Tag Archives: James Cameron

James Cameron Says Titan Sinking Broke All The Rules; Alleged Titan Transcript Deemed A Fraud

Titan (submersible)
Becky Kagan Schott, OceanGate

James Cameron (famed director of Titanic) stated at a recent appearance on a news show about the Titan submersible tragedy that they (OceanGate) broke all the rules. He went on further to say that the submersible should not have been carrying passengers. As the first anniversary of the sinking approaches, Cameron opined that there is a lot of mystery surrounding the investigation. Cameron claims he offered to be part of the investigative community for the U.S. Coast Guard, but they turned it down.

I think they want to do things their way and frankly I think they’ve kind of got egg on their face and they don’t want outside opinions. That’s just my interpretation.”

Cameron also criticized the media circus that erupted over the tragedy saying that they fueled unwarranted hope that they would be alive. And they knew the location of the submersible and had no readily available means to dive to it. He accuses the Coast Guard of withholding information to the families of those who perished. And that they knew from naval intelligence that an implosion had occurred.

“They just didn’t disclose. They were informed by naval intelligence that an implosion event was tracked to the co-ordinate of the Titanic wreck site.”

Cameron does believe charges are appropriate but the main person responsible, OceanGate CEO Rush Stockton, perished in the tragedy.

Cameron indicates that he will build a submersible to go down to Titanic. He was a friend of Paul-Henri Nargeolet,who perished in the tragedy, and wants to honor his friend and show that it can be safely done.

Source

Brennan, A. (2024, June 9). Titanic director’s take on OceanGate tragedy. News. https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/current-affairs/james-cameron-explains-his-theories-behind-oceangate-submersible-tragedy/news-story/364889e3f1a83cd46fcec877f80a004e

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Log Purported To Be From Titan Submersible Deemed A Fraud

A supposed transcript distributed via YouTube and TikTok not long after the Titan submersible tragedy in June 2023 claimed to be the log from the doomed expedition has deemed a fraud. While many did put disclaimers as to its authenticity, Snopes marked it as “unconfirmed.” Now it has been deemed a fake

“I’m confident it’s a false transcript,” Jason Neubauer, a retired U.S. Coast Guard captain who now chairs the Marine Board of Investigation, told The New York Times. “It was made up.”

The transcript appears to make it sound like those in the submersible knew what was happening. However, the actual transcript (never made public) does not match up with it casting further doubt it was authentic. The men had no idea that Titan was about to implode. So far no one has been identified as the author of the transcript.

Source

Braine, T. (2024, June 11). Detailed log of Titan submersible’s descent to Titanic wreckage deemed fake. New York Daily News. https://www.nydailynews.com/2024/06/10/detailed-log-of-titan-submersibles-descent-to-titanic-wreckage-deemed-fake/

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Friday Titanic News and the First Armed Train Robbery in U.S (6 Oct 1866)

Little-known facts about the Titanic that may surprise you
MSN.com, 3 Oct 2023
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/little-known-facts-about-the-titanic-that-may-surprise-you/ss-AA1hzKaJ

This is a gallery of interesting tidbits you may find worthwhile.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Said James Cameron Got the Sky All Wrong in the ‘Titanic’ Sinking Scene
Insider, 3 Oct. 2023
www.insider.com/neil-degrasse-tyson-said-james-cameron-titanic-sky-wrong-2023-10

There have been many criticisms, some fair or not, about Cameron’s Titanic. So apparently the night sky was not accurate. Fair enough, coming from someone who would seem to know. I assume he set up the appropriate simulation (which can be done these days) and with all the data we have input it and then voila! You get the night sky as it should have been back in 1912. I bet James Cameron will not lose any sleep missing this important detail. Out of audience of how many-millions-and no one except the eminent Neil deGrasse Tyson, eager to sell a new book tells the world the night sky in that movie was all wrong. Well, it got some attention, which I suppose is what he wanted. I am all for being accurate and routinely disappointed when historical movies get characters and even dates wrong. Great movies like Quo Vadis, a great sword and sandal movie, is very wrong about many things (although Peter Ustinov nails Nero) but is a great movie none the less. So, I am not going to worry that the night sky in that movie was not shown as it was in 1912. Nor should anyone for that matter since the movie is historical fiction based on real events. So, pop the popcorn and enjoy the movie.

