Titanic anniversary

[Neil]

In about 4hrs time (2:40 GMT 15th April) it will be 100yrs since the Titanic hit that iceberg... About 160 minutes later the ship would be on its way down to its final resting place about 2.5 miles under sea, taking goodness knows how many poor souls with it. As a child I grew up fascinated by it, and even recall those first images in the 1980 when they discovered and film the wreck. The tragedy still fascinates me. Such a lot of "bad pieces of luck" leading to a horrible outcome. I think I also wonder what would I have done if I had been there? Would I have lived or died? Would I have been a coward or a hero? What would I have done during that final hour... Anyway, I guess in a way, this is my little way of paying homage to the anniversary, and the poor victims who just happened to be on a ship which didn't happen to be on a path just 50 meters to the left or right, and whose captain (on his final voyage before retirement) ignored iceburg warnings, and whose captain ordered the ship to travel at a higher speed unnecessarily to break a record, and whose crows nest didn't have binoculars, and whose engines were put in reverse, which was near the California whose radio (Marconi) room was unmanned and whose captain decided to ignore the flares, and which didn't have enough lifeboats, and whose under-filled lifeboats still had space for nearly 500 hundred more people who instead drowned or froze to death.

[bassman]

I've been watching documentaries on the disaster over the past week. The Discovery and History Networks have been running them just about every night. Including an all new one with some of the experts, historians, and James Cameron in which they give the most accurate and up-to-date depictions on what happened that night and how the ship and it's remains ended at it's final resting place 2.5 miles beneath the surface. Cameron even discussing what he got wrong with his film, how more lives could have been saved, and they made an all-new CG rendering on how it broke apart and landed at the bottom. I highly recommend it if they air it on your side of the pond. Like you, I've always been fascinated by the Titanic. Not as much as some, but it's always held my attention. My wife actually got aggrevated with me watching those documentaries every night.

[Knighty]

Same I've always been fascinated by the Titanic and can even point out possible errors in that post Neil Bad luck, unusual weather conditions and freak occurrences mean the death of so many people and the stories of so many heroes and lost souls. Been watching the multitude of documentaries recently ( the Cameron one in particular was very good and he almost had a slight nudge at Lucas when commenting on wether he should correct parts of the film) and I'm glad to hear a pact is going on about the retrieval of items from the Titanic resting site, as to me it's a graveyard and shouldn't be disturbed , let alone looted for profit. One doc described how when the wreck was first discovered the crows nest was intact despite the collapse of the mast, but at some point a mini sub had caught it and destroyed it by accident.

[Rumsfeld]

I heard this many years ago but weren't they planning on creating a Titanic 2?

[AcesandEights]

I heard this many years ago but weren't they planning on creating a Titanic 2? They did: A quality film, to be sure

[MinionZombie]

I heard t'other day that there has been a cruise on the go these last few days that was taking the same route as the Titanic - a sort of anniversary cruise with members of the families and interested parties etc - and the goal was to be in the same position where the Titanic ended up sinking. A creepy idea, that's for sure! I've recorded the Cameron documentary that folks have spoken of - it was on t'other week - I'll get around to it sometime soon hopefully. Also been watching the ITV dramatisation from Julian Fellowes (the Downtown Abbey guy). It can't compete with James Cameron's flick in terms of scale, so it's more focussed on characters, and while it's not great, it's not crap either - it's pretty decent - but it's a very familiar story, which makes it really hard to tell it in a new and fresh way. Plus I think, as evidenced by the drop in viewing figures (from 7m to 3m), most people would just stick with the 1997 movie, and any number of documentaries.

[JDFP]

As far as I'm concerned the ULTIMATE Titanic film will always be the classic 1958 film: "A Night to Remember". It's just an absolutely fantastic film. Certainly don't go into this film expecting a big-budget CGI special effects driven film (we already have one of those, ahem), but rather it's a movie about characters and giving true honor to the tragedy of the characters in telling the story. The film is VERY accurate in the storytelling and doesn't pull any punches. And considering it was made in 1958 the real model special effects used actually do hold up really well even for today. The film from start to finish is pure class and while younger people today may not be able to sit through it (it's mostly talking - a thing called character development they used to do in films pre-21st century) I'd highly recommend it to people who do enjoy great films. It's an absolute classic and still ranks - to me at least - as the single best film made about the Titanic. j.p.

