Titanic Wreck Bow Image: Public Domain (NOAA-http://www.gc.noaa.gov/images/gcil/ATT00561.jpg)
In the continuing legal challenge to prevent salvage of the Marconi radio from Titanic, government lawyers are arguing that remains may be disturbed and were not considered in the dive plan. RMS Titanic Inc. has responded that human remains inside the wreck have not been in any of the dives thus far. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith approved the salvage in May. The government has appealed the decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal.
Source: Titanic: Concerns About Human Remains Could Block Company From Retrieving Iconic Radio (Boston.com,18 Oct 2020)
Exhibition update-Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition has reopened at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The hours of operation are Thursday-Sunday from 11 am – 6 pm. Last admission is at 5 pm. Prices have been reduced to $26.50 for adults and $18 for children. For further details go to Titanic Las Vegas.
Catalina Island Museum announced it will host its annual Museum Benefit event virtually, welcoming participants from around the world with the first opportunity to view the new Titanic: Real Artifacts, Real People, Real Stories exhibition. The virtual evening experience takes place on Oct. 17, from 6 – 7 p.m. The first-ever virtual affair will be streamed live on YouTube and is free to attend with advanced registration at betterunite.com/catalinamuseum.
In the wake of a recent documentary that found a previously unknown 4-metre hole in the hull of the Estonia, whose sinking in 1994 became the deadliest peacetime maritime catastrophe since the Titanic, Estonian Interior Minister Mart Helme has called for the wreck to be re-examined and the remaining bodies salvaged. It is about a “humanitarian mission”, he says according to Estonian newpaper Postimees. Helme called it a “humanitarian mission” to dispel the speculations about what really happened to the giant ferry that became a watery grave for 852 people.
Now, Friends of the Titanic Lighthouse Restoration plan to faithfully restore the delipidated lighthouse in just over 18 months. The group hopes to restore the lighthouse’s time ball and green lantern. The time ball would be the only working time ball in the United States, while the lantern would make the Titanic Lighthouse the only working lighthouse in Manhattan. The restoration project would also record the names of the passengers and crew who perished when the Titanic sank in 1912.
St. Francis of Assisi by Philip Fruytiers(1610-1666) Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp Public Domain (Wikipedia)
Yesterday was the Feast of St. Francis. He gave up a life of wealth and ease to live as a beggar helping to restore the Church. He is the patron saint of merchants, the environment, and animals. To find out more about St. Francis, go to Catholic Online.
Titanic at Cobh Harbor, 11 April 1912 Public Domain (Cobh Heritage Centre, Cobh, Ireland)
Writing to his wife, Richard Geddes penned: “My dearest Sal, We got away yesterday after a lot of trouble. “As we were passing the New York and Oceanic, the New York broke her ropes and very nearly ran into us, but we just happened to avoid a collision. “I could see visions of Belfast, it must have been a trying time for the Captain.” Reports suggest that some saw the incident as a bad omen and a sign of trouble ahead, but a collision may have also prevented the ill-fated liner’s transatlantic journey to New York. Continuing in his letter, Mr Geddes added: “I hope you are feeling good and not worrying. “I am feeling pretty good. With fondest love and kisses to my dear wife and kiddies. Your affectionate husband, Dick x.”
Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) Public Domain (Wikipedia Commons)
“The bottom line is that the timing is wrong to consider space weather as a cause of the collision with the iceberg. The space weather event occurred after the collision,” Hapgood told Business Insider. But one facet of Zinkova’s theory may be true: Geomagnetic activity could have interfered with radio communications after the shipwreck. There, Hapgood said, space weather may have had “some small effects.” That could explain why the nearby vessel La Provence never received the Titanic’s SOS signal, and why the Titanic couldn’t receive the Mount Temple’s response to its cries for help.”
Aurora Borealis by Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900) Public Domain (Wikipedia Commons)
The Daily Mail had an interesting report about a claim concerning the Northern Lights (aurora borealis). An independent weather researcher is arguing that the presence of the Northern Lights that night contributed in its demise. The compass would have been off by a degree and wireless communication would have affected as well. It would make receiving them more difficult or not at all. It is certainly interesting and certainly adds something new to the events of that night.
