Titanic History

Cowardly Behavior on TITANIC (New York Times, 1912)

This is a small notice from THE NEW YORK TIMES reporting on the surprisingly impulsive behavior of the men of high civic standing on-board Titanic who were among the first to scramble for the lifeboats:

It was our Congressmen, our Senators, and our ‘big men’ who led in the crush for the lifeboats.


It was also pointed out that many of the Titanic heroes that night were also men of prominence within their communities, fellows such as Isador Straus and John Jacob Astor who refused to accept lifeboat seating.

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SECOND TEST MISC.

The ”Unsinkable” Titanic (’48 Magazine, 1948)

Award winning word-smith Hanson W. Baldwin (1903 – 1991) wrote this tight little essay some 64 years after the Titanic sinking. He succinctly pieced together the events of that day (April 12, 1912) and clearly indicated that there was plenty of blame to go around for the tremendous loss of life; not simply the Grand Poobahs in the senior positions (Captain Smith and Bruce Ismay) but the small fries as well (such as Second Radio Operator Harold McBride). By the second page, Baldwin commences with an hour by hour break-down of the events on-board TITANIC until she made her final plunge into the deep:

12:30 a.m. The word is passed: ‘Women and children in the boats’. Stewards finish waking passengers below; life-preservers are tied on; some men smile at the precaution.
‘The Titanic is unsinkable.’

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George Bernard Shaw Comments About the Titanic Sinking (The Bookman, 1912)

On the matters involving Titanic, playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1957) hated the hero-blather he read in the press; he despised all the assorted sugary-sweet romantic rot that was associated with the ship’s sinking and it was only by lying, he insisted, that the newspapers made the victims out to be, in any way, heroic.


Shaw illustrated his point by referring to the survivor account by Lady Duff-Gordon (1863 – 1935):

She described how she escaped in the captain’s boat. There was one other woman in it and ten men, twelve all told, one woman for every five men.


Good point.


Click here to read the socialist ramblings of George Bernard Shaw.


Click here to read various witty remarks by George Bernard Shaw.

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SECOND TEST MISC.

More Titanic Verses (Collier’s Magazine, 1912)

American politician, diplomat and author Brand Whitlock (1869 – 1934) composed this pseudo-medieval verse in which the Ironic Spirit mocks man and his triumphs:

This is thy latest, greatest miracle.

The triumph of thy latest science, art and all
That skill thou’st learnt since forth the Norsemen fared
Across these waters in their cockle shells…


Whitlock is not remembered for his poetry, but rather as the outstanding U.S. Ambassador to Belgium between the years 1913 – 1922. It was there that the man’s mettle was put to the test and was not found wanting.

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Anticipating the Titanic Disaster (The Nation, 1912)

A couple of years prior to the sinking of Titanic the president of the International Seaman’s Union of America presented a petition before the U.S. Congress declaring that the issue of safety at sea is widely ignored on all levels. In his address he remarked:

There is not sailing today on any ocean any passenger vessel carrying the number of boats needed to take care of the passengers and crew…

Anticipating the Titanic Disaster (The Nation, 1912) Read More »

SECOND TEST MISC.

Two Governments Weigh In On The Titanic Disaster (Literary Digest, 1912)

An overview of both the British and the American reports concerning the sinking of the Titanic.

An interesting comparison of the American and British official investigations of the Titanic disaster was published…the conclusions is reached that although the American investigators were practically an ‘avenging’ body and the English a ‘vindicating’ one, the recommendations made by the two come to very nearly the same thing…[but]in the matter of responsibility, the reviewer finds marked dissimilarity.

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Titanic Didn’t Have to Sink (The North American Review, 1912)

As an architect of U.S. Navy battleships and a popular New York politician
Lewis Nixon (1861 – 1940), maintained throughout this article that the full array of 1912 technology was ignored in the planning of Titanic‘s first (and only) voyage:

We have in our battle-ships devices to show when water enters compartments, and by simple and economical devices it would be possible to have the depth to which water has risen indicated on the bridge, and on merchantmen as well as on our men-of-war searchlights should be carried.

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