the lifeboats were gone.
Edited to add - I think the man I am think of might be Colonel Archibald Gracie. He died less than a year later before his book was punlished.
Explorations of the wreck have proven otherwise, they've shown that the gates are not only there, some are still shut and locked.
Do you have a link as I haven't seen details about this.
They must have been there, otherwise the Titanic wouldn't have been allowed to transport immigrants to America. Immigrants had to be kept separated from the rest of the passengers by US immigration regulations.
I tried finding one, but couldn't. I remember seeing it in a Titanic documentary that ran not too long after the movie came out, one with James Cameron doing a live exploration of the ship.
I know! I remember it like it was only yesterday...
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