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March 6, 1912: Titanic (right) had to be moved out of the drydock so her sister Olympic (left), which had lost a propeller, could have it replaced. Robert John Welch (1859-1936), official photographer for Harland & Wolff Public domain
In April 1912 they left the UK on board the Titanic, to start a new life in Jacksonville, Florida, as pecan farmers. They had intended to sail to the USA on the Philadelphia, but were forced to change their plans due to a coal strike. After bidding their farewells to many well-wishers,the family travelled by train to Southampton and boarded the Titanic on 10 April 1912 as third-class passengers (ticket number 2343 which cost £69 and 11 shillings).
The priest was praying on the upper deck when the ship struck an iceberg at 11.40pm. He assisted the women and children on their way to lifeboats, consoling them and twice refusing a place himself. When passengers got excited or anxious he would say: “Be calm, my good people.” Miss Helen Mary Mocklare, a third class passenger, gave an account of what she witnessed. She said: “A few around us became very excited and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more.
Knocking off time at Harland & Wolff, Belfast. The Titanic is in the background. Public Domain
Dan shared some of his family’s remarkable links with shipbuilding on this page last Friday – his grandfather, father and five uncles all worked in the yard and his two aunts wedded shipyard men. Dan’s play about the H&W shipyard – The Boat Factory – has received substantial local, national and international acclaim. It was hailed as “a unique story” in Brussels, “the epitome of great storytelling” in New York and in Belfast it had “many in the audience reaching for a hanky.”
It’s one of the most famous ‘scoops’ but also perhaps the saddest in the 150-year history of the Belfast Telegraph… the story the newspaper would never have wanted to cover. For the exclusive that broke the news of the Titanic disaster in April 1912 was too painfully close to home for a city that had proudly built the doomed ocean liner and where virtually everyone knew someone with a link to the construction of the luxury White Star heavyweight.
The identity of the boy remained a mystery for nearly a century until a group of forensic experts gradually pieced it together, using breakthroughs in DNA technology and the discovery of a pair of tiny shoes, which had been kept by a Halifax police sergeant tasked with burning all the victims’ clothing in 1912. He just couldn’t bring himself to destroy what remained of the youngest victim recovered by the sailors.
35 years ago this week, the Titanic’s wreckage was found in the Atlantic. The ship got a lot of popular attention over the years for its tragic end – and of course because of the mega hit Hollywood film. Kieran Cuddihy was joined by Rory Golden, the very first Irish diver to ever go to the iconic ship’s wreckage – and he shared his experience.
Hitler attends a Wehrmacht victory parade in Warsaw on 5 October 1939 Public Domain
On 1 September 1939, German forces using the pretext they were acting in self-defense against Poland, invaded. The German infantry was not fully mechanized but had Panzers and fast-moving artillery that included truck mounted artillery. The German strategy was to quickly concentrate forces and encircle an enemy quickly. Thanks to the relatively flat terrain of Poland, it made it easy to move mobile infantry about.
The invasion came one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 23 August. This non-aggression pact meant neither side could assist the enemy of the other. A secret protocol to the agreement defined German and Soviet spheres in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. This protocol would not be proved until the Nuremberg Trials. So, when Germany invaded, Poland was already split with defined borders between the two countries.
With this pact, Poland signed defense agreements with Britain and France. Talks between those powers and Germany did take place and the invasion was held up until they were concluded. Hitler did not believe they would declare war, and if they did would be willing to compromise after the invasion of Poland. Germany wanted the restoration of Danzig (in Polish Gdansk) as a free city (it had a large German population), the Polish Corridor, and the safeguarding of Germans in Poland. Germany demanded that a Polish representative with the power to sign such an agreement be present. The British, remembering what happened before when Czechoslovakia was forced to capitulate to the Germans, did not like that demand. When the Polish representative met with Ribbentrop on 31 Aug, he was dismissed when he had no power to sign. The Germans then claimed that Poland had rejected their demands and Hitler ordered the invasion for 1 September.
The Germans were better prepared for war than the Polish. They had higher numbers of troops and had air superiority. Poland had older fighters while the bombers were more modern. They waited too late to upgrade so newer fighters and bombers would not be there when the Germany invaded. Poland had two armor brigades and its 7TP light tank was better armed than the German Panzer. But they only had 140 of those and 88 tanks they imported from Britain and France. The Polish Navy was a small fleet with destroyers, submarines and support vessels. Most of the surface vessels escaped and joined the British Royal Navy. Submarines did engage German shipping in the Baltic Sea but it was not successful. Polish merchant ships that did escape or elsewhere would join the allies and take part in wartime convoys.
