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Post by gabriel on Jul 3, 2010 5:34:36 GMT -5
There are a few photos I'm trying to track down without any success so far. One is the one I went after last night - the deck officers and senior members of the crew in their dress whites. Another one is of Murdoch and Wilde looking out of the main door on D deck finishing the mail and cargo run from Queenstown.But this is again personal. It's a letter from Murdoch to his parents that was taken off board and posted at Queenstown. While he sailed with her off to meet the iceberg.April 11, 1912 On Board R.M.S. Titanic My dear Father and Mother: Only a short note to let you know that we are this length [of the voyage] all right. We have had clear and squally weather since we left and it looks very well now. As we were leaving Southampton and passing the Oceanic and New York - which were moored alongside each other, they ranged so much that the New York broke adrift and it was only very narrowly that we escaped doing both she and ourselves serious damage, however we did not touch her and I don’t think either the New York or the Oceanic had any damage at all. I left Ada [Mrs. Murdoch] quite well yesterday morning. We had [Peg’s] letter on Tuesday and were glad to hear how you all were. We are getting things pretty straight now, but owing to the coal strike we are only going at 19 or 20 knots per hour. I sincerely hope that you are both keeping very well and you, Mother, [are] having a much easier time with your [medical] troubles. I also hope that Agnes and [Peg] are in particularly good form. With fondest love to all and looking forward to hearing from some of you at Queenstown. From your ever affectionate son William www.charlespellegrino.com/crew/william_mcmaster_murdoch.htm
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Titanic
Jul 14, 2010 7:08:58 GMT -5
Post by fretslider on Jul 14, 2010 7:08:58 GMT -5
A bid to revamp a memorial in Surrey to Jack Phillips, chief telegraphist on the Titanic, has moved forward. Waverley council said it had received initial support in a bid for funds to restore the Grade II-listed Phillips Memorial Cloister and improve the park. The Godalming memorial, built in 1914, is said to be the largest of any built to remember a single Titanic victim. The council wants to restore the memorial in time for the 2012 centenary of the sinking of the ship. Jack Phillips was born locally and died aged 25 when the liner sank. Councillor Roger Steel said the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund had announced initial support of £25,600 for Waverley. www.bbc.co.uk/news/10622965
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Titanic
Jul 17, 2010 6:26:04 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Jul 17, 2010 6:26:04 GMT -5
When the Titanic sank, many people on deck, including the officers, could see the lights of another vessel in the distance. That was why the white rockets were fired, because that was the international distress signal. That ship was the Leyland Liner The Californian, Captain Stanley Lord. He had stopped because of the pack ice. The Titanic's rockets were clearly seen, he was informed, yet he did nothing. He was, apparently, a martinet and his crew would not and could not stand up to him. The Californian actually joined in the search for survivors the next morning. When she finally docked, her log was edited to put it mildly to delete any mention of distress rockets. The following is a good summation of the Californian and Captain Lord's part in the sinking of the Titanic.www.titanichistoricalsociety.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=94&t=137&start=01]- Maximum distance for lookouts.... In conversation with the crews of the various tender vessels that I have spoken to operating from our local port, it becomes clear that the maximum possible distance for sighting a vessel before the curvature of the earth intervenes is 18 MILES (and that is in DAYLIGHT). Captain Stanley Lord claims that his vessel, the Leyland Liner CALIFORNIAN, was stopped over 20 MILES away. If this is true, then lookouts would be UNABLE to spot an object at this distance, so the inescapable conclusion must be drawn that Californian WAS between 8 and 12 miles from the stricken Titanic. This is confirmed by Californian Fireman ERNEST GILL.2]- Fireman Gill claims to have seen "A large steamer....firing rockets....between 8 and 10 miles distant." The very fact that he did not inform the bridge and the watch officers should not be held against him, but this testimony reveals that somebody was not telling the whole truth about the location of Californian in relation to Titanic.Gill had little or no reason to tell fibs about this, but watch officer Herbert Gibson had every reason to cast doubts. 