Titanic
I am just intrigued to no end by the Titanic.
I have always been interested in Titanic, but more so as I'm getting into Titanic: The Musical. It really is tied at #1 on my list of best orchestrations by a musical, along with Sweeney Todd. It's a beautiful musical, look into it!
I'm probably so infatuated by it because it's one of my biggest fears...the ocean in general, but then specifically being in a ship that capsizes or crashes in the ocea, and even more specifically a big mofo of a ship like Titanic.
Ughy Bughy...it just makes my skin crawl! My mom and dad said they're going on a cruise sometime and they said, "Hey, we'll just bring the whole family with" and I said I don't think I can go. Those cruise ships are HUGE, and if they start sinking or crashing or some shit, aaahhh, I just can't imagine. I know I'd be very calm and trying to find a way to survive, because I don't panic under pressure, but no way would I want to be near that ship and it gets sucked into the depths of the sea, and no way do I want to be floating in the ocean until, hopefully, someone comes to rescue me. It goes along with being terrified of whales and sharks. Anyhow, if they actually did want all of us to come on a cruise with them I'm sure I'd do it, but I don't think I'd be comfortable at all the entire trip.
So, enough tangent, the Titanic. It just fascinates me, but it pisses me off too.
Why didn't they just pack enough damn life boats?! They had the amount they had ot have under law for the largest ship they had under this law, but Titanic was so much bigger that they law didn't fit them, so Titanic just went by the rules for the largest ship under those rules. Also, back then, people equated life boats with the company somehow admitting that the ship wasn't as safe. (Did you know the same thing happened with cars and seatbelts? Companies didn't want to put seat belts in because somehow that would mean they were admitting their car wasn't as safe).
Besides not having NEAR enough lifeboats, it's something like not even enough for half the people, they didn't fill the first couple sets of lifeboats to the maximum anyway. One side was run by, I forget his name, but he took the rule "Women and Children First" literally and did not let anyone but the men to run the boat and women and children on and he couldn't fill the boats, so he just let them go. Many life boats went out not even close to capacity.
Why couldn't Mr. Andrews have seen his faults in his design of the Titanic and fixed them before Titanic set sail. "The bulkheads stop a deck to low" as he says in "Mr. Andrew's Vision" from Titanic: the Musical. Just read the lyrics to this song, it's amazing lyrics and then you should hear the music and the singing by Michael Cerveris:
Mr. Andrew's Vision
JUST A CURSORY LOOK AT THE BLUEPRINTS HERE
SHOWS THE WEAKNESSES THAT WE HAVE MISSED
HOW THE WATER POURED IN
A THREE-HUNDRED-FOOT GASH
AND CAUSED THE BOW TO FLOOD AND TO LIST
AND THEN IT FILLED TO THE TOP
OUR SEPARATE WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS
AND BEGAN TO OVERFLOW...
BECAUSE THE WALLS IN-BETWEEN COMPARTMENTS
ARE TOO LOW!
SHE'S ONLY SINKING BECAUSE THESE BULKHEADS
STOP A DECK TOO LOW!
BUT HERE'S A THOUGHT! TAKE A LINE...
AND EXTEND UP THE WALLS TO THE BRINK...
IT'S JUST A SMALL REDESIGN...
BUT WHEN IT'S DONE, THEN I KNOW SHE CAN'T SINK!
LIKE THIS...LIKE THIS!...
(wildly erasing and redrawing lines on the blueprints)
LIKE THIS!...AND THEN LIKE THIS!...
THE SHIP WILL START TO PLUNGE BENEATH THE SURFACE
THE WATER LAPPING AT OUR FEET
DOWN SINKS THE BOW, UP FLIES THE STERN
TO THE SKY...
THE PANICKED PEOPLE RETREAT
A THOUSAND STRONG, THEY'LL CLIMB UP
TOWARD THE AFT DECK
THEY'LL CLING THERE DESPERATELY
LIKE BEES TO A HIVE!
THERE THEY'LL HOLD FAST
DOOMED TO THE LAST
LOST AND ABANDONED AND ALL
STILL ALIVE
A FEW OF THEM WILL HANG THERE
FROM THE RAILINGS
AS, ONE BY ONE, THEY'LL DROP AWAY!
MORE THAN TWO-HUNDRED-FIFTY FEET
THEY WILL FALL
AND AFTER THAT, I CANNOT SAY
I WILL NOT SAY...
