Something about the old visions of the Titanic Wreck before 1985

N

Newman123

Member
You know how people always envisioned Titanic's wreck as being a perfectly preserved hull that's been in pristine condition since the night she sank with everything, including cloth and flesh being preserved the coldness of the Atlantic?

Here are my thoughts.

Even if she were that well preserved, assuming rust eating bacteria and other destructive marine organisms didn't exist in the abyss, she'd still have damage from her sinking and her descent. Such as broken or blown out windows, the bridge partially crushed by the forward funnel, a large dent on the gymnasium roof where the second funnel had fallen andvthe second class entrance on the boat deck being damaged by the fall of the fourth funnel. The only funnel still attached would be the third funnel much like that painting by ken marschall of what the wreck looked like before people actually saw what it really looked like in 1985. i don't think there are any survivor testimonies of the third funnel falling..Since the bridge is made of wood, it would be discolored compared to the rest of the ship as the paint covering the bridge structure would have been washed away over time, revealing the dark brown wood underneath. All the hatch covers would be blown out by her impact on the seabed.

Her interior would probably be far from pristine. The interiors would be in a state of disarray. And I mean anything that was bolted down is all over the place. loose items in the ship or anything that wasn't bolted down that were floating around during the sinking and the fall to the bottom causing the once lavish interiors of the ship to become messy and disorganizes. Furniture and other loose object piling up against walls or bulkheads facing the bow. Some of these piles of furniture as well as mounds of mud and silt blocking certain doors or passageways into deeper parts of the ship. As part of the mess there would be piles of broken dishes and tableware in dining areas on the ship.

And even if she were as well preserved as people previously thought, assuming that she isn't glued to the bottom by the mud and silt. If they did raise her (assuming her structural integrity was still strong or sound). They would likely not allow her to the surface (a la Raise the Titanic) and keep her underwater so as not to run the risk of her immediately rusting away from exposure to air until the salvagers can put her in an enormous water tank, much like the water tank the CSS Hunley was immersed in), where conservation and if possible, restoration of the massive ship would be conducted. Assuming her masts and funnels are still attached to the wreck, they would also have to remove her funnels and masts and conserve and restore them separately.
 
Kyle Naber

Kyle Naber

Member
I don’t understand how there were these thoughts of pristine condition when it was believed that the ship went down both in one piece and at a perpendicular angle. You’d think that it would suffer a similar or even worse fate than Britannic’s bow after traveling two and a half miles down at 90° at 20mph. The crashing of the funnels definitely would have had impact on the decks. And with how slowly the bow flooded compared how the half end of the ship went under in mere minutes, I think there would still be severe damage to the stern, possibly even severing/shredding away the last couple hundred of feet of the stern during the descent.
 
:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

Member
I'm 52, when I was 4 became friends with a lad who lived with his Grandmother. She had followed the Titanic story all her life, as 2 days before her and family were to sail there was a death in the family so they weren't able to sail. She was a treasure trove of information, be it still all vague on facts.
Hence the vessel and it's story has been on my awareness for nearly 5 decades.

Forward to the late seventies when the movie came out "Raise the Titanic", I said to Dad could we go.
Dad said the movie will be rubbish as the ship won't be in one piece. I said WHAT?

Farmer Dad took a pencil and laid it on the edge of the table, he said the front hit iceberg? Yep. He said, so slowly the front goes down (as he lowered the front of the pencil below the "table line"). He said look, now is sinking from the front, when it gets to about here (half way), it will not be able to hold it's on weight.
Then he snapped the pencil, dropping the front first and the back a couple of seconds later, the two halves of the pencil falling to the floor

Its on the sea floor in two pieces he said, probably about half a mile apart. I watched in amazement when on the news it came out that Ballard had just found the Titanic, and in two pieces. Ran through to Dad all excited, he said; See, I told you it'd be in 2 pieces.

