One hundred and two years ago today, a big ol' ship hit a much bigger ice cube

[MrScorpio]

[onehandle]

1. A few years back we took a Transatlantic cruise. We were about 40 miles south of the boat...

...when they noted this over the loudspeakers.

The ocean liner we were on was about five times the volume of the Titanic.

The Titanic is tiny by today's standards.

[kwassa]

2. we sang this song as children.

(the irony is that it has quite a cheerful melody.)


Oh, they built the ship Titanic
To sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship
That the water would never go through;
But the Lord's almighty hand,
Said that ship would never land.
It was sad when that great ship went down.

It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.

They were off for England
And not very far from shore,
When the rich refused
To associate with the poor;
So they sent them down below,
Where they'd be the first to go.
It was sad when that great ship went down.

It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.

The boat was about to sink,
And the sides about to burst,
When the captain shouted,
"All women and children first!."
Oh, the captain tried to wire,
But the wire was on fire.
It was sad when the great ship went down.

It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.

Oh, they swung the lifeboats out
O'er the deep and ragin' sea,
When the band struck up with
"Nearer My God to Thee."
Little children wept and cried,
As the waves swept o'er the side.
It was sad when the great ship went down.

It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.

[lastlib]

3. I remember that...!

(We re-wrote the chorus:
"Uncles and aunts, many children lost their pants,
It was sad when the great ship went down! Glug, glug, gurgle, gurgle, aaaah!!)

[Brigid]

4. Girl Scout camp.

[KamaAina]

5. How long ago was it

that Celine Dion sang that gawdawful song about it?

[nomorenomore08]

9. 17 years ago. Yet it seems to have tormented radio listeners for so much longer than that.

[rug]

6. The last survivor died five years ago.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/31030935/ns/world_news-europe/t/last-survivor-titanic-dies-aged/

[nirvana555]

7. I was wondering if any survivors were still alive today. I'm unusually interested

in the whole Titantic story. Even as a child I was reading about the story in the encyclopedia (back in those days that's all we had). I also LOVED the movie. And I'm not even embarrassed to admit that (and I'm a classic rock and roller girl) I love the song... What can I say....I must be a reincarnated spirit who perished that night.

[Archae]

8. My Mom still has a 3rd-class boarding pass.

My great-grandfather and my grandmother (Dad's side) had booked passage in steerage, (that's where cruise ships actually made money back in those days, hauling immigrants,) but due to a bureaucratic mixup they were delayed and missed the boat.

Sailed on the next one out.

[edbermac]

10. The Titanic was not sunk by an iceberg.

Check this article published a month after the sinking. I first read these comments by Dr Parkhurst in a book called Titanic: End of a Dream by Wyn Craig Wade. They start at the bottom of page 1.

"The picture which presents itself before my eyes is that of the glassy, glaring eyes of the victims, staring meaninglessly at the gilded furnishings of this sunken palace of the sea; dead helplessness wrapt in priceless luxury…Everything for existence, nothing for life. Grand men, charming women, beautiful babies, all becoming horrible in the midst of the glittering splendor of a $10,000,000 casket!”

And then he had more to say regarding the 1912 version of the 1 percenters.

http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/TITANIC_SINKING_AND_THE_WILL_GOD_pdf

Wow, things have certainly changed in 100 years, haven't they?