Remember the Titanic- 110th Anniversary

[Henry Avery]

It was 110 years ago today, April 14th, when the luxurious ocean liner R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, creating one of the worst maritime disasters in history. Near midnight that night, the ship, due to the lookout’s neglect of duty, they would fail to warn of the approaching berg, and thus the helmsman would attempt a disastrous turn to port. The helmsman didn’t have enough time, and the ice struck the starboard side, punching a 300 ft long series of gashes into the hull, resulting in the breaching of 5 watertight compartments, rather than the 4 the vessel was meant to withstand. The liner took three years to build, and only two hours to vanish into the depths, taking with her some eleven hundred and fifty souls. She wouldn’t be seen again by human eyes for another 73 years, when discovered by Dr. Robert Ballard.

[Argo]

The Titanic disaster has inspired countless stories.

That's not surprising. A luxury ocean liner sinking into the freezing Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, dooming over 1,500 people, makes for a tale charged with pathos and danger.

Starting with "Saved from the Titanic," a short silent film starring one of the survivors, artists have churned out work after work detailing the chilling events of the April 15, 1912 disaster.

Two novels were written seemingly to predict the fateful maiden journey.

The first work was written in 1886 by W.T. Stead, a prominent spiritualist and investigative journalist.

"How the Mail Steamer Went Down in Mid Atlantic, by a Survivor" tells the story of an unnamed ocean liner that sinks in the Atlantic. In the story, the protagonist is a sailor named Thompson, who grows concerned over the lifeboat shortage on deck. Sure enough, the liner collides with a small sailing ship in a fog.

In a horrible twist of fate, Stead lost his life in the disaster, and in another strange twist, he reportedly was convinced he'd die by either lynching or drowning.

The second novella — "The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility" by Morgan Robertson, 1898, — boasted even more startling similarities to the sinking of the Titanic.


The story follows the fictional ocean liner Titan, which ultimately hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sinks. And the name and circumstances of the plot aren't the only details that fit the real-life disaster — the History of the Net breaks down a number of striking connections between the real-life and fictional ships.

The Titan's sinking resulted in the deaths of all 2,500 people on board, save 13. Over 1,500 people died on the Titanic, while 705 survivors made it out.

...5 CONSPIRACY THEORIES ...

1. First, it's important to note that the Titanic was constructed in the city of Belfast by the shipbuilding firm Harland and Wolff.

The conspiracy theory is that Catholic workers reacted in horror when the new ship's hull number — 3909 04 — was unveiled.

The reason? If you flip 3909 04 upside down, it kind of looks like "NO POPE." As far as the theory goes, the Catholic workers saw this as blasphemy, and worried that harm would come to the ship.
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2. Did an ancient mummy seal the Titanic's fate?According to the legend, an ancient, mummified princess left a trail of death and devastation across England in the early 1900s after being excavated and removed from Egypt



. DEBUNKEDThat hasn't stopped the British Museum's so-called "unlucky mummy" from getting blamed for the ship's sinking, though.



3. Some still speculate that a German U-boat was really behind the ship's sinking.A number of Titanic survivors reported to have noticed "an unidentified vessel approximately five to six miles away" from the sinking ship, which reportedly lingered until 2 a.m., according to Dr. Franklin Ruehl's piece in The Huffington Post.



4. What if the Titanic never sank at all?In the book "Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank?" researcher Robin Gardiner wrote that the whole disaster was the result of an insurance scam by the International Mercantile Marine Co., which owned the White Star Line. The Olympic and the Titanic were both White Star Line vessels.

According to Gardiner's theory, the trouble started when the Olympic crashed into a warship in 1911, and was blamed for the accident in an ensuing inquiry. As a result, the White Star Line — an IMM subsidiary — was unable to receive an insurance payout.



5. JP Morgan was behind the whole thing. There's a theory out there that JP Morgan sank the Titanic in order to pave the way for the establishment of the Federal Reserve Bank in the US. The bank's creation was reportedly opposed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, mining magnate Benjamin Guggenheim, and Macy's co-owner Isidor Straus.



These three wealthy men did indeed lose their lives when the Titanic sank.

(Blog: BusinessInsider)

What do you think - Do you agree TItanic hit an iceberg or was it something else that caused her sinking and the loss of so many lives?

[Most Lee Harmless]

Violet Jessop is probably the most remarkable survivor of the Titanic sinking. A nurse, she also survived the sinking of the Brittanic. Further, she was aboard the Olympic when it was in collision with the warship.

So, three tragic sister ships united by one unsinkable nurse : that has to be worth a Jonah Conspiracy!

[DezNutz]

Near midnight that night, the ship, due to the lookout’s neglect of duty, they would fail to warn of the approaching berg, and thus the helmsman would attempt a disastrous turn to port. The helmsman didn’t have enough time

The lookout was not negligent.

