Friday, April 15, 2016

Titanic: ICEBERG

[Yesterday;s post disappeared...thanks to the cyber ghost! Reposting...]

On April 10, 1912, the ship of dreams, RMS Titanic, sets sail, on its maiden voyage. Early afternoon of April 11 the Titanic leaves Queenstown heading across the Atlantic towards New York. Passengers enjoy life aboard the luxurious ocean liner with calm seas April 12 & 13. The Titanic timeline is growing unexpectedly shorter with excitement escalating minute by minute.

This Day in History: April 14, 1912

Fascination with the Titanic will forever be in our hearts.

One historian has claimed, “The three most written-about subjects of all time are
Jesus, the Civil War, and the Titanic.”
UNSINKABLE. Why we can't let go of the Titanic.

Four days at sea...

One of the largest and most luxurious passenger liners at the time, the Titanic is fitted-out with luxurious lounges, squash courts, exquisite restaurants and concert halls. The Titanic is now four days at sea with excitement engulfing the very being of all on board.

https://peggywirgau.com/2014/09/17/titanics-most-exclusive-restaurant/

By many the Titanic was dubbed 'unsinkable'. Its hull was divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. Four of these compartments could be flooded without causing a critical loss of buoyancy, thereby the connotation 'unsinkable'. Indeed, sinkable was unthinkable!

Perhaps the mere suggestion shed a dim light on the fate of the massive ocean liner. What is even more interesting is the novella called “Futility,” written in 1898 by an American writer named Morgan Robertson. It begins with a great ocean liner of innovative triple-screw design, “the largest craft afloat and the greatest of the works of men. . . . Unsinkable—indestructible.”

The story features the ocean liner Titan, which sinks in the North Atlantic after striking an iceberg. The Titan and its sinking have been noted to be very similar to the real-life passenger ship RMS Titanic, which sank fourteen years later. Following the wreck the novel was reissued with some changes, particularly in the ship's gross tonnage.
Source: en.wikipedia.org

All seems calm...

The iceberg thought to have been hit by Titanic,
photographed by the chief steward of the liner
Prinz Adalbert on the morning of 15 April 1912.
The iceberg was reported to have a streak of red paint
from a ship's hull along its waterline on one side.

The fate of the Titanic was not to reach the shores of America. Just before midnight, April 14, 1912, in the North Atlantic, the RMS Titanic fails to divert its course from an iceberg. Five of Titanic's 16 compartments were ruptured when the ocean liner struck the iceberg along its starboard side. Thus, the beginning of the sinking ship deemed by many to be "unsinkable".

Tragedy behind the tragedy was that so many more lives could have been save IF...

~Earlier warnings from other ships throughout the day had been heeded. about the presence of icebergs.
~There had not been a shortage of lifeboats on-board.
~Lifeboats available had been filled to capacity.
~More satisfactory emergency procedures had been in place