WHEN THE NEW SHIP 'TITANIC' WAS DESCRIBED AS 'UNSINKABLE', THE FATES (CONSISTING OF 3 SISTERS WHO DETERMINE THE FATES OF NOT ONLY HUMAN AND NON-HUMAN THINGS BUT ALSO THE GODS) DECIDED THIS WAS AN INSULT TO THEM. AND SO ON THE TITANIC'S INAUGURAL JOURNEY, THEY SENT AN ICEBERG TO PROVE THE MORTALS WRONG BY SENDING THE TITANIC TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FREEZING SEA!
This is why in olden days the Chinese used to name their beautiful children ugly names like 'Big Head', 'Foolish Dog' or 'Demented Butterfly' to avoid the evil spirits casting a jealous, malevolent eye on their precious darlings. I used to have a cousin called 'Ah Ti' or Pig while another was 'Ti KIa' or Little Pig.
Of course their real names were as salubrious, beatific and glorious as possible but these were their official real names as written and spelled in their passports or on ancestral tablets as the case may be but among family members and close friends, Pig and Piglet or Pigsty were used under normal conditions. Indeed it never even occurred to me I was calling him Pig till years later as it was no biggie and even the person was totally unaffected and he phoned me after a long lapse referring to him as Pig.
This is why you should never tempt Fate by declaring to be this or that. Even I when describing myself as The Greatest Journalist have quietly and protectively added the caveat 'In the Observable Universe' as there can very well be a greater journalist than me in the Dark, Unobservable Universe! See, I never take chances! Not with the Fates who also hold the destiny of the gods and goddesses! In fact I always wonder why the Fates are not worshiped at the altar like other gods! In the Norse mythology (they are real by the way) the Fates decreed the beloved beautiful god Balder would be accidentally killed by his brother Hod and Thor would eventually die in the Last Battle with his nemesis the dragon. In this final showdown, Odin king of the gods would also die with Freyr and Hemimdall and quite a few other major gods.
Where were we?
Ah yes, the Titanic. Even more amazing a decade earlier there was a novel called 'Titan' which chronicled a giant, and yes, unsinkable ship which hit and iceberg on its maiden voyage and went to rest at the seabed! That was fiction but isn't it scary-wary that life should imitate art or a novel?
Written in 1898 by Morgan Robertson, the similarities between metal and paper are shocking! What Robertson wrote as pure dramtic fiction to tease armchair readers came eeriely true 14 years later! And he was not a shipbuilder but merely concocted figures from empty air!
In the novel 'Wreck of the Titan', the ship was 800 ft long which was humunguous. The real 'Titanic' was 882 ft 9 inches long!
The Titan sank in April in North Atlantic after colliding with an iceberg on the starside and ditto for the Titanic!
Like the Titanic, the Titan had only 24 lifeboats, less than half needed for 3,000 passengers. The Titanic had only 16 lifeboats since they were considered unnecessary as it was unsinkable, remember?
The Titan sailed at 25 knots while the Titanic cruised at 21 knots per hour!
In both cases, the number of dead was similar!
Did author Morgan Robertson write under a trance as believed by some? Did he have a premonition or did he actually see a complete vision of the sinking of the Titanic but did not want to be branded a devil or doomsayer and so he took the best way out by writing a novella in which anything could happen in a fictional world?
In the hit movie 'Titanic', a poor no-hoper from the lower class of society falls in love with a highborn society beauty being courted by another member of her class and you know who won the love match though our hero dies so Kate Winslet could survive.
In the novella 'Wreck of the Titan', the hero is John Rowland, a disgraced US Navy officer who is sacked, becomes an alcoholic and now working as deckhand onboard Titan. After the collision with the iceberg, he saves the young daughter of his former lover by jumping onto the iceberg with the girl. He fights off a polar bear in which he is permanently disabled. He finds a lifeboat washed onto the iceberg and is rescued. He is a hero, overcomes his addiction to alcohol, gets a lucrative government job and restores his standing and fortune in society. In the closing pages, his ex lover asks him to meet her and her daughter where perchance they will be reunited...
Is this life imitating art or art imitating life"?
You decide.
Meanwhile, have a lookee mapukee below....
| Unseen Titanic At 2:20 a.m. on April 15, 1912, the “unsinkable” R.M.S. Titanic disappeared beneath the waves, taking with her 1,500 souls. One hundred years later, new technologies have revealed the most complete—and most intimate—images of the famous wreck.
Photograph by Walden Media More than two miles down, the ghostly bow of the Titanic emerges from the darkness on a dive by explorer and filmmaker James Cameron in 2001. The ship might have survived a head-on collision with an iceberg, but a sideswipe across her starboard side pierced too many of her watertight compartments.
