RMS TITANIC at 1:00 AM – Lifeboat, rockets and the sinking liner by James A. Flood.
Cruising The Past and Cruise Ship History features the maritime art of James A. Flood.
His website features paintings of ships (RMS Titanic, SS Lurline, SS Rex, etc.).
There are ships biographies and photographs of some of his hand-built ship models.
Jim is a terrific maritime artist and his paintings capture many of the great liners and contemporary cruise ships. [Read more...]
RMS Titanic’s last meal for first class passengers is featured below to to celebrate a milestone in Cruise History commemorating the sinking of the White Star Liner on April 15, 1912. Cruising the past features the first class menu served to the doomed passengers before the ship struck an ice berg and sunk.
With over nine courses, passengers were served an elegant meal – for many – their last. [Read more...]
Cruise History – New York – Le Cirque’s famous owner Sirio Maccioni started as a waiter “crossing the pond” aboard the Home Lines SS ATLANTIC. After achieving success, he sailed trans-Atlantic years later as a first class passenger aboard the Italian Line’s SS GIULIO CESARE. In June 2004 Maccioni published his biography, Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque with restaurant critic Peter Elliot.
Sirio Maccioni (born 1932 in Montecatini Terme, Italy) is a restaurateur and author based in New York City. He is known for Le Cirque, his award-winning flagship French restaurant and other ventures in New York, Las Vegas, the Dominican Republic and Mexico City, which are run with his wife Egidiana “Egi” and sons Mario, Marco and Mauro. A restaurant in London is scheduled to open in 2009.
In his biography, Maccioni tells his story to American co-author Peter Elliot, food critic for Bloomberg radio and winner of the James Beard award. Peter Elliot does a wondrous job piecing together Sirio’s autobiography along with interviews of Sirio’s friends, family, and New York notables and a sound history of each landscape visited in Sirio’s journey from Montecatini, Italy to New York City.
He is the ultimate American success – a small town boy who makes good.
His experiences working as a waiter aboard Home Lines S.S. Atlantic and S.S. Homeric are a highlight.
The S.S. Atlantic.
He signed on the S.S. Atlantic to work as a waiter with other young men in the mid-1950s. They had been pitched by Home Lines to work for the steamship company because of their experience. The multilingual crew were called “the chosen” because of their experiences as waiters.
American family in first class aboard the S.S. Homeric sailing from Europe to New York. Photo was taken in First Class dining room. Waiter could have been a contemporary of Maccioni at that time.
But Maccioni and his colleagues boarded the ship to have their passports taken by a monstrous purser and found themselves hired as waiters/cheap labor. [Read more...]
April 21, 1912 – Among the many hundreds of heroic souls aboard the fatal RMS TITANIC who went bravely and quietly to their end were fifty happy-go-lucky youngsters shipped as bellboys or messengers to serve the first cabin passengers. James Humphries, a quartermaster, who commanded lifeboat No. 11, told a little story today that shows how these fifty lads met death.
Humphries said the boys were called to their regular posts in the main cabin entry and taken in charge by their captain, a steward. They were ordered to remain in the cabin and not get in the way.
Through-out the first hour of confusion and terror these lads sat quietly on their benches in various parts of the first cabin.
Then, just toward the end, when the order was passed around that the ship was going down and every man was free to save himself if he kept away from the lifeboats in which the women were taken, the bellboys scattered to all parts of the ship.
Humphries said he saw numbers of them smoking cigarettes and joking with the passengers. They seemed to think that their violation of the rule against smoking while on duty was a sufficient breach of discipline.
Not one of them attempted to enter a lifeboat.
Not one of them was saved.
Cruise History: Is the QE2 headed for the Dubai scrapyard? Rumors are floating around the former Cunard Line ship is going to be scrapped because the Dubai economic bubble has gone bust.
The QE 2 on her last voyage.
The Business Insider website is reporting the QE 2 is being scrapped.
