Titanic: Blood and Steel Review

Titanic: Blood and Steel is a 12 part series released this year.  It follows Dr. Mark Muir, a metologist as he experiments with the metals being used to construct the Titanic.  In the process, he meets and falls in love with Sofia Silvestri, an Italian that moved to Belfast, Ireland, and witnesses the social problems going on at that time.  In terms of accuracy, it has its moments.  There are times where I would almost cringe like when Andrews mentioned that the Titanic could hold 4,000 people (she had the capacity for 3,000), early on the Olympic was seeming launched before the Titanic's keel was laid down (Olympic was begun first but was pretty much built alongside the Titanic for most of the Titanic's construction), Ismay came on as the an unbelievable snob (he was in reality proud of his ships but wasn't as greedy as he portrayed), and J.P. Morgan was shown as being in New York (J.P. was in Europe and originally booked passage on the Titanic).  They did try to be somewhat accurate and it isn't too bad.  It's clear they used some archival photographs of the construction as the basis for some scenes and sets and it pretty good in that regard.  The only area of the sets where I must complain is the brief shot of the interior at  the end.  It is clearly an old English home and bears no resemblance to the Titanic.

The story is rather interesting and is a lot to take in when you watch all the episodes without many breaks as I did.  The story deals with the consequences of sex outside of marriage (two of the characters have children with women who are not their wives) which I liked.  It's viewed as if it's harmless, but the lasting impact was big in the long run.  However, they don't seem repentant.  However, it does teach a lesson that needs to be learned nowadays and that is that a child needs a mother and a father.  The series is adamant on that point which I thought was good.  It also deals with the social issues such Protestants vs. Catholics, Women's Rights, Unionists vs. Nationalists, some class warfare, and the Home Rule bill.  A lot was going on during that time and Ireland was in a huge political struggle before WWI.

I thought that the officers of Harland and Wolff were portrayed well.  I don't know much about all of them, but based on what I know of what happened during the construction, I thought it went on well.  I do know a little of Lord Pirrie and more about Thomas Andrews and I thought they were portrayed excellently. Lord Pirrie was a man who was sympathetic with the voice of the public and Thomas Andrews was a man who was obsessed with shipbuilding and took every possible action to ensure that his ships were safe and his passengers were comfortable.  However, one thing I loved about this series is that everybody was human.  No one was perfect and with most of the people you had things you liked and disliked about them.  Even with those that were portrayed very negatively, you could at least see where they were coming from and not completely hate them.   

The Titanic herself was for the most part the stage for everything.  I thought the computer animation was great and the shots were awesome, but Titanic was just a thing you see in the background of this drama unfolding.

I loved how the class warfare was portrayed.  To be sure, there was some tension between rich and poor but it wasn't all an out war like some people would have you believe.  It was more of an unspoken uprising of the lower class against the upper class.  I also thought that the way in which they portrayed struggle between Unionist and Nationalists and Protestants and Catholics was good.  As a Protestant Christian, I'm ashamed of the way they treated the Catholics.  However, I must say that it only showed a few good Protestants (like Pirrie and Andrews) as opposed to the portrayal of nearly all the Catholics as good people. Most of the Protestants were shown as snobby and discriminatory against the Catholics.

I was disappointed that they didn't show the Guarantee Group aside from Thomas Andrews.  There was a young man who seemingly represented Alfred Cunningham but other than that, they didn't show them.  It would have been nice because all these people could have worked with Dr. Muir as he experimented with the steel or been in involved with the social issues.  They could have even had Roderick Chisolm help work out the tension between the Germans and Irish while they were using a German crane during the construction.  The fact there was little mention of the Guarantee Group was a disappointment to me.  

I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.  The movie was great as far as visual affects and its portrayal of most of the characters, but I thought they could have done more with the actual story instead of going with a lot of made up things.