3]- "Lordites" have always claimed that another vessel was in-between their ship and Titanic, with the most likely candidate stated as the sealer SAMSON. This holds no water, for if the 'Samson' were present, the very LAST THING an illegal sealer would do would be to fire rockets of any description. No other vessel was in distress on April 14-15 in the vicinity, and the Samson would have been the least likely candidate of them all for advertising it's presence. 4]- Watch officer of the Californian, (Third Officer Charles Groves), is on record as being the only officer or crew member to show any interest whatsoever in the Marconi Apparatus of his ship. He regularly visited Operator Cyril Evans and could even understand the signals, provided the message was not transmitted too swiftly. Why an officer who had knowledge of the possibilities of wireless telegraphy should not think to call awake Cyril Evans is totally inexplicable. The same applies to Captain Lord, befuddled by sleep or not. Captain Arthur Rostron was also retiring to bed, and in a befuddled state when Harold Cottam brought him the news....he became instantly awake and acted accordingly, unlike Lord. 5]- The subject of Third Officer Groves and his inaction becomes damning when his own conversation and testimony alludes to the fact that white rockets were sighted by Officer of the Watch Groves, all eight of them, observed from the bridge of Californian. Titanic passenger Lawrence Beesley has stated that these rockets were an indication "...even to the rankest landlubber" of a VESSEL IN DISTRESS....Herbert's inaction is further damned by his assertion that the mysterious ship observed on that fateful night had "...come to a halt....". Moreover, he also saw it " looking queer....her big end looks like it's out of the water..." The failure of Groves or Herbert to do anything at all in a positive manner is inexcusable, particularly as Cpt. Lord was fully aware of the disturbances observed. 6]- Captain Lord started up Californian's engines at dawn, and then proceeded WESTWARD to the OTHER SIDE OF THE ICEFIELD. On hearing of the exact position of CARPATHIA, he then proceeded THROUGH the ice, mostly at HALF SPEED. This is said to have taken all of two hours to reach the site of the sinking...Lordites have pointed to this "fact" as an example of the true distance of Californian from the wreck site, but most have neglected to mention the speed or the direction taken by Lord when Californian was underway. As a counterpoint, Carpathia steamed into the icefield in the dead blackness of the morning at 17.5 knots, twisting and turning to avoid collision. All of this adds up to NEGLIGENCE by the officers of Californian. They were aware that Titanic was the ONLY vessel in the vicinity....Marconi Operator Cyril Evans had told Captain Lord this. The inaction by Californian constitutes a disgrace to every member of the ships officers. The wonder of it is that many Titanic passengers could clearly see this vessel.....boat No. 6 rowed and rowed in a futile attempt to catch this vessel, stationary as she was.
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Titanic
Jul 19, 2010 1:07:20 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Jul 19, 2010 1:07:20 GMT -5
www.titanic-nautical.com/RMS-Titanic-Captain-Blamed.htmlSenate Committee Also Scores Captain of the Steamer Californian. COULD HAVE SAVED ALL. Praise for Carpathia Crew and Gold Medal for her Captain. San Francisco Chronicle, May 29, 1912 Provided by The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco WASHINGTON. May 28 The Titanic disaster of April 15th, in which 1517 souls went down amid icebergs off the Banks of Newfoundland, was the theme of speech, report and proposed legislation in the Senate today. Senator William Alden Smith of Michigan submitted the report of the investigation by the Senate Commerce Committee, a feature of which was the condemnation of the captain of the steamer Californian for not going to the aid of the sinking vessel, and delivered a speech in which he personally took much stronger ground in reviewing the disaster and introduced measures designed to safeguard life in ocean traffic. One of the most important recommendations was for stricter inspection of vessels by the Federal steamboat inspection service and the meeting of all requirements of American navigation laws by every vessel clearing from an American port. ICE WARNING IGNORED. The report is largely a review of the evidence and contains recommendations for legislation. No particular person is named as being responsible, though attention is called to the fact that on the day of the disaster three distinct warnings of ice were sent to Captain Smith. J. Bruce Ismay, managing director of the White Star Line, is not held responsible for the ship’s high speed. In fact, he is barely mentioned in the report. On the whole, the report is impassive and Senator Smith in his