Titanic - 100th Anniversary of The Disaster
- Thread starter JRS
- Start date
I was always quite fascinated with the story of the Titanic, but that ratcheted up for me with the publication of Clive Cussler's novel 'Raise The Titanic.' At the time, that was a very fascinating adventure. Of course, that was before it was positively known that the ship broke apart and was not in one piece on the ocean floor. The film version of that novel was rather poorly done, but the images of the ship ascending to the surface once again and finally reaching New York are memorable.
Two other novels that I enjoyed are 'Something's Alive on The Titanic' by Robert Serling and 'The Ghost from the Grand Banks' by Arthur C. Clarke.
Jack Finney's two novels, 'Time And Again' and 'From Time To Time' are also well worth reading. They are time travel novels and the second one brings the Titanic into the story with an interesting twist at the end.
Morgan Robertson's novel 'Futility: or The Wreck of The Titan' was published in the late 1890s, yet is eerily prophetic of what happened to the Titanic.
Part of the worldwide fascination with the Titanic has to do with the fact that human beings (a lot of them, anyway) have a curiosity for things that descend into chaos....whether it be a decomposing body, or a ship that has lain on the bottom of the ocean for decades. It's that sense of catastrophic change. The larger the scale, the more the curiosity. Here was an elaborate and intricate ship that, for a brief time, was perfectly normal. Look at it now....the vast changes wrought by the disaster itself and the decay since that time.
After watching James Cameron's program last night, I was thinking about the amount of study that has been devoted to the ship's final moments. I thought of the parallels with the amount of study that has been devoted to the JFK assassination. I was thinking about the fact that there were 51 years between the two events. Less than a minute later, someone on the radio said "51 years." As it happened, the radio station I was listening to was 51 years old. Freaky little synchronicity, though.
Two other novels that I enjoyed are 'Something's Alive on The Titanic' by Robert Serling and 'The Ghost from the Grand Banks' by Arthur C. Clarke.
Jack Finney's two novels, 'Time And Again' and 'From Time To Time' are also well worth reading. They are time travel novels and the second one brings the Titanic into the story with an interesting twist at the end.
Morgan Robertson's novel 'Futility: or The Wreck of The Titan' was published in the late 1890s, yet is eerily prophetic of what happened to the Titanic.
Part of the worldwide fascination with the Titanic has to do with the fact that human beings (a lot of them, anyway) have a curiosity for things that descend into chaos....whether it be a decomposing body, or a ship that has lain on the bottom of the ocean for decades. It's that sense of catastrophic change. The larger the scale, the more the curiosity. Here was an elaborate and intricate ship that, for a brief time, was perfectly normal. Look at it now....the vast changes wrought by the disaster itself and the decay since that time.
After watching James Cameron's program last night, I was thinking about the amount of study that has been devoted to the ship's final moments. I thought of the parallels with the amount of study that has been devoted to the JFK assassination. I was thinking about the fact that there were 51 years between the two events. Less than a minute later, someone on the radio said "51 years." As it happened, the radio station I was listening to was 51 years old. Freaky little synchronicity, though.
Odd little side note. With the 100th anniversary coming up, the wife and I decided to pop in our dvd of Titanic last Saturday. We both knew it had been a long time since we had watched Titanic, but we came to realize that this was our first viewing of it on dvd. It seems that when it was released on dvd she picked it up to replace our vhs copy (that had been played many times), but we had never gotten around to watching the dvd. Must say, it does hold up very well in HD.
DVD isn't HD. 
So, has anyone been watching the Titanic programming on the National Geographic Channel? It's been really excellent. James Cameron's The Final Word was very interesting, but perhaps what was even more fascinating was Titanic: Case Closed, which uses forensic science to try to figure out what exactly went on that night, focusing more on the why rather than the how. It went pretty in-depth into the whole cold water mirage effect, giving us clues into why they didn't see the iceberg until it was too close. Very interesting.
Interesting little side story about Captain Smith, uncovered by a mate and co-worker of mine:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6735569/Titanic-captain-at-crease-in-NZ
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6735569/Titanic-captain-at-crease-in-NZ
DVD isn't HD.