Early 80's I found this book, "Strange Stories and Amazing Facts" Readers Digest 1975 edition, is my oldest in my massive collection of nearly every book on the Titanic

Enjoy - Apologies for the copying
Ted
Most Western Town
New Zealand

AA 1975 Titanic
AB 1975 Titanic
AC 1975 Titanic
AD 1975 Titanic
AE 1975 Titanic
AF 1975 Titanic
AG 1975 Titanic
AH 1975 Titanic
AI 1975 Titanic
AJ 1975 Titanic
AK 1975 Titanic
AL 1975 Titanic
AM 1975 Titanic
AN 1975 Titanic
AO 1975 Titanic
AO 1975 Titanic
AP 1975 Titanic
AQ 1975 Titanic
 
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Scott Mills

Scott Mills

Member
You know how people always envisioned Titanic's wreck as being a perfectly preserved hull that's been in pristine condition since the night she sank with everything, including cloth and flesh being preserved the coldness of the Atlantic?

Of course the ship would be damaged by the process of sinking; and do not forget about the hydrodynamic forces acting on the ship as she fell to the ocean floor. The stern sections--or any section with air if you were imagining the wreck before its discovery--would have imploded, and the downforce of the trailing water column , as well as the upforce of water being expelled, would have caused damage once the wreck hit the ocean floor.
 
R

robert warren

Member
Part of the reason we thought the ship so well preserved was due to the scientists. For decades they kept saying things about no sunlight, cold water , almost no plant or animal life and low salinity at such depths.This added fuel to the fantasy that the Titanic was cryogenically frozen in suspended animation. They cant be blamed as a lot of people didn't know too much about the abyss back in the day. Looking back at it now, its very absurd how we could all think a ship falling that far to the ocean floor would come through with very little wear and tear. Talk about naïve!
 
Kyle Naber

Kyle Naber

Member
I'm 52, when I was 4 became friends with a lad who lived with his Grandmother. She had followed the Titanic story all her life, as 2 days before her and family were to sail there was a death in the family so they weren't able to sail. She was a treasure trove of information, be it still all vague on facts.
Hence the vessel and it's story has been on my awareness for nearly 5 decades.

Forward to the late seventies when the movie came out "Raise the Titanic", I said to Dad could we go.
Dad said the movie will be rubbish as the ship won't be in one piece. I said WHAT?

Farmer Dad took a pencil and laid it on the edge of the table, he said the front hit iceberg? Yep. He said, so slowly the front goes down (as he lowered the front of the pencil below the "table line"). He said look, now is sinking from the front, when it gets to about here (half way), it will not be able to hold it's on weight.
Then he snapped the pencil, dropping the front first and the back a couple of seconds later, the two halves of the pencil falling to the floor

Its on the sea floor in two pieces he said, probably about half a mile apart. I watched in amazement when on the news it came out that Ballard had just found the Titanic, and in two pieces. Ran through to Dad all excited, he said; See, I told you it'd be in 2 pieces.

Early 80's I found this book, "Strange Stories and Amazing Facts" Readers Digest 1975 edition, is my oldest in my massive collection of nearly every book on the Titanic

Enjoy - Apologies for the copying
Ted
Most Western Town
New Zealand

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Sounds like your dad listened to the testimonies and figured out a way as to how the breakup could have happened. There were too many stories of the ship breaking apart with the stern settling for something like it to not have occurred.
 
A

Aly Jones

Member
There was a video (can't find it now, must had been taken off line, due to the embrassesment of him) of a journalist interviewing 4 survivors at a titanic convention before 1985.

As we know, the survivors were there, he was not. One survivor lady repeatalty said "the ship broke in half " (she was using her fingers to described how titanic broke in two) the ignorance of the journalist jumped down her thoart and yelled at her "titanic did not break in half" the survivor was in disbelief didn't say much after that. Turns out she was 100% correct! Of cause, she was there, he was not!

Just because you keep telling others and yourself a certain thing doesn't mean it's true. As we found out about titanic in 1985 being a broken, in bad shaped, rust bucket and not a once beautiful ship as she was.

Does anyone know what video I'm talking about? It's gone! They took it down.
 