Titanic At 100: Mystery Solved

Titanic At 100: Mystery Solved was a very interesting documentary if you're interested in the technical side of the ship.  This is from the 2010 expedition in which a number of top researchers and oceanographers go the wreck site.  Unlike most of the previous expeditions, this wasn't one in which they visit the popular sites on the Bow and retell the stories.  This expedition instead had a mission to do something that needed to be done, but had never been done before.  The Titanic had broken up, but the researchers didn't know what exactly happened during the final moments.  So, they sent machines down there that mapped out a 15 mile area around the wreck.  Only some of the wreck had been found and they were treating this like an airplane crash site.  Basically they wanted to map out the entire wreck and determine where everything was so that they could determine how the pieces got there and ultimately what exactly happened during those final dark moments when the Titanic disappeared for many years.  The expedition did what they set out to do and produced images of the wreck.  Then, they sent a robot that could be controlled from the surface and got close images of what they couldn't identify.  Then, the researchers used that information and were able to find out what happened and in the mean time, some of them finally debunked that confounded theory that the rivets being weak sank the Titanic.  The conclusions were very interesting to see and watch as they brought to life the final moments that had been a mystery for nearly 100 years.

I found it to be a different and in some ways emotional documentary that held my interest to the end.  I  did find however that the narrator's voice was robot-like and very annoying.  I also felt that while the debunking of the weak rivet theory was interesting, it seemed like it was added to stir up controversy and drama.  That actually could've been a documentary on it's own.  Another thing I noticed even though they didn't say so was that they debunked Robert Lang's (who by the way was a member of the expedition) theory that the expansion joint (a part of the ship used for stabilizing the ship during rough weather) contributed to the break up.

I give this movie 4 stars out of 5.

For more information, here is a visual interpretation done by Parks Stephenson (one of the leading experts on the expedition) of the results:

http://marconigraph.com/titanic/breakup/mgy_breakup2.html

James Cameron's Final Word

James Cameron's Final Word is an interesting film in which a number of notable historians and experts get together and piece together what exactly happened in Titanic's final moments.  The results were fascinating, even though I disagree with one or two points.  One heated debate is the angle of the ship during the break up.  Well they found out that the Titanic couldn't have been more than 23 degrees in the air before breaking.  That puts a bullet near the heart of the theory that the Titanic was at a 45 degree angle which some survivors said it was at.  The survivors aren't unanimous and in fact are all over the place regarding the angle of the ship when she broke up which makes it quite confusing.  It also went through what happened after she disappeared beneath the waves and how certain pieces got into the places and positions that they are today at the bottom.  The only thing I disagreed with was that it came to almost a 90 degree angle at the very end.  I think more of the ship was out of the water because some of the survivors said it became almost perpendicular and then slid beneath the waves, settling back as she went.  Cameron also came out with an interesting and I think very likely theory as to what happened in the break up, explaining the pieces of double bottom found far from the wreck.  Cameron's opinion seemed at times to be the only one that mattered and unless people came up with undeniable evidence, their opinions as to what happened seemed to be bunk.  All in all however, it was excellent and enjoyable until the end when James Cameron ruined it for me by going off on his class warfare, Marxist, global warming  beliefs using the Titanic as an example.  If he'd kept that out, I would've given it 4 out of 5 stars.  I give it 3 stars out of 5.

Here's the final conclusion to the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSGeskFzE0s

Locked Below?

It is a popular thing in movies about the Titanic to show the poor 3rd class passengers trapped behind locked gates while 1st and 2nd class passengers make their way to the lifeboats.  However, testimonies and observations of the blueprints as well as the wreck itself prove otherwise.  The only gates we know of that would hinder 3rd class passengers from getting up to the Boat Deck were waist high at the top of stairs.  One was towards the bow and one was towards the stern.  We know for a fact that the one towards the bow was locked and the stewards attempted to keep the Steerage passengers down because of Daniel Buckley's testimony but they eventually were able to get through.  Another thing that may have prevented Steerage from reaching the Boat Deck was error on the part of the crew.  Lightoller was afraid the boats would buckle and split and so he intended to lower the boats into the sea partially full and then fill them up when they were in the water from the gangway doors.  He in fact sent men down to open the gangway doors.  The passengers got wind of it and waited to board in the lower decks.  For several reasons this never happened and valuable time and seats were lost.  What mainly killed the Steerage passengers was the enormity of the ship.  They had 2.40 hours to to get to the Boat Deck from the lower decks of a 9 story sinking ship with an increasing tilt, panicking passengers, and rising water.  They had less than that actually because at first they were told to wait for orders.  Most didn't reach the Boat Deck until either the last lifeboats were about to be launched or it was too late.  The plight of 3rd class is not as well understood because their stories were not as valuable to the inquiries and press as the 1st and 2nd class passengers were.  Lightoller said what caused so many deaths in 3rd class was because they were forgotten.  I think that's absolutely true.  On the Boat Deck it was "Women and Children First" but below the decks it was survival of the fittest.  The officers mainly cared about loading and lowering the lifeboats and Captain Smith was focused on getting rescue ships to come.  The only parts of the crew that actually thought about getting the 3rd class passengers (some of whom couldn't even read the signs because of their being from different countries) were the 3rd class stewards.  Several bravely went down to the lower decks of the sinking Titanic, guiding them up to the Boat Deck and then going back down for more.

