Happy Titanic Day

[MC6Ash 4]

R.M.S. Titanic

1909 - 1912.

Sank at 2:20 AM on April 15th, 1912, after swiping an ice-berg in the mid-atlantic.

Due to lack of life-boats for all those on board, out of the 2,217 on board, only 705 survived.

The Titanic is known as the most famous maritime ship disaster in history, though there have been instances where more people have died.

[JustinHayward 10]

Ash

How can it be 1909 to 1912 ??
Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.
Also - I always thought it was Apr 12 ??

[Firebird 40]

Horrible, just horrible.

[MC6Ash 4]

Originally posted by: JustinHayward

Ash

How can it be 1909 to 1912 ??

Titanic sank on her maiden voyage.

Also - I always thought it was Apr 12 ??

quote>

 

Typically, ships are dated from when the keel was laid, to when they were dismantled/retired/sank - which is why most Titanic "objects" report the dates as "1909 - 1912".

And the Titanic set sail on Wednesday, April 10, left Queenstown, Ireland, at 11:30 AM on Thursday the 11th, struck the ice-berg at 11:40 PM Sunday, April 14th, and sank at 2:20 AM on Monday, April 15th.

[JustinHayward 10]

Thanks Ash - I had a feeling the reason would be along those lines :-)

It was indeed a terrible disaster, but as you say, there have since been several marine disaters  - many of which have sadly been a result of incompetance and not "acts of God" :-(

[villarule 2]

The hillsborough statium disaster also occured on this date, 17 years ago. 95 football fans crushed to death

[Micah 16]

Happy? I feel very sad to hit this type of a milestone. I agree, just horrible.

[MrCinatit 30]

IN case you guys don't know, my name is more or less a nod to that great ship, spelled backwards (and NOT the movie). 

A sad day, indeed.

[Micah 16]

^ Wow, I just noticed that... did you do that on purpose?

[Firebird 40]

Originally posted by: MrCinatit IN case you guys don't know, my name is more or less a nod to that great ship, spelled backwards (and NOT the movie). 

A sad day, indeed.quote>

Wow, I just noticed that... did you do that on purpose?quote>

[Kippis05 2]

Justin, construction began on the Titanic in 1909, and yes, it did sink in 1912.

[sim1234 62]

Originally posted by: MrCinatit IN case you guys don't know, my name is more or less a nod to that great ship, spelled backwards (and NOT the movie). 

A sad day, indeed.quote>

 

Wow, I didn't know that. I always wondered what the meaning of your name was.

Edit: My 1300th post.

[ten1902 4]

its a testament to american society that most of us dread the thought of april 15th more because it's Tax Day then because of any lingering memories of the titanic

[justanothersim86 83]

April is not the greatest month for disasters.

I was reading the worst maritime peactime disasters and was surprised to see London, ON on there. 200 people died in 5-7 feet of water in the thames river because they went to one side of the boat (SS Victoria) to see a fire works display. The thames is a very small river, barely big enough to have a boat like that. How sad.

[MC6Ash 4]

Originally posted by: justanothersim86

April is not the greatest month for disasters.

I was reading the worst maritime peactime disasters and was surprised to see London, ON on there. 200 people died in 5-7 feet of water in the thames river because they went to one side of the boat (SS Victoria) to see a fire works display. The thames is a very small river, barely big enough to have a boat like that. How sad.

quote>

 

I hate to bring us off topic, but there are a few sad disasters that I know of (I am obsessed with maritime sea disasters, Titanic above the rest)

approximately 4,000 people died when an over-loaded Korean ship capsized in Chinese waters

a believed 4,000-9,000 Jews and Soviets died when the English troop carrier taking them to safety, flying a white flag, was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat.

about 200 people died when a B. Channel ferry left the dock without closing the car-door

a mother died when an intoxicated captain slammed the New York ferry into the dock at about 9 knots, the captain slit his wrists at the bridge, but survived and is serving a 5 year sentence.

the list goes on.