THE REST, IN SWARMS, WILL OVERRUN THE BOAT DECK
THEY'LL LOSE ALL SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG
IT WILL BE "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF" ALL RIGHT!
THE WEAK THROWN IN WITH ALL THE STRONG!
FIRST CLASS, AND THIRD AND SECOND
WILL MEAN NOTHING!
AND SHEER HUMANITY ALONE WILL PREVAIL
ONE SINGLE CLASS
BRUTE, HARSH AND CRASS
THAT'S WHAT WILL COME OF THE WORLD THAT SET SAIL
AUTUMN...
SHALL WE ALL MEET IN THE AUTUMN?...
SHALL WE ALL MEET IN THE AUTUMN?...
It's an amazing song that gives you chills!
Why didn't they take the warnings of icebergs ahead more seriously? They got numerous warnings in and it is said that they change a little bit of a course but it was done by Captain Smith so they could get more of a direct shot to NYC, their final destination. More warnings came in throughout the night but the guys running the telegraph had gone to bed and didn't get the rest of the warnings and of all the warnings they did get half of them were never sent up to the captain because they were being flooded with personal messages from shore to all of the guests and running a telegraph up to the captain would take too much time and take them away from the other messages so they set them aside for a better time to leave their stations.
It was an odd night in that there was no moon and the crow's nest could barely see anything and by the time the iceberg was upon them there was nothing they could do. It is said to raise 6 to 7 stories high in the air and plunge 50 stories down into the ocean.
As Mr. Andrews says in "The Blame" from Titanic: the Musical -- "Ismay, I'm just in the business of building, it's God who sinks ships!..."
It was destined to happen, so many things going wrong, yet so many ways it could have been prevented. It just happened to strike the ship at the right place at the right speed and the right angle and just took the great ship Titanic down.
It's amazing and amazingly sad...
There are three survivors left, 2 in the UK and 1 in the US.
If you type in Titanic in google you'll get some good sites with some good information on them.
The Titanic took off on April 10, 1912, struck the iceberg at 11.40 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 1912 and sank 2 hours, 40 minutes later at 2.20 a.m. the next day.
There is so much to say about the Titanic I know I'm leaving out A LOT...but my favorite site is RMS Titanic, Inc. then click on FAQ and read away...
I have always been interested in Titanic, but more so as I'm getting into Titanic: The Musical. It really is tied at #1 on my list of best orchestrations by a musical, along with Sweeney Todd. It's a beautiful musical, look into it!
I'm probably so infatuated by it because it's one of my biggest fears...the ocean in general, but then specifically being in a ship that capsizes or crashes in the ocea, and even more specifically a big mofo of a ship like Titanic.
Ughy Bughy...it just makes my skin crawl! My mom and dad said they're going on a cruise sometime and they said, "Hey, we'll just bring the whole family with" and I said I don't think I can go. Those cruise ships are HUGE, and if they start sinking or crashing or some shit, aaahhh, I just can't imagine. I know I'd be very calm and trying to find a way to survive, because I don't panic under pressure, but no way would I want to be near that ship and it gets sucked into the depths of the sea, and no way do I want to be floating in the ocean until, hopefully, someone comes to rescue me. It goes along with being terrified of whales and sharks. Anyhow, if they actually did want all of us to come on a cruise with them I'm sure I'd do it, but I don't think I'd be comfortable at all the entire trip.
So, enough tangent, the Titanic. It just fascinates me, but it pisses me off too.
Why didn't they just pack enough damn life boats?! They had the amount they had ot have under law for the largest ship they had under this law, but Titanic was so much bigger that they law didn't fit them, so Titanic just went by the rules for the largest ship under those rules. Also, back then, people equated life boats with the company somehow admitting that the ship wasn't as safe. (Did you know the same thing happened with cars and seatbelts? Companies didn't want to put seat belts in because somehow that would mean they were admitting their car wasn't as safe).
Besides not having NEAR enough lifeboats, it's something like not even enough for half the people, they didn't fill the first couple sets of lifeboats to the maximum anyway. One side was run by, I forget his name, but he took the rule "Women and Children First" literally and did not let anyone but the men to run the boat and women and children on and he couldn't fill the boats, so he just let them go. Many life boats went out not even close to capacity.
