DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT
EPOV (11 years old)
APRIL 10, 1912
Three years ago a ship by the name of Titanic was beginning to be built. Everyone knows of this miraculous ship. The date for sail is a couple of days away. I may only be 11 years old, but I do keep up on current events. I am very well educated for my age you know.
Titanic. Some have even named it Unsinkable. It's the largest and safest ships to set sail over the Pacific Ocean. She is equipped with the most modern of safety precautions to the day, including a double bottom and 16 water tight chambers. This ship is all anyone in Chicago can talk about lately. It is to dock on April 17th in New York. It's supposed to be the fastest ship ever made.
APRIL 16, 1912
The news hit today. The unsinkable ship has sunk. Headlines read:
TITANIC SINKS, 1500 DIE
Carpathia Picks up 675 Out of 2200 - Races to New York - Survivors Mostly Women and Children
NEW TITANIC SINKS
1800 PERSONS GO TO WATERY GRAVES
DISASTER PROVESTO BE GREATEST IN MARINE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
OVER FIFTEEN HUNDRED SANK TO DEATH WITH GIANT WHITE STAR STEAMER TITANIC
Floating Hotel In Collision With Iceberg Early Monday Morning Off New Foundland Banks. Vessel Remained Floating For Four Hours After Crash. 866 Passengers Rescued.
The numbers are tremendous. This is a disaster like the world hasn't seen, and will surely never forget. It seems ridiculous looking back to just last week when everyone had an assumption that she was impossible to sink. Every time I turn around the death toll rises.
JULY 14, 1986
Today the legendary ship Titanic was found on the bottom of the ocean, 74 years after its sinking. I vaguely remember the headlines in the press from when I was human. It's very blurry. I remember it being a huge deal, which is understandable, but that's about the limits of my memory.
After the accident, officials went through the records and totaled up the death toll. Out of the 2,228 passengers and crew only 705 survived the sinking and sub zero temperatures. Most of the survivors were women and children.
When they found the wreckage they were surprised. The ship and not only sunk, but it also spit in half, right down the middle. The halves were about 800 yards apart from each other. Soon, the pictures will be released to the public.
APRIL 14, 2010
It has been 98 years since the tragedy of Titanic. Very few survivors are still alive today, considering it's been almost 100 years. Carlisle is the only one of us who remembers it clearly.
I believe that accident could have easily avoided. For starters Titanic started receiving alerts of icebergs ahead the day before the accident. They had half a dozen warnings, but only took minor precautions. Capitan Edward John Smith, who was a seasoned Capitan with many years of experience, only adjusted their course by ten miles, nowhere near far enough to get them out of the iceberg belt that brought about many peoples' untimely deaths. He didn't post any extra look outs or slow their speed what so ever.
That night, though, was the night of the new moon, meaning that there would be no moon light to alight up the ships surroundings. In addition, the moon contributes to the tides of the ocean. So, being a new moon, the ocean was completely still and flat. . The stillness of the ocean meant that there would be no wave action around the base of the iceberg to hint at its' presence. With the oceans eerie stillness and the pitch of night, even the most seasoned look out would not be able to spot an iceberg until the ship were almost on top of it.
If they had taken the warning into consideration, but still hit that iceberg many people would have died anyway.
Reason 1: There were a total of 20 life boats on the Titanic, each holding anywhere from 40 to 65 people. If my math is correct, and it always is, that is a total capacity 1,186 persons or 35.5% of total ships full compliment. If there had been an adequate number of life boats, not so many would have perished. The reason for a shortage of life boats is that they took up too much deck space for the precious 1st class passengers.
Reason 2: When evacuating the people, none of the life boats were full when lowered into the water. Most of the lowered life boats only had about 35 people in the boat. When doing the math, if the life boats had been filled to full capacity, about 560 more lives could have been saved.
I believe that the Titanic sank as a result of overconfidence. If the Capitan had not been so calm and assured that the ship was unsinkable maybe it wouldn't have sunk.
Even the name Titanic is a little assuming. The Titans were great Greek monster who ruled the world for thousands of years, before being brought down by the mightiest Greek god of them all, Zues. By naming the ship Titanic it was like a proclamation to the world that this ship could not be sunk, because it has all the might of the Titans. They were basically asking for trouble!
In the harbor, the day she set sail while the tug boat was pulling her toward open sea, the suction from the Titanic broke a much smaller ship, the S.S. New York from her moorings. The two ships almost collided, but luckily the tug stopped it just feet from collision. Almost foreshadowing isn't it?
Whether it was due to over confidence or purely by accident, if the proper steps were taken hundreds of lives could have been saved on the cold night of April 14th 1912.
FIN
Always remember what happened on the night of April 14th, 1912.
Thank you for reading! Remember: REVIEW!
-Candace