speech went more fully into a discussion of the causes of the disaster than does the committee. The committee agreed upon these principal conclusions. The supposedly water-tight compartments of the Titanic were not water tight because of the non-water-tight condition of the decks where the transverse bulkheads ended. The Californian, controlled by the same concern as the Titanic, was nearer the Titanic than the nineteen miles reported by her captain, and her officers and crew “saw the distress signals of the Titanic and failed to respond in accordance with the dictates of humanity, international usage and the requirements of laws.The committee concludes that the Californian might have saved all the lost passengers and crew from the ship that went down. Eight ships, all equipped with wireless, were in the vicinity of the Titanic, the Olympic farthest away, 512. The mysterious lights on an unknown ship, seen by the passengers on the Titanic, undoubtedly were on the Californian, less than nineteen miles away. The full capacity of the Titanic’s lifeboats was not utilized, because while only 706 persons were saved, the ship’s boats could have carried 1176. No general alarm was sounded, no whistle blown and no systematic warning was given to the endangered passengers, and it was fifteen or twenty minutes after the collision before Captain Smith ordered the Titanic’s wireless operator to send out a distress message. The Titanic’s crew was only meagerly acquainted with its positions and duties in case of accident, and only one drill was held before the maiden trip. Many of the crew joined the ship only a few hours before she sailed, and were in ignorance of their positions until the following Friday. “ Ice positions so definitely reported to the Titanic,” says the report, “just preceding the accident located ice on both sides of the lane in which she was traveling. No discussion took place among the officers; no conference was called to consider these warnings; no heed was given to them. The speed of the vessel was not relaxed, the lookout was not increased.” The committee concludes that the Titanic’s lights were visible to the Californian before she struck the iceberg, and that the Californian must have seen the distress rockets fired from the bridge of the Titanic. The report says: DISTRESS SIGNALS IGNORED. “The committee is forced to the inevitable conclusion that the Californian, controlled by the same company, was nearer the Titanic than the nineteen miles reported by her captain, and that her officers and crew saw the distress signals of the Titanic and failed to respond to them in accordance with the dictates of humanity, international usage and the requirements of law. The only reply to the distress signals was a counter signal from a large white light, which was flashed for nearly two hours from the mast of the Californian. In our opinion such conduct, whether arising from indifference or gross carelessness, is most reprehensible and places on the commander of the Californian a grave responsibility. “The wireless operator of the Californian was not aroused until 3:30 a.m., [April] 15th, after considerable conversation between officers and members of the crew had taken place aboard the ship regarding these distress signals or rockets, and was directed by the chief officer to see if there was anything the matter, as a ship had been firing rockets during the night. The inquiry thus set on foot at once disclosed the fact that the Titanic had sunk. Had assistance been properly proffered or had the wireless operator of the Californian remained a few minutes longer at his post on Sunday evening, the ship might have had the proud distinction of saving the lives of the passengers and crew of the Titanic.” The committee believes many more lives could have been saved had the survivors been concentrated in a few lifeboats and had the boats thus released returned to the wreckage for others. The only mention of J. Bruce Ismay occurs in a review of the messages to the White Star offices in New York reporting the disaster. The first official information, the committee says, was the message from Captain Haddock of the Olympic, received from the White Star line at 6:16 p.m., Monday, April 15th. Attention is called to the fact that in the face of this information a message reporting the Titanic being towed to Halifax was sent to Representative J.A. Hughes at Huntington, W. Va., at 7:51 p.m. that day. The message was delivered to the Western Union office in the same building as the White Star line offices. “Whoever sent this message,” says the report, “under the circumstances is guilty of the most reprehensible conduct.” The committee does not believe the wireless operator on the Carpathia was duly vigilant in handling his messages after the accident, and declared the practice of allowing wireless operators to sell their