Count me among those that are fascinated by the Titanic. It must have been an amazing adventure as well as a tremendous tragedy. Brought low by hubris.I should add this to my list of thing that scare me, not the fear of being stuck on the Titanic, but being lost at sea.
"FALMOUTH, Mass. - The discovery of two large pieces of the Titanic's hull on the ocean floor indicates that the fabled luxury liner sank faster than previously thought, researchers said Monday.The hull pieces were a crucial part of the ship's structure and make up a bottom section of the vessel that was missing when the wreck was first located in 1985, the researchers said.
After the bottom section of the hull broke free, the bow and stern split, said Roger Long, a naval architect who analyzed the find. The stern, which was still buoyant and filled with survivors, likely plunged toward the ocean floor about five minutes later.
"It would have been immediately terrifying," he said.
Previous researchers believed the ship broke in just two major pieces, the bow and stern, which was how the sinking was depicted in the 1997 film version of the catastrophe. David Brown, a Titanic historian, estimated before the latest find that the stern took 20 minutes to slide into the water.
"It turns out the Titanic was more merciful. It was over more quickly," Brown said."
6 comments:
Are any survivors still alive?
There's this crazy dude who lives in Long Island City on 11th street, which is a busy thoroughfare. In front of his building, he has created an elaborate shrine to the Titanic, with a few artifacts framed in shadow boxes. There are plastic flowers. And an elaborate video surveillance system to ensure the safety of his masterpiece.
One of my friends lived a few doors down from him.
She said he used to meticulously sweep the sidewalk for the entire block, as well as the street, busy 11th street, every morning.
One of those scenarios where people had several minutes' notice that they were about to die.
I wonder how I'd behave in that scenario? As deaths go, death by drowning strikes me as particularly unpleasant.
Q
MC,
If there are they were quite young when the ship sank.
DR,
That is New York for you.
Q,
I would agree.
Apparently, there are three survivors still living. Two of them were babies, and the third, and the only one who remebers the event, Liliian Gertrud Asplund, was 5 1/2 years old at the time....
Thanks for doing the research, that was very cool.
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