[Cjah 15]

I thought everyone knew what MrC's name was....lol

well this is indeed such a sad day....I think we learned alot tho...never under use lifeboats...

[Firebird 40]

THEY WERE NOT UNDERUSED. THEY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF THEM!!

[MrCinatit 30]

Originally posted by: fire_bird THEY WERE NOT UNDERUSED. THEY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF THEM!!quote>

 

Actually, both Cjah and yourself are correct. Not only did they not have enough lifeboats, but they did not use the lifeboats they had sufficiently. Many of the lifeboats loaded early on were only done so at half capacity.

[Firebird 40]

Oh.... Sorry cjah.

[Duke87 1,070]

April 15, 1912 was also the day Fenway Park opened.

An omen, maybe?

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: MrCinatit

Originally posted by: fire_bird THEY WERE NOT UNDERUSED. THEY DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH OF THEM!!quote>

 

Actually, both Cjah and yourself are correct. Not only did they not have enough lifeboats, but they did not use the lifeboats they had sufficiently. Many of the lifeboats loaded early on were only done so at half capacity.quote>

Hmm... why would that be? Seems kind of odd to just load some of the boats to half capacity.

Sad day, in 1912 in any case.

[Neo_NemesisX 0]

i remember watching the movie with my girlfriend

~edited~ A.C.

[callagrafx 3]

Probably of more importance to the majority of Americans, Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants on April 15, 1955.

[Mikeaut1 261]

I love the Titanic. But that tragedy is definitely sad.

[Odainsaker 2,133]

Hmm... why would that be? Seems kind of odd to just load some of the boats to half capacity.

The claim was that the crew was uncertain of the weight the lifeboats could safely handle during lowering, and they were apparently unaware that those lifeboats had actually been previously tested fully loaded during outfitting.  Later, as time ran out with the water getting higher, the crew became desperate to get the boats away as fast as they could, whether they were optimally filled or not.

Early on, when the first lifesboats were lowered, they also had problems convincing people to get in them, for without a public address system and established safety procedures, few passengers were aware of the true danger. With seemingly no emergency at hand, who wants to get into a rickety little boat in the middle of a freezing night for some silly technical inconvenience when you can stay on the warm and unsinkable luxury liner? Ships that big and modern just don't sink, right? They never had before 1912. As the fact that the ship was indeed sinking slowly became increasingly more apparent, people finally panicked for boats and the crew desperately began overloading them.

Somewhere I read an interesting what-if scenario about the ship having more lifeboats, but the casualties staying near the same. Given the way the boats were actually loaded and launched, one at a time on each side and in confused order, with the collapsible boats launched just as the bridge and boat deck went under and the tilt rapidly became too severe, there would likely not have had enough time to properly prepare and launch any additional boats. Lack of safety and boat drilling meant too few of the crew were trained to launch the boats faster or simultaneously, and too much time was lost early on due to inexperience. If they had used the same launching procedure with more boats available, those extra boats might have just gone down still tied to the ship.  And whose idea was it to store two collapsible boats upside down on the roof with no workable way of getting them down to launch?  Whatever the what-ifs, the ship designed with enough room and special davits for 48 lifeboats had only 16 wooden boats and 4 collapsible semirafts.

Not surprisingly, the Titanic disaster revamped our views on ship emergencies, evacuation procedures, and mandatory lifeboat drilling.

Oh, and Walter Lord offers a great definitive read in A Night to Remember and its follow up The Night Lives On.  Here is a telling excerpt from the latter:

This basic lack of organization was especially apparent in the actual loading of the boats.  No. 4 was the first one ready, and Captain Smith ordered Lightoller to fill it from the Promenade Deck, feeling that it would be easier and safer than the exposed Boat Deck for the women and children.  The order was passed on to the passengers already waiting on the Boat Deck, and they obediently trooped below.  Watching the scene, First Class passenger Hugh Woolner seems to have been the first person to realize that this wasn't such a good idea.  "Haven't you forgotten, sir," he politely asked Smith, "that all those glass window are closed?"