Last year, once the world’s fastest liner in the world, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was sold by Cunard Lines to Dubai investors. On her last cruise, she sailed to the Middle East for Dubai and arrived in a grand procession
In classic Dubai style, the plan was to turn the famous ship into a floating hotel.
Fast forward to now and according to Business Insider editor Joe Weisenthal the dream is dead. His insider mole in Dubai states the QE 2 is being dismantled. He claims there’s no business for the hotel, and the idled ship is just sitting there, costing money and polluting the water. Hence, workers are actively pulling it apart, a sad end for such a grand ship.
A youtube video of Brits saying their final goodbyes to the possibly now doomed liner QE2.
Business Insider is looking for pictures of the dismantling.
Problems with Weisenthal’s story it could be just the beginning of the conversion.
But, it true, the QE 2 will end up like her predecessor. The first RMS Queen Elizabeth is seen below being hacked apart in Hong Kong harbor following a devastating fire.
1970s – Workmen with cutting torches have begun dissecting the great iron corpse of what had once been the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth, now a rusting hulk in the shallow waters of Hong Kong harbor.
A Cunard Line advertising film, the cruise of the ship Coronia thru the Mediterranean with stops and side trips to many of the major cities with quick shots of interesting sights and maps showing route as the tour progresses.
The Caronia arriving in Long Beach, California, on her 1955 World Cruise.
RMS Caronia was a 34,183 gross register tons (GRT) passenger ship of the Cunard Line (then Cunard White Star Line). Launched on 30 October 1947, she served with Cunard until 1967. She was nicknamed the “Green Goddess” by the people of Liverpool because her livery resembled that of the local trams, also known as “Green Goddesses”.
She is credited as one of the first “dual-purpose” built ships. After leaving Cunard she briefly served as SS Caribia in 1969, after which she was laid up in New York until 1974 when she was sold for scrap. While being towed to Taiwan for scrapping, she was caught in a storm on 12 August. After her tow lines were cut, she repeatedly crashed on the rocky breakwater outside Apra Harbor, Guam subsequently breaking into three.
RMS CARONIA TIMELINE website. This truly is a lovingly created site and one of the best sources of maritime history devoted to a single ship online. If you are someone who has ever admired, or even sailed on, Cunard’s beautiful “Green Goddess” – the RMS Caronia, then this wonderful website is for you. It provides details and forums on this great ship. Please visit by clicking here.
“The Green Goddess”
At 715 feet in length, “R.M.S. Caronia”– a name long popular in Cunard’s history– was the first and largest ship built in the post-war period with the exclusive purpose of “cruising”.
Her maiden voyage was in 1949 and her profile was distinguished by her clipper-like bow, single mast and impresive funnel as well as her cruiser stern and absence of rigging.
Caronia’s sleek design and air-condiitoning, offered supreme comfort; and as a result she was referred to as the “Millionaire’s ship”.
Rather than the traditional black and white livery of CUNARD, Caronia was painted in a pale green livery of varying shades, earning her the nickname of the “Green Goddess”.
A wonderful Dutch film/video on the great liner.
Throughout the 1930s a remarkable period of growth was experienced by the merchant fleets of many nations. This growth occurred in spite of a depression that put a strangle-hold on the world-wide economy.
The fabulous Nieuw Amsterdam.
National governments found it prudent to fund the construction of ocean liners such as the great liner Nieuw Amsterdam as a means of easing severe unemployment and providing national icons that would, hopefully, show those at home and abroad that somehow the bleak situation would soon improve. Into these circumstances was born the fabulously sleek Holland-America liner Nieuw Amsterdam.
The interior of the SS Nieuw Amsterdam First Class Dining Room, a luxury transatlantic ocean liner of the Dutch fleet, named by Queen Wilhelmina in 1937, and known for its modern decor.
