04/14 Open Thread - The Titanic

Word of The Day: Today;s word is Hubris

At 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, the ship, RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and began to sink, a process it completed between 2:10 and 2:15 am on the morning of the fifteenth. Approximately 1,500 people died, making this one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a single ship. I, personally, did not see the movie and ergo must rely upon printed information sources. (I had already seen The Poseidon Adventure and figured that nobody would ever top Shelly Winters' performance in a sinking boat flick.) But I digress. ..

The RMS Titanic was built in the British colonial town of Belfast. It was, at the time of its sailing the largest ship afloat, being 882 feet 9 inches long with a maximum beam of 92 feet 6 inches and a height from the base of the keel to the top of the bridge of 104 feet. It was an "Ocean Liner", which is to say a passenger ship, a very luxurious and even opulent one. It was considered to be state of the art and up-to-date, and all that. It was also considered to be unsinkable (see word of the day, supra). It had 16 water tight compartments separated by 15 bulkheads which extended above the waterline. As long as 4 or less of these compartments were flooded, the ship would stay afloat. The hull was comprised of steel plates which varied from 1 to 1.5 inches thick. Though arguably state of the art, the steel in the hull tended to become especially brittle when cold and the rivets holding it together also had a tendency to become brittle when cold. In addition the bulkheads were not sealed at the top. Given a sufficient tilt of the ship, water in one compartment could flow over the top of the bulkhead and into the next compartment.

The collision with the iceberg dented the hull in such a fashion that the steel plates in the hull buckled and created a series of openings that allowed sea water to flood into 5 of the 16 "watertight" compartments. The ship began sinking bow first and quickly reached an angle such that water began flowing from the damaged compartments into other compartments, speeding up the sinking process. Finally, the stern which had been hanging unsupported in the air, broke off and sank separately. Like many other ship of the day, the Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for about half of the passengers and crew and most of them were actually launched when barely half full. Many persons were trapped in the hull and the rest of those not in the lifeboats were in 28 degree fahrenheit (-2 degree centigrade) water except for 5 who were rescued by lifeboats.

An April 1561 broadsheet in Nuremberg told of an April 14 aerial battle in and out of the sun between various assorted objects which eventually fell to earth in clouds of smoke. The article asserts that many people observed this phenomenon. There is no report anywhere by anybody of anyone attempting to track any of these things down to see what they were. This, to me, seems to be a most curious lack of curiosity on the part of the townspeople. On this date in 1865, Abraham Lincoln became the first US President to be assassinated. His was the second attempted assassination of a US president. So far, there have been 4 successful assassinations of US Presidents out of over 10 attempts.

**********

On this day in history:

1395 – Timur (Tamerlane) defeated the army of the Golden Horde, starting the khanate's permanent military decline. 1561 – An apparition on the sun was reported over Nuremberg and described as an aerial battle. 1775 – The first slavery abolition society in North America was organized in Philly by Ben Franklin and Benjamin Rush 1816 – A slave rebellion broke out in British ruled Barbados, 1865 – U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth 1890 – The Pan-American Union was founded by the First International Conference of American States 1909 – The Adana massacre began 1912 – The RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and began to sink. 1928 – The Bremen completed the first successful transatlantic airplane flight from east to west. 1929 – The inaugural Monaco Grand Prix was won by William Grover-Williams driving a Bugatti Type 35 1931 – The Second Spanish Republic and the Catalan Republic were both proclaimed 1935 – The Black Sunday dust storm swept across the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles 1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor killed 300 and caused economic damage valued at 20 million pounds. 1958 – Sputnik 2, carrying Laika, fell from orbit after a mission duration of 162 days. 1981 – The first operational Space Shuttle, Columbia, completed its first test flight. 1988 – The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. 1994 – Two U.S. Air Force planes mistakenly downed two U.S. Army helicopters in the Iraq no-fly zone, killing 26 people. 1999 – NATO mistakenly bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees.killing 75. 2002 – Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez returned to office two days after being ousted and arrested by the country's military. 2003 – The Human Genome Project was completed 2014 – Boko Haram abducted 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria

**********

Some people who were born on this day:

I can not think of any circumstances in which advertising would not be an evil.

~~ Arnold J Toynbee 1126 – Averroes, physician and philosopher 1527 – Abraham Ortelius, cartographer and geographer 1629 – Christiaan Huygens, mathematician, astronomer, and physicist 1819 – Harriett Ellen Grannis Arey, educator, author, editor, and publisher 1866 – Anne Sullivan, educator, Helen Keller's teacher and companion 1882 – Moritz Schlick, physicist and philosopher, founded Logical Positivism and the Vienna Circle 1889 – Arnold J. Toynbee, historian and academic 1905 – Jean Pierre-Bloch, author and activist, member of French Resistance in WW II 1918 – Mary Healy, actress and singer 1924 – Shorty Rogers, trumpet player and composer 1926 – Gloria Jean, actress and singer 1927 – Dany Robin, actress and singer 1929 – Inez Andrews, singer and songwriter 1932 – Loretta Lynn, singer, songwriter, and musician 1936 – Arlene Martel, actress and singer 1936 – Frank Serpico, soldier, police officer and lecturer 1945 – Ritchie Blackmore, guitarist and songwriter 1946 – Knut Kristiansen, pianist and orchestra leader 1952 – Kenny Aaronson, bass player 1958 – Jim Smith, musician 1967 – Barrett Martin, drummer, songwriter, and producer 1976 – Christian Älvestam, singer, songwriter, and guitarist 1980 – Win Butler, singer, songwriter, and guitarist

**********

Some people who died on this day:

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

~~ Simone de Beauvoir 1609 – Gasparo da Salò, violin maker 1759 – George Frideric Handel, organist and composer 1843 – Joseph Lanner, violinist and composer 1914 – Hubert Bland, activist, co-founded the Fabian Society 1916 – Gina Krog, suffragist and women's rights activist 1917 – L. L. Zamenhof, physician and linguist, created Esperanto 1925 – John Singer Sargent, painter 1935 – Emmy Noether, mathematician and academic 1964 – Tatyana Afanasyeva, mathematician and theorist 1964 – Rachel Carson, biologist and author, canary in the coal mine 1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, novelist and philosopher 1990 – Thurston Harris, singer 1995 – Burl Ives, actor, folk singer, and writer 1999 – Anthony Newley, singer, songwriter, and actor 2000 – Phil Katz, computer programmer, co-created the zip file format, wrote PKZip 2007 – June Callwood, journalist, author, and activist 2007 – Don Ho, singer and ukulele player 2010 – Peter Steele, singer, songwriter, and bass player 2013 – George Jackson, singer, songwriter 2015 – Percy Sledge, singer 2021 – Bernie Madoff, businessman, entrepreneur, investment adviser, market maker 2022 – Orlando Julius, saxophonist, singer

**********

Some Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such: World Quantum Day Pan American Day Look Up At The Sky Day National Dolphin Day

**********

Today's Tunes

The Titanic

Trending Articles