I'm trying to write a short story for a contest Vision Forum is doing. The contest is related to their catalogue cover, which has a scene of two people on the Titanic as it's sinking, and about the "women and children first" idea. (For the 100th anniversary)

So, I'm wondering erring if you all had any tidbits of information about the Titanic? I looked it it up on Wikipedia, but perhaps there's more than what the all knowing Wiki has.

I don't have any helpful information, but I do recommend emailing Sir Phillip of Valor on the Fantasy side. He has written a short story set on the Titanic and probably could give some helpful advice or research he found.

A couple years ago, I was in a play about the Titanic. I don't remember too much but I do remember that the band was playing "Nearer My God to Thee" or a different song right before it sank. Many people say one and others say another. But all of them agree that they were playing music all the way to the end.
There is one documentary movie, "Titanica", that has a lot if information in it. I'm sure you could get it from your local library or order it sent there. Also, looking up the newspaper clippings might come in handy for some of the names of the dead or missing. This could also be helpful if you were going to do a scene from the perspective of those waiting on shore for the Titanic to come in.
Hope this helps.

Nomad- Cool, thanks! I'll certainly keep a lookout for him.

Campgirl- The band was playing the song on the Titanic? Those are good sources, too, I'll have to look those up. The perpespective of the people on the shore is a good idea. My characters are fictional (as far as I know non of the real passengers have the same name or anything), but they do have relatives who could wait for the surviving character.

I'm hoping to do this contest, too! But I'm a bit blank on where to start, though I do have my premise. Any information will be very helpful. ::subscribes::

Yeah. They stayed on the ship and tried to calm people down with their music. Isn't that so brave? I know Varon already answered but I didn't want to be left out!
Hope you can find that movie! It was really cool.

Instead of writing a dissertation, I’ll let you ask any questions you have. I know quite a bit of history concerning the Titanic. I love the story, but I also loathe man’s pride and ignorance.

I can tell you the popular film was only authentic in set design.

Airiana- Cool. I got the soundtrack of the Titanic movie from the library, which helps put me in a mood for writing it. What did the different type of life boats look like?

Campgirl- That is brave... I'd be freaking out. I'll see if our library has it. If not, I might bypass it, since I don't know when it could get here, since I need to have this thing done by the end of this month. But it is a good idea.

Is there a link to newspaper websites that go back that far in their archives or something? I'm not sure how I could locate the actual newspapers.

*sighs * Like so many other things in history, the Titanic has gotten a bad rap and is labeled for negligence and all sorts of other things. There is a lot of controversy over the lifeboat situation on the Titanic.

It should be noted that the Titanic was actually fully up to code on their lifeboat situation, despite popular opinion. The Titanic carried 20 lifeboats, enough for 1178 people. The existing Board of Trade required a passenger ship to provide lifeboat capacity for 1060 people. So the creators of the Titanic were not being intentionally negligent, as has been proposed. Also notable is the fact that Titanic carried 3500 lifebelts and 48 life rings; Useless in the icy water. The majority of passengers that went into the sea did not drown, but froze to death.

Now, all this being said, only a fool would believe it wise to make a sea journey without a sufficient number of life boats to accommodate their entire crew in case of an emergency. One of the factors that makes the sinking of the Titanic so memorable is the fact that lives were needlessly lost. There were not enough lifeboats on board to hold all the passengers and crew.

Titanic's lifeboats were situated on the top deck. The boat was designed to carry 32 lifeboats but this number was reduced to 20 because it was felt that the deck would be too cluttered.

Interesting fact: Many people believed that Titanic was not actually sinking but that the call to the lifeboats was actually a drill and stayed inside rather than venture out onto the freezing deck.

Very interesting information, Airi.



*Nods* Yes, I had heard that.

Just goes to show that you shouldn't ignore drills.

The Titanic has always interested me. It was very sad that the person ignored the warnings that other ships sent him.

Yes! And that the poor people were left really. Women and Children went first, but from first class.

That is actually not true, Elanor. It is a falsehood told to the public, for many reasons, but does not hold true.

The records show that 97% of first class female passengers were saved. 86% of the female crew on board were saved. 86% of second class women were saved.