Construction on the new liner was carried out at the Rotterdam Drydock Company. Christened by Queen Wilhelmina in April 1937, Nieuw Amsterdam was, at 36,000 tonnes, the largest liner ever constructed in Holland. Modern in every way, Nieuw Amsterdam followed the Art Deco trend of the day in both interior decorations and exterior design.
The First Class Lounge. Chic, for meeting friends and, unlike today’s cruise ships, socializing. Sophistication in a setting long one.
The interiors were distinguished by fluorescent lighting, aluminum motifs, and gentle pastels throughout the ship that created an understated elegance that would make the liner a favorite among seasoned transatlantic passengers. The sleek new liner’s maiden voyage was set for 10 May 1938, and upon her arrival in New York she immediately won adulation and acclaim.
6/5/1948-New York, NY: Star of stage and screen Katharine Hepburn, becomingly clad in slacks, unbent and gave an interview to the boys of the press as she sailed from New York, June 5th, on the S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam.
Nieuw Amsterdam was considered by many to be one of the most beautiful liners constructed in the 1930’s. Although she was neither as large or fast as many of her contemporaries, she was to be a popular liner for the Dutch and was showered with superlatives.
Some feel the Nieuw Amsterdam surpassed the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth and was equaled only by the Bremen and the Normandie.
Her sleek outline and two slim funnels provided a striking profile and she soon and garnered a loyal following amid stiff competition from great liners such as Britain’s Queen Mary and the superb Normandie of the French Line.
The great interiors of the fabulous Nieuw Amsterdam.
Despite the fierce competition, Nieuw Amsterdam proved to be one of the few money-making vessels of the day.
Departure of the SS Nieuw Amsterdam from New York. Look at the reflection in the window of one of the towers of the building of the Holland America Line (HAL) (now Hotel New York)in Rotterdam
Holland’s “ship of peace” was not to enjoy the praise lavished on her for long. After only seventeen voyages, Nieuw Amsterdam was laid up at Hoboken, New Jersey in 1939 after the German invasion of Poland. She would be idle for only a year, however, and was requisitioned by the British Ministry of Transport after Holland fell to Hitler’s armies. She would spend the remainder of the war years as a troop transport, despite the fact she had been constructed without the consideration of ever being used in a military capacity. During the course of the conflict she would transport over 350,000 troops and steam some 530,452 miles before being decommissioned in 1946. Fourteen months were required to restore Nieuw Amsterdam to her to pre-war condition, and in October 1947 she resumed her transatlantic schedule.
3rd July 1959: Three year old Mark Sheffer of Toronto with his luggage as he leaves the boat train at Waterloo, London. He traveled to England on the Holland America Line Flagship, SS Nieuw Amsterdam.
For the next twenty years Nieuw Amsterdam would enjoy a loyal following and financial success. Even when joined by a more contemporary fleet-mate in 1959—the Rotterdam—Nieuw Amsterdam still commanded a loyal following. Her several refits in the 1950s ensured she remained in top conditin and continued service despite her being near thirty years of age. In the 1960s severe mechanical problems seemed to indicate an end to the venerable liner’s career, however new boilers were installed and her career continued.
Youtube video of the great “glamor girls” — SS Nieuw Amsterdam and SS United States during the last of their voyages “across the pond”!
In the same decade jet travel had made continued Atlantic passenger runs impractical, so Nieuw Amsterdam was shifted to cruising in the Caribbean. Soon escalating operating cost and competition from newer cruise vessels meant an end to the grand liner’s service career. Nieuw Amsterdam had been an enduring icon on the North Atlantic for the better part of three decades—certainly her refined interiors and impeccable service added much to her appeal. When she sailed to the breakers in 1974, the world saw the end to one of the greatest liners to sail the Atlantic. The links below provide a glimpse into the fabulous interiors that made Nieuw Amsterdam a favorite among seasoned transatlantic travelers.