D'oh! I meant DVD on an HD (tv).
(But I'm guessing you already knew that
)
After seeing it again in the theater, I think that when it comes out on bluray i will finally replace my VHS copy. The ship looks absolutely stunning in the new release.
For those of you wanting to celebrate the exact time of the sinking, it's at 5.47am GMT.
(2.20am was 'ship' time, which was actually over 90 minutes difference from New York).
New Zealand - 1647
Sydney - 1447
Beijing - 1247
London - 0547
New York - 0047
Vancouver - 2147 (Saturday)
(2.20am was 'ship' time, which was actually over 90 minutes difference from New York).
New Zealand - 1647
Sydney - 1447
Beijing - 1247
London - 0547
New York - 0047
Vancouver - 2147 (Saturday)
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
What an odd thing to say. Sorry, Candlelight - I don't mean to single you out ... I've just never heard anyone "celebrating" the sinking of a ship, let alone the Titanic.
I think he should have used the word 'commemorate'.
Was reading this page. It's all of Titanic's distress signals including some of the chatter going on that night.
This particular one I found very chilling:
2-17 a.m.
Virginian hears Titanic call CQ (call to all ships) , but unable to read him. Titanic's signals end very abruptly as (if) power suddenly switched off. His spark rather blurred or ragged...
(Phillips had actually intended to send "CQD DE MGY", however at this point there is a loss of all power to the radio room - water can be heard flooding the wheelhouse - Phillips says to Bride "Come on, let's clear out". Bride climbs to the roof of the officer's quarters and assists with launching collapsible lifeboat B - Phillips disappears aft.)
Three minutes later, at 2.20 a.m., Titanic foundered.
Forgive me if this sounds morbid, but if I was able to travel through time, the night of the disaster would be the first place I'd visit. I'd want to watch what happened from a distance. I've always been fascinated as to how the ship actually went down. At what point in the sinking did she actually break apart and how long did it take after the fact for her to go down. I've seen the programming on NatGeo, which goes into this, but I would give almost anything to see how the event actually played out.
This particular one I found very chilling:
2-17 a.m.
Virginian hears Titanic call CQ (call to all ships) , but unable to read him. Titanic's signals end very abruptly as (if) power suddenly switched off. His spark rather blurred or ragged...
(Phillips had actually intended to send "CQD DE MGY", however at this point there is a loss of all power to the radio room - water can be heard flooding the wheelhouse - Phillips says to Bride "Come on, let's clear out". Bride climbs to the roof of the officer's quarters and assists with launching collapsible lifeboat B - Phillips disappears aft.)
Three minutes later, at 2.20 a.m., Titanic foundered.
Forgive me if this sounds morbid, but if I was able to travel through time, the night of the disaster would be the first place I'd visit. I'd want to watch what happened from a distance. I've always been fascinated as to how the ship actually went down. At what point in the sinking did she actually break apart and how long did it take after the fact for her to go down. I've seen the programming on NatGeo, which goes into this, but I would give almost anything to see how the event actually played out.
Last edited:
How the ship broke-up and foundered has always been a fascinating topic to me too because there's so many theories out there and for decades after the disaster it was accepted Titanic went down in one piece that is, of course, until the wreck was found in two pieces, separated by half-a-mile, with the stern facing away from the direction of travel and in much, much, worse shape.
Then when you look at the bow's condition it's "remarkably" good but then you notice that the part the broke off that the decks are compressed and I don't think I've seen much to explain why this is. The recent Cameron special re-examining the sinking thinks it was due to a down burst of water-pressure compressing the decks but I've seen theories that when the ship split the bow actually rose a bit or the stern was trying to stay a float more and the decks were compressed at or above sea-level as essentially the stern crumpled them as it struggled to stay afloat.
How the ship broke-up and finally sank (including making the descent to the sea-floor) is just a fascinating series of questions that can never be answered.
I'm also usually humored by various "what if" stories on how it could've been possible for everyone to survive. Most of these scenarios often involving most if not all of the people on the ship to work through social and class barriers, accept that the ship was sinking (something people didn't think was really going to happen in the first place) and to make a plan and to execute it. The "best" idea I recall seeing is tying all of the life-boats together in a ring and in the center of the ring placing as many deck chairs, tables, and other float-able material in the center and further connecting everything together. The "idea" being those who couldn't fit in the boats would be able to survive on the pile of material in the center of the ring.