Act Like Men

There has finally been a Christian film made about the Titanic! It's called "Act Like Men" and it deals with how men ought to put women and children first and how it's relevant today. It in fact wonderfully shows how it's essential to Christianity. It interviews a number of qualified pastors and a respected Christian historian and it shows how the "women and children first" principle is biblical. The quality of the pictures and the way in which some of the photographs are made to look 3D are well done. I didn't find any historical inaccuracies throughout the film and they really did their research in making it. I highly recommend this to anyone aspiring to be a biblical man or for a woman wanting to know what to look for in a potential husband. The people that made the film are good quality men, wanting to impact the culture for God's glory. God speed them on their way.

Last Signals

There is a new independent movie out called the "Last Signals" which deals with the two Marconi Operators, Harold Bride and Jack Phillips and is becoming popular among the Titanic community. This film is the result of years of research and study. It is based off the accounts of Harold Bride, the only survivor of the two. It's in black and white, but don't be turned off by that if you don't like those types of movies. It's actually is a plus because it enabled them to use actual photographs of the Titanic and Carpathia and then bring them to life and gives the historical feel like A Night To Remember. The story begins in Belfast just before the ship goes on her sea trials and goes all the way through to Harold Bride's arrival to New York on the Carpathia. The set is impressively recreated and painstakingly accurate. While there are a few inaccuracies throughout the film in the set and a tiny bit in actions, they are fewer than even A Night To Remember and some are hardly noticeable. The story also goes based on research done by the director Tom Lynskey and shows that Harold Bride's starting to suffer from P.T.S.D. which wasn't known of at the time but research shows clearly that Bride clearly suffered from it throughout his life after the disaster. It is shown in greater detail in a longer version. Another good touch was the explosion of the engines which the wreck showed evidence of when the room was explored by James Cameron on his final dive. Some of the dialogue is taken from Harold Bride's account and I admire the close research put into it especially when Bride's accounts contradict themselves which makes it harder to discern truth from fiction. The film does have a little bit of mild language throughout it, but these are words that from Bride's accounts used in the real event. If you're a perfectionist regarding films, you may be bothered by a lack of continuity (such as hair length and style) or the superimposing of the characters using green screen which is easily distinguished but otherwise these things aren't very noticeable and remember that this is a low budget film. Hollywood didn't make this thankfully. If it'd been Hollywood, Harold Bride would've probably been falling in love with one of the maids or something where you have romance in the midst of a historical tragedy, a popular theme with movies about historical disasters. Instead, this film relied strictly based on accounts, research and evidence of what really happened. One thing which I find cool is that they had an original plate from the R.M.S. Carpathia in some of the Carpathia scenes that was probably eaten off by real Titanic survivors. The china and buttons are exact replicas and they built replicas of the engines in the Silent Room based off information received from museums and experts. The soundtrack was hauntingly beautiful and well done. The acting was very good and the English accents were believable, particularly that of Jake Swing who plays Harold Bride. I loved how Captain Smith was portrayed, particularly since the most recent films show him as overly incompetent. He was indeed in shock, but he still was taking charge and doing what he could to reach other ships which is shown in the film. The depictions of the officers was good as well and the fight with the stoker was well reconstructed from Bride's account. I loved how the scenes on Collapsible B during the final moments of the Titanic worked around the break up. Harold Bride didn't see the break up and so what Lynskey did was had Bride staring at a body floating by when the ship's lights went out. The break up happened right after that. You hear the ship tear apart, but it's not shown because this is from Bride's perspective who didn't see it. The next scene shows the stern making her final plunge into the sea which you can make out because of the stars and the light on the mast. I give this move 10 stars out of 10 because of historical accuracy, attention to detail, good acting, and quite frankly I liked seeing the Titanic portrayed by herself for the first time on film. It was in my opinion very well done and I'd recommend it along with A Night To Remember as the most historically accurate depictions of the Titanic made so far. Here's the shorter version on YouTube: Last Signals