Now, we have a drastic reduction in women of the third class saved. It plummets to 46%. However, there is an explanation for this. The passengers in steerage would have a lower survival rate than passengers topside who were close to the boat deck.

Among the survivors, though, it was reported that third class children outnumbered first class children by a ratio of more than four to one. There were also more third class men saved, than second class men, as well as more male crew members saved than second class men.

Lord Mersey's report addressed the question of the low survival rate of third-class passengers, as follows:

"It has been suggested before the Enquiry that the third-class passengers had been unfairly treated; that their access to the boat deck had been impeded; and that when at last they reached that deck the first and second-class passengers were given precedence in getting places in the boats. There appears to have been no truth in these suggestions. It is no doubt true that the proportion of third-class passengers saved falls far short of the proportion of the first and second class, but this is accounted for by the greater reluctance of the third-class passengers to leave the ship, by their unwillingness to part with their baggage, by the difficulty in getting them up from their quarters, which were at the extreme ends of the ship, and by other similar causes. The interests of the relatives of some of the third-class passengers who had perished were in the hands of Mr. Harbinson, who attended the Enquiry on their behalf. He said at the end of his address to the court: 'I wish to say distinctly that no evidence has been given in the course of this case which would substantiate a charge that any attempt was made to keep back the third-class passengers ... I desire further to say that there is no evidence that when they did reach the boat deck there was any discrimination practiced either by the officers or by the sailors in putting them into the boats.'

*reads stuff from Ari* Wow, I never knew that!

Aah, I didn't know that, Airi! Most interesting, thank you!

That is interesting.

Thanks all for the great information! I'm going to try to rewrite the finished story, so I can add two things I forgot about (one of which I learned here ).

*snuffles * Sadly, many people do not know that, and Cameron's film *glares at historical monstrosity * only distorted the culture’s view of the Titanic, more.

Thanks for letting me ramble.

I was glad to discover this thread on the Titanic! I was going to start one if I didn't find one.

I was at a book store recently, and found a fascinating book about the Titanic. Unfortunately, it was too expensive for me to buy it. But today we went back to the same book store, and I thought to scribble down some of the facts and figures that where in the book. I am fascinated by the Titanic, though it was very sad. I haven't watched the movie because I was told I was very sad and I would probably cry buckets.

Here are some facts about the Titanic that I copied from the book:

• The Titanic cost 1,500,000 British pounds, and 17,000 men worked three years to build her.
• At 73,000 tons, the Titanic was the largest humanmade object ever built.
• More then three million rivets were used to hold the Titanic's steel plates together.
• During the building of the ship, there were more then 250 accidents. Eight men died. One unfortunate worker was crushed under the ship as it was launched.
• Contrary to what some people think, the Titanic was not trying to set a speed record for crossing the Atlantic. The ship that held that record had a top speed of 25 knots, whilst the Titanic's top speed was only 21 knots.

There was more, I know there was more! I didn't have time to write them all down. But if I return to that book store, you guys know which book I will be looking for.

Also, as was mentioned earlier in this thread, the band played until they were waist-deep in water. The last song they played is argued to be either Nearer My God To Thee or something else I cannot remember. Sadly, non of the band members were saved.

I might write a Titanic story one day. We'll see.

Here is an interesting thing we saw. (Whether or not it is true it is fun like a mystery story, with the significance that it might be true.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfPtDvm3a_s

That's fascinating, Patrick. At first I was thinking, "What? How can they say it was staged?" But then it all started to make sense. It certainly seems plausible, with the evidence presented in the video.

The Titanic...Probably one of most romantic, tragic subjects in history.

I don't know if anyone is still paying any attention to this, but for future refferance I'll post here.

Theodore Brailey, the ship's pianist, stayed behind witht the rest of the band and went down with the ship as well. I always thought that was brave that he stayed behind because he was a pianist! His instrument couldn't be transported out onto the deck, so he just stood in the back and watched the others play. He could have left if he wanted to, but he refused to.


Bit of trivia not enitely related to the Titanic per say. Many passengers were tranferred to the Titanic from the Lusitania when the latter had engine problems and was delayed. Almost exactly three years later, the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Boat while going in the exact opossite direction as the Titanic.

Thank you for posting that bit of trivia! Sad, but interesting.