Titanic

[neferetus]

Here's your chance to vent your thoughts, feelings and information on the Titanic ship disaster of 1912.

This thread was prompted by the following Associated Press release.

[neferetus]

TITANIC HAS SOLE SURVIVOR

AP

November 9, 2007 -- LONDON - Barbara West Dainton, believed to be one of the last two survivors from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, has died in England at age 96.

Dainton died Oct. 16 at a nursing home in Camborne, England, according to Peter Visick, a distant relative. Her funeral was held Monday.

Elizabeth Gladys "Millvina" Dean of Southampton, England, who was 2 months old when the Titanic sank, is now the only remaining survivor, according to the Titanic Historical Society.

The last American survivor, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died in Massachusetts last year at 99.

[neferetus]

I guess technically, the last Titanic survivor with a memory of the disaster has already died.

[neferetus]

Author Walter Lord has written two wonerful books about the Titanic. A NIGHT TO REMEMBER (1955) and its sequel THE NIGHT LIVES ON (1986). Both are written in Lord's inimitable "you are there" style.

There were both heroes and villians on that NIGHT TO REMEMBER. Bruce Ismay, of The White Star Line and a passenger on the Titanic's maiden voyage, falls under the latter category. In THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Lord has this to say about Ismay's behaviour:

"Bruce Ismay would never live it down. As Chairman and Managing Director of The White Star Line, he was ultimately responsible for the shortage of lifeboats, yet he went off in a boat, leaving hundreds stranded on the sloping decks. Captain Smith, people felt, at least had the good grace to go down with the ship. In Chicago, a young newspaperman named Ben Hecht put the contrast into verse:

The Captain stood where a captain should
For the law of the sea is grim.
The owner romped ere his ship was swamped
And no law bothered him.

The Captain stood where the captain should
When a captain's boat goes down.
But the owner led when the women fled
For an owner must not drown.

The Captain sank as a man of rank
While his owner turned away.
The Captain's grave was his bridge, and brave
He earned his seaman's pay.

To hold your place in the ghastly face
Of death on the sea at night
Is a seaman's job, but to flee with the mob
Is an owner's noble right."

[Bromhead24]

But what about Rose?

[Greg C.]

Love the history, hate the movie.

"Please don't let go!"-Jack
"I'll never let go! I swear, I'll never let go!"-Rose
(Lets go of Jack's hand. Weeps, shivers)
End Scene

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

But what about Rose?

Some say he went over the wall, but that's another topic altogether.

[Bromhead24]

neferetus said:

bromhead24 said:

But what about Rose?

Some say he went over the wall, but that's another topic altogether.

He didn't fight at the battle of Waterloo just to be killed hold up in a broken down mission (or something like that)

[Greg C.]

Why is this under "Unexplained"?

[neferetus]

A Rose is a Rose is A Rose. One may've gone over the wall; the other may've thrown the Star of The Ocean back into the drink. No one knows for sure.

Now, let's get back to the topic of Captain Smith and Molly Brown on the Titanic. Yes?

[Bromhead24]

Before Capt smith assumed the captain of the Titanic, he was the skipper of the Olympic
Which he crashed into a smaller steam ship and caused massave damage to both ships.

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

Before Capt smith assumed the captain of the Titanic, he was the skipper of the Olympic
Which he crashed into a smaller steam ship and caused massave damage to both ships.

Interesting, Bromhead. Most film versions of Titanic seem to make Captain Smith appear as but a victim of Ismay, who wanted to make a record time crossing of the Atlantic for the ship's maiden voyage---the devil with safety.

[Greg C.]

Did the christening champagne bottle not break before the voyage? I heard that rumor as well....

[neferetus]

admin said:

Did the christening champagne bottle not break before the voyage? I heard that rumor as well....

The Titanic never did have a christening ceremony, Greg. As Walter Lord states in a photo caption from THE NIGHT LIVES ON:

Belfast, Ireland, May 31st, 1911. Lubricated by 23 tons of tallow, train oil and soft soap, the new White Star Liner Titanic slides down the ways, destined to become the largest ship in the world. All Belfast turned out for the show. Curiously, there was no christening ceremony. As one shipyard worker explained, "They just builds 'er and shoves 'er in."

[Bromhead24]

If she would have run head on into the berg, she wouldn't have sunk or at least reduced the probability.

[neferetus]

bromhead24 said:

If she would have run head on into the berg, she wouldn't have sunk or at least reduced the probability.

You know your Titanic, Mike. Or at least you know a lot about ship collisions. Here's how Walter Lord explains it in THE NIGHT LIVES ON:

Actually, there seemed to be only one moment when the Titanic really might've been saved, and that came at the very start of the crisis, when lookout Fleet reported the iceberg to the bridge. If First Officer Murdoch had steamed right into the berg instead of trying to miss it, he might have saved the ship. There would have been a fearful crash---passengers and crew in the first 100 feet would have been killed by the impact---but the Titanic would have remained afloat.

It would have been like the Arizona, 33 years earlier. Tumbling on deck, her passengers found her crumpled bow pressed against the ice. Fearing the end, they clung to each other in tears. Yet it was not the end, and when they finally realized that the Arizona's collision bulkhead would hold, they joined in a prayer of thanksgiving and sang the hymn "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow".

The Titanic was not the Arizona. She hit the berg a glancing blow, not head on; but Murdoch could not be blamed for trying to miss it. He did what he had been trained to do---in the same circumstances. His great misfortune was that, in his own succinct words, "she was just too close."

[Bromhead24]

[quote author=neferetus board=talksupernatural thread=1194711519 post=1194919791You know your Titanic, Mike. Or at least you know a lot about ship collisions.
[/quote]


12 years in the Navy

[neferetus]

Any close calls?

[Bromhead24]

neferetus said:

Any close calls?

Yes, my ship the USS Iowa was moored on the east end of the panama canal and a destroyer was moored to us meaning the crew of the destroyer had to cross our ship to reach the pier.

Well we where getting to cross the canal so the destroyer had to unhook from our ship.
Instead of making a hard right reverse, the ship went straight back scraping the side of our ship and eventually the destroyer
hooked on a bosins davit and ripped a 20 foot gash on the destroyers port side.

Still trying to get un hooked, the destroyer went forward and caught the davit again and knocked a large hole in her superstructure big enough for a man to almost go thru standing up.

Then the destroyer shoved it in reverse again at full power and ripped off our davit and she was finally free.

So we thought, the destroyer drifted right in back of our stern about 75 to 100 yards and threw it in full ahead.
She was heading straight at us. Everybody who was at the stern ran for their lives.

I was standing at the starboard side of turret three watching when it the last minute, the destroyer turned and missed us my a few feet.

The destroyer had to retuen to her shipyard for repairs and the only damage to us was that it needed a paint job where she was scratched up and the davit replaced which the metal shop boys did in no time.

[neferetus]

Wow! Amazing story, Bromhead. You know, there are persons on this board with true-to-life stories that are every bit as fascinating as the story of the Alamo. Thanks so much for sharing, Mike.