Enjoy these great full color home movies shot by a lucky couple who traveled on the SS France Eastbound, and the SS Liberte Westbound, here combined to suggest a mythical time when such a trip might have been possible in the early 1960s. Bon Voyage!
SS France arrives in New York to great celebration on her maiden voyage in 1962.
In 2006, the French Line’s SS France ended her career with a passage to India.
Her destination the beaches at Alang where she would be scrapped.
This wonderful ship was not just another rusting hulk of a cargo ship.
The long sleek lines marked the France as a ship of an altogether different class.
And, to a shipping enthusiast, the distinctive winged funnels were instantly recognizable.
This was the SS France, last of the great ocean-going liners.
Her dining room considered the finest in the world.
The decks that were once the haunt of Cary Grant and Salvador Dali lay empty.
Celebrities aboard the France: Cary Grant, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol talking with Tennessee Williams.
The restaurant that was described as “the best French restaurant in the world” had been left to the echoes and the memories.
This was the final voyage of the ship that was once the epitome of glamour and nautical prestige.
Her destination was very different from the gala receptions that once greeted the France in New York when she debuted in 1962.
The Tourist Class Dining Room.
Cocktails aboard the SS France.
It was all very different back in the early Sixties, when the France was the acme of chic.
On her maiden voyage in 1962, the smart set of Paris relocated to her decks.
Society descends down the stairs into the First Class Dining Room. Considered the finest French restaurant in the world.
Everyone who was anyone was on board. And when she sailed into New York after crossing the Atlantic, the France was surrounded by fireboats, tugboats and tenders, all spraying water in the air in salute.
It was a more glamorous way of arriving in New York than standing in line at JFK passport control.
The final days of trans-Atlantic liners. The terrible end. The France, the QE 2 and the Michelangelo. The SS United States was gone and these liners were struggleing to maintain service across the pond as jets took over.
But it was a more glamorous age: when the France arrived, four other liners were already docked on the Hudson.
The France joined the RMS Queens Elizabeth and Mary and the United States, all struggling in the wake of jet air service that now dominated the Atlantic.
Chic, wonderful glamour and a demonstration of real society – the QE 2 never achieved this but the France carried this like a regal lady until the end.
Despite the odds, the France consistently sailed with a high capacity of passengers (unlike the struggling Cunarders, which were likened to creaking ghost ships).
Even Tourist Class had a paniche today’s cruise ships, with their dreadful Vegas atmosphere, will never attain.
The France’s deep draft (35 feet) requires her to anchor and tender passengers ashore in almost every port. This gave people ashore a great look at an impressive ship.
Cary Grant – who always preferred ship travel – used to lounge on the sundecks between films. Grant sailed on the United States, Queen Mary and Elisabeth, along with the France, the French Line’s earlier ships and even cargo-passenger ships of the Holland America Line from Europe to California. Similar to Katherine Hepburn, many times Grant preferred the anonymity of small ships to stay out of the lime lite.
The First Class Dining Room.
Dali brought his pet ocelot on board. Perhaps the most famous passenger was the Mona Lisa. When the Louvre lent the painting to an exhibition in the US, the France was chosen to take it there.
Dali’s ocelot was not the only pet on board. The France was famous for the facilities it offered for passengers’ pet dogs. On-board kennels were carpeted, the animals had a walkway, and a choice between a Parisian milestone or a New York hydrant for them to cock their legs against.
No wood was allowed on the France because of fire regulations. So the designers dreamt up a modernist interior of aluminum, Formica and plastic. There was a 660-seat theatre and two swimming pools. And this was not some meandering cruise ship, but a liner built for speed, to cross the Atlantic in the fastest time possible. In her heyday she could cruise at 31 knots, all 66,348 tons of her.
The France was a product of the age before mass air travel, born out of French pride. At the time, liners were the preferred way of crossing the Atlantic between the United States and Europe. The Americans had the fastest, the United States.
The British had the largest, the Queen Elizabeth.