The Cameron special threw out there the idea that Titanic should've tried steaming towards the nearby Carpathia -closing the gap between the ships. (Though many of the experts weren't sure if this would have been a wise thing to do.) Then there's ideas on what would have happened if the ship simply hit the berg head-on. Yeah it was going 20-25 knots at the time and would've knocked everyone onboard around, caused some injuries, but the ship's structure likely would've faired better and it may have made it to New York.
There's lots of interesting things about Titanic, it's really a fascinating tale. And yeah, "commemorating" is probably a better term than "celebrate." I actually know a guy who is on a ship that's going to recognize the anniversary in the sea over the wreck.
Then when you look at the bow's condition it's "remarkably" good but then you notice that the part the broke off that the decks are compressed and I don't think I've seen much to explain why this is. The recent Cameron special re-examining the sinking thinks it was due to a down burst of water-pressure compressing the decks but I've seen theories that when the ship split the bow actually rose a bit or the stern was trying to stay a float more and the decks were compressed at or above sea-level as essentially the stern crumpled them as it struggled to stay afloat.
How the ship broke-up and finally sank (including making the descent to the sea-floor) is just a fascinating series of questions that can never be answered.
I'm also usually humored by various "what if" stories on how it could've been possible for everyone to survive. Most of these scenarios often involving most if not all of the people on the ship to work through social and class barriers, accept that the ship was sinking (something people didn't think was really going to happen in the first place) and to make a plan and to execute it. The "best" idea I recall seeing is tying all of the life-boats together in a ring and in the center of the ring placing as many deck chairs, tables, and other float-able material in the center and further connecting everything together. The "idea" being those who couldn't fit in the boats would be able to survive on the pile of material in the center of the ring.
The Cameron special threw out there the idea that Titanic should've tried steaming towards the nearby Carpathia -closing the gap between the ships. (Though many of the experts weren't sure if this would have been a wise thing to do.) Then there's ideas on what would have happened if the ship simply hit the berg head-on. Yeah it was going 20-25 knots at the time and would've knocked everyone onboard around, caused some injuries, but the ship's structure likely would've faired better and it may have made it to New York.
There's lots of interesting things about Titanic, it's really a fascinating tale. And yeah, "commemorating" is probably a better term than "celebrate." I actually know a guy who is on a ship that's going to recognize the anniversary in the sea over the wreck.
Crap! I meant commemorating.
Came to the forum with that word in mind but for some reason I had a brain fart.
I've heard various theories that state more damage was done to Titanic due to her turning and trying to avert colliding with the iceberg, where if she hit it head on, serious damage would have been done, but she more than likely would have stayed afloat or it would have taken her much longer to sink. Had the latter happened and she managed to stay up longer, Carpathia may arrived in time.
They illustrated a fascinating scenario, one that I never thought of. If I was there and knew what was going to happen, would there have been anything I could do to save more lives? I did once think, could they have actually piled some of the survivors onto the iceberg? It would have been a dangerous thing to do, especially since it would have not only been freezing on the berg itself, but the fact that it would have been floating away from the disaster scene.
They illustrated a fascinating scenario, one that I never thought of. If I was there and knew what was going to happen, would there have been anything I could do to save more lives? I did once think, could they have actually piled some of the survivors onto the iceberg? It would have been a dangerous thing to do, especially since it would have not only been freezing on the berg itself, but the fact that it would have been floating away from the disaster scene.
Last edited:
I think 2:18 she broke in two. The stern stayed up for a couple of minutes before sinking at 2:20.
That's from a 15 year old memory when I was more 'into' the sinking. Could be wrong.
It's one of those things that something greater came from such a terrible event. The greatly improved maritime safety laws and monitored international shipping lanes came about bacause of the sinking.
Sure you could save 1500 lives but how many more could've been lost in the future? Titanic ended the romantic notion of ocean travel; had it not occured then even bigger ships might've been built, and more lives lost.
Just a thought.
Similar threads
