Day Tripping: April 14

This is not a love story

Tragic Loss of Infamy

At 11:40 pm in 1912, the maiden voyage and last of the RMS Titanic came to an abrupt and disastrous end off the coast of Newfoundland. Boasted as unsinkable, the greatest ship ever built for the times was only hours away from its destination at New York harbour when the unthinkable occurred.

Striking an iceberg in the middle of the night, the catastrophe that was the Titanic sinking caused a tsunami of historical changes in safety measures for future travellers. The event has since served also as a testament to the treatment of passengers by the measure of their social standing and the hubris of humankind’s technological prowess.

Long before Hollywood turned this tragic event into a love story, the RMS Titanic was seen as the pinnacle of human achievement in sea travel.

The ship was thought unsinkable by virtue of its massive compartments at sea level separated by thick bulkheads. It was believed that if one compartment was breached, the others would remain intact and keep the vessel afloat.

When the Titanic met the iceberg that night, the force of contact ripped a gaping hole through five of its bellows and from that moment, the ship was doomed. A lack of preparedness for the eventuality of trouble at sea made matters much worse.

Though Captain Edward Smith gallantly went down with his ship, as did the band who famously played on as the superstructure submerged, the further loss of life stirred an uproar of outrage around the world.

Titanic was capable of carrying up to 64 wooden lifeboats which would have accommodated about 4000 passengers. Instead, the White Star Line executives who operated the ship, insisted on only fitting out 20 boats in total, sixteen wooden boats and four inflatables. The capacity of 1,700 only accounted for one-third of the souls aboard the Titanic.

This tragedy was further exacerbated by the manner in which victims were collected and cared for. The class system was very much evident when rescue ships arrived to take the deceased and few passengers that were still alive. Only first-class passengers were transported to New York, while third-class victims and crew were sent to Halifax or St. John’s, Newfoundland for processing.

The Titanic was designed with much fanfare and was touted as the new ‘state of the art’ in sea voyaging. The opulence displayed in photographs of the famous grand staircase, densely ornate dining rooms, and staterooms befitting some of the world’s wealthiest people, heightened the expectation that this ocean liner would usher in a new era of travel abroad.

Everything about this grand vessel voiced a feeling of future wealth for the shipping company, and everyone lucky enough to sail with her. But, when Titanic disappeared to the ocean floor in a mere two hours, questions of competence and safety swiftly arose.

Stranger still, is when the ship was completed with the millions of man hours of Irish shipbuilders, not one fatality occurred. For 1912, this was a remarkable achievement. In fact, the lone death happened on the day when the fitted ship left the dry dock in Belfast Harbour. A worker who was perched on the precipice of the stories-high dry dock fell to his death into the great hole left by the great ship as it slipped out to sea.

By today’s standards, RMS Titanic was relatively small. For the time it was constructed, it was a mammoth undertaking. There are three museums dedicated to the Titanic I’ve had the privilege to visit. Belfast, Ireland, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John’s, Newfoundland all offer outstanding displays of this catastrophic event. Each of them is worthy of viewing for their unique perspectives on the tragedy that was The Titanic.

Musical Milestones

Once again, the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Shame’ is the subject of music’s ire. English band Dire Straits is inducted in 2018 on its first year of eligibility but bandleader and guitarist Mark Knopfler doesn’t show up for the ceremony. Neither does his bandmate and brother, David, so nobody inducts them and the band doesn’t play a set.

Even worse, The Moody Blues are inducted on the same day, 29 YEARS after their first year of eligibility. WTF?

Time to blow up the whole concept.

Narratives

Murders In The Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe, considered to be the first detective novel is published in 1841.

On the same day in 1939, John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes Of Wrath is also published.

Remembrance

The voice of Sam the snowman from the animated Rudolf The Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas show, Burl Ives passed away in 1995.

Songwriter of classic Motown hits like When A Man Loves A Woman, Percy Sledge died in 2015.

Notable Births

1925 — One of the original proponents of ‘the method’ acting philosophy, Rod Steiger won an Oscar for In The Heat Of The Night.

1936 — Made famous in the movie about his life, Frank Serpico was a New York policeman who blew the whistle on corruption in the force.

1941—With or without the Hall of Fame induction, Pete Rose will always be remembered as Charlie Hustle on the baseball diamond.

1945 — One of the most underrated guitar greats of the classic rock era, Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple fame.

K. Barrett Katie Wallace Maria Rattray Maryam Merchant Dr Mehmet Yildiz Tree Langdon Myriam Ben Salem Phil Truman Chelsea Mandler MAT Terry Mansfield Hollie Petit, PhD. Terry Trueman Dr Preeti Singh John Gruber Bill Abbate James G Brennan ScienceDuuude Marcus Liam Ireland Claire Kelly Noorain Hassan, BMS Amy Pierovich David Acaster Nora

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