Who called for speed and to break every record
Who had to keep all the millionaires happy?
How dare you Smith I will not stand here indicted
Who ignored warnings of ice bergs when sighted?
WHO SIR refused to extend up the bulkheads?
YOU SIR to give the first class bigger state rooms!
~ Titanic: The Musical
107 years ago, over 1500 people were simply going about their lives. Dreaming dreams that were likely untroubled. After all, look at where they were! On the most luxurious ship in the world, on the adventure of a life time. They had, by that point, probably already dined, and in the case of many of the 3rd class passengers, most had probably not had such good food at home. They had…nothing to worry about. None of them were aware, none of them had been told.
The last ice warning reached the Titanic’s radio room at just after 9pm, but it never reached the bridge. One of a chain of mishaps and miscommunications that would ultimately lead to disaster. Where were the binoculars? Was the steel weak? Was there a fire? Was there already structural damage? Was she doomed from the start or was it the Captain’s pride that brought her down? Or was it everyone’s pride?
In those last cold, frigid moments; it is said that the best and the worst of humanity shone through. Men gave up their seats to third class women, but vast swathes of steerage were locked below. Couples refused to separate and instead were swallowed together, a stewardess had a baby that was not hers shoved into her arms; while that same baby’s brother was lost. Mr Ismay survived to see his headlines, and that would dog him for the rest of his life – the coward who should have down with the ship he was proud to own but not willing to die for. And above it all, to the very last, the band played on, and the stokers – knowing they were doomed, kept the lights burning.
When Ballard and his team first found her remains in the 1980s, in the middle of the night, they had a moment of tremendous celebration! They had done it! They had found the unfindable! And then…as you can see in the many documentaries that include the footage – there was a moment of total silence.
Guys……Titanic goes down in 5 minutes…
Over the years Ballard has been portrayed as something of an idealist, but the truth is he has made a pretty penny of the doom of the Ship of Dreams. Perhaps he started out respectful, but he didn’t stay that way. In some ways, I have to wonder at the irony of that, the fact that it was greed and the striving for power that caused the White Star Line to build her in the first place, and it will – ultimately – be greed that destroyed what’s left of her now.
We never learn…not really.
1500 people, trapped in the cold vastness of the Atlantic. So many of them barely wanting more than a dream of a better life.
All because we, in our pride, thought she was unsinkable…
And in the end, the cold won…
107 years later…I think she – and her ghosts – wish only to be left in peace.