What I Did For The 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

My parents encourage my passion for the Titanic. Well, last Saturday my Mother and I went to the exhibit in Atlantic Station. The experience was moving. When you walk in you're given a boarding pass with the information of a real passenger. Rev. John Harper was my character and Edwina Troutt was my Mom's. I knew from the start my person died and my Mom's survived. We went dressed in period costume with myself dressed as an officer. We almost felt like celebrities with people stopping us, wanting to take our picture. At the beginning, they took our pictures in front of green screen. We were super-imposed onto a colored picture of the Grand Staircase. The beginning of the artifacts had her beginnings which included different behind the scenes things like filters and one porthole which was slightly bent. I could imagine the porthole popping off the ship when she split. The next room had things from 1st class. When we first walked in, they had Songe D' Autumne being played over the speakers which was what I believe to be one of the last pieces played by the band. Among the artifacts were tiles. There was one that came from the 1st class Smoking Room. I could just imagine the ship's chief designer Thomas Andrews stepping on it walking towards the place of his death. They also had tile from the kitchen or what's left of it. The kitchen fell through when the ship broke apart to the bottom. There were things from an Australian passenger and some pieces of chandeliers. One of them was like the ones in the photographs of the Grand Staircase meaning it came from the aft Grand Staircase. There was a sconce from the A La Carte Restaurant. It was interesting because 100 years ago that day the Wideners had a party in honor of Captain Smith. There was a water tank by it which had dents which were either caused by the break up or the pressure down there. The next room had a replica of a boiler with mirrors on either side showing the boilers go on like they did. The room reminded me of the engineers that stayed and died keeping the power going. The next room after that had a number of things. There was a bag with personal grooming items from 1st Officer Murdoch who either killed himself or made an effort to cut away Collapsible A. There was an iceberg which was the temperature of the water when the ship sank. There was a huge model of the wreck which though unfinished was huge and great to look at. They also had one of the double doors from D Deck which 1st class passengers would walk through into the Reception Room when boarding the ship. Then they had pictures of the wreck from their recent expedition along with 3D footage of the wreck. The next area had personal items like clothing, letters, and a photograph. at the end of the exhibit they had info on people from Georgia who were on the Titanic. after we left, we went through Atlanta and passed by Baptist Tabernacle where 2 weeks after the disaster the minister, Rev. MacArthur, prayed for the survivors and the choir sang for the survivors. That night, I watched a Night To Remember which as of yet is one of the most accurate portrayal of the disaster remembering what people were doing exactly 100 years ago that moment. It was a moving experience and afterwards I felt as though I'd just experienced the Titanic's demise myself.

100 Years Ago Today-April 15, 1912-2012

‎100 years ago today, the greatest liner the world has ever seen slipped beneath the waves of the North Atlantic forever. With her went over 1,500 men, women, and children some willingly putting women and children and married women before themselves. The 705 people the boats were picked up by the Carpathia which was captained by Arthur Rostron, a Christian. The first thing they did after getting picked up is have a service of thanks to God for protection. Many on board had become widows that night. For nearly all of them, their lives wouldn't be the same. After leaving the Californian to search for more boats, the Carpathia turned and steamed towards New York. The world wouldn't know what happened until she docked there.

