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WAY OT...... The Titanic...... Sobering experience

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cedge:
I've been fascinated by the Titanic ship wreck ever since I managed to acquire an original newspaper from April 15 1912.  It was such an early edition that the White Star lines were still expressing doubt that the ship could have been lost. The irony of that report struck me in a way I still don't quite understand. Suffice it to say I've studied the wreck for years and read numerous accounts of that horrible night.

I always knew in my mind that the loss of life was terrible and often tried to imagine how it might have been to see the life boats adrift in that very cold ocean, knowing that escape was not an option for you. Ok... a bit morbid, but the bravery and the fear such a situation were something few of us will ever understand.

This week, I visited the Atlanta Aquarium with my grandkids... something that seems to be evolving into an annual birthday present from them to me. On display there were artifacts recovered from the Titanic, where it lies today. I was quite curious, even though I strongly disagree with the site being disturbed for profit. We purchased our tickets and entered the exhibit. As we entered, each of the 5 of us were given "boarding passes" with a name, a berthing location and a short but informative biography of our identity. It felt a little hokey, but we all held onto our boarding pass as we toured the collection.

As I previously said, I'd always known, on an intellectual level, that that night held unspeakable personal horrors and acts of bravery, along with a lot of less admirable human actions and reactions. What I was not prepared for was the impact that those very human related items would have on me..... emotionally. Items as simple as buttons, toothbrushes and chamber pots or as complex and inhuman as parts of an engine telegraph or the whistle pipe from stack #4 brought the picture I'd always carried in my mind to a whole new level of focus. There were letters still un-posted, calling cards and immigration ID's, all giving clues to the status of the former owners. Dishes adorned according to travel class and mock ups of state rooms for each class told bits of the story as well.

At the end of the tour, you walked into a room where personal effects and clothing from multiple classes were on display, still covered with mud from deep beneath the waters. Central to this display was a HUGE list of names who were onboard the ship that fateful night. You were invited to find "your" name among them, thus determining your own fate in the disaster.  Of the five of us, my youngest grandson was the only one to survive. It was then that the cold chill of reality was complete for me.

Sobering is a very small word to describe a pretty large feeling. I will never quite see the Titanic in the same light, and for that I am both grateful and sorrowful. It will never be seen in abstract, ever again, but perhaps my own attachment to it's history will be much more based in reality than if I'd never visited the exhibit. Either way, a simple exhibition of perhaps mundane artifacts brought forth a deeper understanding of our mortality in a world we have only small control over. I'm not the same as I was, but I'm not quiet sure I could define the difference, even if I knew exactly what changed within me.

Sorry of the melodramatic flavor of the post, but I thought you might share a few moments of reflection with me.

Steve

John Hill:
Steve, yes a terrible day in the history of maritime passenger travel.

What is suprising to me is that of all the accounts I have read there appears to have not been any attempt, however unlikely to succeed, of actually doing something to save the lives of those on board or even the ship.

OK, it was a big ship and the hole was really big but they had steam, they had winches, they had manpower and I just guarantee they had acres of tarps on board,  why was there no attempt to rig a collison sheet over the hole?  In hindsite it was probably impossible but did they even try?

Consider for a moment that there were 1200 (?) passengers and the same number of crew?  I dont know the numbers but there were a lot of people.  A lot of people means a lot of bunks, a lot of bunks means a lot of mattresses which in those days were probably filled with kapok.  OK, just put that thought aside for a moment.

If I understand correctly the ship was lost because the watertight partitions did not reach deck level and as water reached the top of one partition it flowed over into the next, and so on.  With a few dozen crew collecting all the mattresses, all the linen from the stores, all the laundry bags, all the towels etc etc maybe, just maybe, if they had stuffed the upper levels of the slowly flooding compartments they would have reduced or even stopped the water inflow.

The ship had, if I recall correctly, 24 boilers in full steam at the time of the collision,  the engineers had to vent them to avoid boiler explosions.  I dont recall how much of the engine room was flooded or out of action.  At the same time they could see the lights of another ship.  Now the damage was near the bow of the ship so trying to steam over to the other ship may not have been a prudent move,  but why could they not have gone at least part of the distance  by steaming astern?

Just what did the crew do, if anything, to stave off the final disaster?

John Stevenson:
John,
From the way I saw this and I have done a lot of reading on it as wrecks have fascinated me, is that the crew would just be obeying orders from captain Smith.
What you have to remember in those days no one disobeyed orders and no one was expected to think for himself.
It was a very class concious society, in fact the same environment that made aristocratic buffoons send thousands of men over the top in the trenches just a scant two years later.

JS

bogstandard:
According to the records, I think Captain Smith (a nearly local man) was exonerated of his actions because he was being forced into decisions by the shipping line owner, and his life saving decisions were most probably stalled, because of waiting for confirmation.

Although he was captain of the ship, he was having to obey orders from above.

The shipping line magnate made sure he had a place in a lifeboat, and was duly saved.
There was uproar when his rescue became public, the general feeling was that he should have gone down with the ship, as Captain Smith had done.

John

Bernd:
Steve,

Very touching story. Probably going through that exhibit made it come to be more of a reality for you than just seeing pictures or watching the movie. Actually pretending to be one the passengers and finding in the end that you didn't make it sort of hit home that we are mortal after all.

If rumor has it right I believe the place I used to work at, Gleason Works, had a roadman (service engineer?) returning from England. I should find out if that's true and what his name was. Perhaps next year you could look and see if he is on that list.

Bernd

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