Titanic Remembered

Some eye witnesses said that the captain was egged by Joseph Ismay, director of White Star Line, to test the maximum speed of the ship in order to arrive early in New York and gather publicity. Ismay was also ostracised throughout his life for being a rare male survivor of the Titanic. Some say that because of this ostracising, the 15/10 favourite Craganour in the following year's "Emily Davison" Epsom Derby, and owned by Joseph's brother Charles, was controversially disqualified after being first past the post.

No Sly, I was not there......

Maybe society had different expectations a century ago, but as one of the members of the Commission of Inquiry put it at the time, if Ismay had stayed aboard all he would have achieved is adding one more name to the list of the dead. At least he didn't dress as a woman or (as far as I know) bribe a crewman to get a spot in the lifeboat.

Speaking of which, despite all the justified hullabaloo about the Titanic not carrying enough lifeboats, what is probably not so widely known is that she was actually fitted with MORE lifeboats than the rules at the time prescribed. It's a scary thought, but the rules were drawn up at a time when no one could conceive of a liner larger than 10 000 tons and a ship weighing 25 000 tons could carry the same number of boats as one weighing 10 001 tons.

As usual, it takes a tragedy for people to wake up and see the folly of their ways.

(Okay, so this has nothing to do with racing, punting, or sport - but what the hell. I'm currently jobless, and a bit bored already...)

everytime i see a promo for the film or hear Ms Dion singing that song I wish that I was on it!!

Well, the movie has been re-released in 3D, which I guess is as close to being on the Titanic as you'll ever get.

Are the results that bad Mr H?

I can just see the hairdressers and florists of the world celebrating!! Moving deckchairs has more appeal!!

and the band played on

scotia Wrote:

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> and the band played on

And the crew who survived had their pay stopped straight away. No ship, no work, no pay.

Things were a bit different back in 1912. To say the least.

Staring this Sunday on BBC Entertainment is a new mini-series on the Titanic penned by Julian Fellowes, who wrote and produced the "Downton Abbey" series. It apparently looks at the tragedy through the eyes of different people who were on board, focusing on one group each week. it's only just been released on BBC in the UK, which makes a change from our usually having to wait three or four years for each new BBC series to be screened. Still to be released locally is a really superb BBC film of the week on the sinking of the Lusitania, in 1915, which was made in Cape Town by the BBC with a largely South African cast.

I look forward to both of those. I must say I find Downton Abbey outstanding, so if this new Titanic series is anywhere near as good that's my Sunday night viewing taken care of for a while. American movies can be fantastic, but no one does TV series and shows like the Brits when they're at the top of their game.

I guess the reason we're getting the Titanic series straight away is to tie in with the 100th anniversary of the sinking, which was good thinking on someone's part.(tu)

James Mrs S is ready for the show she loves this Downton Abbey I find it very boring " let me gone and make more tea" lol
If you get a chance watch the comedy relief show where they take off Downton Abbey it's a classic