Titanics In Tennessee & Missouri, Pirates of the Caribbean, Napoleonland & the Commercialization of History

Posted on by April 15, 2012

The Titanic of Tennessee with concrete iceberg

Today, on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic with the loss of 1,514 lives, it would be appropriate for a learned historian at an august university to sit down to ponder the commercialization of history and to consider how our consumer culture turns tragedy into theme parks.

This came to mind from articles about the Titanic of Tennessee, a sort of half-length half scale replica of the ship in the mountains of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee which opened as a “museum attraction” two years ago. (See our previous post, Titanic Museum to Open in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee?)  I am not sure exactly what a “museum attraction might be. Fortunately Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, the Titanic Museum Attractions owner explains, “This museum is not a thrill ride or Hollywood style museum. It is an interactive experience that brings in all elements of the famous and tragic Titanic story for families to experience.”  One can only hope that bringing in all elements of the experience does not include drowning in the dark in icy water.  That would certainly cut down on repeat visitors.
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Joseph Conrad on the Titanic – On Experts, Icebergs, Lifeboats and Biscuit Tins

Posted on by April 15, 2012

In June of 1912, Joseph Conrad wrote “Some Reflections on the Loss of the Titanic” for the English Review.  While best known as a novelist, his comments reflect his years as a ship’s officer in both sail and steam.   He finds little to like in the events of that night in April, one hundred years ago today, or the events which followed. A few of Conrad’s thoughts on the media, icebergs, the design of unsinkable ships, biscuit tins and the romanticizing of needless death.

On the Media:
He was offended by what we would all the media circus following the sinking.  “It is with a certain bitterness that one must admit to oneself that the late _S.S. Titanic_ had a “good press.” ….. the white spaces and the big lettering of the headlines have an incongruously festive air to my eyes, a disagreeable effect of a feverish exploitation of a sensational God-send.”
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Sailors Missing, One Dead in Full Crew Farallones Race off San Fransciso

Posted on by April 16, 2012

Slow Speed Chase from 2009 Photo: Kat Wade / Special to The Chronicle

Update: Sad news. As of Sunday Evening, the Coast Guard suspended the search for the four crew missing after the 38′ yacht Slow Speed Chase ran aground in Farallones Race off San Francisco on Saturday.

Three or four sailors are missing and one is confirmed dead after the 38′ yacht Slow Speed Chase ran aground Saturday afternoon in the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, CA while competing in the Full Crew Farallones Race.  The Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay and the SFGate are reporting that there were seven sailors aboard the yacht. Three were rescued, three are missing and one has died.  CNN, the New York Times and the AP are reporting that there were eight crew aboard and that four remain missing.  The US Coast Guard is now searching for the missing sailors.  From the New York Times:

1 Dead, 4 Missing in Yacht Race Accident.
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Myths of the Titanic – Did White Star Line Claim the Ship was Unsinkable?

Posted on by April 14, 2012

The BBC recently published an article titled “Five Titanic myths spread by films.”  The first alleged myth is that the White Star Line never claimed that the Titanic was “unsinkable.”   The article asserts: ” The White Star Line never made any substantive claims that the Titanic was unsinkable – and nobody really talked about the ship’s unsinkability until after the event..”   One hears this claim over and over.  White Star Line never claimed that the Titanic was unsinkable.  But is it accurate?

It is true that White Star did not prominently feature “unsinkability” in its advertising. Their slogan was “Largest and finest steamers in the world.”  Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that White Star, and indeed most experts of the day, did consider the Titanic to be unsinkable.
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J.P. Morgan, RMS Titanic and SS United States

Posted on by August 20, 2020

What does J.P. Morgan, the American financier, and the passenger ships, RMS Titanic and SS United States have in common?

