Tag Archives: Titanic

Japanese Titanic Survivor Memoirs To Be Exhibited At Yokohama Museum

Masabumi Hosono, 1912 Image: Public Domain
Masabumi Hosono, 1912
Image: Public Domain

Masabumi Hosono, the lone Japanese Titanic survivor, will have his memoirs displayed at Yokohama Minato Museum this month as part of “Treasures collection” to celebrate 25 years of the museum. Hosono, age 42, was a civil servant of the Japanese Ministry of Transport who had been sent to Russia in 1910 to study their railway system. He then went to London for further research then boarded Titanic as a second class passenger. While aboard he started writing a letter to his wife though it was not completed until after he survived.

He was awakened by a knock on the door and went outside to find out what was going on. He was initially sent to the lower decks since he was a foreigner but made his way back to the upper deck. He got into Titanic lifeboat #10 when an officer called that there was room for two more. He did not, as some claim, try to disguise himself as a woman to get aboard the lifeboat. After he was rescued and returned to Japan, initially he was well received but then came under considerable criticism for surviving when so many women and children died. Condemned a coward in the Japanese press, he lost his government job. Textbooks used him as an example of being dishonorable. However he was hired back by the Transport Ministry and stayed there until his death in 1939.

Hosono never spoke of Titanic and was a source of shame for his family. The letter to his wife was published twice, the second time in the 1990’s. With that letter published and now an exhibit of his memoirs and letter,it is hoped to reverse the years of social disgrace that resulted from surviving such a tragedy.

Sources:
1. Lone Japanese Titanic Survivor’s Memoirs To Be Exhibited At Yokohama Museum(9 April 2014,JDP)
2. Masabumi Hosono(Wikipedia)
3.Masabumi Hosono-Titanic Survivor (Encyclopedia Titanica)

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Titanic News: Ballard To Speak At Museum, Titanic Memorial Garden in Cobh, Southampton Cemetery Walk, and Malaysia Airliner Possibly Deeper Than Titanic

1. The Marine Museum in Fall River will have a fund raiser that will feature a Titanic themed buffet followed by a presentation by Robert Ballard, co-discoverer of Titanic. The event will take place on 2 May and costs $125 for members, $150 for non-members, and is limited to 200 people. Tickets can be purchased by calling 508-674-3533 or at the Marine Museum in Fall River, MA.
Source:Titanic Discoverer Ballard To Speak At Museum (7 April 2014,The Herald News)

2.Titanic Memorial Garden To Open In Cobh(7 April 2014,Irish Examiner)
A special memorial garden is to be opened in the Titanic’s last port of call to commemorate the 123 people who boarded tenders onto the ill-fated liner. At 3pm this Friday, the memorial garden will be officially opened in Cobh, Co Cork — 102 years to the day after the Titanic anchored in the harbour. “The focal point of the garden is a glass memorial wall overlooking the final anchorage of Titanic onto which the names of the 123 passengers that boarded her in what was then known as at Queenstown are inscribed,” Hendrick Verwey, chairman of Cobh Tourism, said.

3. Southampton Cemetery Walks Will Remember Loss Of Titanic(8 April 2014,Daily Echo)
A series of walks will be held in Southampton to remember the loss of the Titanic. Friends of the Southampton Old Cemetery will be holding the walks this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, starting from the main gates at the end of Cemetery Road. Walkers will be guided around graves with family inscriptions relating to the loss of the White Star Line vessel.

4. Malaysia Airliner: ‘Best Lead Yet’ As Possible Black Box Signal Is Picked Up Deeper Than The Titanic(7 April 2014, Mirror Online)
Salvage teams hunting for the plane’s black box devices have picked up signals from 14,764 feet below the surface of the southern Indian Ocean. So-called “pings” have been detected 1,650km off the coast of Perth, Australia, at a depth of 4,500m. When the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on 14th April 1912 it finally rested 12,500ft beneath the Atlantic ocean. The depth will pose difficulties for salvage teams using the latest state of the art technology to locate the black boxes. There is little wonder as to why the area in the southern Indian Ocean is called the “loneliest place on earth”. One of the devices being used to try and fix the point of location of the two black boxes, the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, is the Bluefin 21. The 21 foot long robotic underwater vehicle which has a depth limit of 14,763 ft (4,500M) meaning it will be pushed to the very limit of its capabilities.