Why couldn't Mr. Andrews have seen his faults in his design of the Titanic and fixed them before Titanic set sail. "The bulkheads stop a deck to low" as he says in "Mr. Andrew's Vision" from Titanic: the Musical. Just read the lyrics to this song, it's amazing lyrics and then you should hear the music and the singing by Michael Cerveris:
Mr. Andrew's Vision
JUST A CURSORY LOOK AT THE BLUEPRINTS HERE
SHOWS THE WEAKNESSES THAT WE HAVE MISSED
HOW THE WATER POURED IN
A THREE-HUNDRED-FOOT GASH
AND CAUSED THE BOW TO FLOOD AND TO LIST
AND THEN IT FILLED TO THE TOP
OUR SEPARATE WATERTIGHT COMPARTMENTS
AND BEGAN TO OVERFLOW...
BECAUSE THE WALLS IN-BETWEEN COMPARTMENTS
ARE TOO LOW!
SHE'S ONLY SINKING BECAUSE THESE BULKHEADS
STOP A DECK TOO LOW!
BUT HERE'S A THOUGHT! TAKE A LINE...
AND EXTEND UP THE WALLS TO THE BRINK...
IT'S JUST A SMALL REDESIGN...
BUT WHEN IT'S DONE, THEN I KNOW SHE CAN'T SINK!
LIKE THIS...LIKE THIS!...
(wildly erasing and redrawing lines on the blueprints)
LIKE THIS!...AND THEN LIKE THIS!...
THE SHIP WILL START TO PLUNGE BENEATH THE SURFACE
THE WATER LAPPING AT OUR FEET
DOWN SINKS THE BOW, UP FLIES THE STERN
TO THE SKY...
THE PANICKED PEOPLE RETREAT
A THOUSAND STRONG, THEY'LL CLIMB UP
TOWARD THE AFT DECK
THEY'LL CLING THERE DESPERATELY
LIKE BEES TO A HIVE!
THERE THEY'LL HOLD FAST
DOOMED TO THE LAST
LOST AND ABANDONED AND ALL
STILL ALIVE
A FEW OF THEM WILL HANG THERE
FROM THE RAILINGS
AS, ONE BY ONE, THEY'LL DROP AWAY!
MORE THAN TWO-HUNDRED-FIFTY FEET
THEY WILL FALL
AND AFTER THAT, I CANNOT SAY
I WILL NOT SAY...
THE REST, IN SWARMS, WILL OVERRUN THE BOAT DECK
THEY'LL LOSE ALL SENSE OF RIGHT AND WRONG
IT WILL BE "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF" ALL RIGHT!
THE WEAK THROWN IN WITH ALL THE STRONG!
FIRST CLASS, AND THIRD AND SECOND
WILL MEAN NOTHING!
AND SHEER HUMANITY ALONE WILL PREVAIL
ONE SINGLE CLASS
BRUTE, HARSH AND CRASS
THAT'S WHAT WILL COME OF THE WORLD THAT SET SAIL
AUTUMN...
SHALL WE ALL MEET IN THE AUTUMN?...
SHALL WE ALL MEET IN THE AUTUMN?...
It's an amazing song that gives you chills!
Why didn't they take the warnings of icebergs ahead more seriously? They got numerous warnings in and it is said that they change a little bit of a course but it was done by Captain Smith so they could get more of a direct shot to NYC, their final destination. More warnings came in throughout the night but the guys running the telegraph had gone to bed and didn't get the rest of the warnings and of all the warnings they did get half of them were never sent up to the captain because they were being flooded with personal messages from shore to all of the guests and running a telegraph up to the captain would take too much time and take them away from the other messages so they set them aside for a better time to leave their stations.
It was an odd night in that there was no moon and the crow's nest could barely see anything and by the time the iceberg was upon them there was nothing they could do. It is said to raise 6 to 7 stories high in the air and plunge 50 stories down into the ocean.
As Mr. Andrews says in "The Blame" from Titanic: the Musical -- "Ismay, I'm just in the business of building, it's God who sinks ships!..."
It was destined to happen, so many things going wrong, yet so many ways it could have been prevented. It just happened to strike the ship at the right place at the right speed and the right angle and just took the great ship Titanic down.
It's amazing and amazingly sad...
There are three survivors left, 2 in the UK and 1 in the US.
If you type in Titanic in google you'll get some good sites with some good information on them.
The Titanic took off on April 10, 1912, struck the iceberg at 11.40 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 1912 and sank 2 hours, 40 minutes later at 2.20 a.m. the next day.
There is so much to say about the Titanic I know I'm leaving out A LOT...but my favorite site is RMS Titanic, Inc. then click on FAQ and read away...
Wonderful and informative web site. I used information from that site its great.
Posted by
Anonymous |
10:33 AM