Modern Marvels Titanic Tech

[Jason D. Tiller]

Great to hear that the show was good, I'll consider purchasing it as well.

Nathan, I haven't been out west yet, but I've heard it's beautiful. Are you on the outskirts of Calgary?

Best regards,

Jason

 

[Michael Cundiff]

Hello:

However, it was great to see the familiar faces of Marschall, Stephenson, and Andrews, for the most part I was unpleased with the recent airing of "Titanic Technology".

It was the same old *orgin* to *disaster* presentation, albeit the format of the graphics were upgraded via computer technology.

What was interesting was this *first time* public proposition of a possible grounding on the berg, as well as the aforementioned *breakdown* workings of a marconi wireless.

The grade of the steel, the various steps of bldg., the OLYMPIC/HAWKE, TITANIC/NEW YORK near/collision have been featured time and again.

The only reason I fought to stay up till 10:00 Pacific was the fact that Bill Paxton was offering a seemingly tease for the forthcoming Discovery presentation.

BTW, did any of you get the chance to see Paxton on the Jay Leno show? I had also hoped for a preview of "Ghosts" but was only offered a brief clip of Paxton & crew, upon surfacing aboard a MIR, awaiting the, what turned out to be *TWO HOUR* connection to the Mother ship...

...seems that Paxton barfed all over everything...including the MIR
inner sphere workings as well as his two Ruissian commrades...

Michael Cundiff
USA

 

[Michael Cundiff]

ADDENDUM:

BTW Parks...I am aware of RMSTI's attempt to recover the TITANIC's marconi set...however the NAUTILE ascended with only a particular piece.

Could you, or may I ask...would you
care to expand furthur on this?

Michael Cundiff
USA

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Michael,

The exhibits coordinator for RMSTI/SFX is a personal friend of mine. He, in turn, works closely with RMSTI's artefact manager and has been responsible for the identification of most recovered objects that are of a technical nature. I have asked him about supposed Marconi artefacts and he has been unable to find any that can be proven to have come from the Marconi Room (the Silent Room remained intact during the sinking and therefore the items from that room have not been scattered). There have been a couple of claims about Marconi artefacts (the clock from the Marconi Room being the most famous), but nothing that can be proven. The clock could have come from any number of places.

I have viewed the footage taken by Robin when it entered the Marconi Room through the skylight, but Robin was too big to do much manoeuvring in the space. The area covered by Robin can be seen in Cameron's video as being barren, the hydrodynamic forces during the sinking evidently having utterly destroyed the space, scattering the contents to who knows where. There's not much that Robin could have picked up, even if it had been capable. The "tuner" imaged by Robin is actually the electrical distribution panel which was embedded in the forward wall of the Marconi Room, accessible from the corridor outside.

If RMSTI did in fact recover an artefact that originated in the Marconi Room, they did not recover it from the Marconi Room. I found an unidentified Marconi component (identified as Marconi by the type of electrical connectors that can be seen on its underside) in the remains of Stateroom Z, which (along with a debris trail that runs along the aft corridor) would indicate that when the Marconi Room fell apart, the items within had a tendency to flow to port and aft. Some items probably exited into the Grand Staircase area along the port side. From there, they could have gone anywhere.

Too bad the show "unpleased" you. We'll try harder next time.

Parks

 

[Lee Gilliland]

Parks, I understand RMST is interested in Titaniacs for docents. Would you possibly know to whom I might apply?

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Lee,

The person you should ask is Bill Sauder. You might pose the question toward the latter half of this month, after Bill returns from an overseas trip.

Parks

 

[Lee Gilliland]

Thanks Parks, you're a sweetie!

 

[Karin Kasper]

Parks, I hadn't been able to check in here all week, and discovered all these programs while channel surfing the other night. All of a sudden, your name and face popped up onscreen, and I started stammering to hubby, "Hey...that guy posts on ET!!" He wasn't nearly as excited as I was. Actually, what he said was, "With the amount of Titanic sites you have bookmarked and that you visit on a regular basis, I'd be shocked if you never 'met' one of the people they have on these specials!!"

Anyway, I thought you were very good, and didn't think you stammered at all. And I enjoyed the special.

 

[Parks Stephenson]

In order to prepare for my interview, the producer sent me a list of questions. I filled in what I wanted to say at home, then reviewed the answers just before I went in front of the camera. Only a fraction of what I prepared for actually ended up on screen.

Instead of throwing out the questions after my interview, I decided to post them on my website:

http://marconigraph.com

If you compare what I was to be asked with what was shown on TV, you'll get an idea of how much gets left on the cutting-room floor.