Everyone knows that White Star Line, the owner of the RMS Titanic, was a British Company. Fewer are aware that White Star was owned by an American.  It was a wholly owned subsidiary of the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), an American holding company owned by J.P. Morgan.  J. Bruce Ismay, chairman of the White Star Line, sold the company to J.P. Morgan in 1902.  The RMS Titanic, like all the other ships of the White Star fleet, was a British ship, and technically, as an American, J.P. Morgan could not own British ships.  Nevertheless, Morgan took advantage of the loophole that his holding company, IMM, could own the company that owned the ships. For all intents and purposes, J.P. Morgan owned the Titanic. It was not one of his better investments, for reasons having nothing to do with icebergs.
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Pouring the Ballast on the Boston Tea Party Ship Beaver

Posted on by April 13, 2012

The Beaver, a replica of one of ships that were the center of the Boston Tea Party in the run-up to the American Revolution, was relaunched in January after a major rebuild at the Gloucester Marine Railways.  The Beaver and the replica Eleanor will be displayed at the new $27 million  Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum on Fort Point Channel in Boston, which will open in June of this year.  A third ship, the  Dartmouth, will be built from scratch, and is expected to be completed in about two years.

Leon Poindexter, the master shipwright leading the project, has been broadcasting a series of Youtube Webisodes. Here is Ballast for the Beaver, episode 45, where concrete is being poured in the ship for ballast.   I am not familiar with the use of concrete for ballast in wooden ships.  If anyone is able to enlighten me, I would appreciate it.  Thanks to Tom Russell at the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-in Group for pointing it out the video.

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Standoff in the South China Sea – Philippine and Chinese Ships Face-off at Scarborough Shoal

Posted on by April 13, 2012

BRP Gregorio del Pilar

The South China Sea is home to a myriad of competing claims for territory, fishing, oil and mineral rights by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.  There is currently a stand-off between Chinese ships and the Philippine navy and coast guard vessels at Scarborough Shoal, located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon, Philippines in the South China  Sea.  Sovereignty  over Scarborough Shoal, a series of islands and an atoll,  is claimed by the Philippines, China and Taiwan.

As reported by the Manila Standard:   The current standoff began Sunday when a Navy surveillance plane sighted eight Chinese fishing vessels anchored in a lagoon at Scarborough, the Foreign Affairs Department said. That prompted the military to deploy its largest warship, the Hamilton class cutter BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which was recently acquired from the United States.
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Letters from the Titanic – Note Returning to Belfast & Accusation of Drinking by Captain Smith

Posted on by April 12, 2012

Two letters from the Titanic are in the news.  One is a letter from Dr. John Edward Simpson, who died when the ship sank,   He wrote to his mother on April 11, 1912, on notepaper headed RMS Titanic, and had it mailed from Cohb, Ireland, the last port of call prior to the ship sailing across the North Atlantic. The letter, which was owned by a collector in Long Island, NY will be returning  Belfast to be part of a new Titanic exhibition.

A second, somewhat controversial, letter was written by Titanic survivor, Emily Richards, a second class passenger, who claims to have seen Captain Smith a drinking few hours before the collision.  The letter written on board the Carpathia, which rescued survivors from the sinking, blames the captain for the sinking:

‘The Captain was down in the saloon drinking and gave charge to some-one else to stare(sic) the ship.  ‘It was the Captan(sic) fault. ‘My poor brother George … drowned as far as we know now.’

Captain Smith who went down with the ship, was exonerated by by the British enquiry into the disaster and not all believe Ms. Richard’s account.

Was the captain of the Titanic drunk on the night the ship struck an iceberg? Letter written by survivor claims skipper was in saloon bar before liner sank
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You Mean the Titanic was Real and Not Just a Movie?

Posted on by April 10, 2012

Last year, we posted about how the sinking of the Titanic had morphed from a maritime tragedy into a cultural icon.   For many, Hollywood movies, particularly the movie made by Jame Cameron, about the sinking of the ship may be more important than the sinking of the ship itself.  Taking the process one step further, the Gothamist recently posted an account of folks tweeting their surprise and shock that Titanic was a real ship and not just a movie (!)

PSA: The Titanic Was Real, Not Just A Movie
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Building the Titanic – There’s an App for That !