The iceburg was spotted well within time for the Titanic, if it was moving at the recommended speed for the conditions, to avoid. However, the captain chose to move at a much faster speed. Thus it wasn't able to steer clear in time.

[Lil Lola]

German Uboat hit the Lusitania though I believe. I have heard that there was another boat that tried communicating with the Titanic before it sunk telling it to change course. I’m wondering if that’s where that conspiracy theory came from.

[Henry Avery]

Near midnight that night, the ship, due to the lookout’s neglect of duty, they would fail to warn of the approaching berg, and thus the helmsman would attempt a disastrous turn to port. The helmsman didn’t have enough time

The lookout was not negligent.

The iceburg was spotted well within time for the Titanic, if it was moving at the recommended speed for the conditions, to avoid. However, the captain chose to move at a much faster speed. Thus it wasn't able to steer clear in time.

the lookout also had no binoculars due to the locker's key being lost. warning still could have come sooner.

[Most Lee Harmless]

There was more than one single cause of the Titanic tragedy. There was more than one single reason for the tremendous loss of life.

For example, a ship of that size would have more than a single lookout on duty in the Crow's Nest. There would, or should be, both port and starboard lookouts stationed on the bridge wings. A forward lookout stationed towards the bow also. Given the ship was moving at speed, at night and towards a known and reported area containing icebergs (there were more than just the single berg which struck), then the fact that none of the lookouts, nor the watch officers on the bridge, noted the presence of the berg until it was too late to avoid it, suggests that it was hard enough to discern at close range, never mind from the Crow's Nest, with or without binoculars.

A number of designs flaws contributed to the sinking. The so-called 'unsinkable' ship was nothing of the sort : it was PR fluff... 'less sinkable' would be a more accurate term. Once the hull was breached the first compartment was easily over-topped above a certain deck level then it is not unlike a domino effect as the adjacent compartments are filled in turn by the over-topping floodwater. That holds true for all hulls, regardless of the number of compartments or complexity of design. Simply put, no hull could have survived such an extent of breaching at the waterline.

Even then, the hull remained afloat for more than enough time to evacuate the passengers : save that a design decision, one perfectly acceptable given the regulations of the time, meant there were too few lifeboats to take-off the whole ships complement.

The rest is the usual mess of ill-luck born of circumstances few could have contemplated much less prepared for. Titanic issued a radio alert : but few of the vessels nearby were equipped or adequately crewed to receive it. Most carried a single radio operator and when they went off-duty the receiver was unattended.

Add in uncertainty as to the stricken vessels actual position, and the answering vessels equal uncertainty as to their own true position (no GPS back then : it was raw navigation by stars, compass and complex calculation. A few fractions of a degree inaccuracy could have a rescue ship steaming past just over the jorizon with no notion of what they were passing.

There are many reasons for the tragedy, blaming it all on one single crewman is unreasonable : that is why you have more than one look-out.

Nowadays we have GPS, depth-finders, radar, satelite navigation, instant weather reports, multiple redundancy in radio and communications. And every day ships hit rocks, reefs and each other.

Those who go down to the sea should always remember, not all will return.

[Lil Lola]

Near midnight that night, the ship, due to the lookout’s neglect of duty, they would fail to warn of the approaching berg, and thus the helmsman would attempt a disastrous turn to port. The helmsman didn’t have enough time

The lookout was not negligent.

The iceburg was spotted well within time for the Titanic, if it was moving at the recommended speed for the conditions, to avoid. However, the captain chose to move at a much faster speed. Thus it wasn't able to steer clear in time.

the lookout also had no binoculars due to the locker's key being lost. warning still could have come sooner.

The Captain had plenty of warnings. He was an arrogant man who fully believed the nothing could sink the titanic with all of the modern engineering of that day. That’s a fact that has been well documented. Don’t blame the lookout when the captain went Captain Ahab on a white whale of an ice cube.

[Henry Avery]

oh i understand that but still, lookout could have done a better job.

[Argo]

Lolita said: The Captain had plenty of warnings. He was an arrogant man who fully believed the nothing could sink the titanic with all of the modern engineering of that day. That’s a fact that has been well documented. Don’t blame the lookout when the captain went Captain Ahab on a white whale of an ice cube.[/quote]

Not sure the captain was that arrogant...more weak and concerned about his job.

According to historical records, Captain Edward Smith was under pressure from the Titanic's owners.
It is reported he was against increasing their speed whIch the owners wanted for the hype and publicity - to make NY in unbelievable time. There was also afire in the coal pit that had started before they left port - this was not reported until it was too late.. This is also how the fire started in the engine room.

The owners on board, bullied and overruled the captain .. His guilt is in not standing up to them and exerting his rights and role as the responsible captain of the vessel. Arrogance belonged to the owners who thought they knew better than their Captain.