In 1912, RMS Titanic was the largest, and arguably most luxurious ship to ever sail the seas. But on her maiden voyage, a sequence of events so unfortunate occurred it led to the deaths of 1496 people, two-thirds of the 2,200 souls on board, and abruptly ended the life of what had been such an amazing and promising ship. However, despite Titanic's fame, it is by no means the worst maritime disaster in history in terms of lives lost; that goes to the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945, which claimed the lives of 9,400 people. Titanic, however, is a disaster that has captured the hearts and minds of people across the globe for over a century. It is referenced almost everywhere in pop culture, and you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who has never heard of the disaster. Since the 111th anniversary of Titanic's sinking has just passed, I thought it to be important to look at why this event is still so significant to people today.
RMS Titanic's Passage to Eternity - a painting by Ken Marshall
Titanic's impact on the passenger ship industry:
The sinking represented one of the most important moments in maritime history, and it created the conditions for much-needed change to safety regulations for passenger liners. Requirements for more lifeboats, improved safety features onboard and the International Iceberg Patrol are things that exist largely due to Titanic. Of course these measures likely would have been implemented eventually, but the disaster set the trigger point for that to happen. In many ways, Titanic's sinking, although mostly due to sheer bad luck, was perhaps partly due to a culture of 'slacking off' within the shipping industry. The Board of Trade regulations required that a ship over 10,000 tonnes to carry a minimum of just 16 lifeboats, a rule made in the 1890s and not written to account for much larger ships that would be built in the 20th century; Titanic was 46,000 tonnes. Not only that, but certain small things, such as a lack of binoculars available, or an underlying belief that a ship would be able to see a dangerous enough iceberg ahead meant that there were things that could have been averted and mitigated to avoid the disaster. Of course, we will never know, but the sinking undoubtedly led to a shift in culture within the industry and the realisation that if a ship as big and robust as Titanic could sink as she did, no one could afford to take chances.
The people:
Titanic's maiden voyage contained onboard some of the most notable people in the world; Marc Guggenheim, John Jacob Astor (the richest man in America at the time), and Ida and Isador Strauss (the owner of Macy's and the couple so tragically depicted laying in bed together in James Cameron's 1997 movie). You could only imagine today if such a disaster happened with some of our richest and most famous people today; Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates etc. That alone would be enough for the sinking to go down in the history books.
However, its not just the fame of such a great ship to do the unthinkable and sink during her maiden voyage, or even the number of famous figures who perished onboard, but the individual stories of the passengers makes it impossible not to feel something; whether they are people who have become legendary following the sinking, such as Margaret Brown or Violet Jessop, or the tragic fate of those such as the Allison family.
Many of those onboard were emigrants, looking to start a new life in the United States, maybe even meeting relatives already in the country. For most people sadly, this dream of a new life would be completely lost in little over 2 hours, and those who survived had to carry the memory of the disaster forever. Families were torn apart, and there was little that the survivors could have done.
Violet Jessop ("Miss Unsinkable") survived Olympic's collision with HMS Hawke, as well as the Titanic and Britannic disasters
John Jacob Astor IV, America's richest man in 1912, who perished in the sinking
The Cultural Impact of Titanic (1997):
I do believe that James Cameron's 1997 movie, 'Titanic' has played a massive role in the continued legacy of Titanic. For decades, Titanic had been something that most people were aware of but before 1997 it was not as present in everyday media and culture in the way that it is today. Even in 1997, there were massive fears among production that the movie would 'bomb', yet it ended up become the third highest grossing film of all time!
The film truly brought to life the disaster and made us all experience what it would have been like to be there, even as modern-day viewers, through its tale of Jack and Rose. The film showed, rather magnificently, the drama, the emotion that would have happened on that night. It also allowed us to connect and sympathise with those onboard the ship and bring to life the many different stories from those of all walks of life. I think it is an amazing feat that a film can make us connect on such a deep level with a disaster that occurred seemingly so long ago.
A still from James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which brought the magnificence of this ship to life
"I'm flying, Jack"
A series of unfortunate events:
The legacy has also captured fascination in the fact that it was so incredibly unfortunate. The fact that the date of her maiden voyage was moved back in just enough time for an iceberg to travel unusually far south, the fact that there were no binoculars in the crows nest, the lack of lifeboats and the fact that the iceberg breached just one-too many watertight compartments for her to stay afloat. It seems almost mystical to us that so many things could seemingly go wrong to make Titanic into the disaster she was.
The mysticism and conspiracy theories:
It seems that the almost unbelievable sequence of events has created the perfect conditions for numerous theories that question the established narrative of the sinking, some which are certainly....well, outlandish, to say the least. From Egyptian curses to Titanic being switched with the Olympic, there are a lot out there It is certainly understandable, for the multitude of things that went wrong on Titanic certainly make one wonder if there was something else going on. Ultimately though, most of these conspiracy theories have been debunked, but if you would like to learn more about some of the conspiracies surrounding Titanic, then let me know! My Instagram is called everythingoceanliners.
To conclude:
There are so many reasons why the legacy of Titanic still holds strong today. The sinking was a shock to the world; a ship which had been perceived as 'practically unsinkable'; mammoth in size, robust in its wrought-iron steel structure, the height of luxury and beginning the start of a promising career, lead by one of the most respected Captains in the world. The idea that such a great ship would sink on her maiden voyage would have been almost unthinkable. Perhaps the disaster shows us how man is no match for nature, for not even the strongest ship on earth could defeat her power. It also shows us how nothing can be taken for granted; it is easy to assume that this ship would have simply survived anything in its path. Titanic's fate shows that even the unthinkable is always possible, for better or for worse.
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