Starved on Collapsible B

Collapsible B was the abandoned around 4:00 A.M. by 4th officer Harold Lowe on April 15, 1912. It was capsized, but it saved the lives of 20 men, and 1 woman from the icy waters. After the passengers were placed in another boat, Collapsible B was abandoned, still overturned. On April 17, 1912, the Oceanic came to the wreck-site. There, they found the Collapsible B. However, on top of it were 3 men. Thinking that these men were possibly alive, they got to the men by lifeboat. However, when they got there they found the men dead. They had pieces of cork in their mouths which meant they had tried to eat the lifejackets on them. They were bloated, and disfigured, and unrecognizable. They were able to identify one body, because of initials on his handkerchief. His name was Thomas Beattie. The bodies were buried at sea, and Collapsible B was taken to New York, where it and the other lifeboats disappeared from all records.

My Own Ocean Voyage

In 2004, my mother, brothers, and father sailed from Seattle, Washington, to different places in Alaska. Our ship was named the M.S. Amsterdam of the Holland American Line (a branch off of Carnival Line which owns Cunard). When the ship set sail, we didn't even feel the ship moving. The ship was beautiful with a nice staircase, of which had paintings on the landings (like the Grand Staircase on the TITANIC). We had a lifeboat drill around half an hour after we set sail. The lifejackets were bright orange, and they were not very well designed to be strapped to your person, especially in a short period of time. When we ate dinner, the dining room was a nice place with assigned seating, green carpet with elegant designs, and huge windows where we could look out to sea. In the middle of the room, was an opening that looked over the lower level of the dining room. Our cabins weren't very big. They had a double bed in the main room, and the hallway near the entrance had a bathroom and a closet. When-ever we ate breakfast, we ate in a room with a bar. It too had huge windows, and it opened up to the for-castle deck. It kinda reminded me of the Veranda Cafe. There were many decks and once, and I ran down all the decks in the stern and saw the engines. The engines were huge, seeming to tower around two stories. The voyage was nice, and we saw a few mountain goats occasionally. There was an observation platform, where we spent our mornings looking for sea-life. We did see a porpoise. One night, we went to see a magic show in the theatre. On the way there, we went up a nice staircase that had what looked like silver squares on the wall. Beside the stairway was a towering, 3 story clock that had a beautiful mural on the ceiling, surrounding it. The theatre was pretty good, and the magic tricks were all stunning of course. At Glacier Bay, we saw many icebergs and sometimes run over or hit them. Rough weather rocked the ship, and sent large waves across the ship's front decks. There were 5 pools. One was indoors, but the roof could open which let in sunlight. After a week of sailing, we arrived back in Seattle, Washington.

Lifejacket Sells for $68,000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An unused life jacket from the doomed Titanic ship sold for $68,500 in New York on Wednesday, Christie's auction house said.

The cork-filled life preserver -- still largely intact, but stained and torn in parts -- was thought to have been found by farmer John James Dunbar on the Halifax shoreline after the passenger ship sank off Newfoundland in April, 1912.

The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some 1,500 people to die.

Christie's, which estimated that the life preserver would sell for $60,000 to $80,000, sold another Titanic life jacket last year in London for $119,000.

Maritime specialist Gregg Dietrich said the jacket -- believed to be one of six remaining -- appeared to have been unused because the shoulder straps were still intact. Titanic passengers tended to have had their life preservers cut off to ease removal from their damaged skin.

Dietrich said that the cork filling the jackets was so heavy that many of the survivors and victims of Titanic were found to have broken their jaws on them when they hit the water after jumping from the ship.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Editing by Anthony Boadle)