Titanic A Ship Of Widows Research Paper
History 101
16 October 2013
RMS Titanic: A Ship of Widows Response Paper No. 2
The Titanic is never an easy topic for me to discuss or write about. Every time I think of that fateful night I feel depressed and my head fills with faces of all the men, women, and children whose lives were taken from them all too soon. It makes me wonder how different our world today would be if the Captain, Edward Smith, had heeded the warnings of the ice field. It was said that when the Titanic is finished man will have surpassed God. Perhaps the sinking of the ship was God’s way of humbling us? Or was this merely a result of an incompetent Captain who put his pride before the safety of his passengers? “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” –Proverbs 16:18 KJV …show more content…
Around the time of Titanic’s completion the President of the United States was William Taft.
This was a time of great invention and technological advancement in the US. The steam engines and railroads had made travel and industrialization much easier. Powerful men such as J P Morgan had just opened US steel in 1901. In 1912, having made their fortune creating Standard Oil, the Rockefeller’s fortune had just peaked. Travel to continents was accomplished only by ship. So the building of the Titanic was of great importance and convince to such important traveler’s of the day. This was indeed an era made easier by inventions such as the light bulb, phone, and Ford automobiles. Air travel had just been accomplished by the Wright brothers who made their 1st flight in 1908. This was a time in which almost anything seemed possible and the rich where willing to take advantage of such
opportunity. Meanwhile Europe was fighting the 1st Balken War in which Serbia gained control of Kosovo from the Turks. Little did they know the 2nd Balken War would follow. British explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, set off on an expedition to the South Pole. Upon his arrival there he wrote in his journal, “Great God this is an awful place…” New York had just been able to receive the first wireless transmission from Italy. Many important events were happening in the United States and Europe during the time the Titanic was launched. It seemed too many that anything was possible.
April 10, 1912. This was the day the Titanic would finally be sent off on her maiden voyage. The Titanic was one of three ocean liner’s built by The White Star Line. The first was the RMS Olympic. The second was to be the RMS Titanic and the third was the HMHS Britanic. By the time the Titanic was built, the RMS Olympic had already been in service a year. The Olympic and the Titanic were almost the same ship. But the Titanic was to be the grandest of them all with more luxurious rooms and accommodations. The chairman and manager of the White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, was aboard and would be known by many as a scoundrel for boarding one of the last lifeboats leaving women and children to perish. It was announced all across the globe that this ship was unsinkable. Merely four days later they discovered that they were terribly wrong. As the mighty Titanic was leaving the Harbor it almost collided with another smaller ship because the suction it was creating was pulling the smaller ship towards itself. April 14, 1912. This was the day the dreadful event was to begin. Captain Edward Smith had received several telegrams that day about there being an ice field directly in the path of the Titanic. This field of ice was approximately 80 miles across. It had been particularly warm the past couple months and this caused the ice from Greenland to break off from larger ice burgs and float around the Atlantic. Late that night the Captain received a message from the crows nest that they were headed right for an ice burg. This ice burg was unlike most. The top layer of ice was clear making it extremely hard to see from a distance. When the Captain received the news he immediately told the crew in the engine room to reverse the propellers and turn the rudder so that they could try and dodge the ice burg. It appeared from the deck that they had cleared it and were safe. But they had severely misjudged the size of this monster beneath the cold deadly water. At 11:40 PM they struck the ice burg with an incredible amount of force. Because of the size of the ship it only felt like a small bump to most passengers. The ice had torn open the hull and the first six of the water tight compartments. The ship might have survived if only the water tight compartments had been built with a top on each of the compartments. But unfortunately it had not. Builder’s thought the water could never reach that high and it would be fine. So instead of stopping the water it merely slowed it down. Most passengers did not realize the severity of the situation. Even one of the designers was unaware. He was sent to see how bad it was but he did not go down far enough to realize that they were truly doomed. He reported back that they were fine and that people should go back to bed.
As the water began to fill the hull the ship began to develop a noticeable slant. Many sleeping passengers awoke and asked what was happening. Many of the crew had no idea. Within an hour the Captain ordered the crew to load as many women and children as possible onto the few life boats that they did have. He also locked up the 3rd class passengers in the bottom of the ship and said that they would be dealt with once the first and second class passenger’s were out of the way. He may have been trying to prevent crowding and panic while boarding of the lifeboats. However, knowing the social class of the day he was more likely trying to give greater consideration to those of high society such as the Astor’s, Straus’s, and other of high society.
People were beginning to panic as the ship drew further and further out of the water and into the sky. Some even jumped off of the boat. As the ship rose up it eventually snapped in two from the weight. The bow of the ship sank to the depths of the ocean and at 2:20 AM the rear of the ship sank and joined it’s other half in its eternal resting place.
Not only did the Titanic take the lives of over 1,500 people, but she also took the confidence and faith of many who in this advanced day and age thought man was superior to nature. How wrong they were. It’s sad to think of not only the lives that were lost, but how the 3rd class passengers were treated as if they meant nothing. Can you even begin to comprehend their panic as they realized that they along with their children were locked in the bottom of the ship without a chance for survival? How ironic it was that just a few years later the same technology that was used to build the Titanic would be used again for destruction in the 1st World War which began in 1914. Now 101 years later, the legendary RMS Titanic lies nearly 3 miles down into the abyss of the Atlantic. The great ship lays entombed as a burial ground for all of the unfortunate souls who are now at rest among its wreckage. I personally hope it is never brought back to the surface. We should respect the hallowed ground and pray for all who suffered and died that night.
