TITANIC - ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON

Thanks, Pedro, it's haunting - I didn't realise a recording of it had survived, from the early days of sound.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/cruise-retraces-titanics-ill-fated-voyage-075557009.html


Titanic cruise ship forced to turn back briefly
By Chris Helgren | Reuters – 1 hour 37 minutes ago

ON BOARD MS BALMORAL (Reuters) - A cruise ship retracing the Titanic's fateful voyage 100 years ago was forced to turn back towards Ireland on Tuesday after a passenger developed heart problems.
The Balmoral is carrying 1,309 passengers, about the same number as were on the Titanic. Among them are relatives of those who lost their lives, relatives of survivors and historians.
The Titanic Memorial Cruise had departed from Southampton, England, on Sunday to follow the doomed ship's route to New York.
The passengers had intended to hold a memorial service at the spot where it sank on the night of April 14-15.
The Balmoral had left the port of Cobh in Ireland late on Monday night and was sailing through heavy weather when Captain Robert Bamberg announced on Tuesday afternoon it would have to turn back to return within helicopter range of Ireland to allow the sick passenger to be evacuated.
Miles Morgan, Managing Director of Miles Morgan Travel which chartered the journey, told reporters the ship would go back about 20 nautical miles to get within helicopter range.
"The passenger's condition is not thought to be life-threatening," he said.
Morgan was unable to say immediately whether the delay would affect the ship's ability to reach the location of the 1912 sinking on time.

Meanwhile the bad weather which hit the ship as it sailed from Southampton to Brighton was continuing on Tuesday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of a floor show due to safety concerns for the performers.
The cruise has been five years in the making and organisers have tried to make it as authentic to the era as possible.
Passengers from 28 countries, who have paid between around 2,600 pounds ($4,100) and 8,000 pounds each, are being offered dishes served on the Titanic and on-board lectures about the famous ship.

You welcome bb1, you´re right, I´m glad that Titanic´s horn is preserved, for me, it is always nice to hear. Titanic´s horn was recovered from the wreck.

Ah, thanks, Pedro, I didn't realise that

I hadn't realised that a huge piece of her had been raised:



and is in a permanent site in, of all places, Las Vegas.

Maybe it isn't as silly as it sounds, because that is one place with enough money to look after these irreplaceable objects properly.

bb1,I agree with you, here it is the photo of Titanic´s hull, that is being kept at the surface, preserved:

http://s.glbimg.com/jo/g1/f/original/2012/01/05/fuselagem.jpg

image of 1998 from RMS Titanic which shows a 17-ton piece of the hull of the liner being rescued.

Oh, that is stunning, Pedro!

Yes bb1, you´re right.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/titanics-final-port-remembers-lost-irish-passengers-165328136.html

Titanic's final port remembers lost Irish passengers

By Lorraine Turner | Reuters – 1 hour 8 minutes ago

COBH, Ireland (Reuters) - Relatives of poor Irish passengers who drowned when the Titanic sank 100 years ago gathered on Wednesday at the liner's last port of call, while local officials sought to use the anniversary to boost the flagging local economy.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins led a commemorative ceremony in Cobh, pronounced cove, where the Titanic's final 123 passengers, mostly poor Irish emigrants, boarded 100 years ago to the day. Only 44 survived.
"It's a very poignant story and also so tragic. Here they were boarding one of the finest vessels ever built and it came to such a sorry end," said Helen Murphy, grand-niece of 18-year old Nora Hegarty, who left Cobh on the Titanic to emigrate to the United States with her first cousin.
Neither of the pair, both third-class passengers, survived the disaster.
Approximately 1,500 people watched the ceremony, held on a stage overlooking the sea, with some residents gathering on the rooftop of the Commodore Hotel, the last port of call for some of the wealthier Irish passengers.
The picturesque coastal town and naval base, which has seen jobs decimated in recent decades by the closure of a steelworks, is latching on to the Titanic story in a bid to bring much-needed investment to the area.
Of the 6 million people who emigrated from Ireland between 1848 and 1950, 2.5 million left from Cobh, known as Queenstown until 1922, according to the local heritage centre.

HISTORY REPEATING
The Titanic anniversary is "refocusing our minds on emigration ... which is of course becoming a big issue in Ireland again," said Louise Ryan, a 45-year-old Cork native visiting Cobh form London where she works as an academic.
Emigration by Irish nationals was up 45 percent between 2010 and 2011 as the unemployment rate surged to over 14 percent compared to 4.6 percent in 2007, before a property bubble burst and the economy was brought to its knees.
"History repeats itself. It's not just in the mists of time," Ryan said.
Growth in tourism is seen by the government as one of the key drivers of the domestic economy, which needs to grow if Ireland is to escape from under its huge debt pile.
In Cobh, the decline of industry has left tourism as the mainstay of the town's economy. Local officials expect 60 cruise liners to visit this year including a cruise ship retracing the Titanic's fateful voyage, which left on Monday.
To capitalise on the Titanic, the town opened a visitor centre in February in the dilapidated White Star Line ticket office building, which survived two fires in the past decade as it lay empty and prey to vandals.
"The only way we can stop the next wave of emigration is by getting the economy back on its feet," said Redmond O'Donoghue, chairman of Failte Ireland, national tourism development authority.
Events linked to the Titanic include open-air concerts, art displays and a naval fleet review. Local restaurant Gilbert's has recreated an 8-course dinner enjoyed by the first-class passengers on the luxury liner, including filet mignon and Waldorf pudding.
Later this week, the restaurant will also put on the menu a third-class lunch boasting a less luxurious staple of corned beef and cabbage.

thank you bb1 for this link.

http://economico.sapo.pt/noticias/cem-anos-de-titanic-vao-a-leilao_142305.html

Hundred years of Titanic will be auctioned

More than five thousand items are up for auction in a single lot valued at 180 million euros.

