One hundred years
I think I’ve watched just about every dramatic depiction of the sinking of the Titanic ever produced. So I couldn’t miss this newest one. (Though I do agree with the ‘Drownton Abbey’ tag.) It started tonight, and so far I’m just acquainting myself with the characters, and trying to sort the real from the imagined. There are rather a lot of them (of both types), and the story is doubling back on itself which is ... a novel approach.
My interest in the Titanic was sparked many, many years ago when I watched ‘A Night to Remember’ on TV. I would have been about 10 at the time, and I did what you did then when you wanted to find out more about things...I went to the library and looked up everything I could find on the subject.
The fascination has never faded. I’veread books, articles, inquiry reports; for years I pondered the mystery of the ship that vanished away out of sight, only to experience a tremendous excitement when Ballard and his team located the wreck in 1985. I was glued to the news bulletins, and will never, ever forget my first glimpse of the bow of the Titanic looming up out of the darkness.
Why? I don’t know, I can’t answer that. Yes, there is the human drama, the tragedy; yes, there is the hubris that surrounds the ship; yes, there is that sense that the ship symbolises the end of many things...but there is also so many examples of heroism, courage and selflessness. I don’t know that I would ever have that strength of character, I’m pretty sure I’d be weeping and whimpering.
One story which particularly touches me is that of the musicians, and last time we were in England we found their memorial in Southampton:
On the day of the centenary of the sinking I was up seeing Mum. At the time of the sinking we were sitting by the beach, watching the waves break. I’d followed some of the real time, as-it-happened, tweets, which was kind of interesting (nowadays, that’s what we’d expect isn’t it, to follow the events as they unfold?), but otherwise hadn’t marked the occasion in any particular way. Mum and I did talk about it a little, which may have been a mistake because she became convinced that she could remember it. If we’d stayed chatting there any longer she’d have been one of the passengers. And no doubt a First Class one, too!
My interest in the Titanic was sparked many, many years ago when I watched ‘A Night to Remember’ on TV. I would have been about 10 at the time, and I did what you did then when you wanted to find out more about things...I went to the library and looked up everything I could find on the subject.
The fascination has never faded. I’veread books, articles, inquiry reports; for years I pondered the mystery of the ship that vanished away out of sight, only to experience a tremendous excitement when Ballard and his team located the wreck in 1985. I was glued to the news bulletins, and will never, ever forget my first glimpse of the bow of the Titanic looming up out of the darkness.
Why? I don’t know, I can’t answer that. Yes, there is the human drama, the tragedy; yes, there is the hubris that surrounds the ship; yes, there is that sense that the ship symbolises the end of many things...but there is also so many examples of heroism, courage and selflessness. I don’t know that I would ever have that strength of character, I’m pretty sure I’d be weeping and whimpering.
One story which particularly touches me is that of the musicians, and last time we were in England we found their memorial in Southampton:
On the day of the centenary of the sinking I was up seeing Mum. At the time of the sinking we were sitting by the beach, watching the waves break. I’d followed some of the real time, as-it-happened, tweets, which was kind of interesting (nowadays, that’s what we’d expect isn’t it, to follow the events as they unfold?), but otherwise hadn’t marked the occasion in any particular way. Mum and I did talk about it a little, which may have been a mistake because she became convinced that she could remember it. If we’d stayed chatting there any longer she’d have been one of the passengers. And no doubt a First Class one, too!