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:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

Member
Sounds like your dad listened to the testimonies and figured out a way as to how the breakup could have happened. There were too many stories of the ship breaking apart with the stern settling for something like it to not have occurred.
Hi Kyle,
He never had any other stories or references to it, or that he knew anyone who had an interest or was on it.
He was from a farming family in remote North Yorkshire, farmed his Dad's farm before that was sold and with in a few months late 1965 his new bride (Mum) and him emigrated to New Zealand.
More so I simply think he understood basic physics, from a practical point of view. We honestly moved some supposedly impossible and massive objects on the farm, he was down here for a week to stay, even then he couldn't help referencing to his one liners (pun intended) in regard to what ever we were doing.
"A lever long enough and you could lift the world" sort of thing.
He's a wonderful welder, brick layer, mechanic, wood turner, metal worker, farmer.
One thing most important thing he was, an avid reader. Also him and Mum taught all of us to question absolutely everything
Put all of that together and I thing you'll come to the same conclusion - He had worked it out himself
 
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:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

:Ted-jon: Charlton. NZ

Member
There was a video (can't find it now, must had been taken off line, due to the embrassesment of him) of a journalist interviewing 4 survivors at a titanic convention before 1985.

As we know, the survivors were there, he was not. One survivor lady repeatalty said "the ship broke in half " (she was using her fingers to described how titanic broke in two) the ignorance of the journalist jumped down her thoart and yelled at her "titanic did not break in half" the survivor was in disbelief didn't say much after that. Turns out she was 100% correct! Of cause, she was there, he was not!

Just because you keep telling others and yourself a certain thing doesn't mean it's true. As we found out about titanic in 1985 being a broken, in bad shaped, rust bucket and not a once beautiful ship as she was.

Does anyone know what video I'm talking about? It's gone! They took it down.
Love to see that video !
I had seen copies of some of the first newspaper articles that stated "Titanic Flounders All Lives Saved"

Anyone got a pic of that, or a link to it?
 
Cam Houseman

Cam Houseman

Member
You know how people always envisioned Titanic's wreck as being a perfectly preserved hull that's been in pristine condition since the night she sank with everything, including cloth and flesh being preserved the coldness of the Atlantic?

Here are my thoughts.

Even if she were that well preserved, assuming rust eating bacteria and other destructive marine organisms didn't exist in the abyss, she'd still have damage from her sinking and her descent. Such as broken or blown out windows, the bridge partially crushed by the forward funnel, a large dent on the gymnasium roof where the second funnel had fallen andvthe second class entrance on the boat deck being damaged by the fall of the fourth funnel. The only funnel still attached would be the third funnel much like that painting by ken marschall of what the wreck looked like before people actually saw what it really looked like in 1985. i don't think there are any survivor testimonies of the third funnel falling..Since the bridge is made of wood, it would be discolored compared to the rest of the ship as the paint covering the bridge structure would have been washed away over time, revealing the dark brown wood underneath. All the hatch covers would be blown out by her impact on the seabed.

Her interior would probably be far from pristine. The interiors would be in a state of disarray. And I mean anything that was bolted down is all over the place. loose items in the ship or anything that wasn't bolted down that were floating around during the sinking and the fall to the bottom causing the once lavish interiors of the ship to become messy and disorganizes. Furniture and other loose object piling up against walls or bulkheads facing the bow. Some of these piles of furniture as well as mounds of mud and silt blocking certain doors or passageways into deeper parts of the ship. As part of the mess there would be piles of broken dishes and tableware in dining areas on the ship.

And even if she were as well preserved as people previously thought, assuming that she isn't glued to the bottom by the mud and silt. If they did raise her (assuming her structural integrity was still strong or sound). They would likely not allow her to the surface (a la Raise the Titanic) and keep her underwater so as not to run the risk of her immediately rusting away from exposure to air until the salvagers can put her in an enormous water tank, much like the water tank the CSS Hunley was immersed in), where conservation and if possible, restoration of the massive ship would be conducted. Assuming her masts and funnels are still attached to the wreck, they would also have to remove her funnels and masts and conserve and restore them separately.
this is an interesting thought! I don't think the Second Class entrance was damaged by the fourth funnel, it (used to be) intact on the Stern. Also, didn't the Third Funnel fall backwards?
 
Kyle Naber

Kyle Naber

Member
this is an interesting thought! I don't think the Second Class entrance was damaged by the fourth funnel, it (used to be) intact on the Stern. Also, didn't the Third Funnel fall backwards?

I think the third funnel either fell backwards or to port. Half of the guy wires for that funnel were attached to the bow section, to its very possible that it was ripped backwards. If not, the wired still would have snapped, but the funnel could have fallen when the stern settled back and slightly to port.
 
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