RMS Titanic ready for launch(1911) Public Domain (U.S. Library of Congress, digital id#cph.3a27541)
Due to the immense size in constructing the Olympic class vessels for White Star Line, Harland & Wolff had to demolish three existing slipways on Queen’s Island in Belfast Harbor. The two new ones, the largest ever built at that time, would be where both Olympic and Titanic would be constructed. The keel for Olympic was laid on 16 December 1908 and Titanic on 31 March 1909. Both ships would be constructed parallel to each other. Queen’s Island became known as Titanic Quarter and an enormous gantry was built to hold the cranes needed during construction. Expedited completion for each ship was 26 months. The base of both ships had a double bottom of 5 feet 3 inches deep supporting 300 frames (each were 24 and 36 inches apart and measured up to 66 feet) which terminated at the bridge deck (B deck). These were covered with steel plates which provided the outer skin of both ships. Both ships were floating box girders with the keel as the backbone of the ship.
Behe, George TITANIC: SAFETY, SPEED AND SACRIFICE, Transportation Trails, Polo, IL 1997
Eaton John P. & Haas Charles, TITANIC TRIUMPH AND TRAGEDY, SECOND EDITION, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, New York, 1995 First American Edition
Lord, Walter, A NIGHT TO REMEMBER, Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York, New York, 1955. Multiple revisions and reprints, notably Illustrated editions (1976,1977,1978 etc)
Lord, Walter, THE NIGHT LIVES ON, Willian Morrow and Company, New York, New York, 1986 (First Edition)
Lynch, Don & Marshall Ken, TITANIC AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, Madison Press Books, Toronto, Ontario Canada, 1992
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, 1911 Originally published in New York World, March 26, 1911 Public Domain US/Wikimedia Commons
At approximately 4:40p.m. Eastern Time on 25 March 1911, a fire would break out in the Asch Building in the Greenwich Village of Manhattan in New York City that was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in U.S. history. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, located on the 8th, 9th, 10th floors, was where the fire took place and was caused when fire broke out in a rag bin on the 8th floor. It was a Saturday afternoon with 600 workers, many of whom were recent Italian and Jewish immigrant women and girls aged between 14-23 years of age. The workday was coming to an end when the fire flared up, likely by a unextinguished cigarette or match, in the scrap rag bin that had at least two months of cuttings in it at the time of the fire. A passerby on Washington Street saw the smoke and reported it.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was a sweatshop with cramped spaces and work areas for the employees. When the flames were noticed, people started screaming and hollering. Cramped spaces made it hard to escape quickly and the supposed buckets of water, a standard of the time, were empty many would report later. Many jumped on the machine tables hoping they could hop from table to table to get to the elevators, Narrow aisles with chairs and baskets made that hard. And then the fire start consuming them. The manager did try to use the fire hose on the fire but the hose was rotted and the valve rusted shut.
Panicked workers ran to any exit they could find. There were four elevators but only one was operational; it could only hold twelve people at a time and broke down on the fourth trip due to heat from the fire.. Women began jumping down the shaft to escape the flames. Many would die as a result. There were two stairways but one was locked from the outside to prevent theft trapping the women who burned alive at the door. The other was impassable due to flames. Dozens took stairs to the roof and escaped the flames. The exterior fire escape, shoddy and poorly constructed, became unsafe with so many people trying to use it and collapsed sending 20 people to their death below. Those trapped above the fire escape succumbed to either smoke inhalation or were burned to death.
Bodies of workers who jumped from windows to escape the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire Original image source: Brown Brothers Public Domain (US)/Wikimedia Commons
A crowd had gathered outside watching events unfold. Sadly many of those trapped decided, in groups of two or threes,to jump from the windows. The fire ladders only could reach up to the 7th floor and their safety nets were not strong enough to catch them. To the horror of those watching, 62 people leaped to their deaths causing many in the crowd to weep, faint, or cry hysterically.William Gunn Shepard, a reporter on the scene during the fire, said he heard a sound more horrible than can be described: the thud of a body hitting the stone sidewalk. A similar description would be made many years later when people, trapped in the Twin Towers on 9/11, choose to jump out of the windows. It was captured on film but those who heard the thuds said nearly the same thing as Shepard.
