{"id":4326,"date":"2012-04-12T14:03:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-12T20:03:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=4326"},"modified":"2012-04-12T14:03:58","modified_gmt":"2012-04-12T20:03:58","slug":"titanic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/?p=4326","title":{"rendered":"Titanic!"},"content":{"rendered":"

April 15, 2012, marks the 100th<\/sup> anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and while two cruise ships from opposite shores of the Atlantic sail across the ocean retracing the ill-fated liner\u2019s voyage, many myths regarding the \u201cunsinkable\u201d Titanic still remain afloat.<\/p>\n

The night of April 14-15, 1912, will forever go down in the annals of history as the date when the Royal Mail Steamer (RMS) Titanic sank, taking with her the souls of more than 1,500 passengers and crew.\u00a0 Although many books and movies have recreated the story, separating fact from fiction is still as murky as the oceanic grave that contains the remains of the \u201cunsinkable\u201d Titanic.<\/p>\n

On April 3, 1912, the RMS Titanic left Belfast, Ireland, for Southampton, England<\/a>, where she was to set sail on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic.\u00a0 According to myth, the bottle of champagne used to christen the Titanic did not break on the first try, an omen of bad luck for a ship about to set sail on the seas.\u00a0 However, the Titanic was not christened upon launching, as it was not the custom of the White Star Line, owners of the Titanic, to christen any of their ships.<\/p>\n

The Titanic departed Southampton at around noon on April 10th<\/sup>, but not without mishap.\u00a0 Shortly after departure, the Titanic had a near collision with an American liner, the New York.\u00a0 The two ships came within three feet of one another, but quick work by Captain E. J. Smith of the Titanic prevented an actual collision.\u00a0 After another two stops to pick up passengers in France and Ireland, the Titanic set sail for New York on April 11th<\/sup>.\u00a0 On board were more than 2,200 passengers and crew members<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Legend has it that the owners of the Titanic said the ship was \u201cunsinkable.\u201d\u00a0 At the time of the Titanic\u2019s fitting out, many well-known shipping publications published articles describing the many safety features of the Titanic.\u00a0 It was actually The Shipbuilder <\/em>magazine that declared the Titanic \u201cpractically unsinkable\u201d because of her watertight compartments with watertight doors and double bottom.\u00a0 The White Star Line never claimed that the Titanic was \u201cunsinkable.\u201d\u00a0 It was upon learning of the Titanic\u2019s demise on April 15th<\/sup> that Phillip Franklin, Vice President of the White Star Line, stated \u201cI thought her unsinkable and I based my opinion on the best expert advice.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen James Cameron\u2019s 1997 movie \u201cTitanic,\u201d then one of the more upsetting aspects involved passengers in third-class being locked behind gates and physically prevented from making their way up to possible safety.\u00a0 While it is true that the passengers traveling third-class in steerage suffered the most losses, it seems unlikely that they were actually barred from making their way to the boat deck.\u00a0 Most historians now believe that the gates weren\u2019t even lockable. <\/a>A more likely scenario was that word about what was happening traveled slowly, partly due to confusion among passengers and the crew not wanting to create panic.\u00a0 Many passengers did make their way up to the boat deck, however, because it was cold outside, decided to return to warmth inside.\u00a0 Others simply refused offers of help, believing the Titanic unsinkable.\u00a0 Unfortunately, as the situation worsened, access to the deck was restricted to women and children, and by the time the men were allowed up, it was too late.<\/p>\n

Another part of the Titanic legend involves the song played as the ship went down, \u201cNearer My God to Thee.\u201d\u00a0 While it is true that \u201cThe Band Played On,\u201d it seems unlikely that \u201cNearer My God to Thee\u201d was the song played.\u00a0 The RMS Titanic was a British liner, and Wallace Hartley, the ship\u2019s bandleader was British.\u00a0 Although he was known to like that song, he would not have been familiar with the \u201cBethany\u201d (American) version.\u00a0 His father was a Methodist choirmaster, and always used the \u201cPropior Deo\u201d version of the song at church. \u00a0Hartley\u2019s family was certain he would have used that version, and not the \u201cBethany\u201d version as legend has it.\u00a0 Junior Wireless Officer Harold Bride, when interviewed after the tragedy, replied he heard the song \u201cIt Was Autumn\u201d being played.\u00a0 There was a song called \u201cSonge d\u2019Automne\u201d that was very popular at the time, and perhaps that was the song he heard.\u00a0 Other Titanic survivors said that the band began to play \u201cbright, cheery music\u201d to keep passengers from panicking. \u00a0It is also interesting to note that \u201cNearer My God to Thee\u201d was sung by passengers of the SS Valencia<\/em><\/a> as it sank off the coast of Canada in 1906, which may be the source for the Titanic legend.<\/p>\n

There are also many eerie and ironic events that happened in association with the Titanic. One of oddest involves author Morgan Robertson\u2019s imaginary tale about a collision between a large Trans-Atlantic ocean liner and an iceberg on her voyage to New York in his story \u201cFutility,\u201d written 14 years prior to the Titanic disaster.\u00a0 Robertson called his ship the Titan, and it was approximately 800 feet long.\u00a0 The Titanic was 882 feet long.\u00a0 Most of the crew and passengers were lost to sea in Robertson\u2019s novel; so, too, with the Titanic.\u00a0 Was it an odd coincidence or premonition of impending disaster?\u00a0 Perhaps Robertson\u2019s background as an experienced seaman and his knowledge that ships were getting bigger are what prompted him to write about one of these larger ships hitting an iceberg.<\/p>\n

Premonitions also played a role in the Titanic legend.\u00a0 George Vanderbilt and his wife canceled their plans to be onboard the ship because Mrs. Vanderbilt\u2019s mother had a premonition of something happening.\u00a0 It saved their lives.<\/p>\n

Another uncanny event surrounding the Titanic involves a mysterious message<\/a> supposedly received in 1978 by a radio officer on the Queen Elizabeth 2.\u00a0 The message had been sent using a radio wavelength no longer in use, one which belonged in the Edwardian Era.\u00a0 Tapped out in Morse code the message read, \u201cCQD CQD, we are sinking fast.\u00a0 Passengers are being put into boats.\u201d\u00a0 When the radio officer asked the ship\u2019s identity, after a cold silence, the message received simply read \u201cTitanic.\u201d\u00a0 Although a hoax was not ruled out, the message was allegedly received as the QE2 was passing over the exact spot where the Titanic sank in 1912.<\/p>\n

While it is not always possible to distinguish between myth and truth, 100 years after the sinking of the Titanic we continue to be fascinated with her tragic story.\u00a0 Lawrence Beesley, a Titanic survivor, may have captured the sentiment best when he said, \u201cThe history of the RMS Titanic\u2026is one of the most tragically short\u2026The world had waited expectantly for its launching and again for its sailing; had read accounts of its tremendous size and its unexampled completeness and luxury; had felt it a matter of the greatest satisfaction that such a comfortable and above all such a safe boat <\/em>had been designed and built\u2026and then in a moment to hear that it had gone to the bottom\u2026and with it fifteen hundred passengers, some of them known all the world over!\u00a0 The improbability of such a thing ever happening was what staggered humanity.\u201d\u00a0 And it continues to stagger us 100 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 15, 2012, marks the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, and while two cruise ships from opposite shores of the Atlantic sail across the ocean retracing the ill-fated liner\u2019s voyage, many myths regarding the \u201cunsinkable\u201d Titanic still remain afloat. The night of April 14-15, 1912, will forever go down in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-articles","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4327,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4326\/revisions\/4327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barbadamslive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}