R/V Knorr at the WHOI dock in Woods Hole, MA 2012 Public Domain (Wikipedia)
RV Knorr, made famous by being the Woods Hole vessel that had the researchers that found Titanic aboard, is heading to Mexico. The ship was a mainstay of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since it was delivered to them in 1970. And logged close to a million miles in its long history with Woods Hole. The ship was officially decommissioned in 2014 and its replacement, the RV Neil Armstrong, will take its place. The ship will now serve in the Mexican Navy though it is unclear what her duties will be.
1. Titanic II Ticket Demand Expected To Increase Cruise Ship News speculates that now the project is back on, that demand for tickets will begin again. “One thing we do know though, and that is the fact there will now be renewed demand for Titanic 2 ticket prices. Details of Titanic II tickets had already been shared, but not their prices. We do know that there will be first, second and third class like the original liner, and some people have been offering up to £640,000($987,216USD) so they can be the first to experience life aboard the Titanic 2.” They might want to wait until construction actually begins before offering substantial sums of money. There is still a lot of doubt this will get built.
Source: Titanic 2 Ticket Demand Renewed Following Latest Launch News(14 Sep 2015,Cruise Ship News)
2. Titanic Whistles Heard For The First Time Since 1912 At Luxor Titanic Exhibition
Back in 1912 recording media was very primitive so we have no idea what Titanic’s whistles sounded like. Now we have a pretty good idea. A set of Titanic’s whistles were recovered in 1993,cleaned and then X-rayed. The whistles are believed to been on the first funnel and could be used one last time. In 1999 using high-pressured air, the whistle tones were recorded. The whistle sound, two separate blasts of about eight seconds each, are heard by visitors to the Titanic exhibition at Luxor hotel in Las Vegas. A replica set of the whistles is on display as well (the original is at the Huntington Park, California exhibition).
Source:Whistles Give Voice To Tragedy At Luxor Titanic Exhibition(13 Sep 2015,Las Vegas Review Journal)
3. 30 Years!
On September 1, 1985, a joint expedition of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and French National Institute of Oceanography (IFREMER) located Titanic just a little after 1am. Lying over 12,400 feet down, it was a major success for Robert Ballard (WHOI) and Jean Louis Michel of IFREMER to finally locate the wreck. Using a new approach of using a deep towed sonar and video camera system, they were looking for debris rather than just one large object. They found the debris field and followed it to the wreck. It was a major achievement for both and brought worldwide attention. It answered some questions and raised more. Titanic did not sink in one piece but in two. Further explorations would learn there was no large gash but perhaps punctures caused by the iceberg grazing against it. The subsequent salvage would touch off a firestorm between Titanic historians and enthusiasts, a debate that still lingers to this day.
Source: 1985 Discovery of RMS Titanic(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
1.Titanic Menu Up For Auction BBC is reporting that a menu from Titanic’s first class restaurant will be auctioned off on 18 October by Henry Aldridge & Son. The menu, stuffed inside a coat pocket, is expected to fetch £70,000($112,528). A deck plan used to help a survivor find the way to a lifeboat on Titanic will be auctioned off as well.
2. Ancient Wreck Dubbed Titanic of Ancient World Proving To Be Treasure Trove
The 2,000-year-old Antikythera shipwreck in Greece is the focus of a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) expedition reports LiveScience.com. The ship likely sank between 70 B.C. and 60 B.C while on its way from Asia Minor to Rome. It was found by sponge divers in 1900 and early efforts to retrieve valuables proved costly in human lives. Some of the earlier items brought up back then included bronze and marble statues of heroes and horses, jewelry, furniture, glassware and a a complex astronomical calculator called the Antikythera mechanism. Jacques Cousteau also dived to the sunken ship and brought up some amazing items as well. This most recent expedition from Sept. 15 to Oct. 7 also brought up some fascinating items as well. Also the dive allowed for the use of rebreathers to allow divers to spend more time down exploring the wreck. They also used high resolution 3D maps of the site that showed it much larger than previously thought. Another expedition is being planned for next year.
3. Premier Exhibitions Facing Stronger Criticism Over Bodies Exhibition
As noted in an earlier posting, human rights activists in Toronto is calling for the seizure of the human bodies on display claiming many of the Chinese included were imprisoned or killed by that government. The Toronto Sun reports that Choose Humanity spokesman Joel Chipkar says the cadavers on display (which include men, women and children)were executed for engaging in such acts as belonging to group such as Falun Gong. Premier Exhibitions has not issued a formal response to the allegation.
4. If You Have $10.9 Million This Former Straus Property Could Be Yours
The Straus inheritors wanted to live big in Red Bank, New Jersey. So they decided to build a huge estate on 29,000 square feet that would have included a 27-room chateau had the Great Depression not slowed down and ended construction. They did build some fine buildings based on 18th century Provence and imported nearly everything to make it look right. What could not be imported was made by French and Italian artisans who came over to do the job. It was sold in 1951 and the houses became part of a co-op. This being a very wealthy area though, it was not a commune but a very nice place for those with lots of money to live in a lovely estate and share common amenities like a pool (important on those hot summer days). Now the whole thing is up for sale. Just fork over $10.9 million and it is yours. Pool included.
Not Titanic
1. I like the ABC show Castle. And like everyone was stunned at how last season ended. We are now two episodes into this season and this is what we learned:that Richard Castle has a very dark secret. And somehow that caught up with him just before the wedding. And he apparently, in conjunction with others to cover it up (possibly not by choice), staged the disappearance and likely used drugs of some kind to permanently loose those memories. Does anyone think the movie Total Recall is being done on us just with a Castle twist? Personally it would have been more likely had old enemies of his father had staged it. Hey, maybe they did for all we know. Not really liking this at all. One hopes down the road Kate does not wake up to find it is the day of the wedding and all that happened really was a dream.
2. Hells Kitchen continues its tradition of D list cooks who seemingly fall apart under the intense scrutiny of Chef Hell (Ramsay) and his assistants. It is becoming easier though to pick the ones that are clearly just there to cause problems in the group.
3. Someone needs to tell the folks over at Amazing Race we really do not care or need to know someone really had to go to the bathroom bad during the race. But we also found out in the first episode that some people really are quite stupid. One of the real estate gals actually said the sun rises in the west and settles in the east. The stunned looks on the two who heard her say that was funny. Needless to say the real estate gals were eliminated. Hopefully by now they have figured where the sun actually rises and sets. And it has been doing it exactly that way for a very long, long time.
