The Titanic

She is not the largest ship to lie on the ocean floor; that honor is reserved for her lesser-known sister ship, Britannic. She was not the fastest ship of her day, and she certainly proved to be the least reliable. She was not the only ship to ever come out the worse for an encounter with an iceberg; ships had been disappearing in the ice fields of the treacherous North Atlantic for centuries.

She was not even the only ship to hit an iceberg that day; the obscure Niagara hit an iceberg and sustained virtually the same damage.

But Niagara made port. Titanic never made port and never will.

A reproduction poster from the 1953 movie "Titanic"

1912 advertisement

Why our fascination with this floating luxury hotel? Why was she sought for so long, and why (despite the fact that she is broken in two) does anyone persist in talking about raising her? No one ever speaks of raising Andrea Doria, Lusitania, or Britannic, and they are all easily accessible, each lying within diving distance. But we have an obsession with raising Titanic...perhaps so that, just once, she can make port.

I have no idea why I became interested in this greatest of traffic accidents as a child, but it has persisted throughout my life. There is something very dark and irresistible about that image never captured on film...the greatest moving object in the world sliding inexorably into the great void, her lights blazing even below the water line as it shifted minute by minute, the horrified lucky passengers in their lifeboats watching the slow death, the unlucky multitudes left on the ship, only gradually becoming aware of their eventual fate, and, ten miles away, unknowing witnesses to the tragedy, who actually held in their hands for a few minutes the chance to save them all.

In 1985, five days after her discovery by Dr. Ballard, I elected to write a seminar paper on Titanic. My professor was dubious, because he thought that it was an isolated historical event with no real historical consequences. I argued that the reaction to her discovery proved that Titanic still remains a vital part of our collective memory...that the events of April 14-15, 1912, continue to haunt us all. Titanic had very real and immediate effects...many economic, some political, some social. She had winners and losers. At the time, she seemed the great loser of them all...but what other ship has so captured the public imagination?

By sinking, she became immortal...and perhaps the great winner.

Only her victims lost.

Titanic leaves port

Off the coast of Ireland, heading into legend
(or is it? My latest research indicates that this may be Olympic!)

Enthusiastic sponsor of the Titanic Internet Historical Association
activated on April 14, 1997
85th anniversary of the striking of the iceberg


Grand Romantic Tragedy or Traffic Accident at Sea?	Titanic sails off into oblivion.