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Interesting History: The First Train Robbery in U.S. History (6 Oct 1866)

Steam Trains Vintage Poster
Karen Arnold, publicdomainpibtures.net

In the early days of this country, traveling was hazardous. Roads were poor, especially in winter. Near cities it was not too bad but the further out you were, it was more treacherous. Roads, such as they were, were poorly kept. And of course, thieves (tagged highway robbers, blackguards, and other notable names) loved to prey on travelers. Stealing from a train though seemed implausible to many since trains moved pretty swiftly, at least most of the time.

Now train robberies had occurred before this date but these were mainly done in freight yards or when the train was stationary sitting in a depot. So, it was a bit of a shock when the Reno Gang stopped a train in Jackson County, Indiana and made off with $13,000. They boarded the Ohio & Mississippi train at the Seymour depot and once the train was underway made their way wearing masks until entering a car owned by the Adams Express Company. The company delivered bank drafts, documents, and packages for clients. He was ordered to open the safes, but he only could access one. He opened it and they took gold coins totaling $10,000 and bank notes worth about $3,000. There was another safe they tried to open but couldn’t and tossed it off the train. They never got it open.

They signaled for the train to stop, hopped off, and disappeared into the night. The Reno Brothers were well known gang before and after the Civil War and caused lots of headaches. The gang frequently robbed post offices, homes, and murdered those who might talk about them. Their audacious robbery of a train would soon be imitated by other gangs and would become part of the lore of the old west. Trains carrying gold, cash, and other precious metal would become targets and became frequent in the 1870’s-1880’s. And they would become more deadly over time. Railroads were anxious to stop this banditry as it caused lots of bad press, angry passengers, and impacted shipping. So, they began adding armed guards to their trains along with horses in some cases so they could give chase. Bounties were made and the famous Pinkerton Agency was used to help track them down as well.

To make it more difficult to offload safes, they were made extra heavy all but making it impossible to toss them off the trains. And the people on the train may not have access to those safes for security reasons either making it useless to try and hold up the train (except to rob the passengers). While in the early days targeting trains was easy, deadly shootouts between the armed guards and gangs made it not worth trying as time went on. The Reno Brothers, an already notorious gang before and after the Civil War, added this to their roster of crimes that included robbing post offices, banks, homes, and murder. It did not end well for them. In 1868 after another successful train robbery that netted them $96,000, they were captured and held in jail pending trial. They had badly beaten an armed guard in the robbery and when he died while they were in jail, a vigilante mob was formed. They broke into the jail and took the Reno Brothers (Frank, William, and Sim) out and hung them from a tree.

Like most gangs, they had their supporters who threatened retaliation. The vigilantes-officially called the Jackson County Vigilance Committee-made it known that any retaliation would be met fiercely, which seems to have worked. While many in law enforcement wanted to bring them to trial and were not happy with this action, none of the vigilantes were identified or brought to trial for their actions. This ended one of the darker periods in southern Indiana history. The Reno Brothers Gang though would fade in memory while other gangs (such as the James Gang) would become more well known.

Sources

“The Reno Brothers Carry Out the First Train Robbery in U.S. History.”
HISTORY, 24 Nov. 2009
www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-u-s-train-robbery

Daley, Jason. “How the Reno Gang Launched the Era of American Train Robberies.” Smithsonian Magazine, 6 Oct. 2016
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/reno-gang-launched-era-american-train-robberies-180960702

HistoryNet. “Reno Gangs Reign of Terror.”
HistoryNet, 9 Aug. 2016
www.historynet.com/reno-gangs-reign-of-terror

“Reno Gang and the 1st Big Train Robbery”
Legends of America, June 2021
www.legendsofamerica.com/we-renogang
Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.