France’s two liners, the stylish Ile De France and the much loved Liberte, were nearing the end of service, and the French shipping line needed something to compete.
And so they built the 1,035ft France which, until the recent arrival of the Queen Mary 2, was the longest passenger ship built.
The France’s tragedy was to arrive too late. Even at that reception in New York for her maiden voyage, aircraft were wheeling overhead. And within a few years, air travel would turn the liners into a thing of the past.
The First Class Children’s Playroom.
The France’s decline was long and slow.
By 1972 she was one of only four transatlantic liners still in service.
The Tourist Class Ballroom.
Built for the cold winds of the north, she quickly found herself on winter cruises she was not designed for, with one swimming pool indoors and the other covered up. She went on a world cruise – and had to sail around South America because she was too big for the Panama Canal.
First Class cabins facing a unique private patio.
In the end, it was another project of national pride that finished her off. In 1974 the French government ended the subsidy that had kept her afloat and diverted the money to Concorde.
For three years the ship lay idle in harbor. In 1977, she was bought by a Saudi millionaire who wanted to turn her into a museum for French furniture, but the plan never got off the drawing board. In 1979, she was bought by Norwegian Caribbean Lines, one of the biggest companies tapping into the large new market for cruises.
Theater aboard the SS France. The orchestra seats were for tourist class passengers and the balcony/mezzanine for first class passengers.
The France was converted into a cruise ship and, in a cruel blow to the national pride that spawned her, renamed SS Norway. The cruise company tore out the second engine room that gave the France her speed, and turned her into a plodding cruise ship. The tourist class smoking room was replaced with a casino, and the first class library with shops.
It was a preview of cruise ships to come – ghastly Vegas hotels at sea.. Blocks of condos, lined with balconies and packed with obese Americans gorging themselves on 24-hour buffets. The hoi polio would consume food foreign to the France’s former gastronomical tastes. All of it adding insult to injury to the great ships.
The SS France turned into the NCL cruise ship SS Norway appealing to mass market tourists.
She continued to sail through the Eighties and Nineties, but, by the beginning of this decade, cutbacks in maintenance meant the Norway was suffering frequent mechanical breakdowns and fires. There were incidents of illegal dumping of waste and sea, and at one point the ship was detained in port for safety violations. It was a sad senescence.
Worse was to come.
In May 2003, while the Norway was docked in Miami, an explosion rocked the engine room. Several crew members were killed. The ship was towed to Germany for repairs. But in March 2004, the chief executive of the cruise company announced: “France will never sail again.” The ship was sent to Malaysia and sold to an American dealer for scrap. She was renamed once again, the Blue Lady, and for months lay at anchor off the Malaysian coast.
Soon the Blue Lady was headed for the scrap yards. There were attempts to preserve the SS France, once an icon of French glamour, but failed. She ended up raped by low paid workers on the beaches of Alang. Another great liner gone.
In this economy, will the Queen Elizabeth 2 meet a similar fate as Dubai hits the skids?
One of the last great ocean liners
* SS France was launched in May 1960. At 1,035ft she was the longest ocean liner in the world.
* Her construction cost $80m and took over four years. A unique design allowed the 66,348 tons ship to carry enough fuel to make the return journey from Le Havre to New York without refuelling.
* Up to 1,944 passengers were accommodated in the lap of luxury, served by 1,100 crew, including over 100 chefs.
* She was built to make 46 transatlantic crossings per year but the rise of air travel caused a declining demand for the service.
* The premier on-board restaurant was said to be ‘the best French restaurant in the world’.
* She made her first world voyage in 1974 but had to sail around the coast of South America because she was too large for the locks of the Panama Canal.
* In 1974 the French government withdrew its subsidy and SS France left service. Sold to Norwegian Caribbean Line in 1979 and renamed SS Norway, she sparked a trend for larger cruise ships.
* President Charles de Gaulle was a driving force behind the ship’s construction. He hoped she would be a source of Gallic pride and a showcase for French technology.
