Unusual Titanic Stories: Kidnapping, Cross-Dressing, Opium and More

[snopes]

Beyond the trappings of luxury, there were some unusual people and items onboard and some unusual stories coming out of the disaster:

http://news.yahoo.com/unusual-titani...200300249.html

[Tootsie Plunkette]

I'm familiar with a lot of Titanic lore, and some of those are so unfamiliar to me as to sound... suspicious.

Rigel the dog, for one.

ETA: Discussed before, I see.

[Floater]

I read in a paper yesterday that many young people have no idea that the film was based on a real event.

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by Floater

I read in a paper yesterday that many young people have no idea that the film was based on a real event.

I heard that too, but on a current affairs program. I wonder how true that is, or if maybe a couple of young people didn't know, and it has been expanded to "many" young people in the old "young people know nothing" trope.

I am kind of over the whole "100 years since" thing since mainstream media kind of over do this sort of thing. But I saw a great program on in the last week or so called "Real Stories from the Titanic" or something like that. (A goggle search gives websites with that name but no tv program and I can't find it listed in the current tv guide)

Anyhow, this program had desendents of the actual passengers and actors in costume reading actual letters and diary entries of passengers. Very moving and it gave a much better view of the tragedy then that film that was all about Jack and Rose.

[UEL]

As I was getting ready for work this morning, Discovery Canada had a whole morning's programming all lined up on the Titanic. Real interesting stuff, too. Construction techniques, viable explanations of why she sank, the method of finding it, etc.

Too bad I have to work.

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by UEL

viable explanations of why she sank,

Oh I can answer that...she hit an iceberg...don't worry I'll get it

[Don Enrico]

Hasn't the "men dressing as women to get into the lifeboat" story been debunked somwhere, too?

Ah, yes, here it is: http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/woman.asp

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by Dasla

Anyhow, this program had desendents of the actual passengers and actors in costume reading actual letters and diary entries of passengers. Very moving and it gave a much better view of the tragedy then that film that was all about Jack and Rose.

The one I remember is a stewdess who was in a boat ready about to be lowered over the side when a crewman friend of hers handed her a bundle casually saying "Oh could you take this for me" and "it' was a baby.

[Floater]

A friend of mine has a habit of telling people of all good things coming from Northern Ireland, so whenever he does I keep reminding him of were the Titanic was built (his grandfather was actually a welder at the shipyard).

[Gin Rickey]

Originally Posted by Floater

I read in a paper yesterday that many young people have no idea that the film was based on a real event.

There is some discussion about whether these tweeters are being "ironic".

[jimmy101_again]

Originally Posted by Floater

I read in a paper yesterday that many young people have no idea that the film was based on a real event.

The Titanic, though an important event, was so long ago, and in the total of maritime history ranks as only the 5th worst disaster, it real should be exiting from common knowledge.

Overall, it really wasn't all that an important event. It is remembered primarily because of the hubris of the builders and crew and the number of famous people that died.

The Doña Paz sinking killed perhaps three times as many people, and it was only 25 years ago, but few people recognize the name.

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by jimmy101_again

The Titanic, though an important event, was so long ago, and in the total of maritime history ranks as only the 5th worst disaster, it real should be exiting from common knowledge.

Overall, it really wasn't all that an important event. It is remembered primarily because of the hubris of the builders and crew and the number of famous people that died.

The Doña Paz sinking killed perhaps three times as many people, and it was only 25 years ago, but few people recognize the name.

I read as a teenager that it wasn't even the worst shipwreak that year but a google search of the worst shipwrecks lists none in 1912 except for it so I must be miss remembering. Of course the only reason we remember it iat all is s because of the reasons listed by jimmy101_again. Mind you even growing up in the 70's and 80's pre movie I had heard of it and knew was real. Mind you I hadn't heard of the four that were higher in the list.

[ganzfeld]

There are many other reasons the Titanic was so well remembered: the role of wireless in both the SOS and in the spread of the news, the role the disaster played in new domestic and international safety regulations, the fact that it was the largest ship at the time and that people were reminded of that every time they heard the name...

[UEL]

Plus, don't forget the notoriety of some of those that did not survive.

I have a question. It has been mentioned here about the hubris of the builders. How much of that hubris has been added on post-disaster?

I have heard it about the term "unsinkable" that this is largely the result of the building of the legend after the sinking. Specifically, that it was not termed as such beforehand.

However, hubris goes beyond all notions of unsinkability. Was there an elevated level of hubris in the builders? I'm specifically looking at things other than the notion of the elegance, or the grandeur of the ship.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by UEL

P

I have heard it about the term "unsinkable" that this is largely the result of the building of the legend after the sinking. Specifically, that it was not termed as such beforehand.

Here's the snopes page on that: http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp

[UEL]

Originally Posted by Steve

Here's the snopes page on that: http://www.snopes.com/history/titanic/unsinkable.asp

Jeepers, I don't know where my communication skills have disappeared to today.

When I typed up my line about it, I should have said I was aware of the legend of it not being called "unsinkable".

However, my question still stands. Among the builders etc, was there an elevated level of hubris?

[snopes]

Originally Posted by UEL

However, my question still stands. Among the builders etc, was there an elevated level of hubris?

They generally felt proud to be involved in a project of such massive undertaking, but I wouldn't say there was really any "hubris" that they were defying the fates and creating something indestructible. Other ships before the Titanic had been constructed in ways that made them more "unsinkable," and the Titanic's designers knew that -- although the word was contemporaneously applied to the Titanic itself, it was not the huge talking/selling point that modern popular culture makes it out to be, and the notion that everyone involved hubristically and recklessly felt the ship to be utterly unsinkable is largely a post-tragedy invention.

[Aud 1]

Originally Posted by Dasla

Oh I can answer that...she hit an iceberg...don't worry I'll get it

I know you are being all fish slappy but there was a article in Smithonian this month about Titanic and it included a bit about atmospheric conditions that created the illusion of a higher horizon line. This could have made the iceberg seemed smaller, obscured the visual SOS, and lead a nearby ship to think that what they were looking at couldn't be the troubled ship they were communicating with.

[snopes]

The disaster is often seen as a tale of hubris, social stratification and capitalist excess. The truth is considerably more sobering.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

[Alarm]

In less than 30 years, there may be nothing left of the Titanic but a heap of "rusticles," warns researcher Henrietta Mann, who has spent four years researching bacteria gnawing on its sunken hull.

http://news.yahoo.com/bacteria-munch...203258444.html


Better get your souvenirs fast! Pretty soon, all that will be left will be our memories and that movie, as was mentionned upthread!