An assignment for my English class that I was quite happy with at the time of writing. Rather than waiting a while and looking at it later to check that it's actually good quality and it's not just the lack of sleep, I naturally decided to upload now. We'll see how it goes.
"The Titanic. One of the largest cruise ships of her time. Weighing 46,000 tonnes and with a length of nearly 900 feet it was little wonder she was nicknamed the Unsinkable. It took over two years to build her, and in the end she had a top speed of around 22 knots.
"Such a high class ship would naturally be thought to attract high class passengers and, naturally, that's exactly what the Titanic did. Many of the world's richest people purchased tickets for the ship, and the less than wealthy fought tooth and nail to earn their place on the Millionaire's Special.
"The Titanic offered its first class passengers a gym, swimming pool, library and as many other ridiculously extravagant extras it could fit on board, all designed to make the trip as comfortable and high-class as possible. Of course, that was only for the first class passengers.
"While the first class accommodation provided each passenger with the equivalent of their own luxurious, fully-furnished house, those lucky enough to get hold of a third class ticket were stuffed out of sight in small cabins which held three or four bunk beds and not much else. Still, a proper bed and daily meals was more than most other ships would offer their third class passengers.
"On the 10th of April, 1912 the Titanic left Southampton and headed to New York carrying 2,435 passengers along with the 885 persons who made up the crew. The ship briefly made port at Cherbourg, France and what was then called Queenstown, Ireland before continuing on its course. The Titanic itself was so large that the dock at Cherbourg could not handle its size and passengers had to be ferried between ship and shore by tenders, smaller boats that were kept on the ship. All was well for the first four days. The ship was making good time.
"On April 14th the ship was around 600km from Newfoundland. At 11.40pm the starboard side of the ship sailed right into the port side of an iceberg. The hull of the ship was crushed, several of the watertight compartments breached and filling with sea water. It quickly became clear that the Titanic was doomed, and evacuation began almost immediately. Unfortunately, the Titanic contained a total of 20 lifeboats, enough for 1,178 people when filled to capacity. It is believed that the lack of lifeboats stemmed from a desire to keep the deck aesthetically pleasing for the first class passengers. Because of course, beauty takes priority over safety.
"Lifeboats were launched, filled first by women and children, though of course the first class women and children took the seats first. The first of the boats were launched only half filled, increasing the unnecessary loss of life even more. Eventually all the boats were gone, leaving a great many passengers and crew still on board the sinking ship. The ship eventually split in two pieces, each of the floating for a short amount of time before finally sinking over 12,000 feet to the bottom of the ocean.
"Turns out the Titanic wasn't quite as unsinkable as once thought. The biggest and most famous ship of all time sits on the bottom of the ocean to this day. And gentlemen, we're about to see it."
Harrison finished smugly, clearly pleased with the reaction he got from his speech. He stood watching at the front of the room as the thirty or forty people in front of him cheered, fired up from his dramatics. I myself couldn't deny that the atmosphere was catching; I could feel the excitement in my own body, eager to see what lay on the bottom of the ocean.
I thanked my mother one more time for telling me the story of the Titanic when I was young, sparking my interest and convincing me to take History as an elective subject in university now. It turned out to be quite a good decision, as my lecturer, Harrison, had recently pulled some strings with some connections of his and gained access to extremely rare footage of an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic that was conducted just a few months prior. He was about to show us, his class, this same footage now.
The room darkened and everybody fell silent, the group's excitement nearly tangible. There was a shuddering of a camera and a clicking of the projector and the footage began, displayed brightly against the front wall.
Blue. A beautiful ocean of blue, before the camera panned to the right and suddenly there it was. The Titanic, the Unsinkable, displayed on the walls of a classroom. The view became both more detailed and precise as the camera moved closer to the wreck, stopping to focus on certain features of the ship such as carvings on a doorframe or hand rail, so laboriously created once, only to rest now upon the bottom of the ocean. The camera progressed forward through the ship, showing us the grandeur of the library we learned about, waterlogged books still on the shelves, fallen to pieces by now, and great armchairs; the dining room, expensive carved tables and chairs, silverware littering the floors, covered in a layer of sand; and finally the part I looked most forward to: the Grand Staircase.
This one staircase was the epitome of grandeur and grace. Wide enough to accommodate a great many people, the stairs had been crushed by the chandelier that once hung above it. The hand carved railings still showed how much devotion and dedication had been put into their carving.
But with all the beauty of the rest of the ship, the last one was easily the most jarring. The camera moved past the staircase and carried on its path, eventually turning into a room to its right.
It was a child's room, that much was clear. An extravagant single bed still stood in a corner, broken toys scattered all around the room. Everything from the childish paintings on the walls to the broken rocking horse in the corner gave the sense that the room had not long been vacated. At the same time it was obvious that this room had been empty for a very long time. With that rocking horse, it became clear to everyone that real people died in this accident. It's not just a piece of history to be studied; people, actual humans, experienced this event.
With that, the film ended, leaving the room in solemn silence. "Ladies and gentlemen" Harrison began. "the Titanic."