Daily Mirror:Titanic Expert Claims He’s Solved 110-Year-Old Mystery from Night Of Sinking

 

New York Times Front Page 16 April 1912
Public Domain (Wikimedia Commons)

Titanic Expert Claims He’s Solved 110-Year-Old Mystery from Night Of Sinking (Daily Mirror, 24 Jan 2022)

Parks continued: “If Evans had remained at his station and received Titanic’s distress call, could the Californian – arguably the closest ship – have come to the rescue before Carpathia? “Could Californian have averted the heavy loss of life? I would say no. “In daylight, it took her over two hours to work her way slowly out of the ice into clear water and reach the scene of the disaster. At night, it would have taken much longer.“In short, had Evans received Titanic’s distress call, it would have already foundered and most of the people in the water would have died from cold shock and exposure before Californian arrived.


Premier Exhibitions Bankruptcy Update

This and other Titanic artifacts could be yours! Appraised value is $240 million. All genuine offers considered. Contact Brent Williams at Lincoln International, bwilliams@lincolninternational.com , telephone (212) 257-7750 or Premier’s financial advisors, Marshall Glade, GlassRatner Advisory & Capital Group LLC, mglade@glassratner.com , telephone (404) 835-8844.

The story thus far: Premier Exhibitions, which owns RMS Titanic Inc, has filed for bankruptcy. A decision has been reached to sell the Titanic collection (the artifacts and intellectual property). One problem is the Titanic salvage award limits how those artifacts can be sold: as one collection. Past attempts to sell have failed because the price is too high. And now our story resumes….

Could a famous Hollywood director put together the money needed to buy the collection? The U.K. Daily Mail reports that James Cameron has begun a “secret” rescue mission to bring the Titanic artifacts to the U.K. He has apparently teamed up with Robert Ballard, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and the Royal Geographical Society to accomplish this. The figure being reported is £165 million.

Details of this “secret” mission were revealed at a court hearing last week by Ballard. Of course nothing is final and it is the very early stages. I doubt they will be the only party that will be interested. The Chinese would like to add it to their theme park and have money to spend as well. And there are investors in Dubai who also would not mind having the Titanic collection there as well that will draw in tourists. ave Vermillion, spokesman for RMS Titanic Inc, confirmed they have interest from all over the world.

Hopefully this time they will actually sell it to someone who will properly conserve it. The bidding war, if that is what it becomes, ought to be fascinating.

Source: Save the treasures of the Titanic! Director James Cameron launches top-secret £165m bid to rescue artefacts after shipwreck’s ‘owners’ are declared bankrupt (Daily Mail,1 Jul 2017)


Titanic and Related News

RMS Empress of Ireland 1908
Photo:Public Domain (Library and Archives Canada / PA-116389)

1. Artifacts from Canada’s Titanic Heading To The Auction House
Artifacts from the Empress of Ireland that sank in 1914 are going to be auctioned off at Lunds Auctioneers and Appraisals in Victoria, British Columbia. For many years the wreck was easily accessible to divers until the 1990’s when the wreck was brought under government protection. The collection being auctioned off is expected to have pieces that will fetch between $100-$10,000 per item.
Source:Empress of Ireland artifacts put up for auction in Victoria (CHEK,27 May 2017)

2. Amazing aerial pictures show the £105m full-size Titanic replica set to be completed by this year as a part of a grand theme park in China (Daily Mail,10 May 2017)
Incredible images show the £105 million full-size Titanic replica taking shape in China’s Sichuan province. The ship is scheduled for completion at the end of this year and will open to members of the public in 2019. It will make up just part of a grand theme park which will also contain a manmade beach which will be open to tourists 365 days a year.