By 3 October both German and Soviet forces had secured their spheres ending the Second Polish Republic. Both German and Soviet governments quickly took control of their territories, organizing and annexing, and setting up regional controls. Government and military leaders who did escape would form a military force in support of the Polish government-in-exile. In response to the invasion of Poland, Britain and France formally declared war on Germany on 3 September but little else (France did invade the Saar but quickly withdrew).
Titanic Found
Titanic Wreck Bow Image: Public Domain (NOAA-http://www.gc.noaa.gov/images/gcil/ATT00561.jpg)
On 1 September 1985 history was made in the early morning hours. A combined expedition of Woods Hole Institute and the French national oceanographic agency IFREMER would locate the wreck of Titanic lying approximately 12,500 feet south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland. Using a remote controlled deep-sea vehicle Argo equipped with sonar and cameras, it was towed by Knorr over the area. Robert Ballard of Woods Hole Institute had used this system to locate the sunken submarines Scorpion and Thresher. An earlier attempt by the French ship to locate by sonar had failed. So now he was focusing on finding a debris field, similar to how he found those submarines. Finally after a week of searching, at 12:48 am on Sunday, 1 September 1985 pieces of debris began to appear on Knorr’s screens. It brought both cheers and a somber moment of remembering Titanic’s sinking. The boiler found was identical to pictures from 1911. The next day the main part of the wreck was found showing Titanic had split in two.
Japan Surrenders
Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945: Representatives of the Empire of Japan on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies. Army Signal Corps, Public Domain
On the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay, the Japanese formally surrendered ending World War II. By this time Japan was no longer the military power it once was. The Battle of Midway in June 1942 had been the turning point when four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk. Since then Japanese control over its captured territories were pushed back under massive effort of U.S. and Allied forces. By the summer of 1945, and with the capture of Okinawa, Japan was being blockaded and being bombed often. Plans for the invasion of Japan had been drawn up. After the bloody experience of capturing territory such as on Iwa Jima, it was expected to be a difficult invasion that would cost a lot of allied lives. However, the dropping of two atomic weapons on Japan in August on Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed things dramatically.
Members of the Japanese War Council and Emperor Hirohito favored accepting the peace terms; some objected and acted to stop a surrender. On 15 Aug a coup was attempted against Prime Minister Suzuki, but it was crushed. At noon that day, and for the first time in Japanese history, Emperor Hirohito addressed the nation by radio. “We have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable.” The US and the allies accepted the surrender.
Even over a hundred years ago, the Belfast Telegraph was first with the news. In 1912 the newspaper reported the sinking of the Titanic on the same day that the liner went down in the north Atlantic — an amazing feat for the time. The Tele was the first newspaper in Europe to report the collision with an iceberg, after a telegram was sent to the newsroom alerting it of the disaster in what remains the earliest documented notification of the disaster.
Memorial to Titanic Engine Room Heroes
Liverpool, England
Public Domain (Wikipedia)
This granite memorial is located on St. Nicholas Place, Pier Head, Liverpool, England. Constructed in 1916 by Sir William Gascombe John, its original purpose is to commemorate the 32 engineers who perished on Titanic. With the heavy loss of life in World War I, the monument was also for all maritime engine room fatalities. During World War II, the monument was damaged by shrapnel from bombs that were dropped nearby (still visible today).
The monument is 48 feet tall and shaped as an obelisk on a square pedestal. The east and west side have carved life-size sculptures of stokers and engineers. According to Historic England, the monument is a registered historic monument. Also, its design had influence on future war memorials.
The memorial had a considerable influence upon the design of post 1919 war memorials, particularly in respect of the portrayal of the ordinary man or woman, rather than of members of social or military elites. It is thought to be one of the most artistically significant memorials to the Titanic disaster on either side of the Atlantic.
Historical Note: There is a disconnect between what was believed happened and what did happen regarding the engineers. During the British Inquiry into the disaster, it was learned that all of the engineers had been instructed to leave and went topside in the hopes of surviving the disaster. There simply was nothing further than could be done. They did not die at their posts, as is often claimed. They were ordered to go topside and they did. Neither Boxhall nor Lightoller saw them but it is clear from testimony they went up. Lord Mersey choose not to mention this in his report leaving the impression that the engineers had all died at their posts. Some did not survive but they did not stay down in the bowls of the ship until the end.
Exhibition update-Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition has reopened at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The hours of operation are Thursday-Sunday from 11 am – 6 pm. Last admission is at 5 pm. Prices have been reduced to $26.50 for adults and $18 for children. For further details go to Titanic Las Vegas.
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