99 years ago almost to the minute

[BJ]

The Titanic started going down. I was a kid when Bob Ballard found the wreck, and the ship has fascinated me ever since. It's almost a mythical tragedy, too great to have ever happened. And yet, there it is, 2 miles below the Atlantic, rusting away.



Anyway, if the Titanic doesn't interest you, some other cool stuff happened today.

30 years ago, John Young (possibly the awesomest of all astronauts) landed the space shuttle after its first launch.

The crew of Apollo 13 stirred the Oxygen tanks.

Abe Lincoln was shot.

The Donner party left on their journey.

[solgroupie]

i'm a huge fan of titanic. and let me make it clear that i was BEFORE james cameron got a hold of the story. pigeon forge is not that far from where i live, so i went to the titanic museum last summer, just a couple of months after it opened. i was with my brother-in-law and my two nephews, who were not as into it as i was, so i didn't get to spend as much time as i would have liked looking at every single item (it's about a two hour self guided tour). but what i saw was fascinating.

i wasn't sure about it at first, because from the looks of the website, it looked like it was going to be extremely touristy. but it was very well done and respectful. it had an exact replica of the grand staircase, and one of the artifacts it had was a small square of carpet that came from the first class dining room (valued at something like $30,000 or more) as well as a mangled deck chair and the life jacket that i am pretty sure was worn by madeleine astor (i remember seeing the jacket, but was unable to get close enough to really get a good look). they also had water that was the same temperature of the ocean the night of the sinking, and touching it took our breath away. it was like putting your hand in a pile of razors.

i love reading about the titanic and i can never pass up the docs they show on the discovery channel, even though i've seen them half a dozen times.

[BJ]

That sounds really cool, and I'd totally forgotten about that museum. A number of years ago, I got to see a traveling Titanic exhibit at the St. Louis science center. They had a number of artifacts recovered by a Russian group, and it was very interesting. At first, I was hesitant to go at all, as Ballard had been against any excavation as it's technically a maritime grave. Even if it was for greed, I'm glad they brought the stuff up though. Just seeing a piece of coal from the ship is awe inspiring. There's a similar thing going around now called Real Pirates, about the recovery of the Whydah. It might have been even better, just for making me realize how little I'd previously known about pirates.

I'm the same way about the history/discovery documentaries. What's funny is that when you've watched enough of them, you actually recognize the footage. "Ooh, this is good. This is where Jason Jr ties to open the safe..." It's funny.

Oh, and I start wearing a wetsuit when the ocean drops below 70. I'd have lasted about 5 seconds that night.

[solgroupie]

it really it amazing to see something that actually came from titanic, though i know what you mean about being hesitant about it, considering the circumstances. i, too, thought it seemed extremely disrespectful to rummage through the wreckage so someone can get rich off people like me who would pay the price to see the artifacts close up. yet, i would have gone to the same exhibit you did if it had come close enough to where i live.

the photos father frank browne took while on board the titanic (he disembarked at cherbourg, i believe) were also on display at the museum. they were enormous and gorgeous.

here's one of a group of second class passengers


and this one is very well known - six year old robert douglas, spinning a top as his father, frederick, watches. i got this image on a postcard from the museum i put in a frame -


there was also a replica of a first class sitting room, behind velvet rope. it was unbelievable - the carpet looked like it would swallow your feet up to your ankles and everything was velvet, heavy tapestry, silks and crystal. even the servants had their own sitting rooms, though they weren't quite as grand as the one on display. yet third class had TWO bathtubs they ALL had to share.

i know - when i see a titanic doc coming on, i can figure out exactly which one it is within seconds. i do like the ones on the recovery of titanic, but mostly i prefer watching the ones on the actual story of it - i'm more interested in the stories of passengers and crew than the technical strengths and weaknesses of the ship.

here is an excellent website that lists the complete lists of both passengers and crew aboard titanic. you can click on each name to learn where they came from, and if there was any information available, their story. the list of survivors is of course very interesting, because there are sometimes pictures, letters they wrote after the disaster and telegrams to family letting them know they survived. they also tell (if it was known) what their lives were like after the sinking. some never spoke of it, some did the vaudeville circuit and told their stories for a price.

one survivor could never attend professional baseball games again after titanic, because he said the roar of the crowd sounded exactly like the cries of the people struggling to stay alive in the water after the ship went down.

[Skyroniter]

I remember listening to stories about it on the old Zenith as the great ship went down. We were so shocked. I always thought Kaiser Wilhelm II had it sunk. In fact I'm sure it was the unofficial start to WW1. Spent two years in the trenches myself and still feeling the effects of the mustard gas.

[Crowfan]

Apr 14, 2011 21:41:38 GMT -5 BJ said:

The Titanic started going down. I was a kid when Bob Ballard found the wreck, and the ship has fascinated me ever since. It's almost a mythical tragedy, too great to have ever happened. And yet, there it is, 2 miles below the Atlantic, rusting away.



Anyway, if the Titanic doesn't interest you, some other cool stuff happened today.

30 years ago, John Young (possibly the awesomest of all astronauts) landed the space shuttle after its first launch.

The crew of Apollo 13 stirred the Oxygen tanks.

Abe Lincoln was shot.

The Donner party left on their journey.

Lincoln was shot the night of the 14th, he died the following morning, April 15 at 7:22am.

[BJ]

Apr 15, 2011 17:11:12 GMT -5 Crowfan said:

Lincoln was shot the night of the 14th, he died the following morning, April 15 at 7:22am.

And?

[Crowfan]

Death and taxes.

[BJ]

Now I'm more confused. Maybe I posted this in Sloane on accident.

[solgroupie]

heard this announced yesterday -

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- In the words of Bill Pullman to Old Rose, "Are you ready to go back to Titanic?" ABC is producing a four-part miniseries on the ship that went down after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. This one won't have the characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in the movie, but it'll have plenty of other stories to follow. The miniseries will mark the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the ship. Production starts next month in Budapest, Hungary.

********************************

though i appreciate the interest and awareness the cameron movie generated, i wish there could be more stories concerning titanic that didn't feel the need to reference jack and rose. jack! jack! JACK! rose! rose? rose! run, rose! swim, rose! sorry. flashback. anyway, i am really looking forward to this. the stories i want to experience have nothing to do with fictional characters.

[BJ]

Sounds like it could be good. Maybe with less money to play with in a television format, they'll have to be creative and have a good script. I never understood the popularity of the Cameron film at the time, and now it's just baffling. The effects were so good. They had solid actors and a seasoned director, and yet the film was so unbelievably poor.

It reminds me of my disappointment at Pearl Harbor. I still remember seeing the original teaser at the theater, basically just FDR's speech with zeros coming over Oahu. I thought it was going to be great, but boy was I wrong. 10 years later, and I still haven't seen the whole movie.

[Frameous]

Bill Paxton, not Pullman. I'm sure they both get that all the time.

[solgroupie]

i didn't even notice that. i bet that pisses paxton off.

[BJ]

I intentionally get their names wrong so often, I didn't even notice that.

Paxton or Pullman

[Frameous]

I've never had a problem, but have seen many who do. I've always been a huge Paxton fan, so that helps. I've also been told I have a knack when it comes to names in Hollywood.