People and horses draped in black walk in procession in memory of the victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, New York City. US Library of Congress, digital id cph.3a30009 Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons
The fire was put out in a half hour and then the shocking number of deaths would be known: 146.123 women and 23 men perished. The youngest victims were two girls aged 14 and the oldest was a women who was 43. Many bodies were found all stacked up against a locked door. As reports of the fire and deaths spread in New York and across the nation, it caused outrage at the conditions the workers had to work in. The owners of the company, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, faced a backlash in the community. Demonstrations outside the building the next day showed the how many were outraged. A memorial procession on April 5, 1911 was attended by over 60,000 people who stood in the rain to see it.
Why this is Important
This fire shocked not only New York but the entire nation. New York created a commission to investigate and recommend laws to make workplaces safer for workers. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union would galvanize and agitate for better conditions, pay, and safety for the workers. It would spark other reformers to seek more comprehensive changes to labor laws, safety, and workers compensation. Changes in other states and at the federal level would occur as well.
Aftermath
Max Blanck and Isaac Harris were put on trial for manslaughter but were acquitted of the charges. While the prosecution showed how locked doors and other thing were an issue, the defense argued that there was no proof the owners knew of the locked doors or authorized them. The were found liable in a civil suit for wrongful death but only paid out $75 per victim to the families despite getting a large insurance payment for the loss. The building still stands today though it has been renamed the Brown Building.
RMS Titanic pictured in Queenstown, Ireland 11 April 1912 Source:Cobh Heritage Centre, Cobh Ireland/Wikimedia Commons
A letter from a teenage boy written aboard Titanic and sent to family from Queenstown (now Cobh) is now up for auction. Thomas Cupper Mudd from Huntingfield in Suffolk was aboard Titanic when he wrote the letter. He wrote glowingly of what he saw on Titanic and was very happy with both the food and how everything looked.
“The ship is like a magnificent palace. The lounge & dining hall are very beautiful. We are having excellent food.”
“I have made friends with a young English gentleman and he is very nice indeed.
Thomas, a 16-year-old bookkeeper, was from a family of 13 children. Two older brothers had already emigrated to the United States and was looking forward to starting a life there. Traveling second class, he certainly got to travel in style to his new home. Sadly, he did not survive the sinking. And there is no record of his body being found and identified. For the family that received his letter, possibly as news of the sinking had reached them, must have been terribly sad for them. His final words in the letter probably also hit them as well:
“With love to all. I remain, your loving son Tom.”
According to the Daily Mail, his family did receive money from the Titanic Relief Fund. The letter is being auctioned by UK auctioneer Forum Auctions on 27 Mar. It is expected to fetch £30,000 ($38,748).
Colorful Spring Garden Photo:Anita Martinz(Flickr)
Today the March Equinox takes place ending winter and ushering in spring. To find out the exact time this will occur where you live, please go to www.timeanddate.com.
A sure sign spring is here is when lambs appear. Spring Lamb In The Sunshine Photo: Tanya Hall/publicdomainpictures.net
The March Equinox marks the moment where the Sun crosses the equator (an imaginary line in the sky above the equator) from south to north and usually occurs between March 19-21 every year. Both the March and September equinoxes are when the Sun shines directly on the equator making night and day nearly equal. This equinox is the transition from winter to spring in the Northern Hemisphere but the reverse in the Southern Hemisphere (summer into fall). Various cultures celebrate March equinox as a time of rebirth. Many spring festivals are timed to coincide with the equinox and some religious events (Passover and Easter) use specific calculations based on the equinox to help determine the exact day of the event.
Meteorologists however start spring on March 1 rather than by the March Equinox. The reason is that they divide the year into four quarters to make it easier to compare data and compile statistics. Meteorological seasons use annual temperature cycles rather than the position of the Sun. While astronomers follow the position of the Sun regarding equinoxes and solstices, meteorologists use the calendar to prevent problems since the dates of equinoxes and solstices can vary each year.