"By God, you are right!" exclaimed the old captain.  "Call those people back."  He had apparently forgotten that the forward end of the Titanic's Promenade Deck was enclosed, confusing her with her sister ship the Olympic, where the deck was open for its full length.

So everyone was ordered up again, and the women and children quietly climbed back to the Boat Deck.  But by this time Boat 4 had been lowered to the Promenade Deck as originally ordered, and Lightoller decided it would be easier to open the windows than to haul the boat back up.  A couple of seamen were send to do this, and the women and children were ordered back down.  "Tell us where to go and we will follow," exclaimed an exasperated Mrs. Thayer.  "You ordered us up here and now you are taking us back."

No firm procedure was ever followed.  In the end, some of the boats were loaded from the Boat Deck, others from the Promenade Deck--meaning that the passengers were often not where the boats were.quote>

Sounding like FEMA and New Orleans...it just gets worse from here:

Boat 4 offers a prime example of what could happen.  This was the boat that Second Officer Lightoller has been unable to load from the Promenade Deck because all the windows were closed.  They were soon opened, but by that time Lightoller and his team of "old hands" had moved on to Boat 6 . . . then to Boat 8 . . . and finally to Collapsible D, which was still lashed to the Boat Deck.  More than an hour passed before he got a chance to break off and finish launching No. 4.  Meanwhile the women waiting to enter the boat simply cooled their heels.

By now it was nearly 2:00, and the water was only ten feet below the Promenade Deck.  The women were hurredly rounded up and passed through the windows into the boat.  The pace was so frantic that Lightoller was bathed in sweat, despite the 32° temperature.  Colonel Gracie and some of the other First Class men pitched in to help--experience no longer mattered.  In the rush to get the boat off, 20 places were left unfilled.quote>

Ugh!  I think the movie somehow missed this more telling part of the tragedy.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: callagrafx Probably of more importance to the majority of Americans, Ray Kroc starts the McDonald's chain of fast food restaurants on April 15, 1955.

quote>

That's a common misconception, actually. Ray Kroc isn't the actual founder of McDonalds. He just bought it as a chain of a couple burger joints from an old couple named MacDonald that were losing money over them. They started their first one in the 40's. But since it was Kroc that turned it into what it is today, he gets all the credit. Shame, really.

[jvlm.123 0]

The Titanic didn't actaully sink on it's maiden voyage. It went from -

1. Belfast, Ireland - Liverpool, England.

2. Liverpool, England - Southampton, England.

3. Southampton, England - Cherbourg, France.

4. Cherbourg, France - Cobh (Queenstown), Ireland.

5. Cobh, Ireland - New York, United States of America (It sunk on the way).

So there you go!

[Compromise 1]

Well Titanic will certainly serve as a permanent reminder of what happens when laws are not updated.

Originally posted by: jvlm.123 The Titanic didn't actually sink on it's maiden voyage. It went from -

1. Belfast, Ireland - Liverpool, England.

2. Liverpool, England - Southampton, England.

3. Southampton, England - Cherbourg, France.

4. Cherbourg, France - Cobh (Queenstown), Ireland.

5. Cobh, Ireland - New York, United States of America (It sunk on the way).

So there you go!quote>

 

Most people consider a ships maiden voyage as the first time it sails commercially and the ship made several stop overs during its maiden voyage before heading across the Atlantic towards New York.

[jvlm.123 0]

It's first commercial sailing was from Southampton to Cherbourg, as in both ports passengers embarked, as they did in Cobh. So, by what you're saying, the maiden voyage was from Southampton to Cherbourg.

[Condraz23 0]

The Titanic was a great ship. However, if the Titanic didn't sink, another similar ship would of instead. Liners from the turn of the century were more than four times as heavy as ocean liners made 30 years ago. The existing laws and regulations were outdated. Due to the accident, the government revamped our views on ship emergencies, evacuation procedures, and mandatory lifeboat drilling, ensuring that ships of the future do not make such a mistake. I love the Titanic. But the tragedy was definitely sad.