Images Of The WreckWhat Does It Remind You Of

[steve b]

Couldnt help but get this thought out of my head while looking at old photos of the wreck recently-As beautiful as Titanic once was, every time i see it now, i see nothing but ghostly and scary images and reminders of one night. Indeed even the remains of the grand ship appear to be dying a slow death at the hands of father time. This saddens me, to see something once so beautiful looking so sad, as if the ship had a voice of its owm it would be screaming for help. I bring this up because i know some, when they see images of the ship, still see images of her beauty. And for while i love her and all her majesticness, i cant see that looking at the remains of it. Can anyone? i read a quote from someone, cant remember who, but i think it summed things up perfectly. It basically said that if even not a single life been lost but Titanic had, it still would have been as tragic. God bless all

 

[Dave Hudson]

If I try, I can still see her beauty. Just look at the columns or octagon chandeliers in the Reception Room, or the bicycle in the Gymnasium. Even just looking at the windows of the B Deck suites or the flaking black paint on her hull brings the realization that this was once the pride of mankind and the glory of all that was 1912.
If you just look at the wreck while keeping in mind that it was once a real ship with care and effort put into her, you can see past the rust and the decades and you are left with the proud flagship of the White Star Line.
I have a good analogy that I will share.
A year ago when my grandmother was on her deathbed, I came to see her. She had been a wonderful woman and I respected her immensely. The woman that I saw in that hospital bed, however, didn't look like my grandmother at all. The medication and staying in bed for several weeks had made her appear bloated and puffy. I could barely recognize her. Then, a strange thing happened. I looked at her nose. For years, my grandma always carried a kleenex around with her as little old ladies have a habit of doing. I had always noticed her wiping her nose with it, but never really gave it much thought. When I looked at her nose in that bed, I suddenly recognized her completely and there was my grandma. It was a very eerie experience.

David

 

[Beverly J. Crowder]

I still remember when my father went home to be with the Lord, and I hadn't seen him in over a year and a half since I had moved from NY to NC...
When I 1st saw him in the casket, he didn't look like my father, he looked like my little Italian Grandfather! I was almost shocked, I even told my mother, "That's not my Dad, that's GrandDad"! But, like David...I looked for something I knew was him...I looked at and touched my father's very large hands..
then I KNEW it was him. That distingishing trait that I knew so well. He was a very large man before he got sick and had lost a lot of weight and even height after I moved south. It was very strange. Almost surreal if you will.

When I look at Titanic as she is now...and how she looked before, even with the black and white photos... I still get that eerie feeling. So many people died with her. So many souls were lost. Now she is just a shell, as my father was just a shell when I looked at him for the last time. The real man, his soul, was no longer there. The vessel that carried him had served it's purpose and he moved on.
I know that Titanic still had purpose. But her soul still lives on in all of us.... on this board...
in our books and videos, most of all, in our hearts. Just as my dad will never leave my heart, neither will Titanic and her story and her people she carried. The men that worked so hard and diligently to construct her and bring her to life. I can imagine that it was almost like losing a child to those workers.

Out of her loss, came many new regulations and laws that would help to prevent what had happened to Titanic and her people, from happening to others.
Because of her, many lives have been saved at sea.
I know that our system is not perfect, and the sea has a hunger all it's own and many are still lost, but I like to think that Titanic started a new respect for human life in 1912.

Was it Jack Thayer that said that life began for him on 14 April 1912?

Just my thoughts....

Beverly

 

[James Maxwell]

The images of the wreck bring lots of different reactions from me. When I see the mangled shambles of Titanic's stern section and the scattered remains of the debris fields, I can't help thinking of Shelley's poem "Ozymandias" or Kipling's poem " The Convergence of the Twain," for here is scattered the vanity and arrogance of Humankind. Not only 1,500 people perished here, but also here we see the start of the crumbling of the class ridden and elitist Edwardian Society. How dare men say that this vessel for all her power and grace was "unsinkable" - one grazing encounter with one anonymous and insignificant lump of ice put paid to that!
However, in other views of the wreck I have different emotions, especially those photos taken from in front of her bow section, standing upright and with her deck rails still intact. Here is pride still and grace and an ineffable fading beauty. This is a monument of a different kind, a memorial to the thousands of underpaid and undervalued Belfast shipyard workers who laboured for long hours and gave so much of their sweat and skill to build the dream. The great and the good of this bygone age have gone - Ismay is no more, White Star has vanished for ever, but still the work of all those forgotten and unknown artisans remains here in the silence and darkness of the deep ocean.
There is one image that when I first saw it made the hairs on my neck prickle. It is perhaps the most chilling of all and that is the picture of the little porcelain doll's face, lying stark and white on the ocean bed. This reminds me that above all this was a human tragedy, and I can't help thinking that on one brilliant,clear,starlit night long ago, there was one terrified small child clutching a little doll who perished upon the altar of our pride and vanity. Who was this child? - we shall probably never know, but in this one image of the face of her doll the childs memory still lingers, calling to us across all the years - remember me, remember me.

