Tonight, April 14th / 15th, 2019, marks 107 years since the sinking of the RMS Titanic. In fact, right now as I begin to write this, 10:31 PM Central Time, would have been 12:33 or so AM the morning of the 15th, 1912, for the Titanic – she would have struck the iceberg 50 minutes or so ago, and only have another hour and 50 minutes afloat
The story is known by most anyone, at least in some form – this “ship of dreams” on its maiden voyage, the “unsinkable” Titanic, struck an iceberg and sunk, taking about two thirds of the people onboard with it.
It’s painted as a story of mans arrogance, and as an example of the classism of the Edwardian era, and while these thoughts are somewhat true, the reality of the event, like much of history, is incredibly nuanced.
It’s a story I’ve had a fascination with for most of my life.
Titanic was discovered at the bottom of the ocean floor the same year I was born, and since that discovery much of the reality of that night has been verified – most obviously that she broke up during the sinking, but other aspects of the sinking were brought to light, as well as some mysteries of life onboard the ship, details of her design which were in conflict with existing blueprints, and in later expeditions areas of the ship which simply were never documented to any serious degree, but were known to be quite special (such as the Turkish Baths) would be entered and documented.
I had a book on the ship when I was a child, much like the many many books I had on rockets and space – I would go through that book countless times in my youth, reading the story, seeing the paintings of the ship in its prime and at the bottom of the ocean floor, it all stuck with me.
Advance to 1997 and the James Cameron film. While it may not be as true to the actual sinking and story as it could be, has a very bland plot, it did strike a major bit of interest in the ship again, and more research on the vessel and how she really sank.
Cameron, himself being someone interested in the ship as much as any of us, would following the film approach the sinking again, along with other researchers to provide an even better look on the details of how exactly she sank, and how she wound up in the state she is in on the bottom of the ocean floor – not just broken apart, but with the two halves facing opposite directions and showing the kinds of damage they do, the stern having imploded and the bow looking to have been somewhat crushed from above.
It would be around this same time that an exhibition of Titanic artifacts would come to Memphis. I don’t recall this exhibit as much as you would think I would, but I know I went as part of a school trip. It was a neat event, I guess, but again, since I can’t recall I can’t say for sure how the experience was.
As time would pass people would grow tired of the ship and find the next thing to take interest in, but my fascination with the story never ended. Years later I would find myself reading up on the ship, learning new things, continuing to fill my memory with more and more little facts, stories, trivial bits of information that make the ship real.
Indeed, it’s one of those stories that’s so well known it almost feels like a legend, a piece of fiction. Of course, it’s not — it’s an incredibly real event. The hull of the ship is still slowly rusting away at the bottom of the Atlantic. Of about 2200 people onboard, only just over 700 were able to get to safety. Even some who made it to the lifeboats, which at capacity could have held only a little over 1100 people, didn’t survive the incredibly cold night. Ships would later come to recover as many of the bodies as they could, most dying of the cold rather than drowning.
It’s an absolutely tragic reality, one of many in human history, but blame is often placed in the wrong spots. Ignorance, more than malice, plays the greatest role in the tragedy.
While many felt the ship was practically unsinkable, it was known that a very unlikely type of flooding would bring the behemoth down. Such is what happened that night, and oddly it is suspected that if the Titanic had hit the iceberg head on she may have stayed afloat, if only for longer than she did.
The number of life boats, too, was far above regulation for the era, and while one of the ships designers wished for the Olympic class to have far more boats, this was seen as crowding to the boat deck, and they were removed from the final plans of the ships. Still, the number an capacity of lifeboats onboard Titanic and its sisters were fine for the era – especially since, at this time, lifeboats were thought to ferry passengers an crew from the stricken vessel to a nearby safe one, as it was thought Titanic would stay afloat much longer, if indefinitely, allowing another ship to reach her with time to spare.
Indeed, she stayed afloat for 2 hours and 40 minutes and for much of that time seemed to stay steady in the water. Sadly, this wouldn’t be long enough and it would be many hours before the Carpathia would reach her location.
As the years have gone on, I’ve learned so much, and continue to regularly hunt for and try to discover new facts, new stories from the ship – its construction, its time on the sea, its sinking, the crew, passengers, the design, the sister ships Olympic and Brittanic, the nature of life in 1912, ship building in general, so many topics all surrounding this night 107 years ago.
I’m not alone in this, as there are many, many others as enthralled by the story of the Titanic as I. There is even a group working on an incredible game based on the story of the ship, with a major focus on historical accuracy. Their incredible re-creation of the ship has already been shown partially in several tech demo’s, and even now, as I type this (it’s now 11:15 PM my time, 1:17 PM Titanic Time) the Titanic: Honor and Glory team is conducting an annual live stream discussing the ship, the sinking, and the details of the final hours of the ship in real time.
Indeed, I implore most anyone interested in the Titanic to not only check out their work, but the work of others in various sinking re-creations, fact discussions, and other projects related to this event. I absolutely adore history, both the glory and successes we have had as humans and, to put this in perspective, the failures and tragedies.
The story of the Titanic is both a success, the most massive machine humans had ever made at the time, and a tragedy for how it all ended, and how much life was lost along with the ship.
I have to say, the Olympic class on a whole, but most specifically the Titanic herself, stand to me as some of the most beautiful machines ever built, and as someone who loves good engineering and design I feel I must mention this fact. The experience of being on board had to be incredible, making how it all ended even more of a tragedy.
Indeed, many who were on board were slated for other ships, but that’s another part of the story I could go on and on and on about…
I will end with a link or two, and one final note that haunts me.
As the ship sank, the stern going under the water, many survivors reported heard thunder all around them, some feeling as if it came from another world or hell itself (or so I’ve heard that some said), even though it was a clear night. The sound they heard we would later realize was the sound of the stern of the ship imploding as it sank deeper into the ocean.
They heard the death of the ship. A chilling thing to imagine, on top of all the horror going on around them in the icy North Atlantic.
More happy things to come, but I felt the urge to share these thoughts tonight. I know I normally write about video games and technology, but, well, there’s more to me than that alone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
As I publish this it’s now the 15th for me. Titanic has about 15 minutes left afloat, and I debated heavily with myself after writing if I should publish it. Given what other content I’ve published, I finally decided it’s totally acceptable, and so, with this, I click publish.