Early spring is when the Earth’s axis increases its tilt relative to the Sun resulting in more daylight for that part world where it spring is occurring. It is a time when the increased warmth results in more plant growth (spring forth as it used to be said and how spring got its name). The resulting warmth also makes snow melt causing streams to swell and frosts to diminish. For areas that get little or no snow, ground temperatures will increase quickly as well. Despite spring beginning in March, in areas where there is no snow early plant growth can begin as early as February (or August down below). Arctic zones may not experience spring until May.
Solstices and Equinoxes Image: NASA
Due to the reversal of seasons in the Southern Hemisphere, Easter is celebrated in Autumn. The Allhallowtide (Halloween, All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day) is celebrated in Spring.
Despite the change of the seasons–both calendar and meteorologically speaking–winter does continue in many places. And with it can come unpredictable weather which my favorite feline Garfield illustrates it perfectly. Garfield is outside. First it is warm and sunny. Then cold and rainy. Then back to warm and sunny. And then rain again and then another dry day. Finally, Garfield yells in exasperation “Will you make up your mind?” The next frame is split with one half having rain and the other half sunny. And it is more accurate than most of us want to believe.
There are two sayings that get the season right, courtesy of The Old Farmer’s Almanac:
Bluebirds are a sign of spring; warm weather and gentle south breezes they bring.
St. Patrick, Patron Saint of Ireland. Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, and St. Patrick, Goleen, County Cork, Ireland Photo:Andreas F. Borchert/Wikimedia
St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and known for bringing Christianity to Ireland. He was born in 390 A.D in Britain and raised by a Christian family. However he was not much interested in God and at the time was illiterate. When he was 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland where he was forced to work as a shepherd on a hillside. All alone except for his sheep and captors. he began to cry out to God for rescue him. He had a dream in which God revealed himself and that he would be going home.
Risking his life, he boarded a ship for Britain where he returned to his family. He was welcomed back but realized that he had been transformed by God. He entered a monastery to pursue his calling as a Catholic priest. As a result of his education, he came to understand Holy Scripture and impressed his peers and superiors with his character. He would be made a bishop in due course. Nearly three decades after this slavery in Ireland, he felt a call from God that he had to return to Ireland and spread the word of Jesus to a people who had become lost. This was no easy journey for him since travel was difficult but he faced hostility from those who opposed him trying to convert people away from paganism. Patrick was ready though to face the trials that might take his life (he was attacked and beaten by thugs and Irish royalty disdained him) and persevered in proclaiming the Gospel and training converts.
His courageous leadership and his crisscrossing the countryside paid off as thousands and more would be converted. Churches were being established and he was training those to shepherd the church after he was gone. He would die on March 17, 461 A.D. He has been venerated as a saint and patron saint of Ireland since then by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches.
St. Patrick’s Day postcard, 1912 of “Old Weir Bridge” at Dinis Cottage, in Killarney National Park, Ireland. Public Domain/Wikipedia
In Ireland it is a solemnity and thus a holy day of obligation. It is also a cultural day as well to celebrate Ireland. Traditionally many in Ireland will wear shamrocks, wear green, attend Mass, watch parades, have a special breakfast and dinner, and of course celebrate by having a beer in their favorite pub (or outside due to the crowds). It has been a public holiday in Ireland since 1903. Since the feast does fall within Lent and is a solemnity in Ireland, it is permissible to eat foods normally excluded during this time (or any food you have selected to give up). Outside of Ireland though, it is not and local bishops will offer guidance. Usually the bishop will allow those who wish to celebrate to be excused from Friday obligation of fasting but may require you to fast on a different day in the week or the following one.
Fun Fact (or perhaps not)
Many people associate Corned Beef and Cabbage as an Irish dish for St. Patrick’s Day (please do not say St. Paddy’s Day!). However it is not an Irish dish but an Irish-American one. In Ireland of the past, land was precious due to the English seizing lots of it for themselves (and putting many Irish people into indentured servitude in the American Colonies). So people did not have lots of land needed for cows to graze on (you might have a cow for milk but that would be it). Pigs became popular because they require no grazing, can be easily penned, and thus cheaper to keep. So while possibly in the far past they used beef, pork became the preferred meat for many meals and especially for St. Patrick’s Day. When Irish migrated to the United States much later (due to the famine), they discovered corned beef when they saw it being used in Jewish delicatessens. So like dumping turnips for the American pumpkin for the Jack o’ Lantern, corned beef became popular amongst many Irish people since it was easily available unlike in Ireland. And thus was born the now popular corned beef and cabbage amongst Irish Americans.