stories should be stopped. It is commended that all ships carrying more than 100 passengers have two searchlights; that a revision be made of steamship inspection laws of foreign countries to the standard proposed in the United States; that every ship be required to carry sufficient lifeboats for all passengers and crews; that the use of wireless be regulated to prevent its use by amateurs, and that all ships have a wireless operator on duty constantly. Detailed recommendations are made as to water-tight bulkhead construction on ocean-going ships. Bulkheads should be so spaced that any two adjacent compartments of a ship might be flooded without sinking. Transverse bulkheads forward and abaft the machinery should be continued watertight to the uppermost continuous structural deck, and this deck should be fitted water-tight, the report says. The committee deems the course followed by Captain Rostron of the Carpathia as deserving of the highest praise and worthy of special recognition. His detailed instructions, issued in anticipation of the rescue of the Titanic, were “a marvel of systemic preparation and completeness evincing such solicitude as calls for the highest commendation.” San Francisco Chronicle May 29, 1912
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Titanic
Jul 26, 2010 6:36:34 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Jul 26, 2010 6:36:34 GMT -5
This is another photo I've never seen. Taken from the dock at Southampton when the collision almost occured with the New York. It gives you a great idea of how close the 2 ships came.
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Titanic
Jul 27, 2010 9:22:23 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2010 9:22:23 GMT -5
AP RICHMOND, Va. (July 27)
A team of scientists will launch an expedition to the Titanic next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck and create a detailed three-dimensional map that will "virtually raise the Titanic" for the public.
The expedition to the site 2½ miles beneath the North Atlantic is billed as the most advanced scientific mission to the Titanic wreck since its discovery 25 years ago.
Ralph White, AP The bow of the Titanic sits on the bottom of the North Atlantic, about 400 miles southeast of Newfoundland. A team of scientists will launch an expedition next month to assess the deteriorating condition of the world's most famous shipwreck. The 20-day expedition is to leave St. John's, Newfoundland, on Aug. 18 under a partnership between RMS Titanic Inc., which has exclusive salvage rights to the wreck, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. The expedition will not collect artifacts but will probe a 2-by-3-mile debris field where hundreds of thousands of artifacts remain scattered.
Some of the world's most frequent visitors to the site will be part of the expedition along with a who's who of underwater scientists and organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Organizers say the new scientific data and images will ultimately will be accessible to the public.
"For the first time, we're really going to treat it as an archaeological site with two things in mind," David Gallo, an expedition leader and Woods Hole scientist, told The Associated Press on Monday. "One is to preserve the legacy of the ship by enhancing the story of the Titanic itself. The second part is to really understand what the state of the ship is."
The Titanic struck ice and sank on its maiden voyage in international waters on April 15, 1912, leaving 1,522 people dead.
Since oceanographer Robert Ballard and an international team discovered the Titanic in 1985, most of the expeditions have either been to photograph the wreck or gather thousands of artifacts, like fine china, shoes and ship fittings. "Titanic" director James Cameron has also led teams to the wreck to record the bow and the stern, which separated during the sinking and now lie one-third of a mile apart.
RMS Titanic made the last expedition to site in 2004. The company, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta, conducts traveling displays of the Titanic artifacts, which the company says have been viewed by tens of millions of people worldwide.
"We believe there's still a number of really exciting mysteries to be discovered at the wreck site," said Chris Davino, president of and CEO of Premier Exhibitions and RMS Titanic. "It's our contention that substantial portions of the wreck site have never really been properly studied."
RMS Titanic is bankrolling the expedition. Davino declined to state the cost of the exploration other than to say it will be millions of dollars.
The "dream team" of archaeologists, oceanographers and other scientists want to get the best assessment yet on the two main sections of the ship, which have been subjected to fierce deep-ocean currents, salt water and intense pressure.
