100 Years Ago Today-April 13, 1912-2012

‎100 years ago today, the Titanic made 519 miles in 24 hours. She also received more ice warnings by wireless telegraph and Morse lamp. One story says that Ismay pressured Captain Smith to go faster over lunch, but there is only one account that says that it happened and so it's not known whether or not it's true. At 11:00 P.M., the Wireless Telegraph broke down. The operators weren't supposed to fix it, but did anyway. If they hadn't and had gone on battery power, they would've had less range. This action definitely helped Titanic the next night when they called for help in an effort to save the people on the Titanic. Unfortunately, only one survived out of the two in the room.

Daniel Buckley

Daniel Buckley Jr. was born on September 28, 1890 to Daniel Buckley Sr. and Abigail Sullivan in County Cork, Ireland. He boarded the Titanic at Queenstown on April 11, 1912, but before he left, he had a party with his friends. At the party, he is said to have sung "When the Fields Are White with Daisies, I'll Return." These 3 friends were traveling with him on the Titanic. On April 14, 1912, he was in his 3rd class bunk when the Titanic struck an iceberg. The Titanic was designed to withstand only 1-4 compartments flooded. The iceberg opened up 6. This doomed the Titanic. Daniel Buckley was in the bow when the iceberg struck and made as Daniel later said, "a grating noise."  Daniel got right out of bed with water just barely in the cabin.  He tried to wake up his fellow bunk mates who did not listen to him at first. But, they got up too realizing the situation and all 4 got dressed.  Presently, stewards came by, shouting "All up on deck!  Unless you want to get drowned."  He left the cabin, shutting the door behind him. He made his way upwards through the maze of passages and hallways.   He had to face some obstacles however. When he got up to one of the stairs, he found it blocked with other 3rd class passengers. The way was blocked by a steward. One man tried to get past the steward, who angrily shoved him back and locked the gate.  One of the men broke the lock saying that if he got a hold of the man that locked them down below, he'd throw him into the ocean, and all of them made their way up including Daniel Buckley, leaving the floor at the bottom of the stairway leading to the gate just slightly beginning to flood. Daniel somehow found his way up to the Boat Deck.  He realized that other people had lifebelts on.  He felt sorry, and went back to his cabin to get a lifebelt.  He made his way down, passing boys and girls.  The some of the girls were excited, but others were crying with boys consoling the girls and assuring them that nothing was wrong.  All were trying to get up to the Boat Deck as fast as possible.  Daniel was stopped from going any further, at a flooded stairway.  Realizing that he couldn't get back to his cabin and that he especially couldn't get neither his possessions nor his lifebelt, he made his way back up again. He and several other men jumped into Boat 13, but the officer threw them out.  He was crying, when a woman suddenly threw her shawl (he claimed it was Madeline Astor, but it was more than likely Mrs. Appleton) over him, and he snuck into the lifeboat. It was lowered, but they had difficulty cutting the falls. Descending right above them, was Boat No. 15. they cried out to those on deck, and they stopped the descent. They finally cut the falls and were able to get away.  Daniel Buckley survived, after seeing the Titanic's stern rise up, and the lights go out.  Then, he said that he heard a thundering loud noise (which we now know was the ship breaking up).  He awoke on the decks of a ship, which a fireman told him was the Carpathia.  The fireman also told him he though that the Titanic sank by a boiler explosion instead of an iceberg (we are certain that it was an iceberg).  Daniel Buckley later wrote an account of the disaster in a letter. Several movies use Daniel Buckley's account, and show stewards fighting panicking, angry, and mobbing 3rd class passengers. According to Daniel's account compared to other 3rd class accounts, this only happened in at least one or two places. Many stewards actually unlocked many gates to allow 3rd class passengers up to the Boat Deck. However, the hallways were complete mazes and many unfortunately got lost and either never made it up at all, or were too late when they got up to the Boat Deck to get into a lifeboat like the Goodwins. It is possible that several gates were missed, and I do believe Daniel's account that there was a steward that tried to keep the passengers down for some reason or another. He also gave an account before the U.S. Senate Inquiry (see 3rd link below).  Daniel Buckley went on to join the US Army (he was an Infantyman). He fought in WWI and was killed. He was buried in Cork, Ireland.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=sh&GRid=17885462

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/daniel-buckley.html

http://www.titanicinquiry.org/USInq/AmInq13Buckley01.php

Was God in the Midst of the Titanic Disaster?