In Ireland, Paddy’s Day (as it is called there), corned beef and cabbage is rarely eaten (except in places that cater the American crowd). Most will have the Irish Fry (bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes, black pudding, and brown soda bread). Tea is incredibly popular in Ireland so it will be at every meal as well. Additionally, scones will be served during the day. For dinner it is often a beef pot roast (roast met with mashed potatoes, peas, carrots and gray). Another popular meal might be Irish bangers and mash as well. Apple tarts or other treats will be served as well. There are many regional variations as well .
The Minstrel Boy
Probably one of the most favored Irish tunes is The Minstrel Boy. Here is a version from Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Wounded, Following it is a more traditional version. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
The Death of Julius Caesar,Vincenzo Camuccini (1771–1844). Public Domain
Today is 15 March and on the old Roman calendar was a day of religious observance to the Roman god Jupiter and other lesser deities. But it is most famous as the date in 44 BC when Julius Caesar was assassinated at a meeting of the Roman Senate. 60 conspirators were involved but the leaders were Brutus and Cassius. Caesar was forewarned of his death by a seer according to Plutarch. And in his famous work Julius Caesar, Shakespeare has the soothsayer say “beware the ides of March” which Caesar ignores and of course he ends up stabbed to death uttering the famous line before death:
Et tu Brute!
The assassination was a turning point for Rome. It brought about a civil war and ended the Roman Republic. Octavian (later Augustus) would become emperor and the Roman Empire would come to dominate the entire Mediterranean Sea, North Africa, and parts of Europe and Britain. In Julius Caesar Mark Antony gives perhaps the most remembered funeral oration ever done. Most people recall the famous opening line:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears! I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones; so let it be with Caesar.
The oration is masterful in that it cleverly turns the people against Brutus and Cassius by showing they were ambitious and not Caesar. By the end the plebeians call them traitors and murderers.
In real life, it was much the same. Antony played them by seemingly supporting amnesty but turning people against them both. Brutus was forced to leave and ended up on Crete, Cassius went east to gather support among the governors and to amass an army. Antony and Octavian would clash militarily causing divisions in Rome. This allowed the forces of Brutus and Cassius to march on Rome. However Octavian made peace with Antony upon this news so both forces joined to stop Brutus and Cassius. They met at Philippi on 3 Oct 42 BC. The first battle resulted in Brutus defeating Octavian but Antony defeating Cassius. Not knowing that Brutus had defeated Octavian, Cassius took his own life. At the second battle of Philippi on 23 October, Brutus was defeated and forced to flee into the hills where he committed suicide. Antony treated his body with great respect by having it wrapped his most expensive purple mantle. His body was cremated and remains sent to his mother.
The only picture of the Marconi radio room onboard the Titanic. Harold Bride is seated at his station. Photo was taken by Father Francis Browne, SJ, while aboard Titanic. Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons
Throughout the day, the ship’s wireless radio operators kept buzzing with iceberg warnings. One of these ships was the SS Mesaba. But the warning never reached the control center. Six years after the Titanic tragedy, the British merchant steamship SS Mesaba was blasted by a German submarine’s torpedo during World War I, killing 20 people on board. Mesaba, like Titanic, was built in Belfast. On September 1, 1918, while it was making a convoy voyage from Liverpool to Philadelphia, as per Coflein, a German boat hurtled a torpedo at it. While scientists were aware that the wreck of Mesaba existed, they were unsure of where exactly it sank.