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

3. Titanic Belfast Celebrates Record-Breaking Year (Hospitality Ireland,11 May 2017)
Titanic Belfast’s chief executive, Tim Husbands, stated that “2016/17 was a really strong year. Not only did we have our busiest day ever in August 2016, with an increase in numbers from key markets including Britain, USA, China, France, Germany and Australia, but we were also crowned World’s Leading Tourist Attraction at the prestigious World Travel Awards.”More than 82% of those who visited the attraction in 2016 were from outside Northern Ireland, with over 40% of all visitors asserting that Titanic Belfast represented the sole reason for their journey to Northern Ireland.

4. Well it had to happen.  Stephen Cummings is suing James Cameron for over $300 million claiming he stole the idea of Jack Dawson from him. He claims Cameron overheard him discussing the idea twenty years ago. That is not all, reports the UK Daily Mail. He also alleges that how the ship sank used in the movie came from him as well. Cameron has had no response to the lawsuit.  If Judge Judy were handling the case, she would likely dismiss it and castigate Cummings for wasting the courts time on something like this.
Source:=
James Cameron sued for ‘stealing the life story of a Florida man who worked in the yacht industry’ to create Leo DiCaprio’s character in Titanic (Daily Mail, 22 May 2017)


Recent Titanic News

[Editors Note-Still catching up on news. Been busy as of late so I have not been able to post much]

1. Rare Titanic photo going under the hammer (Daily Echo, 10 Feb 2017)
A rare photograph of the ill-fated Titanic,which was bought for “a song” at a country auction, is now set to fetch hundreds of pounds when it is auctioned again next week. The black and white photograph, in a glazed oak frame, was taken shortly before the Titanic sank – with the loss of more than 1,500 lives – on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in April 1912.

2. Experts are disputing a documentary which says a fire was partly to blame for the Titanic sinking (thejournal.ie, 11 Feb 2017)
The programme argued that long-hidden photographs from the time showed that the Titanic’s hull had supposedly been damaged by a fire before it set off on its only journey, leaving it weak and susceptible when it hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. In the documentary, Moloney noted that researchers had known about the fire before but had tended to dismiss it as an ‘irrelevancy’, arguing that it should have been taken more seriously as a cause of the sinking. The documentary also claimed there were other issues which contributed to the ship sinking, such as substandard materials and shoddy workmanship, primarily due to cost-cutting. However a team of seven maritime historians has published an article completely refuting the programme’s claim that the coal fire was one of the main reasons why the ship sank. “However intriguing the claims set forth in Titanic: The New Evidence may be, they run counter to a wealth of well-researched facts about the ship and its sinking,” said J Kent Layton, a Titanic historian.

3. James Cameron really has a thin skin it seems when it comes to certain aspect of his famous Titanic movie. Fans debate the many points of this and that in the movie. One such example is whether or not Jack could have fit on the door Rose was on. Now I have not spent any real time dwelling on this point since we know this is just a movie. Apparently it got the attention of Mythbusters and they proved it was possible for Jack to have survived on the floating door with extra buoyancy. Okay that ought to have more or less settled it and we could move on. Not Cameron. So he recently commented on it by saying Jack would never have survived and that Mythbusters was full of poop (he used a barnyard word that is far more graphic for this family friendly blog). Of course he was on that episode of Mythbusters and never said is was all poop. He does say it was in the script he was to die. Okay. Moving on.
James Cameron Debunks ‘Titanic’ Theory That Jack Could Fit On The Door (Huffington Post Canada, 1 Feb 2017)


Titanic Tidbits For Superbowl Sunday

©National Football League
©National Football League

It is Superbowl Sunday here in the United States. It has become a mini-holiday of sorts. For football fans, it is the ultimate game between two rivals. Whether you go to the game or watch it at home, it means cheering on your favorite team (if you have one). And it has become a major food day as well. There are many foods to celebrate the game from nachos to pizza. Pizza is the number one food according to both surveys and sales. All the major national pizza chains look to Superbowl Sunday as the biggest pizza day of the year. It is also the Chinese Lunar New Year so at my house this year, the game will have delicious Chinese food from a local restaurant.

Now to Titanic….

