Titanic

It can be difficult learning how to play a song on an instrument, as well as memorizing it, but imagine having to learn and memorize over 300 songs! All White Star Line musicians, including the musicians below on board Titanic, were required to memorize 352 songs. The songs appeared in a songbook provided to first-class passengers only. The musicians had to be prepared for a song’s request by passengers at any given time, hence the need to memorize them. The selections consisted of popular songs of the day, classical pieces, and waltzes, of which some lasted over ten minutes long.

 

One of the very few photographs known to exist of a child aboard Titanic, Douglas Spedden is seen playing with a spinning toy aboard A-Deck in First Class. His nanny is behind him but is blocked out by the passenger in the foreground. This picture was taken by passenger Father Francis Browne (Father Browne exited the ship in Ireland, avoiding the disaster). The Spedden family and nanny survived the sinking, though Douglas was killed three years later. On August 8, 1915, the now nine-year old Douglas was accidentally struck and killed by a car in Maine when he ran into the street after a football, possibly the same football he is seen holding in the photo below taken shortly before his death. The incident was one of the first documented automobile accidents in the state. The photo of Douglas Spedden playing with his toy was turned into a scene in the 1997 hit film “Titanic” for authenticity purposes.

    

 

On the morning of April 15, 1912, the passenger ship Carpathia rescued survivors from the Titanic disaster. One couple aboard Carpathia that morning were newlyweds James and Mabel Fenwick (pictured below) on their honeymoon. As rescue efforts were completed and Carpathia moved away from the disaster site, Mabel took a picture of the area of ocean which contained icebergs and where survivors had been waiting in lifeboats to be rescued. Historians and those involved with the discovery of Titanic and the recovery of its relics believe the iceberg identified in the first photo to be the one Titanic struck. The rope going across the photo belongs to one of Titanic’s lifeboats, which were brought aboard Carpathia.

Later that day, another ship, the steamer Prinz Adalbert, passed by the wreckage site. The Chief Steward of Prinz Adalbert noticed an iceberg containing a streak of red paint near the same vicinity in which Mabel Fenwick had taken a picture. He too took a picture, this one, the third photo below, being a close-up shot of the iceberg, though the red streak of paint cannot be made out.

It’s impossible to tell if these two icebergs are one and the same and specifically the one Titanic struck. Many historians continue to agree that these are in fact two legitimate photos of the iceberg in question. However, we’ll likely never know for sure.

 

In a race to break the story first without having all the facts, numerous newspapers reported that no lives were lost during the sinking of the Titanic. Some papers even reported that Titanic did not sink and instead was being towed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

Did an author predict the sinking of the Titanic 14 years before the disaster occurred? In 1898, author Morgan Robertson wrote Futility or The Wreck of the Titan, a fictional story about a passenger steamship ship named Titan which strikes an iceberg and sinks. The similarities between the fictional Titan and Titanic are uncanny.

– Obviously, the names of the ships are similar.

– Both were triple screw propeller ships.

– Both were described as unsinkable.

– The Titan was 800 feet long and weighed 45,000 tons. Titanic was 882 feet long and weighed 46,000 tons.

– Both had a shortage of lifeboats.

– Titan struck an iceberg on the starboard side on an April night in the North Atlantic. Titanic struck an iceberg on the starboard side on April 14 in the North Atlantic.

– Both were 400 nautical miles away from Newfoundland when they struck an iceberg.

– At the time of impact, Titan was traveling at 25 knots. Titanic was traveling at 22½ knots.

– Titan sank with more than half of its 2,500 passengers and crew perishing. Titanic sank with more than half of its 2,200 passengers and crew perishing.

Following the Titanic disaster, many people credited Morgan Robertson with being clairvoyant, but Robertson denied this, claiming the similarities were explained by his extensive knowledge of shipbuilding and maritime trends.