When on April 10, 1912 the Titanic sailed from Southampton to New York route was known as the 'ship of dreams'. Four days later, an iceberg in the Atlantic north destroy the dream, the journey and the lives of more than 1,500 people. The sinking of the 'unsinkable' Titanic as it was called, was one of the worst maritime disasters of the twentieth century. The boat, whose construction was financed by billionaire JPMorgan was a veritable floating palace.

Every detail was built to impress, from the decor of the suites in first class to the balcony of the main restaurant. All this attracted the maiden voyage of the ship a long list of celebrities from the British and American societies, the ones with capabilities to buy first class could reach four thousand dollars.

For years the sea has been a faithful keeper of the secrets that the luxurious Titanic took with them to the ocean floor. But now someone will be able to take home the single lot consisting of 5,500 objects over the years were removed from the seabed, and safe from attacks by sea. 5500 articles are filled with history and memories that Guernsey's auctions on the centenary of the ship. The main objective of the auction is to ensure the conservation of objects on the seabed that would ultimately disappear.

The Guernsey's was scheduled for today a press conference where they unveiled the results of the auction - bids have been made in recent weeks by several interested parties - but the international press realizes that such disclosure may be delayed. At issue is the large number of stakeholders and the fact that the auction want to ensure that the batch will be in the best hands to ensure their conservation. So far unable to get a response from Guernsey's.

Among them are cups of tea service first class as well as pocket watches, tuxedos or bracelets of gold and diamonds. There are also chairs the deck of the ship and many personal items that can now bring the brand's long and frigid waters in which they were immersed.

For Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's house, the most curious subject of the lot is a binocular that may have been the watchman on the Titanic. "Maybe this binocular is one that would have allowed the ship away from the iceberg and avoid the tragedy that killed more than 1,500," said Ettinger quoted by Efe. Remember that the reports realize that the guard would not know the binoculars on the night of the collision.

Another example contained in the collection, assembled over 17 years and seven trips to the sea, from which in 1987 was initiated to recover the remains of the shipwreck, is a part of the 'hall' of the ship, a piece of eight by fifteen meters . There is also a container of hair cream for men, intact, a note Ucinco dollars and up cards bought in London for a passenger. In a statement to Efe, Ettinger said the Titanic "is deteriorating very quickly and will reach a height that will disappear altogether. These objects will be your single trace, and therefore the auction is aimed at historic preservation. Not intend to insult anyone who lost a relative 100 years ago, "he noted.

Among the notables who died were the millionaire John Jacob Astor IV (his wife, Madeleine, was rescued alive) oindustrial and Benjamin Guggenheim. Also the merchant Isidor Straus, owner of the famous American department store Macy's, was a victim of the wreck, as his wife, Ida. The obituary yet listed Major Archibald Butt, adviser to presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft and Thomas Andrews, the shipbuilder Harland & Wolff, who reportedly refused to take his place in the lifeboat, preferred to help other passengers at the time of the tragedy.

Thanks, Pedro - weren't the binoculars left behind in Cherbourg, or something?

You welcome bb1. About binoculars, probably.

I watched a programme a few nights ago, Pedro, and the presenter came to the conclusion that the missing binoculars wouldn't have made much difference.

A lot of the survivors spoke about how strangely still and clear the night was; to cut a long story short, the presenter researched weather conditions in the area that night, as recorded in other logs, etc. He came to the conclusion that the iceberg simply could not have been seen by the human eye until it was too late:

http://www.smithsonianchannel.com/site/sn/show.do?show=141474

for short video.

This is a summary of the presenter's opinion of what happened:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2012/0413/What-sank-the-Titanic

I respect the presenter´s opinion, but, I disagree with that presenter, I still think that it could have helped to see the berg with considerable distance. If Titanic had struck the berg with his front, this tragedy would have been avoided even with some compartments flooded.

Agree, Pedro, that does seem to be the one thing that could have made the difference, if she had to hit the iceberg at all.

I can't help but keep thinking of how excited I would have been if I had sailed for America on that ship.
And I would have survived somehow or other.

That's a big part of it, isn't it? We can all imagine sailing in her, maybe not First Class, though...

Even now, after a century, looking at photos and the few films of her, we would get on her without a second's thought about her seaworthiness.

I never have imagined that I would have been a first class passenger, Bonny. I am definitely a Steerage sort of person. But that is where the real adventure would have lain. The anticipation and uncertainty, and the chance to build a new life by one's own efforts. Adventures these days are very tame by comparison, but I have managed to have a few.

I think this is the only existing film of her?