Cruise Ship History – A BUSY DAY IN NEW YORK HARBOR – 1930s… Great video of many liners and night boats on the Hudson.
The spectacular sight of 358,274 tons of shipping docked in New York Harbour. From front to back, the liners are the Hamburg, the Bremen, the Columbus, the De Grasse, the Normandie, the Britannic, the Aquitania, the Conte de Savoia, the Fort Townsend and the Monarch of Bermuda.
Another wonderful video from www.shipgeek.com website. The video is a great short film on a busy shipping day in New York Harbor in 1934. So many ships, so little time!
A new TITANIC controversy. Did passive good manners kill “polite” British passengers while “pushy” Americans, who don’t know from standing in lines (or queues), survive aboard the doomed (Cunard) White Star Liner RMS TITANIC?
You can judge for your self. A new Titanic controversy is a brewing. Here are two current news articles on the subject.
But first, for those who don’t know about the Titianic, here’s some background.
The “unsinkable” TITANIC…
The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland, United Kingdom. For her time, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.
On the night of 14 April 1912, during her maiden voyage, Titanic hit an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The Titanic used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and was, after the sinking, popularly believed to have been described as “unsinkable”. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features and experienced crew, the Titanic sank. The frenzy on the part of the media about Titanic’s famous victims, the legends about the sinking, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck have contributed to the interest in and fame of the Titanic that continues to this day.
There have been many films on the Titanic — including movies and tv movies. We all know that James Cameron’s American made TITANIC was a “fantasy” and ludicrous version of the fatal voyage while while the British made A NIGHT TO REMEMBER was a far more accurate depiction. In the latter version the British passengers did act like they were attending some “tea party” as the ship sank. Another version with Barbara Stanwick had all the doomed passengers standing at attention, sinking “Nearer My God To Thee” while the ship sank.
Story 1 – The British View – How good manners cost Britons their lives on doomed Titanic
By Fiona Macrae – Daily Mail
Last updated at 1:28 AM on 21st January 2009
Britons have always prided themselves on having better manners than their American cousins - though of course they are too polite to mention it.
But it seems such civilised behaviour can prove fatal in life-and-death situations.
Researchers have found that when the Titanic sank Britons were much more likely to die than Americans and they think our manners could be to blame.
A painting of the sinking Titanic. Research suggests Britons were more likely to die than Americans because they stood in long queues waiting to board lifeboats…
With the British queuing for a place in one of only 20 lifeboats provided for the 2,223 on board, they were less likely than any other nationality to survive, analysis of passenger data revealed.
Americans, however, seem to have been happier to push their way to safety after the liner hit an iceberg while on her maiden voyage on April 14, 1912.
Researcher Bruno Frey, of the University of Zurich, said: ‘The Americans at that time were not very cultured, while the English were still gentlemen.’
He added: ‘The British were much more aware of the social norms at the time. They would have been more likely to stand in a queue and wait their turn for boarding the lifeboats than Americans.’
The Titanic begins to sink after striking an iceberg in this scene from the 1980 film ‘Raise the Titanic’…
He also suggested that as most U.S. citizens lived further from the sea, they were less familiar with maritime protocol than Britons, such as the women-andchildrenfirst rule.
The Swiss and Australian researchers spent more than a year sifting through data on the Titanic’s passengers and crew to find out which factors influenced the odds of survival.
They found that while the British made up 53 per cent of those on board, proportionately fewer of them than expected were among the 706 survivors.
The Americans, who made up a fifth of those on board, were 15 per cent more likely to survive than the British. The Irish and the Swedes also fared better.
The great ship’s lifeboats are loaded up with desperate passengers. New research suggest many Britons died because they would not force themselves to the front of the queue…
These findings held true even when cabin class and age were taken into account.
Professor Frey said: ‘We expected that the English passengers would have been more able to survive, because the ship was British built, the company was British and the crew was British.
