I won't be doing much, although I finished watching James Cameron's
Ghosts of the Abyss.
I've always been fascinated by the story of the Titanic. I've been interested in the ship since I was 10 and spent many years watching documentaries, films, and reading stories and reports on this great ship.
...and she really was a great ship. What happened that tragic night 97 years ago was something no one envisioned; a glancing blow with an iceberg that opened up 6 of her compartments to the sea.
The worst case scenario her designers envisioned at the time was a head-on collision which would have destroyed her entire bow. In this scenario, only 3 or 4 of her compartments would have been breached, but the ship would have lived (many agree that if Titanic had hit the 'berg head-on, there would have been casualties, but the ship would have survived).
Many lessons were learned from the sinking of the Titanic. The deaths of those 1,500 people was not in vein.
It's just sad that all those people had to die for man to understand that he is not invincible (to claim that a ship was "unsinkable" was bold and arrogant). Titanic was a real smack in the face for mankind. A harsh reminder that we are not the most powerful beings in the universe.
"Man's dominance over nature is only an illusion."
No ship is perfect. Like any ship before and after her, Titanic had her flaws, we simply chose to ignore them. It was man's ignorance that killed those 1,500 souls, not the iceberg nor the ship.
I have to admit that the story of the Titanic disaster is one of the best in modern history, in my opinion. It was the best and the worst of mankind. Who was brave and who was a coward?
The ship's band playing to the very end.
The ship's stokers and engineers staying at their posts, keeping the lights on as long as possible. What it must have been like being in the ship's engine room watching her die, like a doctor desperately working on a patient that has no hope of surviving.
The radio operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride, relentlessly transmitting Titanic's mayday call, even as the power for their equipment was giving out.
Officers Murdoch and Lightoller trying to get all the boats away before it was too late. Davit 1 on the starboard side stands as a monument to Murdoch's courage. Drawn to its upright position by Murdoch's in a desperate attempt to drag Collapsible A over the side and clear of the ship as the forward section went under. It stands tall and proud, awaiting the lifeboat which will never come.
It's important that we remember this disaster for the lessons it taught us. The world we live in today was partially shaped by this disaster. On a similar note, and in a parallel universe, the attacks of 9/11 were a real kick-in-the-gut for the aviation industry and the world. What happened on that tragic day was "unthinkable," but was it as unthinkable as the sinking of the Titanic?
"...I think that after we'd gotten over the initial shock, Titanic did seem to become important again. Not so much for herself, but as a symbol of what can happen when warning go unheeded, and how I think we all hope to face death when it comes." - Bill Paxton,
Ghosts of the AbyssWe've all come to witness tragedy. We've all come to witness that the unthinkable can happen.
9/11, for me, was the Titanic of the 21st Century. When news of the Titanic disaster spread, no one could believe that she was actually gone. I'm sure most of us felt the same way, as we watched United 175 plow into the South tower, when we suddenly realized that it was no accident.
I know I was.
Let us all remember the 1,500 people who lost their lives that night.
God bless their souls.
"She was such a beautiful ship. She looked so lovely. That's how we ought to remember her." - Eva Hart,
Titanic survivor (1905 - 1996)
