Tag Archives: Captain E.J. Smith

Friday Titanic News (14 March 2025)

“MSN,” Scientists Finally Found the Ship That Warned the Titanic About the Massive Iceberg Ahead, last modified March 7, 2025,

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.

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“Woman Who Survived the Titanic Had to Answer for Her Actions During the Tragedy,” MSN, last modified March 4, 2025,

The slideshow concerns Lady Duff Gordon. Worth a look if nothing else for the pictures.

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Annabel Stock, “Sussex Author’s New Book on the Titanic’s Captain and a Murdered Spy,” The Argus, March 2, 2025,

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

Kimberly Miller, “The Huge, Historic, SS United States Cruised by Palm Beach County. Where Is It Headed?,” The Palm Beach Post, February 27, 2025,

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.

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Sonia Rincón, “Liberty Science Center Recreates the Last First-class Supper Served on the Titanic,” ABC7 New York, February 27, 2025,

Titanic Lunch Menu 14 April 1912
Photo: AP

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.

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“Watch the Only Surviving Footage of the Titanic Before Its Doomed Voyage,” MSN, last modified February 24, 2025, accessed March 12, 2025,

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.

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ITV, “Welsh Coal Retrieved From Titanic Wreck Displayed at Exhibition,” ITVX, last modified February 21, 2025,

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.

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Ashley DiMella, “Crushed Titanic Chandelier That Hung in First-class Smoking Lounge Heads to Museum,” Fox News, last modified February 19, 2025

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.

Suggested Titanic Reading

Behe, G. (2012). On board RMS Titanic: Memories of the Maiden Voyage. The History Press.

Brewster, H. (2013). Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World. National Geographic Books.

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Red Bull Does Titanic–And Gets Called “Despicable”

Red Bull advertising executives thought they had a clever idea. They created an advertising cartoon which showed a crate containing Red Bull being being loaded on a ship. The captain walks by and asks what it contains. When he learns it is an energy drink, he is insulted pointing out they only drink champagne on his ship and orders it brought down. The deckhand says the drink gives you wings (an advertising slogan of the drink). The captain responds by saying there is no need for wings on a ship, And then the crate reveals the name of the ship–Titanic–as the captain walks away.

According to The Telegraph:

The ad has also outraged some of the relatives of the 1915 disaster which saw more than 1,500 lose their lives when the ‘unsinkable’ ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Clifford Ismay, 57, a relative of Titanic owner Joseph Bruce Ismay, condemned the advert as “despicable.” He said: “I have a sense of humour but I really don’t like the idea – in fact I find it quite sickening considering so many people died on that night. “With their slogan ‘Red Bull gives you wings’ I can only assume that they are referring to the idea that if all those people had Red Bull – or wings – then they would have been ok. “It’s despicable. I think the Titanic, and the people involved, should be treated with dignity and respect.”

42 complaints have been lodged with Advertising Standards Authority over the ad. The Titanic Heritage Trust condemned the advert. Its founder, Howard Nelson, is considering filing a formal complaint.

Now I am no fan of tacky Titanic themed products, but this ad does not get me that angry. I understand why people are offended. On the scale of offensive, I put it in the mild category. When the deckhand says it is an energy drink, Captain Smith scoffs at serving anything less than champagne. If anything, it pokes fun at the aristocratic mentality that abounded at that time. Whether it ought to use Titanic is another issue. Then again, they had to know using Titanic was going to draw ire from some. And perhaps that is what they wanted.

I had not seen the ad, so I quickly tracked it down on YouTube. I actually watched both English and German versions. So they are getting eyes on the ad but whether it translates into sales, that is something they have to determine later. I actually thought the German version more funny than English. It is how it is said in German that makes it so. At any rate judge for yourself. The English version is below but if you want to see the German one, click here.

Source: Red Bull Criticised For ‘Tasteless’ Titanic Advert (13 Sep 2013, The Telegraph)