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Monday Odds & Ends

1. MLB TV has had problems this season. Due to technical problems caused by a third party, watching on Roku has become a guessing game. Will the home or away feed be the one not working right, both, or should one just listen to the game instead? MLB is promising to fix the problem.

2. A Titanic exhibition in Estonia that recently ended broke attendance records for the museum. The Baltic Course reports that 220,000 people visited the “Titanic: story, findings, legends” exhibition that ran from November 2013 to March 2014. “Such a high visitors’ number at our museum landscape is undoubtedly extraordinary and exceeding or even repeating that would be rather complicated. The number of guests of the Titanic exhibition is proof and acknowledgement that we have offered to the public a world class museum experience,” said Maritime Museum director Urmas Dresen.
Source:Titanic Exhibition Breaks Estonian Museum Visitation Record(2 April 2014,The Baltic Course)

3. A letter written by the mother of Titanic survivor Eva Hart will be auctioned off next month reports the BBC. The letter is written on Titanic stationery was addressed to her mother in Chadwell Heath, England. The letter was found inside her husband’s jacket after they were rescued. Henry Aldridge & Son are the auctioneers for the letter and is perhaps the only one of its type to have survived.
Source: Titanic Last Letter To Be Auctioned(1 April 2014,BBC)

Titanic Belfast (side view) Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)
Titanic Belfast (side view)
Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)

4. Since opening two years ago, the Titanic Belfast Visitors Center has been visited by 1.45 million people reports Irish Times. It has drawn people from all over the world and broke all projections for attendance. 650,000 people passed through last year showing interest in Titanic has not slowed down. Needless to say, Titanic Belfast is “delighted” with the news.
Source:Titanic Centre Visited By 1.45M People Since Opening In 2012(2 April 2014, Irish News)

5. Hungarians @ The Titanic Film Festival(3 April 2014,Xpatloop.com)
This year’s Titanic Festival – running between 4-12th April – will also present the works of Hungarian film makers too. Erik Novák’s brand-new action-thriller and black comedy mixture Black Soup will have its premiere screening at the festival. Simon Szabó’s short film Wall that won the main award at the Tampere Short Film Festival, and Réka Bucsi’s animation short Symphony no. 42 that competed in the Berlinale can also be watched at Titanic. The original score for the Turkish movie The Long Way Home was written by Mihály Víg, and a special film selection and a round table-discussion will commemorate the recently deceased Miklós Jancsó.

6. Irish Titanic Survivors Featured At Irish-American Cultural Society Monthly Meeting(4 April 2014,The Current)
A journalist will provide a multi-media presentation about Irish-American Titanic survivors and the lives they lived out in the United States during the next monthly meeting of the Irish-American Cultural Society. Jim Curley, a journalist with personal ties to the story, will present a multi media talk on a County May village that sent a group of young women off for better opportunities across the Atlantic Ocean. Curley will give his presentation during the next meeting of the Irish-American Cultural Society at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 15 at the American Legion Hall, New Jersey Avenue and Mill Road, Absecon, NJ.

7. Rostron Cup Part Of Online Auction
Boston based RR Auction will be putting the Roston Cup and other Titanic artifacts up for auction online from April 17-24. Letters photos and other memorabilia will be up for auction and the Roston Cup will likely be the big ticket item for this auction. For details and information about the auction, go to rrauction.com.
Source: Online Auction For 240 Titanic Artifacts(4 April 2014,Business Standard)

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Titanic II Update: Clive Palmer Says It Will Be Built

White Star Flag Image:Yar(Wikimedia)
White Star Flag
Image:Yar(Wikimedia)
Clive Palmer is disputing claims Titanic II is stalled according to Sunshine Coast Daily. It has been recently reported that construction was stalled, no contract had been signed, and the Chinese were not as enthusiastic as Palmer had hoped. The attacks, Palmer now says, are politically motivated. He points out they just finished tank testing and that they have signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese group. Palmer points out that it took seven years to design Titanic and that they are ordering stuff for the ship. He also said the keel will be laid in the third quarter this year.

However Palmer is no longer committed to an exact date for the first voyage, which initially was to be in 2016.

If online polls are to be believed, most do not believe it will be built. Vegas odds makers are not taking bets at this time on Titanic II construction.

