Saturday, July 28, 2007

Queen Of The Seas

I posted this Poem right after I created my blog, but for some reason it comes to mind again! I wrote this poem for a small book I wrote on the Titanic called "The Titanic's Moral Implications" and it turned out better than I thought it would. I changed a whole lot from the first setting, but it is a whole lot better now.
Since I did write this poem, I would ask that if you want to use it, or even a small part of it that you would contact me through my e-mail, and get my permission! Thank you.


QUEEN OF THE SEAS

Her keel was laid down on March 31st
At a shipyard in Belfast where tolls were the worst.
Through the months and through the years
Workers worked with sweat and tears.
And through the months and through the years,
She was constructed with pain and fears.
Once afloat just an empty shell,
Waiting for workers to make her run well!
The Titanic was a beautiful boat
Something that would cause fine men to gloat.
Sea trials she passed with no great concern;
Taking it with ease at every turn.
Built to tower over all,
She acquired fame, but it cost her a fall!
She was known as unsinkable
Queen of the Seas,
But that could not stop her from breaking up dreams.
She then departed to see land no more,
With the greatest luxuries man could afford.
Titanic was regarded as a dazzling sight,
But size and power couldn’t keep her from fright!
Once the passengers were mostly in bed,
Came the dreadful cry “iceberg dead ahead.”
They then didn’t know it
But soon found out,
She would not make it there was no doubt.
The pain was unbearable that fateful night,
For the Captain and crew their lips they did bite.
One minute she sailed
Next minute she stopped
Hit by an iceberg that wrenched her apart.
“Women and children” was the cry,
Get them away
With no delay.
The bravery of men
Abounded that night,
Standing aside that others might live,
Staring at death
Like brave men they did.
Oh grave where is thy victory?
Oh death where is thy sting!
As their loved ones departed
Too see them no more,
The only thing left, was a door.
The door of eternity open wide,
To receive these men as they died.
“Nearer My God To Thee” was heard that night,
Upon the waves of untold fright.
Titanic plunged with a moan,
She died with a great groan.
Behind her she left hundreds of souls
Where cold would soon take its toll.
Titanic was gone
As soon as she came.
She lost her glory,
But gained great fame.

James Daniel McEntire

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dream, Disaster, Legend

When I think of the Titanic Disaster, I immediately think of all the lives that were lost in that horrific event. But let us take a brief look at all the time, money, and planning that was lost as a result to this disaster!
The Titanic became a dream in 1907! Until March 31st 1908, she remained a dream, a dream that Bruce Ismay fervently hoped would come true. Sometimes I try to get a grasp of what Ismay was thinking that whole year, as he waited for things to come together. I can only imagine the untold joy he had in his heart, seems how it's not every day that your shipping line gets to own the biggest, and most luxurious ship in the world. He must have even been more excited when his dream was being put on blueprints, and models, and everything else that goes into building a ship. A dream that was his own idea, was slowly becoming a reality.
Words fail me when I ponder all the time that went into the Titanic. Thousands upon thousands of hours went into this marvelous project. There was someone somewhere that drew the blueprints, probably more than one person, and they devoted all their time to the project. Giving specific adjustments to little things here and there, how many staterooms can we fit on E-deck, how can we get the most power with three engines, what can we do to make the passengers have the time of their life? Then consider the years that were spent making this dream come true. The men that worked on the ship every day, men who worked 12 hour shifts, millions of man hours went into this ship. When you really think about all the hours, and years of thinking, working, planning, directing, and managing and then about the fact that the Titanic only had four days of active service, four days, 92 hours to prove herself on the boundless ocean, and then to sink on her maiden voyage......... no wonder people's lives were ruined by the disaster.
Then think of all the millions of dollars that went into this ship! The actual ship cost 7.5 million dollars in 1912 standards. But there is more than that, at this point for H&W their employee rate was higher that ever, their was over 14,000 men hired when the Olympic class ships were constructed. That means one thing, 14,000 men were drawing a paycheck every week. Then all of the priceless things that were on board, just things that made Titanic the Titanic.
Then consider all of the planning that went into the Titanic. There were some engineers somewhere planning out where everything would go. How to position the boilers so you can get as many as you can in, how big should the propellers be for a ship this size? Special planning had to go into this ship because a ship had never been made like this one before. So how big of a rudder do we need to be able to have the most control over the ship? How many funnels, and how big do they need to be? How much horsepower will we need to bring it up to average cruising speed? How high do the bulkheads need to go? How many lifeboats should we have? That is just a small part of all the planning and designing that had to go into one ship!
This kind of puts things into perspective when you think about it. There was more than lives lost that night, the dreams, planning, time, and money was lost when the Titanic foundered the night of April 14-15th!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Titanic vs other BIG Ships....