 

[Kyrila Scully]

Beverly,
What a beautiful essay! It literally brought tears to my eyes!
James,
Your editorial is well put and very moving. I know both of your posts speak for my heart as well. When I see her rusticle covered remains, I think of all the dreams that once were, and never came to be. Titanic will forever be The Ship of Dreams for that reason.
For the cover of my book, I commissioned Nick Barnett to paint the "Cherub Rising" to the ocean's surface. As it nears the the top, you can see the promise of sunlight filtering into the sea. The cherub appears to be looking down and waving goodbye to the 1,500 lost souls left behind, their ghostly images swirling amidst the darkening currents. I chose this image because, even though my book is about the survivors in the lifeboats, I did not want to forget the ones who didn't survive. By remembering them, their dreams live on.

Kyrila

 

[Randy Bryan Bigham]

All,

I second Kyrila in praising the heart-felt comments above. I won't attempt to compete with their poignancy but want to say a bit about what the images of Titanic as she is now mean to me.

I must say I'm left with awe and at the same time a sense that the poor ship is only a shell. One can barely make out the once graceful lines, now crumpled and sagging. The sea-bed may be strewn with the accoutrements of earthly life but their owners - nor even any of us - hardly have need for them now.

Titanic is very much a kind of pitiful ghost to me. But she isn't a sad ghost because the human souls - and let's not forget the poor animals - who sailed her are now no longer there. Their lives are what animated Titanic. But they're gone, blessedly gone. There's no longer any pain or fear to encumber them and so Titanic, too, suffers no more.

So I don't cry for Titanic. She's at rest and so are all those who went with her. Afterall, the ship and her people do, as has been pointed out here, still live in the very real and special sense that they're so sweetly remembered and - thanks to Phil Hind and ET - so lovingly honored.

Randy

 

[Bill DeSena]

Greetings all,

When I look at the wreck its like a bad accident on the freeway you are compelled to look even though you would rather not see the mangled remains of people and vehicles. The twisted and sorrowful wreck is the same for me a horror that I can avoid as a pedestrian to its history, yet I am compelled by curiosity to stop and stare into its haunting solitude and ponder its poignant message.

It seems to speak through the shadows of its eternal darkened grave a message and a warning. I must say I find both hard to grasp sometimes. Is it a warning not to blindly trust whatever is hailed as the latest and greatest technological achievements, or is it just telling how fate and chance rule our lives in some weird unpredictable fashion? Whatever its message the wreck is both engrossing in its shear enormity of size and space as it is in its ability to tear at emotions.

Regards
Bill

 

[Beverly J. Crowder]

Thank you for the compliments. I was just telling what my thoughts were.

Kyrila,
I can't wait for your book! Please email me when it is available

It is so exciting to read all the great work that everyone has published. It is a lot of pain staking, meticulous work and I thank all of you for your contributions.

In my household.. I am picked on all the time for being a Titanic junkie. Hardly a day goes by that I am not reading, writing or watching something to do with her and other shipwrecks.

There is just something about Titanic that touches your heart. Something about her that draws you. As James said, "Remember Me... Remember Me".... that very well fits.

God Bless,

Beverly

 

[steve b]

Perhaps the reason i find the ultimate irony in all of this, is for the simple reason that the person who i was closest to in this life, my grandmother, was born in 1912, and the lord saw fit to call her home on april 14 1998. Although she was not all that involved in the story itsself, she became the perfect representation of the people of the times to me, and a perfect reflection of theyre values. Born one of 3 children of Polish settlers, she was very mucha woman from the old school. You people have once again managed to bring a beautiful grace and poignant point of view to this. Although i still cannot shake the image of a childlike voice, that of Titanic, laying on the ocean floor screaming for help, as if it had its own voice. God bless all

 

[James Maxwell]

Kyrila,
Thanks for your nice comments, but I'm just an Irish boy full of "blarney" - it's just that Titanic stirs something way deep inside.
regards,
james

 

[Kyrila Scully]

James,
I've got a little Irish in me, too, being tapped into McGlone blood on me mother's side.
Feel free to write me at my personal e-mail address.

Kyrila

 

[Beverly J. Crowder]

I am a melting pot myself. Polish, Italian, German and Irish.

God Bless you Steve b, you always bring out the best in me. I am glad that you had that relationship with your Grandmother before the Lord called her home. Quite unique that she was born in 1912 and left on 14 April.

It is so much fun to learn about each other on this board.

Back to Titanic....
Everytime I think of her, I get excited.... and my family sees this glazed over look in my eyes and they run for cover.