Gallo said while the rate of Titanic's deterioration is not known, the expedition approaches the mission with a sense of urgency.
"We see places where it looks like the upper decks are getting thin, the walls are thin, the ceilings may be collapsing a bit," he said. "We hear all these anecdotal things about the ship is rusting away, it's collapsing on itself. No one really knows."
The expedition will use imaging technology and sonar devices that never have been used before on the Titanic wreck and to probe nearly a century of sediment in the debris field to seek a full inventory of the ship's artifacts.
"We're actually treating it like a crime scene," Gallo said. "We want to know what's out there in that debris field, what the stern and the bow are looking like."
The expedition will be based on the RV Jean Charcot, a 250-foot research vessel with a crew of 20. Three submersibles and the latest sonar, acoustic and filming technology will also be part of the expedition.
"Never before have we had the scientific and technological means to discover so much of an expedition to Titanic," said P.H. Nargeolet, who is co-leading the expedition. He has made more than 30 dives to the wreck.
Bill Lange, a Woods Hole scientist who will lead the optical survey and will be one of the first to visit the wreck, said a key analysis will be comparing images from the first expedition 25 years ago and new images to measure decay and erosion.
"We're going to see things we haven't seen before. That's a given," he said. "The technology has really evolved in the last 25 years."
Davino said he anticipates future salvage expeditions to the wreck, and Gallo said he doesn't expect the science will end with one trip.
"I'm sure there will be future expeditions because this is the just the beginning of a whole new era of these kind of expeditions to Titanic - serious, archaeological mapping expeditions," Gallo said.
RMS Titanic is still awaiting a judge's ruling in Norfolk, Va., on the 5,500 artifacts it has in its possession.
The company is seeking limited ownership of the artifacts as compensation for its salvage efforts. In its court filing for a salvage award, the company put the fair market value of the collection at $110.9 million.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, a maritime jurist who is presiding over the hearings, has called the wreck an "international treasure."
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Titanic
Jul 29, 2010 1:21:41 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Jul 29, 2010 1:21:41 GMT -5
I think a 3D imaging of the Titanic is a great idea. What we have surmised of her sinking is pretty much theoretical. A chance to actually see what happened would be amazing.
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Titanic
Jul 29, 2010 17:50:30 GMT -5
Post by brumsongs on Jul 29, 2010 17:50:30 GMT -5
The anchor for the Titanic was made 2 miles away from where I live, in netherton. Here's a picture of it leaving the factory. On a side note I'm currently rehearsing a stage show based on The Titanic and the various musicians aboard. www.titanicband.com/Photo insert by Gabriel Update to this, they are returning a life size replica of the anchor to Netherton next month and have asked us to perform at the event. Can't wait to see it.
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Titanic
Jul 30, 2010 1:45:43 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Jul 30, 2010 1:45:43 GMT -5
Sweet. Which one will you be?
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Titanic
Jul 30, 2010 5:39:25 GMT -5
Post by brumsongs on Jul 30, 2010 5:39:25 GMT -5
Sweet. Which one will you be? We just play the music in costume. The world does not need to see me acting
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Titanic
Aug 16, 2010 9:29:06 GMT -5
Post by biglin on Aug 16, 2010 9:29:06 GMT -5
I remember hearing about a bloke who was on the Titanic, on her sister ship that also sank, and on the Lusitania. He managed to survive all three!
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Titanic
Aug 17, 2010 5:19:10 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Aug 17, 2010 5:19:10 GMT -5
What's this bloke's name? I'd be interested. I know of Violet Jessup. A stewardess, she served on the Olympic, was on the Titanic when it sank, then served as a nurse on the Britannic, the 3rd sister ship, when it struck a torpedo and sank in the Aegean in 1917 ( I think). She served on all 3 sister ships. Now that's what you'd call a remarkable life.
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Titanic
Aug 17, 2010 9:00:04 GMT -5
Post by biglin on Aug 17, 2010 9:00:04 GMT -5
I can't remember, Gabriel. It was on British TV about a month ago.