Source: Clive’s Titanic Not Sunk Yet(31 Mar 2014,Sunshine Coast Daily)


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Titanic II: Australian Newspaper Doubts It Will Be Built

 

White Star Flag Image:Yar(Wikimedia)
White Star Flag
Image:Yar(Wikimedia)

The Australian is reporting that nothing has been done in the construction of Titanic II. Shipbuilding was supposed to have started by now. The newspaper reports that no deal has been signed with CSC Jinling, the Chinese shipyard despite Clive Palmer claiming the deal was “imminent.” No steel has been cut in preparation for its construction. The newspaper further reports the Chinese are not interested in building the ship. Considering how big Titanic is in China, that seems odd indeed. Palmer apparently thought the Chinese would be excited about the project but apparently that has not been the case. It could be that they do want to build Titanic II but would rather do it themselves rather than with Clive Palmer.

The marketing director is quoted as saying the keel will be laid “in the third quarter of this year.” Officially the Chinese company says while it would be difficult to build, they could do it. Palmer might have to consider another shipyard that would be more enthusiastic than the Chinese one. If I were making odds on this ship being constructed, I would bet against it at this time. Palmer really whipped up a lot of excitement but without a signed contract that starts construction, it looks like the skeptics were right, that this was just a publicity stunt. And he has wasted a lot of time and effort because of it.

Source: Clive Palmer’s Titanic II Project Behind Schedule, May Have Stalled (29 Mar 2014,The Australian)


Titanic News: Antique Dealers Accused Stealing Titanic Memorabilia, Titanic II Keel Might Be Laid Soon, And How To Recycle Old VHS Tapes

gavel1. The New York Post reports that Noelle Hollander, daughter of late nautical expert Frank Braynard, has filed suit against two antiques dealers accusing them of stealing her father’s trove of ship memorabilia which includes Titanic memorabilia. The suit alleges Kerry McCaffrey and Richard Faber looted the memorabilia during a visit when her father was suffering from dementia. Also alleged is that he sold them a valuable painting at a bargain basement price which a gallery is now selling for $125,000. Hollander claims her father was unaware what the antiques dealers were doing because of his illness. Both dealers deny any wrong doing.
Source: Titanic Items Swiped From Seaport Museum Founder: Suit(25 Mar 2014,New York Post)

2. Cruise Ship News hopes that everything is going well and that the keel for Titanic II will be 31 March. That has symbolism since the original Titanic keel was laid on the same date in 1909. Of course there are nagging reports of problems between Clive Palmer and the Chinese shipyard. And some believe the whole thing is a publicity stunt.
Source: Titanic 2 Keel Expected To Be Laid March 31(25 Mar 2014,Cruise Ship News)

3. In the category of what will they make Titanic out of next comes this story. Five students with a charity called Butterfly Project decided to recycle old VHS tapes in a novel way. So they obtained 1,000 old VHS tapes, disassembled them, and used the materials to construct a 12 foot replica of the famous ship. Sadly no picture accompanies the story, which is a bummer since it would be something worth seeing. Hard to remember but VHS tapes were state of the art tech for viewing movies not so long ago. At least the typewriter still has a use when power goes out and you need to get a letter out the door.
Source: What Do You Do With 1000 VHS Video Cassettes – Make A Titanic Model Of Course(25 Mar 2014 ,Gloucester Citizen)


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Titanic News: Tinian Plans Titanic Themed Resort, Titanic Halloween Masquerade and Titanic Irish Whiskey Loses A Year

Map of the islands of Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands along the Marianas Trench (east of China and the Philippines). Image: Public Domain (US Geological Survey)
Map of the islands of Saipan and Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands along the Marianas Trench (east of China and the Philippines).
Image: Public Domain (US Geological Survey)

1. Tinian, one of the principal islands in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is planning a multimillion dollar Titanic-themed hotel and resort. The planned resort will be built on a 40,000-square-meter property on Tinian harbor. It will be built to look like it is sitting on water but built on land. Aside from the usual amenities resorts have, it will include a casino and banquet room. The decision to use a Titanic theme is due to the world-wide fascination created by Cameron’s Titanic. It is particularly popular in China, where the movie and soundtrack are very popular. And that is the goal of the resort, to attract tourists from Northern China. So many Chinese tourists will have a choice in a few years: go to a Titanic themed hotel and resort in Tinian or head into the interior and stand aboard a Titanic simulator.
Source:$130M Resort On Tinian OK’d(24 Mar 2014,Saipan Tribune)

