Last Sunday, 15th April, was the 95th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. I don't think there has been any other disaster in history quite like it, in the shock effect it had on the western world at the time. Of course there are things like 9/11 that one might want to compare with it, in terms of how a disaster can shatter peoples' ideas of reality; but I think the time in which the disaster happened was of significant. In those days, technology was trusted, and didn't kill people, and closest thing to terrorism was a revolt on some distant colony. Reality was as solid was the steel plating of the engine room floor. Yet that reality crumbled within two hours, and sent 45000 tons and 1500 lives to the bottom of the Atlantic, and sent a shock wave that extended through time a space, that is still felt today.
I was born over half a century after the incident, but the shock wave caught me & sparked a fascination that has never left me. I haven't got over this disaster. This is the same for a lot of people. There are several Titanic historical societies, forums, websites, books, model kits and so on. A simple search at Ebay will reveal several pages of merchandise. You buy small pieces of Titanic coal brought up from the wreck site, and recently a watch went on sale made from metal raised from the wreck! A couple of years ago, Guernseys had an auction of Titanic memorabilia - in which things like menus (saved by survivors, or found tin thje pockets of victims) fetched prices of $50,000 - $60-000.
Why the fascination? I think today, the Titanic disaster has almost attained the status of myth. The question is, what is so powerful about this accident?
Just a few things to think about:
- Speeding through icefield at night in the pitch darkness
- freak accident with an iceberg. Iceberg spotted but could not turn in time. Hull grazed along the berg,
and just 12 square feet of hull opened up to sea, but dotted along a 200 ft length causing flooding
in six compartments. She could stay afloat with the first five flooded, but not six...
- Passengers and crew aware that there are only enough lifeboats for about 700 of the 2200 on board. Many resign to go down with wreck.
- Third class passenger locked down. First class given precedence over third class children. One of the first lifeboats, which has a capacity of
60 people, is launched with only 12 people because the people in that lifeboat didn't want to share...
- About 1500 people end up in the water, temperature 4 degrees. Boats that have places do not go back to help (except one)
- Ship SS Californian only 12 miles away failed to perceive she was in distress
and did not come to rescue until too late.
- Engineers and stokers stayed at their posts keeping generators going to the end.
- All senior officers perished.
- 65% of third class children died (despicable) while all first and second class children saved
- 32% of first class men saved
- 8% of second class men saved
- 97% first class women saved
- 46 % third class women saved.