*Not that anyone really cares (or do they?)but the entertainment media has been aflutter with Kate Winslet saying that Jack did not need to die. If they do a remake, perhaps he will live that time or perhaps both will die. Or resurrected as flesh eating ghouls for the cinematic horror Zombies From The Cold Sea!

*A cardboard boat race to teach the lessons of buoyancy ended with the  famously named Titanic suffering a similar watery fate. Duck tape and cardboard are a tough challenge to be waterproof though Mythbusters proved the viability of a duck tape boat.

*A political candidate recently spoofed Titanic on Saturday Night Live. Once again Titanic being used as a political prop.

*A Spanish broadcaster apparently confused British Prime Minister David Cameron with famous movie producer James Cameron. Oops! Next time try doing an Internet search first.

Happy Sunday everyone.


Jack, The Time Traveler

Public Domain
Public Domain

So you have tired of the usual discussions about Titanic and that very famous movie and are looking for something new. In a Castle like moment, it happens! Jack Dawson was a time traveler sent back in time to prevent Rose from committing suicide. Shazam! The Internet goes ablaze as people discuss its possibility and offering proof. Like the famous cursed mummy, it is sure to last a long time.

If we follow the logic of its believers, if Rose had fallen overboard Titanic would have stopped to look for her. This would take time and quite possibly prevented Titanic from colliding with the iceberg. History would have been changed but for good or ill we do not know. Like all such theories, it opens up a lot of possibilities for alternative history writers. If Jack came back in time to save Rose though it could only be for one reason–that something very bad will occur as a result. Unless of course there was something very personal he wanted to change but it likely would be the first reason.

And Rose is the key. If she lives, history will be changed as Titanic will sink. Some point to the manner of his death as another indication he was a time traveler. Or that he references places he will take her that do not exist yet. Well it is certainly interesting and even entertaining to think about. Which makes her more important than Indiana Jones was in Raiders of the Lost Ark. In that movie, as those guys on Big Bang Theory realized after Amy pointed it out, Jones was not central to the story at all. If he had never been in the story, the exact same ending would have occurred with all the Nazi’s being killed in the end just without Marian and Indy tied up nearby with their eyes closed.


Titanic News: Postcard Sent By Titanic Survivor Auctioned Off; James Cameron Deep Water Vehicle Implodes

gavelPostcard Menu Sells For £87,000
1. The Daily Echo reports that a postcard sent by Titanic survivor Jacob Gibbons fetched £87,000($146,396) at auction. Sue Stares, his granddaughter, was very surprised by the amount it sold for. And it broke a record of £74,00o for a Titanic menu record. Stares said her grandmother was initially informed he had died but then received a telegram informing he was alive. The postcard doubled as a menu, was sent from Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland when it stopped there. According to Encylopedia Titanica, Gibbons served as a second class steward aboard Titanic. He was rescued in lifeboat 11 and his telegram to his family on 20 April 1912 says simply: “Saved, well, Daddy.”
Sources:
1. Postcard Sent By Titanic Survivor Jacob Gibbons Sells For £87,000 At Auction(13 May 2014,Daily Echo)
2. Jacob William Gibbons(Encylopedia Titanica)

Nereus during a partially NASA-funded expedition to the Mid-Cayman Rise in October 2009. Photo: Public Domain (WIkipedia)
Nereus during a partially NASA-funded expedition to the Mid-Cayman Rise in October 2009.
Photo: Public Domain (WIkipedia)

Cameron’s Robotic Submarine Crushed By Extreme Water Pressure
2. Agence France-Presse is reporting that James Cameron’s robotic research submarine Nereus recently imploded from extreme water pressure. The Nereus was in the Kermadec Trench when it was crushed by 16,000 pounds per square inch of pressure according to Woods Hole Institute. Cameron reports he lost a friend and an “amazing, groundbreaking robot and the only currently active vehicle in the world that could reach the extreme depths of the ocean trenches. This is a tragic loss for deep science.”
Source: ‘Titanic’ Director James Cameron’s Robotic Research Submarine Nereus Implodes(12 May 2014,Agence France-Presse)

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