Posted on by April 5, 2012

So you want to build an unsinkable passenger liner? Well, there is an app for that!  OK, not really, but National Geographic has developed a free “Building the Titanic” app for the iPad, which looks at the construction of the ship.   Preview the app here: Building Titanic: An Interactive Timeline or download from the App Store: Building Titanic

Now, with the free Building Titanic app, travel back in time and witness Titanic’s construction. You control the assembly of the majestic liner as you explore a dynamic interactive timeline and watch the great ship being built in simulated time-lapse, right before your eyes. 

  • Over 50 in-depth points-of-interest along a dynamic interactive timeline of her construction.
  • More than 100 rare photos detail every aspect of her assembly.
  • Incredible archival film shows the laborers who built her in action.
  • Special previews of upcoming James Cameron and Bob Ballard Titanic documentaries from the National Geographic Channel.
Thanks to Captain Richard Rodriguez for pointing it out on his Bitter End Blog.

The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch – How Big Really?

Posted on by April 7, 2012

For several years we have been posting about a huge swirling patch of plastic garbage caught in the currents of the Pacific Ocean.  The BBC has an interactive graphic which helps to visualize just how how massive this Pacific garbage patch truly is.  Type in your zip code to relocate the patch over your location.  Thanks to M. Kei for pointing it out.

The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch – How Big Really?

 

100 Years Ago Today Titanic Set Sail from Southampton

Posted on by April 3, 2012

One hundred years ago today, the RMS Titanic sailed from Southampton.  She then called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland to take on more passengers. She then sailed on her maiden voyage proper across the Atlantic towards New York, a voyage cut short only four days later.

Titanic setting sail from Southampton

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Drunken Naked Students Run Amok on P&O Cross-Channel Ferry Spirit of France

Posted on by April 10, 2012

After posting about far too many needless tragedies on poorly maintained third world ferry boats which sink and kill their passengers, here is something completely different, though still involving a ferry.

Last week, fitting enough on April Fool’s Day, two hundred students from two British universities, the University of Manchester and the Manchester Metropolitan University, set sail on an early morning trip from Dover to Calais on the P&O cross channel ferry Spirit of France. The students were on their way to a skiing vacation and according to crew members on the ferry, many arrived already intoxicated. Reportedly, students stripped naked, overturned furniture and smashed glasses. A clash broke out in the ferry bar between between students from the rival schools. P&O staff on the ferry moved non-student passengers out of harm’s way to an exclusive lounge, to keep them safe from the rampaging,, drunken and occasionally naked students.

The students may be flying home. P&O has cancelled their return trip tickets and banned them from their ferries.

Drunken students run amok naked on cross-Channel ferry en route to ski resort and are banned from return trip
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The Kosher Deli Born of a Shipwreck – J.A.Hyman (Titanics) Ltd of Manchester

Posted on by April 9, 2012

This story is so unlikely that it must be true.  When the Collapsible Lifeboat C from the RMS Titanic was picked up by the Carpathia, of the 41 aboard, there were two very different men, though their names, by virtue of alphabetization are adjacent to each other on the list of survivors –  Joseph Abraham Hyman, 34, a third class passenger, and Joseph Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, traveling in first class.  Despite their difference in social standing, both reportedly help row the lifeboat.

The sinking of the Titanic ruined Ismay.  Joseph Hyman did somewhat better. He was traveling to visit his brother in in New Jersey to start a new life.  His family stayed behind in England and planned on joining him once he was established.  After arriving in America, however, Joseph Hyman decided to return to Britain. (It is said, understandably, that he required a sizable quantity of alcohol before he could bring himself to board another ship.)  On his return, he decided to set up a kosher delicatessen like the ones that he had seen in New York.  And that is exactly what he did. In 1913 he established J.A.Hyman – Kosher Butcher and Deli in Manchester, England.

Of course, it was never known as J.A.Hyman’s.  It was always called by its customers, Titanics.
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