Titanic: 100 Years Later
Posted: Friday, February 10, 2012
by Octavia Hansen
Octavia Hansen
Yes, this is the 100 Year anniversary of the four day voyage and horrific sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic. There have been other ships, before and after, that have gone down, some with more loss of life, some with political interest, some ships were lost at sea and never found -- but Titanic holds a place as almost a legend, a morality tale or a ghost story at the end of an era.
The Titanic sailed at a time when safety was an accessory, not maritime law. The idea today of NOT having enough life saving equipment for everyone on board, stuns the imagination. Not being able to save everyone? How could that ever have been considered the right thing to do? But this was not long after the turn of the century, anyone not of the upper classes was considered expendable -- workers, personal domestics, liner staff, even the crew were not thought of as important enough to save. Considering that the real money floating the White Star Line was in steerage tickets, these were the people they deemed not worth saving.
Much like fire laws, every safety law, improvement and innovation came only at a great price, not only loss of property but so many lives. Still, Titanic carried more life boats and life vests than any other ship of its day. It was noted that though everyone could not have been saved, at least twice as many could have if all the boats were launched in time, carrying the maximum number of people. But . . . that didn't happen.
By the time the ship had a considerable list and the severity of the situation realized, only a few boats were away, the others no longer possible to launch. It was a cold, clear night. The sounds must have been heart wrenching . . . the talk, the yells, the screams, some music finding it's way across the scene. The steam whistle screaming at intervals grasping at a prayer that a ship will hear and come for this desperate rescue. Standing on the unsinkable deck it would be impossible to resign yourself that there was no hope. Can't they save the children? Isn't there room for one more somewhere? And the water always there -- surrounded the ship, creeping closer, the deck was tilted towards the water.
Looking at the wreckage across the ocean floor the remains of this beautiful liner spoke a further horrible tale. At the point of the most stress as the ship was sinking towards the bow, taking water through the gash at a rate never perceived because of the christened 'water-tight compartments,' the Titanic broke in two. The wrenching metal screamed into the night, slowly dying under it's own weight. This must have blanketed every noise from every voice, every crash, every sound with a final metallic cry and then death rattle.
Time had run out. The ship slipped below the water . . . screams carried across the ocean. What should have been a night of stars from horizon to horizon became the final death struggle for more than a thousand souls. Soon, the silence after the horror enveloped everything.
The final count was 705 rescued; 1523 drowned or froze to death. Most froze within minutes in the icy water, perhaps a more mercifully quick passing than any other death. Tragedy, thy name is Titanic.
Recovery crews that sailed to the sight for many days, noted how much floating debris was on the water. Deck chairs by the hundreds, dolls, corked bottles mostly full of air and not wine, shoes, hats, life vests not used . . . all the accessories of daily life aboard a fine ship, marking people that were no more. 328 bodies were pulled from the sea; 209 returned to Halifax; 119 buried at sea. Seems a quiet irony, to die at sea, be recovered in death and then commended to the sea a final time. 59 bodies were shipped to their families for separate memorials and burials. So the passengers and crew did get to North America in a wholly different capacity.
What can anyone say after 100 years of the most famous tragic maiden voyage? Looking back, there were warning signs -- twice while leaving different dock sides, the Titanic displaced so much water that other ships almost crashed into it. If a collision would have happened at that time, perhaps the flaw in the water-tight compartments would have been exposed, everyone would have exited safely and the Titanic would have been refitted to sail another day. But . . . that didn't happen.
A sad footnote to history, shallow compared to the news of the Titanic, was Harriet Quimby. She was the first women in the United States to earn a pilot's license and was a major influence for women in aviation. She flew a lot of air miles and set many records. She set a record crossing the English Channel by plane and became a hero. She was celebrated upon landing and the news was telegraphed across the sea. She would be famous! She was a hero to women! But . . . that night, the Titanic sunk and her story was relegated to page three, if even that, after the more sensational news of the ocean tragedy. She was killed months later, along with her passenger, in an arial accident, the cause never determined. History can be fickle, even to those who deserve to be remembered.
"Raise The Titanic" was a goofy movie from 1980, where two different crews decide they want something on the sunken vessel. Why they had waited almost seventy years to do this was never fully explained. If you can stomach the lame constant chatter for the first three-quarters of the film, you will be rewarded with a superb fantasy sequence of the Titanic coming alive once more, breaking the sea surface into the clear light of day that it had missed for more than half a century, in all it's rusted glory. Doesn't matter that this will never happen, it's still a good feeling and I wished I could have seen it in the theatre when it would have been life size and feeling like I was hit in the face with the sea.
And a final reference to the Titanic was made in Ghostbusters II (1989). As the psychic energy builds in New York City, things begin to happen. Small things at first, like a cabbie turns into The Crypt Keeper and screeches away with a passenger, then larger incidents emphasize the coming power. At one point, the New York City Harbor Master (played by Cheech Marin) calls the Mayor and announces the RMS Titanic has just arrived. Then he adds "Oh, well . . . better late than never."
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Wonderful detail. Sensitively drawn, still with a historic perspective. Wonderful treatment of a topic that supposedly people know about these days. Great job.s
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O,
Nice piece. Did you splash cold, salty water in your face to get in the mood?
Ron
I learned things about the incident that I never knew before--I thought I knew everything about it--thanks. And by the way, you painted a terrific picture with your words.
Well written. Some interesting tidbits I had never heard before.
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