God is in the midst of everything, even the greatest maritime disaster in history. John Harper a Presbyterian minister, preached God's word and led many to Christ just as the ship started to list greatly. One man came to God after hearing Harper witness to him in the water. Father Thomas Byles led many to Christ on the Poop Deck, hearing confessions and helping to pray with them. God preserved the life of Archibald Gracie, and even caused the Holy Spirit to move Mrs. Gracie to pray for her husband knowing that he was in some sort of danger. He who made and controls the wind and the waves, caused the sea to become as calm as a mill-pond which turned out to be a blessing, due to the overloaded, swamped, and overturned lifeboats. You can see that He was merciful to 705 souls, allowing them to live a little bit longer before joining Him or being separated from Him for eternity. The approximately 1,500 souls that died on the Titanic acted on His will and plan. Although I don't understand why He would allow the people He loved to die a horrible death, I do know that all happens for God's glory. In fact, this disaster caused man to look upon how arrogant they were in even saying that God could not sink this ship, and to see that not everything is unsinkable, nor indestructible. God who controls the wind, waves, and all that happens in it, caused the iceberg to be in that path and actually sank it and carried with her, many of the richest, and most prominent people of Europe and America. Today, man doesn't challenge God by saying that even He can't sink or destroy anything. The merely try and make it things the best that they can, and even man's best creations usually have glitches. The Titanic Disaster has allowed man to try and prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

Jacques Futrelle

Jacques Heath Futrelle was born on April 9, 1875 in Pike County, GA (in the U.S.A.). At the age of 18, he became an apprentice to a printer. He then worked for the Atlanta Journal as the aid to a business manager, where he started the Sports section. He married Lily May Peel in 1895, and together, they had two children named Virginia, and Jacques Jr. In 1898, war broke out between America and Spain and this forced Telegraph Editor Jacques Sr. to work 24 hours a day during the period of the war (May 1-July 18, 1898). After the war was over, they stayed with his sister in Scituate where they rested and relaxed. He also worked for the New York Herald, Boston American, and Boston Post. It was in these newspapers in 1905, that his first novel called "The Thinking Machine" which began as a serial for the Boston Post but became so successful, it was put into a series of books. The famed novel was later renamed "Problem of Cell 13". In 1906, Jacques Sr. quit the Boston American and wrote novels like "The Chase of the Golden Plate", "The Simple Case of Susan", "The Diamond Master", "Elusive Isabel", "The High Hand", "My Lady's Garter", "The Flaming Phantom", "The Great Auto Mystery", "The Man who was Lost", "The Mystery of a Studio", "The Ralston Bank Burglary", "The Scarlet Thread", "The House That Was", and "The Phantom Motor". He built a home in Scituate, Massachusetts which he labeled, Stepping Stones. In 1912, the Futrelles were on a vacation in Europe. There is a story which is not confirmed, that the night before they were to return home on the Titanic, Jacques celebrated his 37th birthday with his friends and wife. The party didn't end, until 3:00 A.M. and he spent the rest of the night packing. They were traveling on the Titanic in 1st Class in Cabin C-123 (the children stayed at home with their grandparents, since he also had business). After the Titanic struck an iceberg, the ship began to sink. The couple was asleep at the moment, and didn't feel the collision. He put his wife into Collapsible D. May tried to convince Jacques to enter the lifeboat, but he refused saying he'd enter a later boat (although that was one of the last lifeboats to leave safely). As the boat pulled away from the sinking ship, there is one story that says that he was last seen smoking a cigar with John Jacob Astor. He unfortunately died in the cold North Atlantic. His body was never recovered. There is a memorial to him in Poplar Springs Methodist Church, in Emanuel/Johnson County, GA. His final book "My Lady's Garter" was found in his study, and published by his wife. May put in there, "To the Heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book".

When Weather Changed History

Video

This movie talks about the sinking of the Titanic, as told through accounts. It also goes through the iceberg, and how they're preventing another Titanic disaster.

Iceberg right ahead !

The iceberg that the TITANIC struck was a part of an ice flow drifting south from Greenland. It was uncommon to see ice in April and many ships had to stop a few times to avoid hitting icebergs. As ice traveled south, they melt. Some icebergs are so big, that most of the ice is underwater. The biggest recorded iceberg was as high as a 55 story building! One was measured as almost 400 feet above the surface of the waters. Ice has been seen as a potential threat to some ships since the TITANIC and ice damage to other vessels. In memory of the TITANIC, the government has made the International Ice Patrol which warns ships ahead of time if they are in a course for a threatening iceberg. In the iceberg seen above, there was red and black paint and pieces of metal which was found in the berg. The Arizona
crashed into an iceberg a short time afterward and it's bow was ripped off completely but luckily, no one was hurt. When the TITANIC struck the berg, it made small holes which allowed the water to flood in. Today, ice is very good for the enviroment. They have served as home for creatures, they help purify the air, and they make the sea a more beautiful place.

How the TITANIC sank

When the TITANIC sank struck the iceberg, it made the iron plates buckle and the rivets pop out. It made multiple gashes (not one long gash) and water leaked in. The TITANIC could hold water in up to two watertight compartments. She could even stay afloat with four. But, the gash stretched to the 6th watertight bulkheads and when the watertight doors closed, that only slowed down the sinking because the water went up over the bulkheads and spilled into the next and then the one after that dragging the ship to down lower, letting water come in, until the TITANIC was completely flooded. The TITANIC was doomed no matter how you sliced it. The weight of the water pulled her down by the head and the whole ship had been completely submerged by 2:20. The TITANIC still has mysteries like, what do the gashes look like? and Why did the steal buckle?. The holes that you see today in the bow were caused by the impact of the TITANIC hitting the bottom. The holes remain buried forever in the sediment.