TITANIC Stacking Up In Media
The name TITANIC has been all over the media this week. As we move towards the 100th anniversary of that tragic disaster, a second TITANIC cruise is announced and yet another new theory to explain the disaster.
Departing from Southampton, England on April 8, 2012, a Titanic Memorial Cruise on the Fred.Olsen’s BALMORAL (ex CROWN ODYSSEY, NORWEGIAN CROWN) will track the White Star liner’s intended itinerary with her own 1,309 passengers (some of whom are relatives of TITANIC’s passengers).
Recently, Voyages! Titanic 2012 was announced. A voyage on the upscale AZAMARA JOURNEY (ex R SIX, BLUE DREAM) beginning from Boston, Massachusetts, with 680 passengers will depart April 10, 2012. Special memorial services will be held on April 15, exactly a century after the TITANIC’s sinking at the spot where she was last seen.
Meanwhile, Novelist Louise Patten, granddaughter of TITANIC’s Second Officer Charles Lightoller, has said in the media that an officer had steered into the iceberg instead of away from it, that there was confusion about steering orders. This revelation came in her new book, ‘Good as Gold”, described in the media as “a mix of fiction and fact”. The confusion story, it is claimed, was known solely by Lightoller who confided only in his wife and never discussed this at inquiry. “Mrs Patten said the tragedy had occurred during a period when shipping communications were in transition from sail to steam. Two different systems were in operation at the time, Rudder Orders (used for steam ships) and Tiller Orders (used for sailing ships).”
Sally Neillson, a great-granddaughter of the man now at the center of this discussion, Robert Hichins, who was at the wheel that night, was interviewed on British television and responded that there “is no way on earth” it is correct. Ms. Neillson, who is working on her own book about her great-grandfather, “Hard-a-Starboard,” due to be published in 2012, claims to have new theories of her own to be divulged later, and said, “Hichins had 10 years experience, seven of those as a quartermaster. He sailed the TITANIC for four days before the accident, during which he did shifts of four hours on, four hours off. He would have steered the vessel during these times, so been familiar with the systems. He knew ships. These were experienced men, a very experienced crew. I completely disagree with this theory.”
Later, the two descendants of the TITANIC bridge crew were invited to a television debate.
One thing is clear, fascination with the TITANIC and that terrible night remains is far from over as the 100th anniversary nears.
Recently, Southampton announced it had restored the Titanic Engineers Memorial in Andrew’s Park and the city which provided most of ship’s crew, is planning an interactive museum in the city’s former magistrates’ court, next to the civic center. Southampton has a collection of some 4,000 artifacts from the TITANIC, much of it is currently in storage: plates and cutlery, letters and menu cards, even fragments gathered from the seabed. Recordings of the recollections of about 70 survivors will become part of the new museum planned to be open in time for the centenary in 2012.
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I think this is a load of rubish. We must remember that this new book is a novel, not an accurate historical record. I can think of 2012 reasons why Patten would release this right now, and top of the list is the centenary of Titanic’s sinking in 2012. By sparking such controversy she is generating a huge amount of free publicity for her new book. I think it is despicable that Patten should slur the characters of those who are no longer with us for personal financial gain.
When I think about it people must forget that it was a disaster. People died. At agua caliente casino they used to have titanic slot machines. In palm springs once a week on Thursday they would have a swap meet going on and there would be a blow up titanic slide for kids. How sick is that. it’s kind of morbid. I think it is disrespectful. I even think the titanic cruises are wrong even though I would like to go on it.
YOU DONT SEE PEOPLE FLOCKING TO THE LUSITANIA AND THE WILHELM GUSTLOFF, MORE PEOPLE DIED IN THOSE SHIP DISASTERS ON THE TITANIC. THEY WERE TRAGEDYS IN THEMSELVES PROBABLY WORSE !!!
The whole silly story falls down on a basic fact. At no time did British ships use two different systems of steering orders. In 1912, they used the old style, in which orders were given with reference to the tiller. ‘Hard a starboard’ meant ‘put your tiller hard a starboard’. This was done by turning the wheel to port and the ship turned to port, as Titanic did. The system was replaced on British ships in 1933. The full story is on my site at http://users.senet.com.au/~gittins/wheel.html
The quartermaster, by the way, spelled his name Hichens, as can be seen on Titanic’s signing on list.
The story of the Titanic disaster is unique not so much in the number of lives lost, but in the tell of the tale. There is a line from the movie that describes it well: “I can still smell the fresh paint, the china had never been used, the sheets had never been slept on. Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams.” Sure the Wilhelm Gustloff may have lost substantially more lives, and her along with Lusitania sank in such a dramatic war torn fashion, but it’s hard to sell those stories to the general public against the romanticized version of the Titanic sinking. The first two ships sank in 45 minutes and 18 minutes respectfully, the Titanic took over 2 1/2 hours to go under. Now, taking into account she was the largest, newest, most luxurious liner in the world at that time, on her inaugural Maiden Voyage to New York, carrying some of the most prominent people of the day in first class, and the slowly played out drama on deck of the division of classes on Titanic during her sinking, then hide the evidence for 73 years under 2.5 miles of water, and the mystery and legend of her sinking are monumental compared to any other in history.