Photograph © National Museums Northern Ireland, Collection Harland and Wolff, Ulster Folk & Transport Museum The propellers of the Olympic—the nearly identical sister ship of the Titanic—dwarf workers at the Belfast shipyard where both ocean liners were built. Few photographs exist of the Titanic, but the Olympic gives a sense of its grand design
Photomosaics © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) With her rudder cleaving the sand and two propeller blades peeking from the murk, Titanic’s mangled stern rests on the abyssal plain, 1,970 feet south of the more photographed bow. This optical mosaic combines 300 high-resolution images taken on a 2010 expedition. A gentleman’s pocket watch in a sterling silver case may have been set to New York time in anticipation of a safe arrival. ALL ARTIFACTS COURTESY RMS TITANIC, INC.
A hat of felted rabbit fur likely belonged to a businessman. In an era when dress defined the man, the bowler marked the professional class
Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI The first complete views of the legendary wreck
Photograph © 2012 RMS Titanic, Inc. Produced by AIVL, WHOI Two of Titanic’s engines lie exposed in a gaping cross section of the stern. Draped in “rusticles”—orange stalactites created by iron-eating bacteria—these massive structures, four stories tall, once powered the largest moving man-made object on Earth.
Photograph by Walden Media Weeping rusticles, a 15-ton anchor hangs from the port side of the ship. The starboard anchor was deployed for stops in Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, Ireland, but this one was never used. A fallen section of the bow’s steel railing lies nearby on the sediment of the seabed. National Geographic features new images of the unseen TitanicThe first complete views of the legendary wreck: As the starboard profile shows, the Titanic buckled as it plowed nose-first into the seabed, leaving the forward hull buried deep in mud—obscuring, possibly forever, the mortal wounds inflicted by the iceberg. (Copyright 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) The first complete views of the legendary wreck: Ethereal views of Titanic's bow offer a comprehensiveness of detail never seen before. The optical mosaics each consist of 1,500 high-resolution images rectified using sonar data. (Copyright 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) The first complete views of the legendary wreck: Titanic's battered stern is captured overhead here. Making sense of this tangle of metal presents endless challenges to experts. Says one, National Geographic The Titanic anniversary is featured in April's issue of National Geographic. Just in time for the 100th anniversary of the most storied maritime disaster in history, National Geographic magazine and a team of researchers have unveiled new images of the Titanic, revealing unrestricted views of the wreck for the first time ever. The detailed, sweeping images of the sunken ship were made by stitching together hundreds of optical and sonar images collected by three deep-diving robots during a 2010 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution expedition. One remotely operated vehicle and two autonomous swimming robots were equipped with sonar, used to make wide-area maps; and advanced 3D camera systems, used to conduct detailed investigations of the shipwreck. The resulting images are the most comprehensive ever made of the ghostly site. Aft grand staircase dome: Decorated like the forward grand staircase dome featured in the movie Titanic, the aft grand staircase led down to the deluxe a la carte restaurant, allowing patrons to arrive in style. (Copyright 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Davit pile: Titanic's lifeboats were hoisted overboard by davits, or small cranes. Most were ranked off the deck by flailing funnel cables. These two were entangled by ropes left dangling after a boat was launched. (Copyright 2012 RMS TITANIC, INC; Produced by AIVL, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Unseen pictures of Titanic on 100th year of launch
Photo:NOAA Titanic Steering Motor
Photo:NOAA Titanic BathtubThe bathtub that was in Titanic Captain Edward Smith's room, taken in 2003.
Photo:NOAA Titanic BowThe bow of the Titanic, taken in 2003.
Unseen pictures of Titanic on 100th year of its launch (PHOTOS)The year 2011 marks the centenary year of Titanic. Dubbed “Queen of the Ocean” and the “Unsinkable” ship, Titanic was launched by the shipyard of Harland & Wolff in Belfast, Northern Ireland on May 31, 1911. Only a year later on April 15, 1912, the ship sank in Atlantic Ocean after she struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The shipwreck, which was discovered in more than 12,400 feet of water in the North Atlantic in 1985, is now considered an archaeological resource site as defined under the United States Archaeological Resources Protection Act. In 2010, an expedition team led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), completed the first high resolution detailed map and three-dimensional documentation of the entire Titanic wreck site. “The wreck site of Titanic is a powerful, tangible link to the events of April 15, 1912, and very much a reminder of those who built, launched, sailed on, died on, or survived the sinking. A hundred years later, their stories still have relevance and speak to us from the depths through their personal effects and the power of archaeology,” James Delgado, director of NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program, said in a statement. NOAA wants to ensure that the memorial, historical, archaeological and scientific values of Titanic is preserved for future generations while sharing the story and images of the wreck with the public, it said. While NOAA strives to protect as well as make Titanic wreck site accessible to the public through 2010 documentation and pictures, start the slideshow to view some of the never-before-seen pictures of Titanic before it sank, the shipwreck and more:
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A platinum ring set with diamonds was found in a leather pouch. Women sparkled in such jewels at the ship’s fancy social events.
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