DUMB Question Here Ibd like to know how many of you miss the Titanic

[Tom Pappas]

I never got why telling people the ship was sinking would have caused a panic. In order to panic, the passengers would have needed to know there weren't enough lifeboats, and only Rose noticed that (kidding!). In cases where there were adequate boats, informing the ship's company didn't create panic. I think this is one of those oft-repeated red herrings. Or is it a canard? Neither fish nor fowl?

 

[Kritina Johnston]

I don't miss the ship (she was a looker, yes, but so were other vessels of the time...ooh, did I burst a sacred bubble? Well, poof).

But do I miss the people?...the word "Yes" couldn't begin to answer that question.

As for feelings...anger, a lot of anger...grief, pretty tremendous at times...even some guilt (call it strange, but it's there, and there you are).

 

[Deborah Russes]

In regards to the ship I feel humbled by it and the events surrounding it...not to mention respect. Sometimes I wonder if she would still be in service or at least for how long had she not gone down. Would she be in a situation similar to the Queen Mary?

 

[Timothy Brandsoy]

Tom said:
"I never got why telling people the ship was sinking would have caused a panic. In order to panic, the passengers would have needed to know there weren't enough lifeboats..."

It would have been self evident.
They were stalling for time to as many people off as quietly as possible. When the majority of steerage got to the lifeboats they were already gone.
IF they had gotten 2200+ passengers and crew on deck immediately they would have quickly realized there wasn't enough room for them all. All they would have to do is LOOK at the lifeboats to know there wasn't enough room. As the saying goes: 'Do the math!' Some may have been simple people but they could add.
If they had called for 'women and children first' then they would have known something was up....and not good news!

 

[Tom Pappas]

Timothy -

"IF they had gotten 2200+ passengers and crew on deck immediately they would have quickly realized there wasn't enough room for them all." I don't think it's necessary to get all 2200 on deck. You tell the people who ARE present that the ship is sinking, and if they want to live, they'd better get in a boat. You then pass the word through the ship a deck or two at a time.

"They were stalling for time to [get] as many people off as quietly as possible." No - that maximum is attained by informing enough people to fill the boats that their lives are in danger, not by telling them pretty lies. The stalling, it turns out, killed something on the order of 450 people.

"All they would have to do is LOOK at the lifeboats to know there wasn't enough room." First of all, it would have been impossible to count the boats. The deck was too big, and too dark. The passengers probably didn't know their capacity, and they likely didn't know how many people were on board anyway. Only a fictional passenger could have figured out that the boats were insufficient.

"If they had called for 'women and children first' then they would have known something was up....and not good news!" I don't see at all why this would be true. It was the convention of the day, and would have been issued even if there had been adequate capacity.

 

[Tim Brandsoy]

I think I see your point. You didn't intend to tell EVERYONE the ship was sinking. Just enough to fill the lifeboats, right? That's a valid point since so many didn't see the initial threat as real. They may have been overcautious. That caution and "only women and children" vs "women and children first" did cause an unnecessary amount of casualties.

HAD they told everyone, 1st, 2nd and Steerage, it would have caused a panic and towards the end would have hindered the remaining lifeboats from leaving IMHO. As more and more people realized that fewer and fewer boats were available panic would have set in. In the darkness they wouldn't have to "see" it...they would know it, felt it, even in the dark. Even if there had been enough lifeboats panic could have been a problem if they saw it as eminently sinking.

 

[Susan Leighton]

Hey Kyrila,
I just read this thread. Titanic Impact is a great name. It is bold and intriguing. I like it a lot. Good Luck!!
-Susan Y. Leighton

 

[Mrs Claire Stevenson]

I went to see the film in the cinema and came out crying my eyes out. Every time I have watched film since then, the woman with the baby in her arms is guaranteed to start the waterworks

Thanks to Kyrila Scully for clarifying the lifeboat situation, I have always said they should have had enough lifeboats for everyone, but when you put it like that there wouldn't have been much point.

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Tim!

>I think I see your point. You didn't intend to tell EVERYONE the ship was sinking. Just enough to fill the lifeboats, right? That's a valid point since so many didn't see the initial threat as real. They may have been overcautious. That caution and "only women and children" vs "women and children first" did cause an unnecessary amount of casualties.

That sounds to me like one of the lines out of Cameron's film. I'm not sure it's wise to argue semantics and their effect on 2,200 lives based on a film script. In the actual event, I'm sure the "women and children" line was subjected to considerable variation. Scarrott, at Boat 14, gave it a slightly different spin when he testified in London:

"Directly I got to my boat I jumped in, saw the plug in, and saw my dropping ladder was ready to be worked at a moment's notice; and then Mr. Wilde, the Chief Officer, came along and said, "All right; take the women and children," and we started taking the women and children. There would be 20 women got into the boat, I should say, when some men tried to rush the boats, foreigners they were, because they could not understand the order which I gave them, and I had to use a bit of persuasion. The only thing I could use was the boat's tiller."

Best wishes!

Roy

 

[Roy Kristiansen]

Hi, Susan!

>"I had a hard time getting it at first, so I just practiced it a few times and realized it worked. I am obviously no expert, but, feel free to e-mail me privately if you don't understand my confusing directions. Just trying to help in my own feeble way."

No need to be shy. Your tip worked like a charm!

Many, many thanks!

Roy

 

[Adam Usher]

I miss Titanic. I have had some very strange dreams or nightmares about that lovely ship going down.

The thing that frightened me was that i was an officer and the captain knew we were doomed! He lead us all down to the room where the hymn service was always held and he wished us all good luck and we said a prayer, and then our oxygen ran out and 1 by 1 we all died. I take it we must have been in a watertight compartment.

I just feel like the ship was part of my life. Maybe i was on the ship in a previous life?

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>Maybe i was on the ship in a previous life?<<

Unknowable, and untestable. Adam, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but we've had some discussions on "past lives" that turned so ugly that it's generally considered a taboo subject on this forum.

 

[John Zoppina]

Sorry for reviving an old topic, but it has been idle for a few months now and thought maybe it would have renewed interest.

Regarding the Titanic... my feelings are a combination of sad and disappointed. I am sad that the disaster even happened, and that so many lives were lost. I am disappointed that I didn't live in a time when I would have the opportunity to have experienced Titanic/Olympic/Britannic.

By the same token, I am glad that this incident has led to improvements on ships, SOLAS, and other regulations. I just wish it didn't have to happen to this particular ship!

-John

 

[Michael H. Standart]

From the vantage point of a career sailor, I'd rather something like this didn't happen to any ship. Unfortunately, anything touched by the hand of man brings along his failings as well as his strengths. Titanic wasn't the first victim claimed by icebergs and wasn't the last either.

 

[T. Eric Brown]

With regards to the first question (do I miss it?), I guess I do kind of miss it. I would love to have been able to explore the great ship. But it had to sink first to gain immortality.

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"What do you see?"-Sixth Officer James Moody