The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => History Section => Topic started by: The Chronicler on April 10, 2012, 09:15:14 PM
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The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is coming up in a few days, so I figured I'd start this topic to see what people here have to say about it.
I've had an interest in Titanic for quite a while now. I may not be as obsessed as I was when I was a kid, but I still find it an interesting event. I've seen many programs on both the Discovery Channel and the History Channel about Titanic, and I plan to do so again this weekend. Discovery will show some specials on Saturday, while History will show a few on Sunday, including a new one that will attempt to explain some mysteries about how the ship sank.
So, anybody planning on doing anything for the 100th anniversary?
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I didn't really plan on doing anything, but I had this thought a while back:
When my great-grandmother was a little girl, she and her family were going to come to America from Ireland to be with family. They left in 1912, the same year the Titanic set sail.
They were on a different ship of course (the Cameronia, I think) but it kinda makes me think about how things might have turned out.
I just thank the Lord that they didn't decide to board the Titanic instead.
Anyways, I hope that the ship building industry has learned from this tragedy so that it won't happen again.
(Sorry for making your topic so depressing :( )
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While I won't be doing anything on this day I'll be holding a presentation on the Titanic, the disaster and the myth on November 9th in Dortmund.
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I've had Titanic fever ever since I watched the not-so-good 1953 Barbara Stanwyck movie on late night TV many many years ago, long before Cameron's movie was a dream-in-mind. I'm re-reading A Night to Remember, re-watching the film version, then my friends and I will conduct a commemorative prayer service at 11:40 April 14.
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Yeah I went to a Titanic Museum when I was younger and it was amazing. We got to feel how ice cold the water was the people died from. And got to see a actual piece of the ship. It was amazing to looking at all the other stuff there was well. I won't be doing anything special that day either.
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I just wanted to point these out, in case if anybody is interested:
Titanic Real Time (http://twitter.com/#!/TitanicRealTime) on Twitter, where you can follow events by the exact respective time they happened, as if the crew and passengers themselves had typed these messages. I expect a lot of activity there this weekend (April 14 and 15).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGeskFzE0s (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGeskFzE0s)
This video is a short 3D animation of how Titanic sank and reached the seafloor, with commentary by James Cameron. (I don't get the National Geographic Channel, so I didn't see the whole program this clip is from.)
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...Interesting that I should find this topic here, because, on April 15th, at 2:20 AM, I held a one minute vigil, at the time the ship was said to make the final plunge beneath the waves. I, too, thought of little but Titanic for some years, in my younger days, and have heard much info regarding it. ...Yes, I may be on Pacific Standard Time, but still, it was 2:20 AM, and I held that minute of silent vigil to remember the dead. Thanks for making the topic.
Edit: I suppose I should re-read A Night to Remember, as I have the book. ...I still remember when studying the ship was a new thing for me, and when I first borrowed the book from my middle-school library, over winter break. I had to stay up because one of my cousins snored most of the night, but I believe there was a night light on (this was at my other aunt's house), so I read a good portion of it that night. ...It was easier to focus on the details, back then. Was roughly about 1998. ...It feels like an eternity ago...
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Can't believe I missed this post! I'm an olde fan - although it occurs to me "fan" might not be the right word - of the Titanic; have plenty of books, films and video games about it!
Can't think of much more to say at the minute - too tired - but before I go I shall give you this link to the most accurate plans of the R.M.S. Titanic out there; on the Discovery Channel website!
Titanic Deck Plans (http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/titanic/explorer/explorer.html)
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In fall I will hold a presentation on the Titanic at the VHS (the adult education center where I am working). Since most people by now are fairly familiar with the background story (though I heard of one guy who said that there were two things he disliked about the 1997 movie, namely Kate Winslet and "that the pot actually did sink":blink:) I am going to do at least part of the question on why it is that the Titanic is so present in our minds unlike countless other maritime desasters of higher death toll and no less tragic circumstances. I reckon that the presence of many well known high society people as well as the extreme faith in technology and the perception of living in times of "perfect peace" (colonial genocides didn't really count to many people back then and the downside of the large scale abuse of modern technology in war was to come two and a half years later) probably all played a role.
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There aren't any more historically accurate films you could pick from?
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Pick from for what? I might use a few scenes from different Titanic movies, but this would be mostly for the sake of the different depiction of the event in popular culture rather than as a replacement for the presentation I'm going to hold. In any case the presentation on the Titanic is still way off with quite a couple of other presentations to be held prior to that one.
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Malte, even though that presentation is still a few months away, I think you might be interested in watching this video I found a few weeks ago:
Titanic: Birth of a Legend (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc1FSbM6RKw&feature=related)
It's basically a documentary about how Titanic was built, and about the people who built it. I found it to be quite interesting. :)
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Aye, that documentary is awesome! :yes
I watched it two times already (it had been aired in Germany as well, but thanks for the link that will allow me to watch English original). I like especially how they include some of the social aspects, e.g. about the religious conflicts among the Irish workers.
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I had seen that documentary before on the Discovery Channel, but that version was only 45 minutes long (to fit within 1 hour, plus commercial breaks). Therefore, I had no idea nearly half an hour of material had been cut out (mostly those "social aspects" you mentioned) until I found that video of the entire original.