Tomorrow is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. A wreath will be laid at the White Star building in Liverpool at 11.am.
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Tomorrow is the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. A wreath will be laid at the White Star building in Liverpool at 11.am.
2008 I was on QE2 and we were over the site of the TITANIC on the 96th Anniversary, we had a Service of rememberence on the after deck and then several wreaths were thrown overboard into the Atlantic. Some of the passengers had distant relatives who went down with it.
It was a cold day, just been raining before the Service and the sea moderate.
A US Ice Patrol Plane flew over and dropped a wreath, The nearest ice berg was 25 miles away.
sailed over the position a few times it always came downfrom the bridge ...what time we would be over the excact known position.....always felt some sadnees at thes happenings ...cappy
Cappy someone must have a list and number of all the ships lost in the North Atlantic in the last war alone. Must be going over some ships grave very often on a North Atlantic crossing. Cheers John S.
true john and how sad is that .......titanic is one of thousands over the years......since the vikings it has gone on and all the seafarers and all others gone with ithem cappy
John, That will apply only if the Captain in question has an olympic gold medal for the long jump. As shittino obviously did.:confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by j.sabourn
Hi Shipmates,
This evening I have read through the contents of this thread which, inexplicably, I had previously overlooked. It is for that reason I ask members to forgive my intrusion to the current flow of the thread so that I may respond to the original query raised by member, Neil Howard.
In view of some difference of opinion expressed by members regarding the steering mechanism of the Titanic I add the following information from a book I own, given to me by my wife some years ago. Titled 'Titanic and her Sisters, Olympic and Britannic' it is a large, heavy book which, meticulously detailed, contains a treasury of wonderfully graphic pictures, plans and all manner of information, including partial transcript of the Court of Inquiry that followed the tragedy. Furthermore, it provides the full White Star passengers list (detailing whether British or otherwise, their point of embarkation, family groups, and asterisks to denote those that survived). There is a similar list of all crew members, plus a comprehensive cargo manifest. In short, it is the most exhaustive publication of the tragedy I have seen. For the information and, I hope, the interest of fellow members I have copied the following short extract from the book.
........High up ahead of the bridge, the two lookouts were probably concentrating as much on keeping warm as they were on trying to peer into the darkness ahead. Although there was no wind, the ship's speed would have been enough to send a bitingly cold draught through the rigging and the lookout's eyes would have been streaming in the chill air. As was mentioned earlier, they had no binoculars, and how much this affected their ability to do their job proficiently that night can only be speculated upon, though it is doubtless that it did not help matters. At 9.45pm., Lightoller told the Sixth Officer to warn the men in the crow's nest to keep an especially sharp lookout for ice until daybreak, particularly small ice and growlers (icebergs less than 15ft tall and 50ft long). After acknowledging the order Jewell turned to his mate Symons and murmured: 'It is very cold here'. Symons replied, 'Yes, by the smell of it there's ice about'. Shortly after 11.30pm., less than half an hour before they were due to be relieved, the lookouts noticed an area of low lying mist ahead and the air became damp, adding to their discomfort. Silence descended as the two men peered intently ahead. Suddenly, without a word, Fleet tensed, leaned forward for a brief second and then reached across to give three sharp tugs on the lanyard which rang the 16-inch high brass bell suspended above the crow's nest. As the sharp tones rang out, Fleet frantically grabbed the telephone linked directly to the bridge and twirled the ringer handle. Alerted by the warning bell, Sixth Officer James Moody picked up his receiver and heard the fatal message.
'Iceberg right ahead!'.
As the Titanic sped through the darkness towards it's doom, the majority of the passengers and crew had not the slightest inkling that they were in any danger at all. The lowering temperatures had long since driven the passengers off the promenade decks into the warmth of the saloons and cabins. Many had joined together to form their own groups and parties at dinner, one of which included the captain, and afterwards had dispersed to the smoke rooms, lounges and their own cabins. In the second class dining saloon, the Reverend E.C. Carter had organized a hymn service, attended by over a hundred passengers, which started at 8.00pm. and lasted until after 10.00pm. By 11.30pm., just before the impact, most of the passengers had followed the captain's example and had retired to bed, leaving only a few stalwarts finishing their nightcaps and smoking a last cigar in the almost deserted smoking rooms and lounges.
On the bridge, the calm routine of the night was shattered by the warning bell from the crow's nest and Fleet's dramatic telephone call, although Sixth Officer Moody did not forget his manners as he thanked the lookout for his report before calling across to First Officer Murdoch, 'Iceberg right ahead!'.
Murdoch's reactions were creditably instantaneous. Leaping forward he grabbed the handles of the engine telegraph and rang down. 'Stop', followed by, 'Full Astern'. At the same time he ordered the helmsman, Quartermaster Robert Hitchens, to turn the wheel 'Hard-a-Starboard'. The order was obeyed promptly, Hitchens
spinning the wheel as far as it would go, causing the ship to begin swinging to port (the apparent discrepency
between the helm order and the direction of the turn results from a system of orders in common use at that time which dated back to the days when ships were steered by a tiller, and pushing it to starboard resulted in a turn to port and vice versa. This system survived until the more logical current system was made standard in 1928). As the ship began to turn, Murdoch pressed the bell switch which warned all in the lower compartments
that the watertight doors were about to close automatically, holding it down for 10 seconds before operating the lever to actuate the closure.
Despite the prompt reaction of all invoved, the ship had only veered some 20 degrees to port when the collision occurred. The interval between the first sighting and the impact was later estimated to have been a little over 30 seconds, only enough time for the ship to cover some 500 yds and far too short to allow any successful avoiding action to be taken. Although a head on collision had been averted, the starboard side of the Titanic's
hull crashed into the great mass of solid ice which then scraped relentlessly along the brittle underwater plating, leaving a trail of damage estimated at 300 ft.long. In places it had gashed open the hull to a width of a few inches; in some points the hole was as little as half an inch wide. It was enough. ...................
So there you have it folks, for what it's worth. Sorry for the interruption but I though it might add to what has gone before.
..............Roger
Roger, Like yourself I have been interested in the Titanic saga all my life. And also hold a lot of informative material. There is a book out there called the Futility, wrote and published by an American ex seaman Morgan Robertson first published in 1898. It had some remarkable coincidences that caught the publics imagination regarding the Titanic. In his book a large ocean going liner called the Titan foundered by striking an ice berg roughly were Titanic did some 16yrs later. This link takes you through some of what he wrote and brought him fame and fortune. What everyone didn't and doesn't realise is that the book that sold in its 1.000s after Titanic 1914 was an edited version he had cashed in on but still very uncanny. Regards Terry.:rolleyes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Robertson
Thank you for that account Roger, very interesting.
Many accounts of ships hitting icebergs showed that it is better to hit head on rather than scrape alongside as the TITANIC did thus opening all the watertight compartments.
Head on only the Forepeak and the collision bulkheads compartment would have flooded and the ship saved. There are many examples of this.
But also there are many theories that say the force of the ship with her tonnage hitting head on at her speed with the kinnetic energy, would also have been fatal. , all the rivets would have popped and the plates crupled and so more water would have gone in faster.
Now here is a film of TITANIC colliding with the iceberg, It must be True as it is made by Hollywood.
http://youtu.be/Q8CadIi00U4
.
Brian.
Anyone, where was the last rivet fitted aboard the Titanic ? All 3,000,000 of them Terry.:p