This week marks the 100th anniversary of the HMS Titanic's maiden, and last, voyage. She hit an iceberg and sank in the early morning of April 15th, 1912, around 2:30 in the morning. Since then, there have been numerous books, movies, poems, magazines, artwork, et cetera regarding her doomed voyage. Very few other disasters have caught the public's imagination, or have lasted as long in her collective memory. Most others that have have been natural disasters - volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and so forth. Titanic was different. She was a man made creation, created to exemplify the elegance of the Edwardian age. People had been crossing the oceans for centuries, but never like this. Never in such style and comfort. Even third class (despite what the movies may show) was relatively comfortable and had meals that were relatively better than what they had known before.
Titanic was something that had never been seen before, and indeed would never be seen again. Perhaps it was fate, then, that sealed her as she sailed away into the Atlantic. The people at White Star Line boasted that God Himself could not sink this ship. To make such a boast is to invite disaster. Pride goeth before a fall, after all.
My own fascination with the Titanic began when I was young. I got into history at an early age, and disasters held a particular hold on my interest. I don't know when I learned about the Titanic exactly, but for years I've read everything I could get my hands on, watched every documentary that was on television, studied the diagrams of the ship, and watched some of the movies that were created, such as James Cameron's "Titanic" and "A Night to Remember". There are countless more out there for me to read and watch.
I don't know why it holds my interest so much. After all, there are countless other events that are more tragic and more horrific. Maybe it has to do with the fact that this could have been avoided. If the Captain hadn't been pressured to increase the speed of the vessel; if they had taken a different route, one that took them more south to avoid icebergs; if they had heeded the messages that warned them of the danger ahead...
Or even if the accident wasn't avoidable, the loss of life was. They purposefully chose to put less lifeboats on board, as the thinking went that if they had the required number of lifeboats on deck, it would remind the passengers of the possibility of sinking. The last thing they wanted was to make their passengers uncomfortable. That line of thinking baffles me, to be honest. But they were convinced that if the unthinkable did happen, the water tanks would hold however much water came in, and the ship would stay afloat.
If anything, however, Titanic's sinking brought about radical new codes, rules and regulations for ships in the future. Never again would ships be allowed to skimp on lifeboats due to "passenger discomfort." It never fails, for things to improve there must be a corresponding disaster to show the flaws. The Chicago fire brought about new building codes for cities; the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in NYC brought about new workers rights and standards for factories; the Hartford Circus fire brought about new regulations for recreational facilities and events. And so on.
The Titanic, since being found in 1985 by Robert Ballard, there has been renewed interest, study and fascination in her story and the stories of the victims and survivors. People have visited the wreckage and learned much that wasn't known before (for instance, before 1985 we assumed the ship went down in one piece; we now know that the water pressure forced the ship to break in two either right before it went under or as it was sinking). The pictures that have been taken of her on the ocean floor are mesmerizing. She still retains her elegance and majesty, despite the toil that time has taken on her. Despite the seaweed that has covered her bow. Despite the damage that people themselves have done to her since her discovery.
Since most people had on life jackets, very few actually went down with the ship, but there were some. There are pictures of children's shoes lying on the ocean floor; plates still lined up in perfect rows; chairs in their upright position; even the ship's wheel is in place. Titanic is a memorial and a graveyard. It should be preserved and protected from pirates and from those that, however unwittingly, are doing damage to it. It is no different than the battlegrounds that are hallowed and protected ground across the world.
Due to her tragic fate, Titanic will live on in our memory and history, as a reminder of when man's hubris gets too large, and a reminder of a glided age that came to a halt all too suddenly. It was perhaps a warning of the World War that was to come and completely shatter the Edwardian Age, and the world itself, forever. For me, Titanic is a wonder, a legend and a reality that will always hold my fascination. I cannot fully explain why, but she does. If anything, she helped my interest in history grow into what it is today.
Nonetheless, this April the 15th, I will be remembering Titanic in my own way, and I know there are hundreds of others who will do the same. Farewell, Ship of Dreams...
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