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103 years ago tonight, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and began sinking. There have been other shipwrecks before and since, but none have struck a chord like this one has, and none has been even remotely as well-known as this one was and still is. (Over 1,000 people died on the Empress of Ireland, and the Sultana, and the General Slocum, and the Dona Paz; yet how many people have even heard of those vessels today?)
So, it turns out that they were right after all: the Titanic really is unsinkable -- not the ship itself, but the memory of her. Indeed, she's probably more famous now than she was when she first set sail.
I first became interested in the Titanic disaster in elementary school (late 1970s), after reading Walter Lord's A Night to Remember. This interest has stayed with me ever since, and James Cameron's movie only served to stoke it further. So how 'bout you? What first drew you to the story? Was it the James Cameron movie? A Night to Remember? Or something else?
When as a child my ma ever stopped banging on about how her grandad was a cabinet maker at Harland and Wolff and helped build it.
It turned out she was almost right, a cousin doing family tree stuff four out he was just a regular joiner at the yard. But at least he did help build it. And it didn't sink because there was anything wrong with its woodwork.
Last edited by BarringtonNI; 04-14-2015 at 09:10 AM..
The Titanic disaster has evolved into a silly pop-culture cliche, but we can't forget that 1500+ real people died that night who shouldn't have thanks to the dumb decisions of the people in charge of building/operating the ship.
The people boarding were dazzled by gigantic and/or shiny stuff as well as "new ship smell" and probably never gave a second thought to the hazards of crossing the Atlantic or the ship's ridiculously insufficient preparations for a worst-case scenario. And when the worst happened, it was a sad illustration of how fast things go to pot when "SHTF" (unfortunately something that is also being wrongly remade into a silly pop-culture cliche).
When I see video or pics of the Titanic either in it's glory days or today on the bottom of the Atlantic, I'm reminded to "Be Prepared!"
(Over 1,000 people died on the Empress of Ireland, and the Sultana, and the General Slocum, and the Dona Paz; yet how many people have even heard of those vessels today?)
We are but 13 days away from the 150th anniversary of the Sultana disaster. The 1700-1800 lives lost, 200 more than the Titanic, makes it the worst maritime calamity in US history.
What has dimmed its fame was that it happened on what was an already overcrowded news day. The day before in Virginia, John Wilkes Booth was shot to death. The day before in North Carolina, General Johnston surrendered to General Sherman, for all intents and purposes ending the Civil War. Finally, the tragedy happened in the context of the Civil War where 650,000 Americans lost their lives. People at the time had become immune to such shocks since they had become accustomed to opening the newspaper and reading about the deaths of thousands over the last four years.
I grew up in Mansfield ohio and in a park there is a monument for the soldiers killed in the Sultana disaster. As quite a few of the victims were from Mansfield, so yes I know about it. But it is interesting to think about as to why it is so unknown yet EVERYBODY knows about Titantic. The Sultana is such a tragic story, with all those men went through only to get killed on their way home.
If you think the Titanic was a tragedy......that iceberg actually sank TWO ships.
Knee-jerk government regulations stemming from politicizing the Titanic's sinking and "doing something to prevent it from happening again" killed another 800+ people.
Interesting stuff. There was a segment on Antiques Roadshow last night concerning the Titanic. A woman had a picture of a family actually taken aboard the ship just prior to departure. A copy of the picture was sent to Walter Lord who wrote back and indicated it was authentic.
The family, husband, wife and child survived but narrowly. Apparently they were almost struck by a lifeboat being lowered just above them. The release mechanism on their own boat wouldn't release. Finally a crewmember cut the ropes and pushed their boat away.
I found it sad that more could have been saved but the weight capacity of the boats was unknown and initially a number were lowered with considerably less than full load. The water was calm so they could even have been overloaded but it was not done. Of course lifeboats is a misnomer as the Titanic episode was an ideal example of wind/water/ship condition for launching. Not so a few years later with a similar sized vessel, the Lusitania.
I seem to recall the Celtic hit an iceberg bows on and survived. There is a pic somewhere of the ship returning to port with a crushed bow. Hence the speculation that Titanic may have survived a head-on strike. I did see one documentary where that idea was criticized as the impact would spring plates along the hull length and cause extensive and rapid flooding to heel her over.
Well I have a personal family connection with the Titanic that has been discussed in the forums before...and picked up by the media. You can do a search on it all. Getting into more detail goes into uncomfortable privacy territory when your user name is splashed all over the internet.
Basically it's this - the Titanic for my wife's grandmother meant only one thing - the death of her father. No mystery, no historical event, no cultural significance - just growing up without a father.
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