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Don't read this!!!!!!? |
At 11:40 P.M. Sunday, April 14, 1912, an iceberg was melting. The iceberg was clear and hard to see. It reflected the night sky. It was small. Not big enough to even touch the bridge of the ship. Six ice warnings were received that day. All of which were ignored. The wireless operator was preoccupied with transmitting passenger messages. The ship was traveling 22.5 knots while cruising the iceberg filled water. That鈥檚 just .5 knots away from its maximum speed. (24 knots=28 miles per hour) As they neared this iceberg, the unsinkable ship鈥檚 chaos began. The largest most luxurious ship afloat was the Titanic. It took two years to build and three thousand men to build it. This wasn鈥檛 your ordinary ship. It had the first heated pool to be in a ship, a squash court, Turkish bath, and gymnasium with rowing machines and stationary bikes. Engines the size of a three story house powered it. The Titanic cost about seven million five hundred thousand dollars to build. That鈥檚 one hundred twenty three million dollars today. Lord Pirrie and J. Bruce Ismay came up with the idea to make the ship. Lord Pirrie did the overall design while Alexander Carlis was in charge of the details. The ship was owned by White Star Line. The Titanic sailed from England and supposed to get to New York City. The ship weighed fifty three thousand tons. It was eight hundred eighty two feet long and ninety-two feet wide. It had eight hundred ninety crewmembers. Twenty-three were women. Women were stewardesses, cashiers, masseuse, and bath attendants. Twenty out of the twenty-three women on the crew survived. People were divided into social classes according to their background, wealth, and education. The bottom layer of the Titanic was for manual workers. The next layer was for the third class passengers. Many of these were from other countries hoping to start a new life in America. The second layer was for teachers, merchants, and professionals. The top layer was for first class. These were rich and aristocratic. Many famous people were aboard the Titanic. After all, elegance was the word for the Titanic鈥檚 interior. Lavish in its d茅cor, menus, and entertainment. It surpassed the highest expectations from its passengers. Not only was it the biggest, it was sleek, fast and considered unsinkable. Every proven safety feature and several new ones were put into its construction. So it鈥檚 no doubt why rich were aboard. The richest was considered Colonel JJ Astor whose great grandfather was the wealthiest American prior to the Civil War. Molly Brown whose husband struck rich mining silver and Mister and Misses Straus co-owned Macy鈥檚 department store are just a few. The titanic set off at 1:55 P.M. on April 10, 1912 from England not knowing that on April 14, 1912 near midnight the catastrophic nightmare would start. The small, clear iceberg was spotted at 11:39 P.M. by Fred Fleet who was on watch in the crow鈥檚 nest too late to avoid hitting it. Crew was not worried, because they didn鈥檛 think such a small iceberg could do much damage. After all, the ship was unsinkable. The iceberg indented the ship and made a 220-245 feet hole. The ship had sixteen watertight compartments. They ship could float if four compartments flooded. Five did. Many passengers didn鈥檛 know they hit anything. Captain Smith and Thomas Andrew, ship鈥檚 builder, went to inspect the damage. The mailroom and two of the boiler rooms were filling up with water. They knew the ship would sink. The radio room was ordered to send a distress call. Stewards told people to put lifejackets on. At midnight, the lifeboats were uncovered. A number of ships responded to the distress call, but all were too far away. Even an hour after the crash, people didn鈥檛 realize the seriousness of the situation. Captain Smith ordered at 12:30 to fill lifeboats. The Titanic only carried the law, which was sixteen lifeboats, because the ship was unsinkable. They thought it took away from the elegance. There were enough lifeboats for half the people. At 12:45 the first lifeboat was lowered. Women and children were first to get on. It could carry about sixty-four people when only twenty-eight got on. While as this was happening, the third class was locked under deck. Gates were locked to keep them from entering first and second-class areas. Crews weren鈥檛 ordered to open gates until all lifeboats were gone. After all the lifeboats were gone at 2:05, one thousand five hundred people were still on the sinking ship. Four hundred seventy-two seats were not used on the lifeboats. The biggest cause of death was the freezing temperature of the water. Charles Joughin was the only one to survive in the water. He reportedly had been drinking heavily. As the titanic slid into the water, hundreds of cries could be heard. It was not until dawn that the Carpathia came to rescue those in lifeboats. Out of about two thousand three hundred fifty people, eight hundred sixty-eight were survivors. One thousand four hundred ninety died on the Titanic. Most were rich, famous, or wanting to start over. Many gave up lifeboat seats for others, cradled the dead, and helped the broken. Such a bad time brought out the good in people. Such a catastrophe will never be forgotten. It was a time of sorrow and a lesson that nothing is impossible. I read that entire thing, and you didn't blame BUSH??!!! Uh-oh - you will be banished! EVERYTHING is GWB's fault. So what's the question? We already know that. A pretty good history of the Titanic except 2 things---the reason the speed was so high was that they were trying to set the record for crossing the Atlantic and there was also a fire on board ship--it was in the coal storage. Yes, and it was time to bring out the lettuce and tomato's for dinner, life is hard in Kansas but we learn to cope Thanks so much for the extremely depressing history lesson!!! Yes in some ways this tragic event made possible many of the wonderful human qualities to shine. Greed, corruption & ignorance is what caused the tragedy in the first place. Although "remembered" nothing has improved in human beings overall, in fact its only gotten worse since then! And yes..... What's your question!?...... or point!? |
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