RMS TITANIC

THE VERY DECEPTIVE NIGHT

“The ship leaves in 5 minutes”, “Jump Overboard!!!”

The huge engines driving the massive ocean liner roared into action. Whiffs of smoke, white and fluffy started to billow from the four smokestacks. The anchor was pulled out with a clanging sound. The Unsinkable Ship faced the mighty Atlantic, beginning what would later be etched into history textbooks as ‘the unfateful night’.

White star line could not but boast about the marvelous ship. The ships designers Harland & Wolff claimed they had added additional structural dynamics to covet the title the ship had been honoured with. So much sure they were that the ship would not sink that they lessened the number of lifeboats aboard.

Then came the day of 11^th April. The captain (Edward John Smith) was sailing through rough weather and in a region well known for icebergs. He sent a person up the mast to look for those murderous lumps of ice.

The person was latter heard yelling at the top of his voice, “Iceberg ahead! Turn the ship!!”

The captain gaped. A huge mountain of ice lay meters from the ship. He tried his way best to turn the ship but he could do nothing much. As the massive ship turned, the iceberg scraped the ships bottom.

The next thing they knew was that water gushed into the Engine Room first through Boiler 5. The inevitable had happened. The unsinkable ship was sinking.

They began to send SOS in all directions. The Carpathia, which was a little too far away, heard the ships signals and rushed to its aid. Rockets were shot in all directions. The lifeboats were loaded with people. People jumped into ice-cold waters and met their watery graves.

By the time the Carpathia could arrive, Titanic had long since sunk. Only a few handfuls could be saved. Nearly 1500 people left for their abodes.

The Titanic itself, lies in two on the floor of the Atlantic, humming a song few hear, lonely, its elaborate decks scattered with bodies and remains of those who were not so lucky that day.

We have moved far ahead in marine technology since 1912. We know more about the high seas than about our own land. What remains, are but memories, imprinted on the minds of the living descendants of the survivors of the horrific tragedy. They, who were lucky they survived, lived on, to tell the world about that day.

Scientists have conducted experiments on the wreckage in order to reveal the scientific facts behind the sinking of the Unsinkable Ship. Reports tell that the iron used in the liner’s construction was very brittle. The stars too did not seem to be on the ship’s side and were reportedly off the skies that day. As if it were not enough, all the ships nearby had switched off their radar systems. A small number of lifeboats only added to the long list of problems.

Also, experiments have shown that the man on the mast had seen a mirage. He saw the iceberg miles away when it was only a few metres form the ship. The Californian, a huge ship sailing nearby, seems to have seen a mere steamboat. The Captain too claims to have seen a mirage and thus ‘could not conclude’ that it was ‘a massive oceanliner with four smokestacks. in his words “IT WAS A VERY DECEPTIVE  NIGHT”

(A film has been made by James Cameron in 1998 on the ship. It was converted to 3D for the centenary of the sinking in 2012. Those who go to see the film return with a wet handkerchief)