TheTitanic,: An Atlantic Nightmare

Barbara West Dainton, age ninety-five, and Millvina Dean, also age ninety-five are holders of a record neither would have wanted if they had been old enough to know what would happen on that Sunday, April 15th, 1912.

Barbara Dainton was ten months and two days old and Millvina Dean was just ten weeks old when an iceberg tore through the hull of the Titanic, "the unsinkable Titanic". They are the last living survivors of a horror they were thankfully too young to remember.

Ninety-four percent of the women and children aboard were saved. But the statistics of the dead are more horrific. To this day there is no clear number of dead. So great was the tragedy that there will never be an accounting of that Sunday night and Monday morning in the mid-Atlantic. Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland and its maiden voyage was from Southampton, England to Cherbourg, France...then to Queenstown Cobh, Ireland from which it would start its trek to New York City in the United States.

Were any aware of their coming fate? John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeleine were expecting a child and passengers were quite shocked at the outrage of Madeleine's ventures out in dresses "adjusted" to hide the bulge that everyone knew was there.

Was Michel Navratil thinking of the possible consequences of kidnapping his sons Michel Jr. and Edmond? Was that on his mind when at last passengers were told of the oncoming sinking of the "unsinkable" ship? He would not have to dread being met by constabulary at the American docks.

Benjamin Guggenheim was a gentleman of the first order and calmly accepted going down with the ship. Several accounts verify that he sat in the lobby with his manservant, waiting for the watery grave just hours away.

What of J. Bruce Ismay, White Star Line's Director, who sailed to take notes regarding the voyage and the ship's performance? He survived the disaster.

There have been myriad reports, books, speculations, movies and other accountings of this greatest sea tragedy. Only those whose bones lie on the ocean floor know some of the secrets. What has been substantiated is that the third class or steerage passengers were unable to access gates that would have allowed them to get to the top deck. There were
Seven-hundred and eight third class passengers, two-hundred eighty-five second class, class passengers, three-hundred and twenty-four first class, and eight-hundred ninety-one crew.

But before that fatal collision the Titanic was a merry city of the wealthy and privileged, and the below-decks for the third class. Café Parisienne was the Titanic's own special restaurant, not available on sister ships of the White Star Line. For relaxing there was a swimming pool, Turkish baths, a squash court, and separate libraries for each of the class levels.

Elegance, opulence and abundance graced the ship. Meals of the finest foods, liquors and wines, everything a passenger could want. Everything, that is, until it was time to lower them to the freezing Atlantic in life boats. White Star Line had twenty lifeboats on board, four more than required by law. The irony is - there was room for only half the passengers. At first passengers were reluctant to leave. It was "unsinkable" was it not? When at last the frigid truth was faced lifeboats were set out with a fraction of the number of passengers they could hold.

Not their two Marconi radio-sets, nor their brave captain, nor the crew could save them. It is estimated that 1500 people died. Some were traveling without family or friends and may not have been counted among the dead. And the dying was horrific as footholds gave way and slippery decks slid passengers into the freezing water.

The beautiful giant broke into two pieces at the aft expansion joint at two:20 A.M. on Monday after being hit by the iceberg at 23:40 ship time Sunday evening. That was the last know about Titanic for seventy-four years.

Rumors, superstitions and conspiracy theories abound, but the fact was the propeller was too small for such a gigantic ship that might have to suddenly change course if an iceberg were spotted. Many believe the fact the Titanic was not christened could play a part, but it was not the standard for White Star Lines to christen their ships. Nature and man's inadequacy are the culprits here.

The disaster led to the first International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which was held in London November twelfth, 1913. There, international funding was put into use for the International Ice Patrol, an agency of the United States Coast Guard. Of course shipbuilders went back to the drawing boards and make changes necessary to insure that something like the sinking of the Titanic would never happen again.

Source: Wickipedia
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