Works Cited
A&E, “Death of a Dream” Documentary
URL link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESuceYnFQgQ
A&E, “The Legend Lives On” Documentary
URL link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkD_N8ABJE
16 October 2013
RMS Titanic: A Ship of Widows Response Paper No. 2
The Titanic is never an easy topic for me to discuss or write about. Every time I think of that fateful night I feel depressed and my head fills with faces of all the men, women, and children whose lives were taken from them all too soon. It makes me wonder how different our world today would be if the Captain, Edward Smith, had heeded the warnings of the ice field. It was said that when the Titanic is finished man will have surpassed God. Perhaps the sinking of the ship was God’s way of humbling us? Or was this merely a result of an incompetent Captain who put his pride before the safety of his passengers? “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” –Proverbs 16:18 KJV …show more content…
Around the time of Titanic’s completion the President of the United States was William Taft.
This was a time of great invention and technological advancement in the US. The steam engines and railroads had made travel and industrialization much easier. Powerful men such as J P Morgan had just opened US steel in 1901. In 1912, having made their fortune creating Standard Oil, the Rockefeller’s fortune had just peaked. Travel to continents was accomplished only by ship. So the building of the Titanic was of great importance and convince to such important traveler’s of the day. This was indeed an era made easier by inventions such as the light bulb, phone, and Ford automobiles. Air travel had just been accomplished by the Wright brothers who made their 1st flight in 1908. This was a time in which almost anything seemed possible and the rich where willing to take advantage of such
opportunity. Meanwhile Europe was fighting the 1st Balken War in which Serbia gained control of Kosovo from the Turks. Little did they know the 2nd Balken War would follow. British explorer, Robert Falcon Scott, set off on an expedition to the South Pole. Upon his arrival there he wrote in his journal, “Great God this is an awful place…” New York had just been able to receive the first wireless transmission from Italy. Many important events were happening in the United States and Europe during the time the Titanic was launched. It seemed too many that anything was possible.
April 10, 1912. This was the day the Titanic would finally be sent off on her maiden voyage. The Titanic was one of three ocean liner’s built by The White Star Line. The first was the RMS Olympic. The second was to be the RMS Titanic and the third was the HMHS Britanic. By the time the Titanic was built, the RMS Olympic had already been in service a year. The Olympic and the Titanic were almost the same ship. But the Titanic was to be the grandest of them all with more luxurious rooms and accommodations. The chairman and manager of the White Star Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, was aboard and would be known by many as a scoundrel for boarding one of the last lifeboats leaving women and children to perish. It was announced all across the globe that this ship was unsinkable. Merely four days later they discovered that they were terribly wrong. As the mighty Titanic was leaving the Harbor it almost collided with another smaller ship because the suction it was creating was pulling the smaller ship towards itself. April 14, 1912. This was the day the dreadful event was to begin. Captain Edward Smith had received several telegrams that day about there being an ice field directly in the path of the Titanic. This field of ice was approximately 80 miles across. It had been particularly warm the past couple months and this caused the ice from Greenland to break off from larger ice burgs and float around the Atlantic. Late that night the Captain received a message from the crows nest that they were headed right for an ice burg. This ice burg was unlike most. The top layer of ice was clear making it extremely hard to see from a distance. When the Captain received the news he immediately told the crew in the engine room to reverse the propellers and turn the rudder so that they could try and dodge the ice burg. It appeared from the deck that they had cleared it and were safe. But they had severely misjudged the size of this monster beneath the cold deadly water. At 11:40 PM they struck the ice burg with an incredible amount of force. Because of the size of the ship it only felt like a small bump to most passengers. The ice had torn open the hull and the first six of the water tight compartments. The ship might have survived if only the water tight compartments had been built with a top on each of the compartments. But unfortunately it had not. Builder’s thought the water could never reach that high and it would be fine. So instead of stopping the water it merely slowed it down. Most passengers did not realize the severity of the situation. Even one of the designers was unaware. He was sent to see how bad it was but he did not go down far enough to realize that they were truly doomed. He reported back that they were fine and that people should go back to bed.
As the water began to fill the hull the ship began to develop a noticeable slant. Many sleeping passengers awoke and asked what was happening. Many of the crew had no idea. Within an hour the Captain ordered the crew to load as many women and children as possible onto the few life boats that they did have. He also locked up the 3rd class passengers in the bottom of the ship and said that they would be dealt with once the first and second class passenger’s were out of the way. He may have been trying to prevent crowding and panic while boarding of the lifeboats. However, knowing the social class of the day he was more likely trying to give greater consideration to those of high society such as the Astor’s, Straus’s, and other of high society.
People were beginning to panic as the ship drew further and further out of the water and into the sky. Some even jumped off of the boat. As the ship rose up it eventually snapped in two from the weight. The bow of the ship sank to the depths of the ocean and at 2:20 AM the rear of the ship sank and joined it’s other half in its eternal resting place.
Not only did the Titanic take the lives of over 1,500 people, but she also took the confidence and faith of many who in this advanced day and age thought man was superior to nature. How wrong they were. It’s sad to think of not only the lives that were lost, but how the 3rd class passengers were treated as if they meant nothing. Can you even begin to comprehend their panic as they realized that they along with their children were locked in the bottom of the ship without a chance for survival? How ironic it was that just a few years later the same technology that was used to build the Titanic would be used again for destruction in the 1st World War which began in 1914. Now 101 years later, the legendary RMS Titanic lies nearly 3 miles down into the abyss of the Atlantic. The great ship lays entombed as a burial ground for all of the unfortunate souls who are now at rest among its wreckage. I personally hope it is never brought back to the surface. We should respect the hallowed ground and pray for all who suffered and died that night.
Works Cited
A&E, “Death of a Dream” Documentary
URL link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESuceYnFQgQ
A&E, “The Legend Lives On” Documentary
URL link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCkD_N8ABJE