What a relationship

Beverly

 

[steve b]

Beverly- God thats scary to think i bring out the best in ANYBODY since im so pea brained as it is anyway. But im simply in awe of the way thoughts have been so far put into words in this post. I cannot help but still see the majestic ship laying on the bottom of the ocean floor, wounded badly and all her spectacular beauty destroyed. Yes there are some truly beautiful piesces of her that still remain, but as was so well stated earlier in this post, sadly because of the arrogance of many we are deprived of not only the 1500 people who had lifetimes and dreams disappear in a matter of 2 short hours, but we also have been forever deprived of the chance to see something so spectacular and enourmous in its state of being.Had Titanic made it through that night and lived out her full potential as a WSL vessel, i have no doubt in my mind that after her tour of duty she would have been docked somewhere and hopefully open for public tours. God i would give anything to see her, the insides, for 5 minutes. But, as irony would have it, just as the souls she so dutifully and powerfully carried across the sea, because of poor judgement and fatal surroundings, we are all deprived of that, just as many were and are deprived of grandmothers, grandfathers, mothers fathers sisters aunts uncles and even sadder nieces and nephews and children. It never ceases to amaze me, that even though Titanic was a ship, she bore in many ways so many resemblences of the people she carried..And sadly met just as tragic a fat

 

[Teri Lynn Milch]

Steve,

You ask "Images Of The Wreck-What Does It Remind You Of?" When I look at the images of the decaying ship my mind becomes so broke that I can't even think with it. I see the remains of her and my mind shuts off like a light switch. The death of this ship is so abhorrent to me that I don't think of anything except the remains one sees in photos. But I thoroughly enjoyed reading what other people have to say when they see photos of the decaying ship. I suppose one could say that I have not quite gotten over the fact that this great ship has been lost to sea, living at the bottom of the Atlanic now...

But when speaking of other aspects of the Titanic my mind does turn the light switch on and I love talking about those other aspects of her. Don't worry, my mind is not all in the dark!!!!

Teri

 

[Sandra LaHair]

To: James Maxwell

Well said, your thoughts moved me tremendously.

I think of all the third class passengers with hope in their hearts and all they possessed in suitcases, looking for a better life in America. The sheer terror of being on a sinking ship, with no way off. My God, how awful. And the children, especially the children. Forgive me, it upsets me because I lost a child to a drunk driver.

 

[Sam Brannigan]

Sandra

Although I don't know you, and for what it's worth, you have my utmost sympathy. In my mind, you have also finally answered any "time travel back to the Titanic" ideas I may have had.

God bless you.

Kind regards

Sam

 

[steve b]

The amazing thing aout the people who lost theyre lives that tragic is the great and vast contrasts between them. Rich and old, young and poor, and some that fell right in the middle. Some coming to America to start a new life, others to enjoy the rewards of a lifetimes work of spoils. What makes Titanic so unique, is when you see the ship, it manages to encompass them all nicely, and also tragically. For on one hand when you see her in her infancy, the last piesces having been put together on her, the paint still freshly smelling, shes is like a youthful child about to take its first steps on what should be a lifetime of joy and achievements. The hope and the beauty are so strong, just like the people she carried. Then there is the Titanic we see at the ocean floor, split in 2 with no hope of ever seeing its dreams realised, or we of ever seeing the absolute beauty and spector of this grand ship. The great irony is, all the hopes and dreams for this ship were shattered, never to be realised, its life cut short so too young. Much like the people, from all walks of life, that she carried

 

[Sandra LaHair]

Sam-

I assure you, I didn't mean to discourage your time travel. It's a motherly instinct, I know I'm not the only one to lose a child ( a fate I wish no one). I apologize for being so moved at the moment. Off the subject: I read your profile and would like to include that my husband's family name was originally spelled "Laoghaire" before they immigrated to the US via Canada. The name was changed upon their arrival to LaHair. I hope to visit Dun Laoghaire before I depart this world. And I plan to sail over. My family name is Stanton and haven't been able to find S. Ward Stanton in the family gene pool.

Regards, Sandra

 

[Kris Muhvic]

When I first saw the photographs, then films, of Titanic's resting place, I felt disappointed. I always thought, wished it so, that she was solid, in one piece-still strong. It was then that the reality of the disaster, the fact that yes, this was a disaster, hit me.
The condition of the ship (broken in half...so it was true!) made me more interested (all the scatterings of the most simple things, seemed so extraordinary), and a little less interested at the same time, if that makes any sence. Maybe more interested, even emotional, in ways that books and movies about Titanic did not seem to give me anymore.
But what I most recall, then as now, is the stern section. In terrifying shape, the decks peeled back to forever hide the spaces, the railings and staircases where so many clung to in their desperate desire to hold on...to anything. It seems quite fitting that this is hidden from view. It would be too painful if it was not.

Thank you-
Kris.

 

[steve b]

Its amazing the simple and raw emotion of just the remains of the ship still bring to people to this day. Its a phenom like i have not ever seen matched. A tribute in a way to all that Titanic was and still is to people