new thread
In honor of Titanic 4/15/1912-4/15/2012 here is a 1;600 scale wreck site I built back in 2006.
That was really nice of you to do something to mark this event which must have been the most terrrible thing for those innocent people 100 years ago. All needless and all about money really. White Star Line was trying to stay ahead of win over its closest competitor. They used inferior rivets. The man steering the Titanic who saw the Iceburg WOULD have missed it in plenty of time, but because he also worked for the other rival company, both steering systems work opposite. In a panic he turned the wheel the wrong way. 10 minutes later he realized what he had done and reversed direction but it was too late and thus the ship grazed the Iceburg. I have to wonder that if they had "not" cut corners and used inferior rivets that perhaps the liner somehow could have made it? (Naturally of course planned on enough Life Boats.) Also not in such a rush to beat records crossing the Atlantic. Again, all because of money and who would end up the richest and most powerful company and run the "Ocean Line World." Look at where the greed for money has landed the world of today.
Justin~
This was my video tribute
Quite the tribute, Justin.....perfect selection of music.
Thanks for Sharing
Walter
Hi Walter and glad you liked the tribute. Hope all has been well with you. I am nearing the end of composing the final 6 "Madrigal Sonatas" (of which 18 were composed back in 1995) to raise the total to 24 in all. Apparently the publisher wants to put all in one big book. And to think, all of this came about because of a professor connected with Harvard who lives in Cambridge discovering so many of my now out-of-print pieces.(The publishers here went under.) This is the 1st time in my life that I have known of interest in my music in the US. (All of the interested has always been in France, Germany and the Netherlands it seems where I am still being performed.)
Hope you are having a nice week Walter. :-)
Justin~
Much of what you say is true, in addition to money I think there
was the issue of arrogance of man over nature. To paraphrase an
old commercial its not nice to fool with Mother Nature.
Also I question the bit about the steering as none of the
histories, memroires (sp?) etc. that I have read mention that.
Hi
I can remember when this first came to light recently and read it in several newspapers. Just looked it up on the Internet and here is just a little for whatever it is worth:
LONDON | Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:50am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - The Titanic hit an iceberg in 1912 because of a basic steering error, and only sank as fast as it did because an official persuaded the captain to continue sailing, an author said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Louise Patten, a writer and granddaughter of Titanic second officer Charles Lightoller, said the truth about what happened nearly 100 years ago had been hidden for fear of tarnishing the reputation of her grandfather, who later became a war hero.
Lightoller, the most senior officer to have survived the disaster, covered up the error in two inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic because he was worried it would bankrupt the ill-fated liner's owners and put his colleagues out of a job.
"They could easily have avoided the iceberg if it wasn't for the blunder," Patten told the Daily Telegraph.
"Instead of steering Titanic safely round to the left of the iceberg, once it had been spotted dead ahead, the steersman, Robert Hitchins, had panicked and turned it the wrong way."
Patten, who made the revelations to coincide with the publication of her new novel "Good as Gold" into which her account of events are woven, said that the conversion from sail ships to steam meant there were two different steering systems.
Crucially, one system meant turning the wheel one way and the other in completely the opposite direction.
Well, for whatever it is worth but you may want to read more in-depth about this recent finding. Can one really believe all they read? No. But this is all we have to go on including many other things about the Titanic. All the best-
Justin~
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I am impressed by the intricate detail. It must have taken a lot of research to get everything just right.
Scott