by Joseph Broadworth

Created on: October 17, 2009

I remember I was nine years old when I heard the news that the wreck of the Titanic had finally been found a few miles down on the north Atlantic floor off of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. It was this event that started my interest in the Titanic disaster and the subsequent mythology surrounding the great ship's first and final voyage. Over the years I collected books, documentaries, films and even a VHS tape of a short reel of film that is thought to be the only moving pictures of the ship before she sailed. I even read the complete transcript of the Titanic Hearings that took place in New York a week after the disaster where a Senate sub-committee questioned survivors. The entire aura of that calm and cold night on the north Atlantic is enticing, and the counterfactual historical questions that arise (as author Walter Lord calls them - the endless 'what if....' scenarios) have captivated many people for almost one hundred years. So, was it unavoidable tragedy or careless accident. I suppose it can be both.

The Titanic was a ship commissioned by the White Star Line and built by Harland and Wolff Co. in Belfast. An almost identical sister ship called 'Olympic' was also built. It was the largest and most luxurious ship of the day. After picking up passengers and crew in England, Titanic stopped off in France and Ireland to pick up passengers and then sped off for New York. At 11:40 pm on April 14th, Titanic struck an iceberg. At roughly 2:20 am on April 15th, she sank beneath the waves leaving hundreds of people thrashing in the frigid waters and hundreds of stunned passengers drifting in lifeboats until they were rescued by the ship 'Carpathia', which was 53 miles from Titanic when it received a frantic wireless message from the sinking liner to come at all possible speed. Carpathia plucked 706 survivors from the lifeboats, while the remainder, 1,517 people, perished. Those are the cold hard facts.

On the night that Titanic hit, she had received some wireless transmissions from other ships who had encountered ice. Wireless was a relatively new technology at the time. Most new ships had wireless operators, punching out messages by code over the exapnse of ocean to other ships and receivers on shore. Some ships only had one wireless operator, but larger vessels had two and kept the messages pumping 24 hours. At 11:35 pm, Titanic's First Officer, Murdoch was on the bridge. The night was cold and clear, with a new moon. Two lookouts, Frederick Fleet and Reggie

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