‘We thought that if the passengers had close relationships with the crew, that would be very important in getting to the lifeboats.
‘But it turned out the English had around an 11 per cent lower chance of being saved compared with all the other nationalities.’ The professor added that, contrary to his expectations, people remember their manners even in times of crisis.
Titanic on her ill-fated maiden voyage: The sinking resulted in 1,517 deaths…
He said: ‘We really thought we’d be able to show that when it’s a matter of life and death, the cultural norms disappear and the survival of the fittest comes into play.’
Fellow researcher David Savage, of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, said: ‘Overall, the results indicate a strong support that social norms and altruism do matter.’
The study also revealed, unsurprisingly, that women and children had a greater chance of survival.
Women were up to 54 per cent more likely to have escaped the tragedy than men, and those aged under 15 were 32 per cent more likely to have lived than the over-50s.
A Titanic lifeboat, just before the passengers were taken off by rescuers…
First- class passengers, whose berths were close to the lifeboat deck, were up to 45 per cent less likely to have perished than those in third class.
The researchers said: ‘Preferential treatment, a higher level of power, better access to information about imminent danger, persons of power and decision makers such as leading crew members may have led to a higher probability of being able to get better access to lifeboats.
‘Similarly, it seems that crew members used their information advantage and better access to resources, such as lifeboats, to generate a higher probability of surviving.’
Michael McCaughan, author of The Birth of the Titanic, said: ‘There might be an element of truth in the idea of the British standing aside and saying “after you”.
There certainly would have been a sense of panic but the prevailing ethos would have been women and children first.’
Story 2 – The USA view – American Researchers Dispute Claims of ‘Polite’ Titanic Victims
Thursday , January 22, 2009
By Tom Durante
American researchers are firing back at a Swiss university researcher’s report that “politeness” led to the deaths of 225 British passengers aboard the Titanic.
Professor Bruno Frey of the University of Zurich claims that the British passengers on the doomed cruise liner perished in the 1912 disaster because they were polite and willing to stand in line while American passengers pushed their way to the front and were placed in lifeboats.
While “women and children first” was followed as the “unsinkable” cruise ship hit an iceberg and fell to the floor of the Atlantic, Frey claims that many Britons lost their lives because they were courteous, while “uncultured” Americans were more likely to push ahead in line.
“The British were much more aware of the social norms at the time,” Frey told the U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper. “They would have been more likely to stand in a queue and wait their turn for boarding the lifeboats than Americans.”
The Titanic sails for the first and last time…
But American researchers say Frey’s claim is an example of Brits putting themselves on a pedestal.
“It sounds like post-modern revisionist history,” said Karen Kamuda of the Massachusetts-based Titanic Historical Society. “To say that Americans act a certain way and the British act a certain way is racist.”
Ithaca College social sciences librarian John R. Henderson, who compiled a comprehensive report on the Titanic, suggests that the percentage of casualties on the ship was based more on social status than race. The ship had been divided into three classes based on wealth.
The third class, which was most affordable, had the greatest concentration of immigrants. Only 25 percent of the passengers in the third class made it out alive, according to Henderson’s research. This was possibly due to the fact that there was no public address system in place on the Titanic. The third class also had less access to lifeboats.
“The first class lifeboats were gone by the time the third class was even told [that the ship was going down],” Henderson said.
The Titanic was making its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York Harbor with 2,014 people aboard in April 1912 when it hit an iceberg in the northern Atlantic. The death toll from the disaster, one of the worst in maritime history, was 1,509 people. Seventy-two percent of its women passengers and 50 percent of the children on board reportedly survived.
Click here for Henderson’s research.
This is a lighter side to this never ending story. The fake trailer on Youtube is for the sequel to Cameron’s fantasy movie Titanic. It looks real and gives new meaning to the endless possibilities for future of the “unsinkable” ship as mass entertainment. Hollywood today, means history be damned.