I'll see if I can google anything about him.
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Titanic
Sept 16, 2010 5:39:25 GMT -5
Post by gabriel on Sept 16, 2010 5:39:25 GMT -5
www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-survivor/violet-constance-jessop.htmlNevertheless Violet, who had grey-blue eyes, auburn hair and spoke with an Irish accent became a stewardess for the White Star Line working 17 hours a day, and being paid £2 10s. per month. She served on board the Olympic before joining the Titanic and was aboard the Olympic when she was in collision with HMS Hawke in 1911. Violet was happy on the Olympic and didn't really want to join the Titanic but was persuaded by her friends who thought it would be a 'wonderful experience'. So Violet, 'dressed in a new ankle-length brown suit' set out in a horse-drawn cab to join the brand new ship at her berth in Southampton. Among the people she mentioned in her memoirs was Thomas Andrews and, like all other crew members it seems, she greatly admired him. Mr Andrews was the only person who seemed to heed the requests of the crew for improvements in the crew's quarters. The stewards and stewardesses were quite pleased with their quarters on Titanic. "Often during our rounds we came upon our beloved designer going about unobtrusively with a tired face but a satisfied air. He never failed to stop for a cheerful word, his only regret that we were 'getting further from home.' We all knew the love he had for that Irish home of his and suspected that he longed to get back to the peace of its atmosphere for a much needed rest and to forget ship designing for awhile." Violet claims to have been friends with Scottish violinist Jock Hume, one of the few people working on the ship whom she identifies by his real name. She said that it was her habit to take in the fresh air on deck before retiring for the night, and that "If the sun did fail to shine so brightly on the fourth day out, and if the little cold nip crept into the air as evening set in, it only served to emphasize the warmth and luxuriousness within." In her memoirs she says that on Titanic's maiden voyage she brought a copy of a translated Hebrew prayer that an old Irish woman had given her. Upon settling down in her bunk she found that prayer and read it, then made her roommate read it. (Presumable, according to editor John Maxtone- Graham, her roommate was stewardess Elizabeth Leather.) It was a strangely worded prayer that Violet says was supposed to protect her against fire and water. Violet was a devout Catholic who carried a rosary in her apron and believed strongly in the power of prayer. Violet wrote that she was "comfortably drowsy" in her bunk, but not quite asleep when the collision occurred. ''I was ordered up on deck. Calmly, passengers strolled about. I stood at the bulkhead with the other stewardesses, watching the women cling to their husbands before being put into the boats with their children. Some time after, a ship's officer ordered us into the boat (16) first to show some women it was safe. As the boat was being lowered the officer called: 'Here, Miss Jessop. Look after this baby.' And a bundle was dropped on to my lap.'' After eight hours in the boat Violet and the others were picked up by the Carpathia: ''I was still clutching the baby against my hard cork lifebelt I was wearing when a woman leaped at me and grabbed the baby, and rushed off with it, it appeared that she put it down on the deck of the Titanic while she went off to fetch something, and when she came back the baby had gone. I was too frozen and numb to think it strange that this woman had not stopped to say 'thank you'. Violet served as a nurse with the British Red Cross during World War One and was on-board the Britannic when that vessel was sunk in the Aegean in 1916. Violet attributed her rescue from the sinking of the Britannic to her thick auburn hair: ''I leapt into the water but was sucked under the ship's keel which struck my head. I escaped, but years later when I went to my doctor because of a lot of headaches, he discovered I had once sustained a fracture of the skull!'' In her late 30's she had "a brief and disastrous" marriage but the name of the husband has thus far eluded all researchers. They had no children. Miss Jessop retired to a sixteenth-century thatched cottage in Great Ashfield, Suffolk. She filled her home with mementoes of her forty two years at sea and looked after laying hens and her garden. She was interviewed for Woman Magazine (19th July 1958) when the film A Night to Remember was released in 1958.
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