Karin,

Thanks for your comments. I've gotten a lot of media exposure this past week -- two local news segments about my wife's new restaurant, the History Channel show, and "Ghosts of the Abyss." I have to say that I like my appearance in GotA the best, because all you see is my hand. I also like my depiction in the GotA book (Marconi Room renders), because Ken gave me more hair and filled in my bald spot.

Parks

 

[Nathan Good]

Hi all,

Sounds like it was a good show. Would it be fair to assume that it would be worth ordering this film?

Jason,

I'm actually about an hour and a half north of calgary. Calgary really is a great town and the Rockies are just a short drive away. It really is beautiful country. Unless you're interested in skiing, I recommend a summer trip.

 

[Jason D. Tiller]

Hi Nathan,

Thanks for the info. One of these days, I'll get out there during the summer.

Best regards,

Jason

 

[Tim Foecke]

Just saw this . . . OUCH!

Parks, for the record:

- wrought iron is hand puddled, not made by either open hearth or Bessemer processes.

- the wrought iron was NOT the best available, not even close

I turned it off after 22 minutes. Sorry.

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Tim,

All things considered, I would rather have had you on the show discussing the metallurgy than me. I thought that I would discuss the Marconi set, but instead I was thrown a set of questions from A to Z. I did the best I could, knowing full well the lumps I would take from subject matter experts such as yourself after the fact. I don't know how many on-camera interviews you have done, but I discovered that it's not a pleasant experience. Last-minute cramming for on-air ad libbing does not suffice. Editing sometimes destroys the context one tries to set, leaving embarrassing disjointed thoughts on the screen. Doing that interview reinforced in my mind that I much prefer working behind the camera than in front of it.

So, yes, you are entirely correct in giving me my lumps. I deserve it. It's too bad that you turned the show off before I got to speak about the wireless...it's the only part of the show that I am proud of. And, I might have taught you something outside your area of expertise.

I would rather have you critique the notes that I hurredly threw together in preparation for the interview than the edited version of my ad libbing that was shown on TV. My notes are posted on my website in the Titanic section (under the heading, ""Modern Marvels: Titanic Tech" Questions"...essentially, that was my "cheat sheet"). I am much more interested in those being correct than what was shown in "Titanic Tech," so any comments you might have about those would be most appreciated.

One direct response to your post above...it was never my intention to say that wrought-iron was the best steel available, or that it was the result of the Bessemer process. I don't even remember saying anything like that, although I do remember saying something to the effect that scrap wrought-iron could be added to cast-iron on the open hearth. If you got that sense, though, then there's an example of what I was talking about...a combination of on-camera nervousness and editing has me saying something that I would never say anywhere else. I'm going to have to take a look at what I said again the next time I see the episode.

Parks

 

[Parks Stephenson]

Dr. Foecke,

Your comments intrigued me, so I ran the episode again just now and try as I might, I can't find the part where I said what you accuse me of saying. I did say that Titanic's plating was made on the open hearth. I did say that the open-hearth method was the state-of-the-art method for producing mild steel in Titanic's day. Was I wrong in claiming so? The only place where I mentioned the words, "wrought iron," was where I talked about the presence of slag in the wrought-iron rivets. I just don't understand how you got the impression that I claimed that wrought iron was made on the open hearth or was the best available...whatever...of the time. I even distinguished between the steel and the wrought-iron rivets. Yes, I flubbed my way through that part of the show, but you are attributing comments to me that I never made. Why is that?

Parks

 

[Parks Stephenson]

I just found out that "Titanic Tech" is being rerun today on the History Channel, for those who might be interested.

An amusing aside about the show: I was shooting another Modern Marvels segment (not Titanic related) earlier this week with the same producer that made "Titanic Tech." Over lunch, he told me that when he received the task from the network to make a show about Titanic, he was relieved. He had just come off a difficult shoot, where the experts continually sniped at and fought with one another. To the producer, Titanic was a topic that seemed easy enough...how much contention would there be in a topic that involved a disaster that happened almost a century before? He was totally unprepared when he found out how much acrimony and difficulty there was among Titanic "experts." One potential interviewee said that he wouldn't appear on the show if so-and-so was going to be on it. Another was very difficult to work with, and could not find time to be available when the producer and his crew were in town. The producer was amazed that people could have such personal convictions about the subject, even though there was no personal connection with a ship that had sunk so long ago. All I could say to this was, "Welcome to my world."

Parks