Titanic Captain Edward J Smith, 1911 Author unknown. Published after sinking in 1912 Public Domain/Wikipedia Commons
Titanic Legacy: The Captain, The Daughter and The Spy, by Telscombe Cliffs author Dan Parkes, tells the untold story of Edward John Smith, the captain lost during the Titanic disaster, and his only daughter Helen Melville who married a wealthy stockbroker, Sidney Russell Cooke. Spying on Russians in England during the early 1920s, Sidney was working for MI5. After his cover was blown, he was discovered mysteriously shot through the stomach in his apartment in London in July 1930. “When I started to delve into it, I discovered that firstly Sidney was in a relationship with the famous Cambridge professor of economics John Maynard Keynes. And then even more surprising that he had been involved in a failed MI5 mission to track Russians in England. “His death in July 1930 was assumed – especially as he was a stockbroker during a market crash – to be suicide, or as the inquest ruled, accidental. But my investigation reveals there were other factors to consider.”
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SS United States Date Unknown but likely 1950’s. Photo is from John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
But the ship, which is distinctive for its 65-foot funnels that vented smoke and exhaust away from passengers on deck, was retired from active service in 1969 and languished at a South Philadelphia pier for nearly 30 years. A dispute between pier owners and the SS United States Conservancy meant it had to vacate its longtime resting place. Okaloosa County bought the SS United States for $10 million in October, with plans to sink the ship to create an artificial reef off Destin-Fort Walton Beach and open an land-based museum. The ship left earlier this month for its estimated two-week journey to Mobile, Alabama.
A string trio welcomed guests at a dinner meant to sound, look, and taste just like it did for first-class passengers on the most famous ship never to make it to New York. “I thought it’d be wonderful to stage ‘The Last Supper,’ so to speak, on the Titanic. The first-class passengers had this incredible multi-course meal that probably lasted four or five hours to maybe just a few minutes before they hit the iceberg,” said Paul Hoffman President & CEO of the Liberty Science Center. The updated version of the menu mimics the dishes and flavors of the original first-class meal. Recreating it entirely would have required some guesswork.”A lot of it, over 100 years later needs some interpretation. They’re just dishes that we don’t make anymore, that we don’t eat anymore, and some of which we’d never really heard of,” said Chef Gail Simmons.
Titanic at the docks of Southampton, 10 April 1912 Unknown Author Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
According to IrishCentral, this video includes the only surviving genuine footage of the RMS Titanic before it embarked on its first and final voyage. The opening clip was filmed in Belfast in Northern Ireland, where the massive ship was constructed. After the footage was shot, Titanic left for Southampton, England, where it remained before setting sail for New York City on April 10, 1912. Famously, the ship never made it to its destination: It struck an iceberg and sank just four days into its maiden voyage.
Welsh coal retrieved from the wreck of the Titanic will be among a collection of artefacts on display at UK’s largest travelling Titanic Exhibition. (Video)
Promotional illustration in color by White Star Line to show how luxurious the facilities were for First Class Passengers. This was used in a postcard to depict the Al la Carte Restaurant on Titanic Circa 1911 Public domain via Wikimedia Commons r, launched by White Star Line, for advertise the luxiurous facilities for First Class passengers on board the new largest steamer in the World: The RMS Titanic. This postcard depict the First Class Á La Carte Restaurant on board the ship.
One special item is on display at “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey, and is capturing the attention of guests. A chandelier that hung in a smoking lounge for first-class passengers will be on display after sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic for decades, NJ.com reported. It will be included in an exhibit that has nearly 250 artifacts by RMS Titanic, Inc.
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19th-century lithograph by Henry Pelham is a variation on Revere’s engraving and emphasizes Crispus Attucks, the African-American in the center, who became an important symbol for abolitionists. Circa 1856 Public Domain/U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (via Wikipedia)
It was a cold snowy night on 5 March 1770 when a mob of American colonists gathered at the Customs House in Boston. The protestors were objecting to the occupation of Boston by British troops. The troops had been sent in 1768 after resentment grew at unpopular taxation measures (Stamp Act and Townshend Act) passed by the British parliament. Since no one from the colonies was represented in parliament, it led to a backlash back in Boston.
Tensions had been running high for a while. Skirmishes between soldiers and colonists, and between patriot colonists and loyalists (colonists loyal to Britain) had been going on for a while. Loyalist stores were vandalized and customers intimidated. One such attack on a loyalist store on 22 Feb 1770 ended tragically. A Customs officer (Ebenezer Richardson ) tried to break up the rock throwing crowd by firing his gun through the window of his home. He ended up killing an 11 year old boy named Christopher Seider. This enraged the Patriots and tensions between Patriots and British soldiers were raised.
