Natb Geo rebuilding Titanic

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Michael Cundiff

Member
This episode premieres tonight on the Natioanl Geographic channel...9:00 p.m. pacific time. Looks interesting, particulary the mok-up of the starboard fore-section.

Michael Cundiff
NV, USA
 
It's pretty good, I watched it last night after Titanic's Secrets with Robert Ballard. Lets just say I really enjoyed the program, and would definitely recommend watching it.
 
Great special. Started with rebuiding the stem of the fore section. Stonier's recreated the original first class china setting, they even produced an original request order for the china, bearing Titanic & Olympic heading. A descendant proudly displayed a salt spoon which was in pocket of survivor. Mentioned C. Proctor (Head chef) as second highest paid member aboard the ship, behind Capt. Smith.

All in all, worth watching twice...four hrs.

Michael Cundiff
NV, USA
 
I managed to catch most of the re-braodcast before I had to bed down for the night. What I found interesting about it was the way it showcased the sheer hard work it took to make the ship come into existance. I found it somewhat amusing that the people hammering the rivets home in the recreated bow managed to get more in then the team using modern riveting tools.
 
The comment that the Head Chef was the 2nd highest paid crew member isn't accurate. Proctor was paid well, but not that well. If he'd lived to draw his pay it would have been £20 for the voyage, equal to the Purser and Chief Steward. The Chief Officer signed on for £25 and the Chief Engineer (who was in fact the highest paid crew member excluding the Captain) contracted for £35, of which the rough equivalent today would be £2000.
 
I was lucky enough to meet Dave and Brendan of the engineering team in Belfast at Easter at a talk they did on the series which was shown here under the name We Built The Titanic. One of the questions I asked on the Q&A was what did they find the most difficult thing to reconstruct, and they said it was the bow section, no question. Very hard work riveting apparently.
 
There have been replays of this show on Nat Geo recently, have managed to catch a few episodes, including the aforementioned fore section one and the one where they repaired the memorial to the Titanic engineers - love the show. It's of the style where they have flashbacks to how things were done in Titanic's time as well as the modern side of things, so it covers both bases.

Wonder if it will come out on DVD if it hasn't already?

Cheers,
Adam.
 
>>Wonder if it will come out on DVD if it hasn't already? <<

Keep an eye on the shelves as Christmas approaches, Adam. Quite a number of releases take place as the holidays draw closer to take advantage of the looser purse strings.
 
That and the centenary of course, Michael. I imagine there'll be a considerable increase in the number of box sets floating around (no pun intended ;-) )as the months draw nearer....

Cheers,
Adam.
 
Aside from the forming of the bow stem segment, I enjoyed the scene where a direct descendant of Titanic survivor pulled, from his pocket, a salt spoon bearing the white star line logo.

Michael Cundiff
NV, USA
 
>>I imagine there'll be a considerable increase in the number of box sets floating around (no pun intended ;-) )as the months draw nearer.... <<

To say nothing of new works with supposedly fresh material, and some of it might be. I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Too much of what comes out tends to recycle the same old drek.
 
Another one I recalled was where they rebuilt a Marconi wireless system and managed to send a morse code message with it. Just small bits and pieces really but all with huge value to the original Titanic.

I'm just waiting for all the new ideas of either a.) raising the Titanic; or b.) rebuilding the entire Titanic, around the time of the centenary.

Michael, you're exactly right, much will purport to be new material whilst actually really being rehashed material from 10 or 20 years ago.

Cheers,
Adam.
 

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