Monthly Archives: November 2013

Kids Ask the Best (and Most Humorous) Questions

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Wade Sisson head shot

By Wade Sisson

I’ve spoken about the Titanic at a lot of schools since my book, Racing Through the Night, was published in 2011, and I soon learned that kids always ask the best – and most humorous – questions.

For that reason, it’s been my visits to schools that I’ve enjoyed the most. There’s something about the Titanic story that captures the imaginations of young people. You can see it in their eyes as you start talking about it. When you ask them if they know anything about the Titanic, they all raise their hands.

The questions are usually evenly split between Titanic, the ship and Titanic, the James Cameron movie. Were Jack and Rose real? Why didn’t the ship see the iceberg in time to miss it?

They’re always disappointed to learn that Jack and Rose were fictional characters – but they’re fascinated to learn about the real people who are part of the Titanic story. They always seem especially touched by the story of Millvina Dean, the last of the survivors, who died in 2009.

Most of the schools do an amazing job of preparing the kids in advance. By the time I arrive, they’ve already studied the ship, the passengers and have even dipped their hands in 28-degree water.

That doesn’t mean I don’t the occasional oddball question. Like the time one little fourth-grader asked me, “Did you bring up any gold?” I told him I’d actually never been to the wreck site – and I didn’t have any gold. He didn’t believe me and asked me again several times during the discussion. Then as I was leaving the classroom he stopped me. “Dude, seriously, where’s the gold?”

The children also try to tie the Titanic story in with other lessons they’ve had. During one school visit our discussion got hijacked by a few well-meaning third-graders. It started with one question: “Did the Titanic sink in the Bermuda Triangle?” I assured the class that the Titanic was nowhere near the Bermuda Triangle, but once the thing had been mentioned, it took on a life of its own. Another student said “Maybe the Titanic hit the iceberg because they couldn’t see inside the Bermuda Triangle.” I had to confess I was not a Bermuda Triangle expert and that seemed to satisfy them enough to stop their line of questioning.

There’s always at least one child who reminds me of myself at that age – completely drawn into the Titanic story and eager to learn as much as possible. But it’s all of the children – and their genuine interest in the history – that makes these school visits worthwhile.

titanic-author-sisson

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Titanic explorers…and graverobbers

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Dr. Robert Ballard found the wreck of the Titanic and after twenty years  of watching on the sidelines about how the wreck was desecrated and looted, he paused when asked for comment. He said that he never envisioned that such damage would be done to the wreckage and the contents removed. He said that he wants to visit historic sites and not see the artifacts removed.

Titanic stern, props and rudder

The ship was in pretty good shape when it left here – remark of an Irish official at the Belfast Titanic Museum. This section of the stern of the ship shows the massive rudder and props. A 17 ton section of the hull was raised and put on display to tourists, along with personal items that were on the bodies of those who perished.

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From The National Post

Titanic anniversary: Artifacts auction draws accusations of grave robbery

(Jan. 28, 2012) — On April 15, on the 100th anniversary of the RMS Titanic’s sinking, an auction house in New York will sell off $185-million-worth of items salvaged from the wreck: Eye-glasses, antique currency, jewellery, clothing and — the pièce de resistance — a 17-tonne section of the hull ripped clean in the ship’s final violent moments.

In Halifax, the burial place of 150 Titanic victims, news of the auction prompted disgust.

“We’re into preserving and documenting — not into pillaging,” Lynn-Marie Richard, registrar for the city’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, told The Chronicle Herald.

The man who located the Titanic sitting upright at the bottom of the Atlantic would agree.

In 1985, only hours after he had spotted the wreck, Robert Ballard took a call from a curious ABC reporter, who asked if the legendary ship could ever be raised from the depths.

“Absolutely not,” he replied.

“In fact I would like to go and try to ensure that this memorial to 1,500 souls is left the way it is.”

Only months later, a fully equipped salvage crew set sail for Mr. Ballard’s coordinates.

Titanic survivors called them “thieves” and “pirates,” and Mr. Ballard condemned the salvagers for “perpetuating” the tragedy.

Decades later, has the taboo of “graverobbing” worn off?

Almost from the minute it sank, the Royal Mail Ship Titanic was a target for souvenir hunters. Scavengers stole nameplates and oars from the ship’s lifeboats as soon as they were dropped off in New York.

In 2008, a bloody life jacket believed to have been pulled from the body of a floating victim sold for $53,000.

Edmund Stone, a Titanic steward whose body was discovered by the Canadian cable ship Mackay-Bennett, has yielded more than $250,000 of souvenirs, including a set of keys and a silver pocket watch stopped at 2:16 a.m., the moment the 33-year-old was tipped into the icy waters of the north Atlantic.

Under a 1994 ruling by the Eastern District of Virginia, salvage rights over the wreck belong exclusively to RMS Titanic Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Premier Exhibitions. In seven expeditions to the site, the private company has pulled up 6,000 artifacts.

