Descendants Margaret & Janet Rostron, great granddaughters of Captain Arthur Henry Rostron presenting Helen Benziger with the loving cup her great grandmother, Margaret Brown presented to their great grandfather who was the captain of the Carpathia…the ship which raced to the rescue of the survivors of Titanic.
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The iceberg which may have sunk the Titanic. Which hit which?
There are many theories being put forward over the past few years as to why there were so many icebergs in the North Atlantic that fateful April night in 1912 when the Titanic collided with one and sank. While the information ranges from assertions by modern scientists and researchers that there were more icebergs due to a really cold winter and spring, the article below which was published in LIVE SCIENCE proclaims that 1912 was an average busy season for bergs. The article goes on to say that the iceberg “hit the Titanic”. As there was no known type of motorized or sail propulsion for the iceberg to guide or power itself and plenty of evidence to show that the Titanic had multiple engines working hard to push the ship along at about 21 knots with a crew on duty in the bridge to steer the ship, it was the Titanic that “hit” the iceberg and caused the disaster. Had the lookout been doubled, had the lookouts had the use of binoculars and missed the iceberg, it is clear from the history of the White Star line that the luxury liner would have arrived in New York.
News articles which proclaim the iceberg “hit the Titanic” are equivalent with reports in the news that say that a train hit a man or a train hit a truck. Unless a train had been shown to have jumped off its tracks and raced through a field, down a highway and stalked a truck and collided with it, usually the train is where it is supposed to be and the truck generally is either parked on the tracks, drives around crossing gates or otherwise runs into and strikes the train. The responsibility for discerning the true facts of any story, including the story of the Titanic, rest with the reader. Therefore, with the wonderful methods of learning now available through the internet, keep on digging into the story and if you wish to believe the romance and fiction, then by all means suspend disbelief and enjoy. If you wish to learn the truth, keep digging from multiple sources. — Ken Rossignol
From Live Science: Old Coast Guard records are throwing cold water on a long-standing explanation for the loss of the Titanic: the suggestion that the fateful journey took place in waters bristling with icebergs, making 1912 an unlucky year to sail the North Atlantic.
Instead, more than a century of Atlantic iceberg counts reveals 1912 was an average year for dangerous floating ice. The findings also contradict a popular notion that the Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier on Greenland’s west coast birthed the Titanic’s deadly ‘berg. Instead, a computer model suggests that one of the glaciers at Greenland’s southern tip released the iceberg that hit the Titanic on April 14, 1912, drowning more than 1,500 people in the frigid ocean.
“I think the question of whether this was an unusual year has been laid to rest,” said Grant Bigg, an environmental scientist at the University of Sheffield and lead study author, adding, “1912 is not an exceptional year.” READ MORE
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A promotional poster for Bruce Caplan’s appearance in San Diego
There’s an old saying that there’s two things you can’t escape and that’s “death and taxes.” On the terribly cold night of April 14th 1912, the Titanic newly crowned Empress of the Seas, met her Waterloo. At 11:40 in the evening the giant vessel slammed into an iceberg and less than three hours later on the morning of April 15th, she was at the bottom of the sea.
Prior to the collision the mood of most on board was idyllic. However, the many millionaires were probably cursing the fact that our government was attempting to levy an annual income tax. Word was that the tax would only apply to the rich and regardless it would never be more than 2% of anyone’s annual income.
Less than a year after the vanishing of the Titanic in February of 1913, the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified and Federal Income Tax became legal.
Originally the annual date to file was not in April, but eventually it became April 15—-the same date on the calendar that the great ship sank. Isn’t it ironic that our government picked the same date on the calendar that the Titanic sank, to make so many of our wallets sink?
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This graphic video provides a frame-by-frame video depiction of the sinking of the Titanic in real time. Check your watches, turn on your Titanic music or favorite movie of the Titanic and watch how it all unfolded 102 years ago on April 15, 1912.
Launching of the RMS Olympic at Belfast, Ireland.
From Bruce M. Caplan:
Testimony at British Enquiry—-Charles Hendrickson (I think this is the real reason the iceberg was able to penetrate the steel!)
Day Five–
5232. Do you remember a fire in a coal bunker on board this boat?
– Yes.
5233. Is it a common occurrence for fires to take place on boats?
– No.
5234. It is not common?
– No.
5235. How long have you been on a White Star boat?
– About five years.
5236. When did you last see a fire in a coal bunker?
– I never saw one before.
5237. It has been suggested that fires in coal bunkers are quite a common occurrence, but you have been five years in the White Star line and have not seen a fire in a coal bunker?
– No.
5238. Did you help to get the coal out?
– Yes.
5239. Did you hear when the fire commenced?
– Yes, I heard it commenced at Belfast.
5240. When did you start getting the coal out?
– The first watch we did from Southampton we started to get it out.
5241. How many days would that be after you left Belfast?
– I do not know when she left Belfast to the day.
5242. It would be two or three days, I suppose?
– I should say so.
5243. Did it take much time to get the fire down?
– It took us right up to the Saturday to get it out.
5244. How long did it take to put the fire itself out?
– The fire was not out much before all the coal was out.
5245. The fire was not extinguished until you got the whole of the coal out?
– No. I finished the bunker out myself, me and three or four men that were there. We worked everything out.
5246. The bulkhead forms part of the bunker – the side?
– Yes, you could see where the bulkhead had been red hot.
5247. You looked at the side after the coal had been taken out?
– Yes.
5248. What condition was it in?
– You could see where it had been red hot; all the paint and everything was off. It was dented a bit.
5249. It was damaged, at any rate?
– Yes, warped.
5250. Was much notice taken of it. Was any attempt made to do anything with it?
– I just brushed it off and got some black oil and rubbed over it.
5251. To give it its ordinary appearance?
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