Almost 100 years ago Titanic struck that iceberg tonight

James Cameron also dabbles with that kinda stuff as a side interest of his-not just Titanic. Wasnt Cussler the one who had it where they raised that sunken Confederate Sub some years back?

 

Personally, id like to see more done on the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the USS Leopoldville, The Edmond Fitzgerald, and something in English about the Wilhelm Gustloff.

 

The Clive Cussler book Night Probe deals with the sinking of the Empress of Ireland in the Saint Lawrence seaway in 1914. The ship sank in 15 minutes, taking with it a thousand souls. This and Raise the Titanic are Clive’s two best books. Night Probe blurs the edge between reality and fiction so well that it’s hard to tell, sometimes, where one ends and the other begins. To give you an insight into some characters in the book, Google Pierre and Maggie Trudeaux before reading the book and you will have a rip snorting time reading the book.

This is going way off topic, but it’s interesting nonetheless. When researching the book, Clive had an opportunity to dig into a real life mystery, and he uncovered a real life fraud. One of the characters in the book is a ghost of a train that goes over a trestle into a river. He wrote about the real life event in the book, the train going into the river, and never found. .

In research phase, he found out that the Hudson River authority was going to stop the river for three days. Clive assembled a thousand volunteers who dug in the mud under the trestle. While they uncovered a few small pieces, there was no steam locomotive, no tender, and no train cars.

Back to research. While digging into books he found that the railroad had been paid by the insurance company for the train, then the railroad quietly salvaged the train from under the river and put it back in service.

 

If memory serves, there's a 1980's TV movie about the Indianapolis. The Fitzgerald only became famous (out of the great lakes region) because of the great song. I think the History Channel and/or National Geographic did a special on the ship. There's a really boring movie about the sinking of the Britannic.

There is an excellent PBS documentary on the sinking of the Bismack and Hood and the expedition to find both ships.

 

It was '91, "Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the USS Indianapolis", Stacey Keach was the captain and there were a couple of other moderately famous names as well.

I agree that the "Big Fitz" wouldn't be known outside the Great Lakes area if not for the song, there had been more than a few comparable sinkings, but only the Fitz is commonly known.

But then again, how many in the US know of the SS Eastland sinking in 1915 with almost 850 deaths, and she was sank almost at the dock. Not to mention any of the several international ferry sinkings from years past.

 

The Titanic story is unique in that it has almost every element of a society of a specific time period in one story. I have heard it decried that Shakespere himself could not have written a greater tragedy. Heck, people have linked so many superstitions, heroes, villains, and omens to it, it's almost a biblical type story.

True some of the richest people in the world was one it, and that had a part of the publics interest back then (as people tended to follow the wealthy back then like they still do today on TMZ). However, that alone does not exlain how the story has survived a public fever for 100 years.

For example, the Lusitania had more on an impact historically. It even had some of the richest in the world aboard; Alfred Vanderbilt and Charles Froeman. But that disaster, as fascinating as it is, doesn't compare to Titanic's interest.

There is a pretty good read called "Down with the Old Canoe": A cultural history of the Titanic Disaster" by Steven Bell. It has an interesting idea that Walter Lord's book, A Night To Remember, which came to publish at the peak of the atomic scare, really spoke to people about "the end of an era of innocence" and the start of the era of war and dread which technology brought us (a theory of why it popped up on the bestsellers list so quickly).

 

Your correct, there was a TV movie made about the sinking, its called: Mission of the Shark which had Stacy Keach as Captn McVay (SP?) and Richard Thomas (of John Boy Walton fame from the TV show of the same last name) as his XO. I dont remember the name of the man who played the Japanese Sub Kapitan, but I have seen him on a few things too. I thought it was a pretty good movie and as far as I know, is pretty accurate to actual events. It is also now available on DvD and I plan on getting it sometime. I remember watching it and thought that those Shark attack scenes with the blood spurting here there and everywhere-was pretty powerful of a thing to show on network TV.

I remember when the Fitzgerald sank. I remember staying up late nights listening to the news about it-and I do remember the song very well.

As for that movie on the Brittanic, I saw that one too, but has been so long that I cant remember if I liked it or not? im sure I did like it though. Didnt is have Jacquline Bissett in it?