Eva Hart was seven years old and bound for a new life in Winnipeg when her father died in the disaster.

“To bring up those things from a mass sea grave just to make a few thousand pounds shows a dreadful insensitivity and greed,” she said in 1987, just as the first salvage expedition was setting sail.

Amid charges RMS Titanic Inc. is causing damage to the wreck site, the International Congress of Maritime Museums has barred its members from exhibiting any Titanic artifact salvaged after 1990.   READ MORE

Watch this video:

RMS Titanic – the technology

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The Titanic was the second in the Olympic Class for White Star Line and left port from Southampton on Wednesday, April 10th, 1912 for New York, stopping at Cherborg, France and Queenstown, Ireland.

The technology on the ship was state of the art and designed to move large numbers of people comfortably across the North Atlantic in a year when over 200,000 passengers were carried back and forth in ships.

Costa Concordia crew member described panic and confusion after ship hit reef

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From Yahoo UK News

November 25, 2013 — A Costa Concordia crew member broke down in tears as she told a court how she was ordered to tell passengers “everything was under control” after the packed luxury cruise ship was fatally damaged as it struck rocks.

Deputy cabin services director, Jacqueline Abad Quine, was on duty the night the ship hit the reefs after its captain Francesco Schettino altered course to carry out a “sail-by salute” of an island.

She was later seen in video footage trying to reassure passengers, who had gathered on decks close to lifeboat stations.

She described to the hearing the scene of panic and confusion in the minutes following the incident.

Mrs Quine said: “I was ordered to tell the passengers everything was under control. I was told to say that there was a blackout and everyone should return to their cabins and that things would be returning to normal as quickly as possible.

“But people were agitated and worried – they wanted to get onto the lifeboats but the order didn’t come. When the passengers got to the muster stations I was told to try and calm them down, to reassure them.”

More than 4,000 passengers and crew – including 35 Britons – were onboard the Costa Concordia when it struck an underwater reef off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio just hours after setting sail on a seven-day Mediterranean cruise in January last year.

Mrs Quine broke down in tears as she told the hearing in the Italian town of Grosseto: “I made announcements in English, Spanish and Italian. I called my boss and he said the crew were frightening the passengers with what they were saying.

“Children were hugging their parents, two little ones lost and were trying to find them. Reliving everything again now is really hard for me. The passengers wanted to get onboard the lifeboats.

“They were pushing each other, trying to get on but we didn’t have the order to let them get onboard. I had to tell everyone that there was an electrical problem and everything was going to return to normal.    READ MORE

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Luxury at sea: Titanic set a new standard for travel

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Daily Graphic spendors of the Titanic

Competition between the illustrated newspapers of London was intense. This page was part of a special section in the Daily Graphic of London which was published only five days after the ship went down. Given the tools available, it was an amazing feat.

The Sphere Luxurious writing and reading room on Titanic

This page is from the Sphere of London and was also published just five days after the sinking of the Titanic. The Olympic class ships can be best described as the 747’s of the era, designed to carry a lot of freight and people while the Lusitania class ships of the Cunard line were designed for speed, much like the now-retired Concorde.

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Newspaper coverage of the Sinking of the Titanic

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A grim teacher Richmond Times Dispatch April 23, 1912

History is a grim teacher. This editorial cartoon refers to the loss of over 1,000 lives in the fire in New York harbor of the Slocum tour boat, the Iroquois Theatre fire and the Titanic. Richmond Times Dispatch April 23, 1912

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A night to remember, new probe

Lowering of the boats The Sphere of London

This graphic was created in one week’s time for the Sunday edition of The Sphere of London as part of that newspaper’s reporting on the sinking of the Titanic.

Icebergs lesson The Sphere

Danger field of fog and ice middle view

Be sure to show your 21st century children this graphic. It is NOT a photo from space…it came from the mind of an artist, using maps and wireless reports, showing ice bergs and fog which lay in wait for ships crossing the Atlantic.

The Sphere amazing graphic showing positions of other ships

In 1912, without benefit of GPS or satellite imagery, an artist at desk in the newsroom of The Sphere of London conceived and drew up this diagram of the positions of ships at the time of the Titanic sinking. The only tool were the reports of those positions by wireless.

William Thomas Stead went down with the ship, Journalist and Editor

Famous English journalist W. T. Stead went down with the ship; today’s top news reporters would have been the first in the lifeboats.

London The Sphere page 49 photos

Photos and graphics of the Titanic which appeared in the Sphere of London

London The Sphere how wireless works page 1

How wireless worked on the Titanic. The Sphere of London

The Sphere lifeboat davits

Lifeboat davits on the Titanic. The Sphere of London

The Sphere of London The last phase of the sinking

The expeditions to the bottom of the ocean confirm that this artist’s conception of the final moments were wrong. Some witnesses related the correct breaking of the ship while this graphic shows the deadly plunge.