Back in the early nineteen hundreds the Titanic was the pinnacle of a modern age, nothing could compare to her size, luxury, grandness, and elegance. The Titanic left everything behind in the dust. She dwarfed every other ship in the docks, shipyard, and the whole ocean! But I have often wondered how would the Titanic compare to a modern ocean liner, and maybe even a aircraft carrier!? With the results that I have come up with I'm not really surprised with the outcome. The next few ship's that I'm about to compare to the Titanic, make it look like a tugboat!

Titanic vs. Queen Mary

Overall Length

  • Queen Mary: 1,019.5 ft. (310.74 m.)
  • Titanic: 882.9

Gross Tonnage

  • Queen Mary: 81,237 gross tons
  • Titanic: 46,329 gross tons

Transatlantic Crossings

  • Queen Mary: 1,001
  • Titanic: 0 - Ship sank on Maiden Voyage

Constructed by

  • Queen Mary: John Brown & Co., LTD., Clydebank, Scotland
  • Titanic: Harland & Wolff, LTD., Belfast, Ireland

Commissioned by

  • Queen Mary: Cunard Steamship Co., LTD.
  • Titanic: White Star Line

Keel Laid

  • Queen Mary: December 1, 1930
  • Titanic: March 31, 1909

Date Launched

  • Queen Mary: September 26, 1934
  • Titanic: May 31, 1911

Maiden Voyage

  • Queen Mary: May 27, 1936
  • Titanic: April 10, 1912

Portholes

  • Queen Mary: Over 2,000
  • Titanic: 2,000

Rivets

  • Queen Mary: Over 10 million
  • Titanic: 3 million

Hull Plates

  • Queen Mary: 8 ft. (2.44 m.) to 30 ft. (9.14m.) in length; up to 1.25 in. (3.2 cm.) thick
  • Titanic: 1 in. thick

Moulded Breadth

  • Queen Mary: 118 ft. (35.97 m.)
  • Titanic: 92.6

Keel to Smokestack

  • Queen Mary: 181 ft. (55.17 m.)
  • Titanic: 175 ft.

Number of Decks

  • Queen Mary: 12
  • Titanic: 8

Passenger Capacity

  • Queen Mary: 1,957
  • Titanic: 2,440

Officers and Crew

  • Queen Mary: 1,174
  • Titanic: 860

Horsepower

  • Queen Mary: 160,000
  • Titanic: 46,000

Cruising Speed

  • Queen Mary: 28.5 knots
  • Titanic: 21 knots

Rudder

  • Queen Mary: 140 tons
  • Titanic: 101 1/4 tons

Whistles

  • Queen Mary: 3 - Steam type. Two on forward funnel, one on middle funnel. Each over 6 ft,. long, weighing 2,205 LB.
  • Titanic: 3 sets consisting of 3 bell domes grouped together with a suitable branch plate. One set was fitted on each of the three foremost funnels and were electrically operated.

Lifeboat Capacity

  • Queen Mary: 145 persons
  • Titanic: 60

Smokestacks

  • Queen Mary: 3 - Elliptical in shape; 36 ft. fore and aft, 23.3 ft. wide
  • Titanic: 4 - Three were functional and the fourth was a dummy to create the illusion of a more powerful ship.

Boilers

  • Queen Mary: 27
  • Titanic: 29
All of the above was from the following website.... http://www.queenmary.com/index.php?page=titanicvsqm

Class type: Nuclear powered supercarrier
Displacement: 102,000 tons
Length: 317 m
Beam: 40.8 m
Draught: 11.9 m
Propulsion and power: Nuclear propulsion
260,000 shp
Speed: 30+ knots
Complement: 3,200 ships company
2,500 air wing
















  • Builder: Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia
  • Power Plant: Two A4W reactors, four shafts
  • Length: 333 m (1092 ft) overall
  • Flight Deck Width: 76.8 - 78.4 m (252 - 257 ft 5in)
  • Beam: 41 m (134 ft)
  • Displacement: 98,235 - 104,112 tons full load
  • Speed: 30+ knots (56+ km/h)
  • Cost: about US$4.5 billion each
  • Average Annual Operating Cost: US$160 million
  • Service Life: 50+ years
  • Crew: Ship's Company: 3,200 — Air Wing: 2,480
The above is from the following website.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimitz_class

That is one big ship, but it even gets worse.......

Knock Nevis has a deadweight of 564,763 tonnes and a summer displacement of 647,955 t when laden with nearly 650,000 m³ (4.1 million barrels) of petroleum. She has a draft of 24.6 m (81 feet) when fully loaded, which makes it impossible for her to navigate even the English Channel, let alone man-made canals at Suez and Panama.