((((((((Sorry Takao, I had not read own to your post yet before replying on this ;-)))))))))))

 

Back to the Titanic, here is a story about the "unknown baby" buried at Halifax.

Goto:

Titanic's Unknown Child Given New, Final Identity - Yahoo! News

 

First verse and chorus of the song mentioned by Clementine go something like this...

OHHHHH....

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,
Knew this ship would never land,
It was sad when that great ship went down.

It was sad, (It was sad)
It was sad, (Mighty sad),
It was sad when that great ship went down,
Husbands and wives,
Little children lost their lives,
It was sad when that great ship went down


Incidently, a prominent first class passenger, Mrs Noel MacFie, (The Countess of Rothes) told Walter Lord that whilst dining with friends a year after the disaster,..."....she suddenly experienced the awful feeling of cold and intense horror she always associated with the Titanic." Her Ladyship quickly realized that the orchestra was playing a musical piece called "The Tales of Hoffman"....."....the last piece of dinner music played that fateful Sunday night." Does anyone know who the composer is?

One aspect of Cameron's film, and many other Titanic films, is that Bandmaster Wallace Hartley's musicians are depicted playing strictly classical tunes to the passengers waiting to enter lifeboats. Walter Lord, and the survivors themselves, are pretty specific about what kind of music was actually played. They all maintained that the band "Stuck to ragtime", ( for example, Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band") in an attempt to lighten the mood of the passengers. Yet, particularly in Cameron's film, Hartley is depicted as requesting the band to play "Orpheus". This is something I've always wanted to see changed in Titanic films. The band were a brave bunch of fellows and their memory deserves better. The issues of just what piece of music was played by Hartley at the final moments is also covered incorrectly in Cameron's film, with the episcopal piece "Autumn" as the final tune. There is only ONE witness that claims to have heard this, (Marconi Operator Harold Bride), and by all accounts, including his own, he was UNDER WATER at the time of the final tune. The rest of the accounts come down squarely for "Nearer My God to Thee", a hymn that was not only known to be Hartley's favourite, but was also the standard tune played by the Musicians Union of Britain at funerals of departing brothers. As to which version, (Bethany or Horbury), no-one can quite remember.

Wallace Hartley and the members of his band deserve nothing less than accuracy. The tributes to their bravery have long passed into history, so honouring their bravery by getting it right should be paramount. I'm not sure that Camerons' film does feature the last piece of dinner music played on Sunday April 14th as "The Tales of Hoffman". It bloodywell ought to be!

 

I always preferred Harry Chapin's "Dance Band on the Titanic"
YouTube - Harry Chapin sings DANCE BAND on the TITANIC Live

Ahh, if only it was as popular as GL's song about the Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

Somewhere I read (I cannot provide a reference at the moment), that Wallace Hartley stated to someone that he wanted "Nearer My God to Thee" to be played at his funeral. As I cannot even remember the source, I don't put too much weight into it.

I think I remember reading that assistant Marconi operator Harold Bride said he heared "Autumn" being sung. And as the author pointed out "he made a living off his ears".

I always thought it seemed strange to be playing happy music minutes before the boatdeck went under. This was a very religious society, and I would think a many of folks would be starting to "think about their maker" as the panic increased. Therefore, I never eliminate the possibility that NMGTT was played that night.

As historian David Allen Butler stated "It doesn't matter what their last song was. What matters is that they all played to almost the very end and that's what's most important".

 

I just started to think about the film "A Night to Remember". Walter Lord was brought in to assist producer William MacQuitty (MacQuitty saw Titanic's launch as a kid).

Lord is recorded as saying he was very pleased that MacQuitty was really interested in telling the "true story". I wonder if Lord cringed much from the artisic liscense such as the song, the fourth smokestack coming off instead of the first, and soforth.

At least, being a British film it had it's version of NMGTT. That is more hauntingly beautiful that the American version IMHO. I wish that Cameron put that in his film, although I understand why he didn't.

 

Hey nice job. I never do get tired of seeing your artwork.
As for the RMS Titanic and the victims of its sinking, Rest in Peace.