London The Sphere greatest wreck photos of people Nova Scotia archives

Adrift in an open boat cartoon San Francisco

This editorial cartoon appeared in the San Francisco Examiner and cited greed on the part of the White Star Line in not having enough lifeboats. Actually, the line could easily have afforded the extra $16,000 for 32 more lifeboats but it was the arrogance of Bruce Ismay to not wanting to have his deck cluttered with boats that prevented the boats from being provided.

Bruce Ismay says his conscience is clear headline in News Leader

Politicians and top bananas of industry, labor and finance can be pretty arrogant today, but they were in 1912 as well as shown in this Richmond News Leader headline.

Christian Science Monitor says all are safe

This article appeared in the Christian Science Monitor and echoed wrong information which was also front page in the Washington Post and London Daily Mail.

Honour to the Brave The Sphere May 4 1912    London The Sphere how wireless works page 1
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Model test of Titanic II held in Germany

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TITANIC II MODEL TEST HELD IN GERMANY

November 25, 2013  — Blue Star Line Chairman Clive Palmer said the company in conjunction with German hydrodynamic service and consulting group the Hamburg Ship Model Basin (HSVA) has conducted the first model testing of the proposed Titanic II in Germany.

Grand staircase on Titanic II Blue Star Line

Mr Palmer said in what was HSVA’s 5000th model test in the company’s centenary year, a 9.3m wooden model of Titanic II was put through propulsion and power testing in a 300m long tank at HSVA’s Hamburg facilities over four days from September 9-12.

Titanic II is scheduled to be launched from its construction base in China in 2016, before her maiden passenger voyage retracing its original journey from Southampton to New York.

“The model testing by HSVA, including resistance and open water tests, is an important part of the process in the Titanic II project,” Mr Palmer said.

“The Titanic II model was tested by HSVA at speeds of up to 23 knots and this testing is crucial for assessing the speed and power performance of this prototype vessel design.

“Blue Star Line was represented at the tests by the World Project Director of Titanic II, Baljeet Singh.  We look forward to receiving the results later this year.”

HSVA Director of Resistance and Propulsion, Dr Uwe Hollenbach, said HSVA was delighted to be part of the historic Titanic II project.

“The Titanic II model was given the HSVA model number 5000,” Dr Hollenbach said.

“In honour of Titanic II and Blue Star Line, we also held a naming ceremony and launched the model on a traditional slipway.”

Dr Hollenbach said model testing was the only accurate and reliable method for a passenger vessel prototype such as Titanic II.

“Titanic II is a prototype as present day passenger vessels have a completely different type of main hull parameters and therefore are unsuitable as references,” Dr Hollenbach said.

“The speed and power performance model testing is one of the critical aspects for a prototype vessel and needs to be verified before a construction contract is completed.

“Self propulsion tests determine the optimal sense of wing propeller rotation, the neutral wing thruster angle and optimal load distribution between wing and centre units.”

On April 30, 2012, Mr Palmer announced to the world his intention to build and launch Titanic II. The announcement came 100 years after the original vessel last sailed.

The RMS Titanic was commissioned by White Star Line and was the largest liner in the world at just under 270m long, 53m high and weighing approximately 40,000 tonnes.

Mr Palmer said Titanic II would have similar dimensions as its predecessor, with 840 rooms and nine decks. The only changes to the original Titanic would be below the water line including welding and not riveting, a bulbous bow for greater fuel efficiency, diesel generation and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters for increased manoeuvrability.

Link to Video:  Titanic II Model Test

Clive Palmer, Chairman of Blue Star Line on 60 Minutes

Welcome to the RMS Titanic Speakers Bureau – Rate Information

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Welcome to the Titanic Speakers Bureau; the home of some of the foremost authorities, historians and authors of the RMS Titanic alive today. From Daniel Allen Butler, Bruce M. Caplan, Wade Sisson, Ken Rossignol, to Capt. E. J. Smith actor Lowell Lytle and the great-grand-daughter of the Unsinkable Molly Brown – Helen Benziger.

The Titanic Speakers Bureau will enable you to learn more about our wonderful speakers, read of their travels, books, and views on one of the most enduring stories of all times and of perhaps the greatest sea disaster known to modern history – the voyage of the White Star Liner RMS Titanic.

Various speakers such as Tammy Knox and Robert W. Walker, are also fantasy and fiction writers with the ability to use their creative genius to bring the story of the Titanic alive using genres of horror and mysteries to enhance and develop the actual history of the ship.

Contact Ken Rossignol at 301 535 8624, ken.thechesapeake@gmail.com  for rates for speakers. Typically, speakers charge between $800 and $2,000 depending on the arrangements.  Airfare from speaker’s nearest airport to the event, transportation to the hotel and to the event as well as hotel rates apply. Helen Benziger travels with a service dog, who is quiet and enjoys attending formal dinners.

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