The above is from the following website.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock_Nevis


So what it comes down to, in today's standards, the Titanic is actually pretty small!!!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Titanic's sister ship Britannic

What of the other sister ship to the Titanic? Britannic was the last out of the three ships to be constructed. After the Titanic disaster in 1912, the Britannic was considered to be even more 'unsinkable' than the Titanic, and was even more luxurious! She carried 48 lifeboats, she had a double side and bottom which was constructed out of steel. Her watertight bulkheads extended all the way up to boat-deck.
She was launched on the 26th of February, 1914. These are the following statistics of the Britannic... gross tonnage 48,158, 882 ft, and 9 in, 94 ft wide, 34 ft of ship was under water. 4 funnels, 2 masts, 3 engines, 3 propellers.
The Britannic was going to serve in route between Southampton, and New York. At the break of WW1 she never saw commercial use. The British Navy paid for the use of commercial ships, but did not compensate for the loss of them. The maiden voyage began on December 23d, 1915, as a hospital ship.
After disastrous results from the Gallipoli campaign, the military needed hospital ships, and the Britannic was called for! She was painted white with red crosses and had a green strip running across about midway. She was placed under command of Captain Charles A. Bartlett!
She successfully completed five missions between the Mediterranean and the United Kingdom carrying the sick and wounded. She began her sixth voyage on the 12th of November 1916, and reached the first leg of her mission, she stopped to take on coal and water, as normal.
At 8:12, on Tuesday November 21st 1916, a terrible explosion shook the ship from bow to stern. In the dining room the reaction was the same, doctors and nurses rushed to their posts. The captain was on the bridge at the time of impact, and the first reports of news were very disturbing! The explosion had taken place on the starboard side of the ship, and damaged two holds, and the force of the explosion damaged a watertight bulkhead. This means that the two first watertight compartments were filling rapidly with water! Boiler room six had been severely damaged, as water poured in at an uncontrollable rate.
Captain Bartlett ordered the watertight doors shut, and sent out a distress signal, and ordered the crew to ready the lifeboats. For some unknown reason several of the watertight doors did not shut, and as a result the Britannic was brought to her maximum flooding level. She could stay afloat at this rate if she remained motionless. But there was one bad mistake that sealed the fate of the Britannic, in the lower areas of the ship the nurses had opened the portholes to vent the ship, as the Britannic began to settle in the water the water poured into the open portholes, thus filling the Britannic's seventh watertight compartment. Her fate as well as the Titanic was sealed, nothing could be done.
On the bridge the Captain was trying to save his ship, the Britannic was sinking fast, too fast! In just ten minutes the Britannic had developed a bad list to starboard. To his right the Captain could see the shores of Kea, three miles away. He was going to make a last effort to beach the ship, but this would not be an easy task, because of the bad list to starboard, and to make things worse the 100 ton rudder was not responding, somewhere the steering gear had broken. But giving more power to the left propeller would serve the purpose. Britannic slowly started to turn right, she was sinking!!!
At the same time sailors were standing next to the lifeboats waiting for orders, not knowing what to do since the Captain was trying to beach the Britannic. Stewards came up from below decks running to the lifeboats in panic, the officer by the boat kept his nerve, and refused them to get in, but then changed his mind thinking that he did not want them around when the evacuation began! This officer in particular was not aware of any orders not to lower the lifeboats, but when he saw that the engines were running he order the lifeboats to stop six feet above the water until further orders, stopping six feet above the water was not received very well by the occupants of the lifeboat, as they began to curse the officer.
Assistant Commander Harry W. Dyke was organizing two lifeboats to be launched to rescue men that had already jumped into the water. The two lifeboats that were hanging six feet above the water were dropped into the water and hit violently. They were launched without the permission of the officer who had declined earlier. Then something happened that was not expected, and could not be helped. The two lifeboats were headed straight to the giant propellers that were now well out of the water, as the lifeboats reached them they were instantly ripped apart along with the people in them. When news of the massacre reached the bridge, the Captain ordered the engines stopped. There was no need of killing everybody that got into a lifeboat. The propellers stopped just as a third lifeboat came upon them!
With that Captain Bartlett gave the order to put the boats away, and abandon ship!
At 09:00 Bartlett sounded one last blast on the whistle and then just walked into the water, which had already reached the bridge. He swam to a collapsible boat and began to co-ordinate the rescue operations. The whistle blow was the final signal for the ship's engineers {commanded by Cheif Engineer Robert Fleming} who, like their heroic colleagues on the Titanic, had remained at their posts until the last possible moment. They escaped via the staircase into funnel #4 which ventilated the engine room.
The Britannic rolled over onto her starboard side and the funnels began collapsing. Violet Jessop saw the last seconds: "She dipped her head a little, then a little lower and still lower. All the deck machinery fell into the sea like a child's toys. Then she took a fearful plunge, her stern rearing hundreds of feet into the air until with a final roar, she disappeared into the depths, the noise of her going resounding though the water with undreamt-of violence...". It was 09:07, only fifty five minutes after the explosion. The Britannic then became a time capsule on the bottom of the Aegean. She is the largest liner at he bottom of the ocean! There we have the whole story of the Olympic class of liners. Two of them led short and sad lives, and the other was sold for scrap. What was to become the last word in luxury never served as a commercial liner, the other sank on its maiden voyage, and the other led a hard life. It was a doomed idea!