EP 29-Iceberg, Right Ahead! Show Notes
- Dawg
- Apr 1, 2023
- 3 min read
This episode kind of came out of nowhere for the crew, although not nearly as surprising as a 60 foot iceberg creeping out of the darkness. I've studied Titanic for quite some time. As I said on the episode, I've always been fascinated with shipwrecks. And make no mistake--Titanic is far from the only interesting shipwreck out there. I'd urge anyone interested in this type of subject matter to dig deeper into maritime archeology. There's some fascinating work going on.
In regards to Titanic, though, what got this episode started was when Man With No Name found this framed newspaper copy stashed away in the studio:
The history of Titanic has been perceived as a mystery; it's really not, though. The biggest mystery surrounding Titanic was when Robert Ballard found the ship, settling the argument of her final resting place. Check out The Real Story Behind the Discovery of Titanic's Watery Grave:
One of the best places to start, which is one of the primary sources for our episode, is the Senate investigative report on Titanic conducted in 1912 following the disaster. Called for on the floor of the Senate by Senator William Alden Smith just days after Titanic sank, the transcripts of the hearing reveal ample detail about what happened. These documents can be a challenging read because of how they're formatted, but they point us in the right direction and are well worth your time. The citation for the copy we used is below:
The Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcript of the 1912 Senate Investigation. Kuntz, Tom, Pocket Books, 1998.
If you'd like a hard copy, you can find it on Amazon:
You can also find Lord Mersey's report on the wreck here:
This next book to look at I've had since I was a kid; it's simply a book of facts about the ship and the voyage. It's a solid resource, and easy to digest.
8821/2 Amazing Answers to your questions about the Titanic. Brewster, Hugh and Coulter, Laurie, Madison Press Book, 1998.
We discussed the errors and mistakes that lead to the sinking, including the shuffling of officers from the Olympic. We discussed the Olympic collision with Hawke, which has a great breakdown from the U.S. Naval Institute:
There's also a conspiracy theory we disagreed with. Popular Mechanics has a decent article on the concept, and debunks it:
One of the topics of conversation we covered pretty heavily was the location of the ship and the different navigational readings. You can find the reported readings of the ship in the previously referenced disaster hearings, but I've included a source you can take a look at here referencing the actual ships location:
Where is the Titanic Wreck?
When I map the reported location and the actual location via Google Earch, you can see there's a disparity. That disparity is roughly 13 miles:
To give some context as to where this is in relation to land, I've backed out a bit:
For a general, and nicely concise chain of events, check out Brittanica's Timeline of Titanic's Final Hours:
We also spent quite a bit of time talking about the time immediately prior to the strike, and the ship moved. Here's a great article on this called Hard a Starboard-another look at that hard right turn:
Overall, a fascinating topic. Dig in.
-Dawg
Comentários