2. If you are looking for Titanic themed Halloween masquerade party that will be on a ship, consider one in San Francisco for 2014. According to SFgate.com:
Prepare for the ultimate Halloween party cruise that will be transformed into a haunting Titanic, filled with over 300 Ghosts & Ghouls raised from the dead of the historic Titanic that sank hundreds of years ago.You will be picked up in the San Francisco Bay at Pier 40, where you’ll board the beautiful Fume Blanc Commodore Yacht. You’ll hit the city-lit bay on a 4 hour cruise, with some of the most vivid views of Treasure Island, Alcatraz, the Bay Bridge, Nob hill, the Golden Gate GateBridge, and the magnificent San Francisco Skyline. There are 3 amazing decks on the spacious 350 passenger Fume Blanc Commodore vessel. Seating will be ‘first come, first serve’ on the lower decks, but there will be some reserved seating on the 2nd level so that table service can have the best views of the all the gorgeous scenery.

Sounds fun but costumes/mask required to attend and tickets must be purchased in advance. Ghosts (real ones) admitted free. 🙂
Source: Titanic Masquerade Halloween(22 Mar 2014, SFgate.com)

3. Bad news for fans of Titanic Irish Whiskey. The five year old blend is being reduced down to four years reports The Spirits Business. Their current supplier will not supply a five year blend and with only 300 cases left to be divided on the international market, they made the business decision to drop to a four years or risk running out of whiskey. Okay so this is not strictly a Titanic news item but I happen to know many whiskey drinkers out there get upset when a whiskey maker lowers the aging. It costs approximately $47 for 700ml.
Source: Titanic Irish Whiskey Reduces Age Over Scarce Stocks(24 Mar 2014,The Spirits Business


Titanic News: Survivor Letter Translated On Reddit

A letter written in French dated 8 Aug 1955 written by Rose Amelie Icard was recently put on Redditt for translation assistance. What was revealed, if true, is a striking account of what happened that fateful night in 1912. Miss Icard likely was a maid to first class passenger Martha Stone. She recounts how they were shaken out of bed and initially told there was nothing wrong only to learn it was very serious. And she witnessed Ida Strauss saying she would stay with her husband, Isidor.

“She put her arms around the neck of her husband, telling him: ‘We have been married 50 years, we have never left each other, I want to die with you.”

She also heard Captain Smith order “Women and children first” and that Benjamin Guggenheim helped women and children. Icard passed away in July 1964.

The letter was written to a Madame Ausein, possibly a daughter of a woman that survived the sinking. The Reddit user claims he bought her letters and passport at an auction. The letter has not yet been authenticated.

Source: Titanic Letter Reveals New First-Hand Account Of Disaster(21 Mar 2014,The Telegraph)


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Autistic Boy Asks Lego For More Bricks To Construct Titanic

An 11-year old Icelandic boy named Brynjar Karl has a dream–to use Lego bricks to build his Titanic masterpiece. With the help of his mother, he has made a plea via YouTube to Lego for more bricks. Let’s hope his dream comes true!

Source: 11-Year-Old Boy With Autism Is Asking Lego To Help Him Be Even More Awesome(18 Mar 2014,Huffington Post)

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Irish Independent: Titanic Belfast Is “Captivating and Moving”

Titanic Belfast (side view) Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)
Titanic Belfast (side view)
Image:Prioryman (Wikipedia)

Madeline Keane, writing for the Irish Independent travel section, had this to say about Titanic Belfast:

From your first view of it, designed to look like the famous prow – in the shadow of the great Harland and Wolff shipyard, framed by the massive twin yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath – Titanic Belfast is captivating and moving. Brilliant 3D visuals bring you from the bowels of the boat through the bow to the bridge – we both felt slightly seasick. And there’s a magnetic journey to the ocean floor in the company of oceanographer and former US Navy officer, Professor Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreck in 1973. He’ll deliver a lecture there on March 20. And yet, for all the fantastic touch screen galleries, faithfully recreated state rooms and exceptional archive material, ultimately it is the human tales of courage and cowardice which break your heart.

She also notes if you are planning a visit to Titanic Belfast, book ahead of time because thousands are showing up to see it.

Source: Titanic Odyssey Records Tragedy That Still Haunts(16 Mar 2014, Irish Independent)