A hundred years ago the Titanic represented dreams, glamour and a new life...it was a romantic idea that, sadly, never got fulfilled.
Despite the incident happening a century ago there aren’t many people out there who won’t have heard about the tragic demise of the ship.
on the 10th of April 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton to New York with 2,224 people on board. This included some of the wealthiest people in the world and the first class section of the boat was designed to be the definition of comfort and luxury. She was built complete with libraries, restaurants, a gymnasium and a swimming pool. Unfortunately she was also accompanied with the nickname “the unsinkable ship.”
On the 14th of April the Titanic hit an iceberg which caused 5 of her 16 watertight compartments to flood with icy water, which led to the ship sinking and breaking in half within 2 and a half hours. Winthin a couple of hours the biggest ship afloat at the time was no longer visible because she laid at the bottom of the sea along with many of her passengers. 1,514 people died that night, many froze to death in the water but almost 1,000 people were still on board when she broke in half and sank.
The irony of the incident was highlighted in the fact that the ship had modern advanced safety features, such as water tight compartments and doors, unfortunately the Titanic was not equipped with enough life boats, in fact there was only enough to evacuate a third of the passengers.
That night itself has flooded British history in grief, upset and anger. Not only did the lack of life boats prove the naivety and over confidence of the ships owner and captain but the inadequate training of the crew was also highlighted. They believed that if they filled the life boats fully they would buckle, they were not aware that the life boats were strong and had been repeatedly tested before the ship set sail. This mistake led to some of them only being half filled. Nothing but panic and fear consumed that night which not only led to further mistakes but unfortunately resulted in the worst maritime disaster in history.
Since Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic further interest surrounded the history of the ship but with this week being the 100th anniversary of the sinking a Titanic memorial cruise is taking place. The MS Balmoral will take the same journey as the Titanic as it tries to recreate the original voyage. It is expected to arrive at the wreck site in time for the scheduled memorial services at the weekend. Our thoughts should go out to the victims whilst we hope that nothing this tragic happens again. Despite some grievances I have with the BBC this link shows an interesting step by step guide on what happened when the Titanic started sinking http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17511820
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