The one guard outside the Customs House was facing a mob and called for assistance. The commanding officer of the Customs House, Captain Thomas Preston, ordered his soldiers to fix their bayonets and join the guard outside. The colonists began throwing snowballs, which hit some of the troops. One of the troops, Private Hugh Montgomery, was hit and fired back. Others fired as well. When the smoke cleared, five were dead or dying and three more were injured. The five that were killed were Crispus Attucks (African American), Patrick Carr, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick and James Caldwell. Many consider them the first casualties of the American Revolution.
Aftermath
The British soldiers were put on trial and were defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy. Two soldiers were convicted of manslaughter in December 1770. The two soldiers had their thumbs branded with an M for murder as punishment.The incident would be used by the patriot group Sons of Liberty (formed in 1765) who advertised this as a just cause for removal of British troops.
Paul Revere made an engraving that was widely distributed showing the British soldiers lining up to shoot the patriots. Though not accurate, it helped convey an anti-British message to many in the colonies. Tension decreased for a while but many were unhappy at the lack of representation in British parliament. The hated Stamp Act had already been repealed by this time (in 1766) but the Declaratory Act passed at the same time said parliament had the right to pass any colonial legislation it saw fit. Rather that quell the tension, it was made worse. Patriot colonists were outraged that as citizens of the British colonies they had no voice in government on any of these major issues like taxes or how justice was to be administered. It would lead to growing tension until the revolt would break out in earnest in 1775.
One of the deadliest train disasters in railroad history occurred during World War II in Italy when over 500 people would suffocate to death. No one was held accountable for it.
Balvano station master points the direction by which the train left. The tunnel shown is not the Armi tunnel, which is two kilometers further. 3 March 1944, Unknown Author Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
It began simply enough. On the evening 2 March 1944 freight train 8017 left Salerno, Italy to a rural area south of the city. This required it to pass through the Galleria delle Amri Tunnel Pass just outside Balvano. Although a freight train, it was common for a lot of civilian and military people to hop on the next convenient train. By the time the train had reached Balvano, the last train stop between the two long tunnels in the Apennines Mountains. it had 650 people aboard. It reached the stop near midnight and had to stop for maintenance.
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At ten minutes to 1 am, the train began its ascent into the Galleria delle Amri. The tunnel was poorly ventilated with 1.3% grade. Not long after entering the tunnel the train came to complete stop for 30 minutes. The exact reasons are still unclear. Either the train could not pull the overloaded freight cars, or it was waiting for another train to exit from the opposite direction. Some argue that humidity had caused the train wheels to slip, and sandboxes were not helping.
Unfortunately, due to wartime restrictions, the train was burning low grade coal which produced a lot of excess and odorless carbon monoxide.
Some of the corpses taken from the Italian passenger train that stalled in tunnel. 5 March 1944, Author Unknown. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
The train driver tried to reverse the train but fainted before he could accomplish it. An additional complication was that it was a two-locomotive set up. The driver in lead car could not communicate with the driver in the other one as they were not the same locomotive model. That driver was still trying to push forward. A brakeman walked back to Balvano getting there about 05:10. Quickly a locomotive was dispatched and got there by 05:25. It was too late. Many people had exited the freight cars hoping to find better air in the tunnel and died there. There were so any corpses on the rails prevented removal of the train. About 40 people in the last freight cars were alive. A second rescue mission at 08:40 was able to bring the train back to Balvano. The only train crew to survive was the brakeman and a fireman from the second locomotive.
Due to wartime restrictions, the US and Italians kept it out of the news. A commission was established to determine what happened. Blame was put on the low-quality coal and the station masters tolerating stowaways. The Italian railway company, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, declined all responsibility owing to the end of the war setup between the Italians and US. The Ministry of Treasury, in order to quell criticism, issued compensation to identified civilians (but it occurred 15 years later). A limitation on freight tonnage was introduced and the use of both diesel and steam locomotives for such routes were introduced, Steam engines were banned in 1959 and the line was electrified in 1996. Except for the train crew, the stowaways were buried in four common graves in Balvano cemetery.
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