Titanic, unlike Lusitania and Wilhelm Gustloff which sank in shallow waters and in exact known locations, remained a mystery for over seven decades. And although there have been several ‘made for TV’ movies and documentaries on Lusitania and on Wilhelm Gustloff as well, none match the grand scale, stunningly accurate life-sized and CGI visuals, and heart-wrenching story played out in James Cameron’s blockbuster. This only served to heighten interest of the tale of Titanic worldwide.
It is only natural with all this worldwide interest to try and ‘save’ something from the actual mystery of Titanic for historical purposes. Because the debris field is so large, and any actual tangible evidence of the honorable dead long gone from cannibalization by microorganisms, preserving a sense of respect for that loss is as important as recovering what we can before the wreck collapses in on itself completely. Then Titanic will be forever lost to the ages.
It is rightfully expected that in the next 18 months the number of stories, books, movie re-releases, and memorabilia to exponentially increase as we approach the 100 year anniversary marking her sinking. It’s only human nature to be interested in stories as grand and tragic as Titanic. I have visited several Titanic exhibits and museums and always feel that these give us a sense connection that all of it was real, and horribly tragic, and totally preventable. We can connect however slightly to what we saw on the silver screen, how we were moved emotionally by the stories and lives of the characters played out in front of us, and come away from it a little more appreciative of the day and age we live in and the people in our lives, and how it can all be taken away from us no matter how advanced our technology is that should save us.
David walker that was well put
Of far more real import and interest SHOULD be the centenary in May 2011 of the delivery of OLYMPIC and the first realisation of one of the most ambitious re-orderings of the North Atlantic ferry, second only to Samuel Cunard’s in 1840 i.e. the first three-ship, luxury weekly service with the largest (by a huge factor) steamers in the world. Of which TITANIC was but a player. But who wants to put anything in context when people rather stare at a grazed chamber pot and a shoe plucked from the ocean floor, indulge in crackpot theories and find out where to buy mutton nowadays to recreate TITANIC menus? The next year and a half will redefine Titanic Tedium and then some.
COREY: I quite agree that some of this Titanic ‘stuff’ is over the top and a bit crass. I can’t imagine what the person was thinking when they invented that Titanic water slide! Would that same person invent a bungie jump from a mock-World Trade Center, a roller coaster ‘escape’ through a tidal wave ravaged Indonesian mock-villager setup or an earthquake ravaged burning 1900’s San Francisco?
Titanic, had it survived to a ripe old age and then scrapped instead of hitting an iceberg and sinking with its staggering loss of life, would be as obscure and uninteresting to the ‘average Joe’ as Mauretania, Olympic, France II and Paris, Imperator, or any other liner that came out in the early part of the 20th century. Sure she would be on websites and various lists of accomplishments or temporary milestones in history, but merely only as a footnote in those lists which are totally unfamiliar to most everyone except us enthusiasts.
Very few if any movies were ever made about long term successful historic liners. That interests no one. We do like movies about ships sinking and disasters, and the drama the involves life or death situations. Remember ‘The Towering Inferno’, the original ‘Poseidon Adventure, ‘Earthquake’, ‘Airport’, ‘The Hindenburg’, ‘Gray Lady Down’, and the endless genre of disaster movies from the 70’s? Disasters, and Disaster movies, have been a part of our collective interests for the better part of a century. Would anyone watch a movie about the average day in the life of Pompeii had it not involved total annihilation by a volcano? Or a movie about Apollo 13 had it not been a life or death struggle to get the crew back to earth? Just Google ‘Disaster Movies’ and see what I mean.
There are no large scale popular public ‘events’ marking milestones of the launching, maiden voyages, lifespan and scrapping of successful long term liners because it’s boring. Titanic is only unique and interesting because of her fate. There would be no centennial memorial, no artifact tours or museums based on her incredibly very short life, no mass of memorabilia for sale on eBay, no epic-scale movies on Titanic had she missed that iceberg and arrived in New York City as scheduled.
For the moviegoers among us who have enjoyed James Cameron’s movie, TITANIC, this news may come not as a surprise but a little sad anyway:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-27/gloria-stuart-oldest-oscar-nominee-at-87-for-titanic-role-dies-at-100.html
The other part of the news release, besides the steering issue, was that Bruce Ismay ordered Captain Smith to proceed ahead, and that the ship steamed ahead for a time as though nothing had happened. It is said that this accelerated the sinking by hours.
I don’t believe that for a second. It is in every report I have read about the disaster that the ship was started again and moved ahead at a slow speed for a very short time before stopping once more, and for the last time. I don’t believe that the short distance of movement at slow speed had any effect on the time it took for the ship to founder.
And, subsequent tests on the Olympic turning radius showed that at the distance the ice could have been spotted, called to the bridge, orders given, wheel swung, the vessel could not have turned enough to avoid the ice, turning the wrong way or not.
Mark D.