[Knighty]

Very true, A Night To Remember is still an amazing film, and on BBC2 in 40 mins. Apparently some of the shots used are from the massive budget Nazi film that was shot about the Titanic, saw a great documentary about that a few days ago.

[Neil]

As far as I'm concerned the ULTIMATE Titanic film will always be the classic 1958 film: "A Night to Remember". It's just an absolutely fantastic film. Certainly don't go into this film expecting a big-budget CGI special effects driven film (we already have one of those, ahem), but rather it's a movie about characters and giving true honor to the tragedy of the characters in telling the story. The film is VERY accurate in the storytelling and doesn't pull any punches. And considering it was made in 1958 the real model special effects used actually do hold up really well even for today. The film from start to finish is pure class and while younger people today may not be able to sit through it (it's mostly talking - a thing called character development they used to do in films pre-21st century) I'd highly recommend it to people who do enjoy great films. It's an absolute classic and still ranks - to me at least - as the single best film made about the Titanic. j.p. One of my neighbours had a bit part in it! Yes, probably my favourite "pure" Titanic film! I think the b&w helps it! -- -------- Post added at 07:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:33 PM ---------- Apparently some of the shots used are from the massive budget Nazi film that was shot about the Titanic, saw a great documentary about that a few days ago. Really? I'd not even heard of the Nazi version (where the evil Jew(s) were responsible for the ship sinking) until earlier this week...

[acealive1]

i was actually listening to the radio on the freeway with my girl when i heard this exactly 100 years later to the very second. scary to think it's been 100 years

[Neil]

I'm still fascinated that no bones have been found. Amazing to think the sea (and/or its occupants) can break them down over just 80-100 years...

[shootemindehead]

It's 2.5 miles down, so the pressure on organic material is incredible. It wouldn't take long to break down. Have to say I'm sick of the Titanic at this stage, but one thing that did strike me were some of pictures that Ballard took when he found the wreck in the 80's. Some were of peoples shoes and clothing resting on the sea bed. One was of a pair of woman's shoes and beside them were a small pair of shoes for a child. They weren't too far from the hull, as was a lot of personal effects, indicating that as the people died they sank slowly to the bottom in very calm waters. It would have taken the bodies over 45 minutes to reach the sea bed.

[Neil]

I've recorded the Cameron documentary that folks have spoken of - it was on t'other week - I'll get around to it sometime soon hopefully. I'm about half way through it. So far so good! -- -------- Post added at 12:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 AM ---------- It would have taken the bodies over 45 minutes to reach the sea bed. Surely to have been close to the hull - because there would be currents surely - those bodies would have had to have been in the down draft of the ship? If so they would have gone down a lot quicker? The ship would have only have taken a few minutes, assuming a speed of 10-30mph. My morbib curiousity always wonders who survived the longest on the ship. There were obviously people inside when it went down - families who decided to return to their rooms, crew even all the way down in the boiler rooms etc. So almost certainly when the ship went down, some people were still inside, in the dark, in rising water. I suspect they could have survived for a good few dozen seconds in the dark, fighting to keep their heads in air bubbles, while the pressure increased... Until the pressure killed them. Horrible! Can't understand why families were reported as returning to their cabins... Can't imagine doing that!

[MinionZombie]

I suppose it's easy to say 'that's madness' now with 20/20 hindsight and with the history of Titanic itself, but at the time there was a lot of arrogance and ignorance. Arrogance that the ship wouldn't sink, and ignorance of the sheer scale of the disaster, combined with knowledge that hadn't yet been gained - knowledge and experience that only came about as a result of Titanic's sinking. It's interesting that today though, we need to find a new way of lowering life boats, as a handful of ship wrecks have shown - most notably the Costa Concordia - if the boat rolls onto its side, there's not an awful lot you can do with any of the lifeboats. What's even more astonishing though is that there are a whole community of morons - who are allowed to breed - who didn't know that Titanic was real. They only thought it was a movie. I kid you not ... I weep for the gene pool of mankind.

[Neil]

there are a whole community of morons - who are allowed to breed - who didn't know that Titanic was real. They only thought it was a movie. I kid you not ... I weep for the gene pool of mankind. No! Tell me this was just Jade Goodie or some other idiotic idiot!? Please don't tell me it's common place?!