100 Years Ago Today-April 14, 1912-2012

100 years ago today was Titanic's last glimpse of daylight. It was the 16th birthday of 3rd class passenger Alfred Rush who got trousers for the occasion. Later the next morning, the sailors would try and get Alfred Rush into one of the last lifeboats on the ship. Alfred pulled back and said, "No! I'm staying here with the men!" Alfred stayed with the men and died like a man that night. It was Sunday, so the passengers had church services. 1st class passengers had services in the 1st class Dining Saloon officiated by Captain E.J. Smith. 2nd and 3rd class had their services in their Dining Saloons and officiated by priests and preachers who were passengers and had volunteered. That afternoon was lovely for a stroll and other recreational activities like exercise. At 5:50, Captain Smith heeded the ice warnings and changed the course to a more southerly route. Little did anyone realize that this decision would prove fatal. In the Marconi Room, Jack Phillips having fixed the machine with Harold Bride was back at the key, sending messages and receiving messages, some of them ice warnings from ships ahead. Suddenly, the Californian's ice warning came blasting through Phillips' headset. Phillips replied, "Shut up, shut up, I am working Cape Race." The Californian would play a large and shameful role in the sinking later. Dinner in 1st class was interesting. The Wideners had a party in honor Captain Smith whose voyage was to be his last before retiring. The party held the creme of the crop of American and British society including the Thayers, Astors, Strauses, J. Bruce Ismay, and some other notable people.

At 11:40 P.M., the Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee high in the crow's nest spotted an enormous iceberg looming in the distance. Fleet saw it first and rang the bell 3 times. He then proceeded to call the Bridge. 6th Officer James Paul Moody answered the phone and said, "What do you see?" Frederick Fleet replied, "Iceberg dead ahead sir!" and Moody said, "Thank you." 1st Officer Murdoch now saw the iceberg and ordered Quartermaster Robert Hichens who was at the wheel to turn the wheel Hard a Starboard. Then he told the bridge to reverse the engines. The Titanic kept going slowly towards the iceberg. Then, she slowly but surely turned. The iceberg was too close and the iceberg scraped the side of the Titanic. She could float with 2-4 of her compartments flooded, but the iceberg opened up 5. The water came rushing into the Boiler Rooms and Mail Room. The mail clerks worked to get the mail to the next decks, trying to beat the rising water. Neither the mail nor the clerks survived the disaster. Captain Smith came onto the Bridge right after the iceberg struck and asked Murdoch, "What have we struck?" Murdoch answered, "An iceberg, sir." In the passenger areas, the men enjoying some last card games or cigars felt or heard what was going on, and came out on deck to see an enormous iceberg just behind them. Those inside that felt it said that it was a bump, a shudder, or a heave of the engines. Captain Smith sent for Thomas Andrews, the ship's chief designer and told the wireless operators to get ready to send the call for assistance. When Andrews got there, the two of them explored the damaged part of the ship. Thomas Andrews told Captain Smith that the ship would sink in an hour or two. Captain Smith then told the wireless operators to send the international call for help which was C.Q.D. Then Captain Smith told the stewards to arouse the passengers, get them to put on the lifebelts, and get them on deck. He then told the officers to ready the lifeboats for lowering. The 1st class passengers began congregating in the Lounge where it was warmer while the band assembled and started playing cheery ragtime music to keep the passengers calm. In the Marconi Room Jack Phillips at 12:07 contacted the Carpathia. The operator on the Carpathia rushed to the Bridge with the news. The officer thought he was joking and proceeded to force him off the bridge. The operator opened the door to the Captain's room and then the officer realized it was serious. The Captain, Rostron, made all possible speed for the Titanic. They would reach the site 4 hours later, too late for over 1,500 people. 5th Officer Harold Lowe had readied some of them and waited for orders to lower. Ismay came out and asked why the boats weren't being loaded and lowered. Lowe, not recognizing him, said that he hadn't been ordered to. Ismay went to the Bridge and asked Smith about it. The order then came to load and lower the lifeboats. The first lifeboat that was lowered had 12 where there was room for 40. Among these first survivors were the Duff Gordons whose behavior was wrongly subjected to criticism later. At 12:55 A.M., 4th Officer Boxhall launched the first white rocket which was supposed to be a call to those that could see them that they needed assistance. Several miles away, the Californian saw a big steamer firing rockets but did nothing. The Wireless Operator was asleep. At the time the first rocket was launched, Margaret Brown who helped put other women into the lifeboats was going to stay and see what was going on when a sailor picked her up and placed her into a lifeboat. Later, Hichens who was at the wheel when the iceberg and was now in charge of the lifeboat used fear like the possibility of the ship sucking them down to motivate the rowers. Later, he wouldn't go back to the people in the water because he feared that those in the water would capsize the boat. Brown tried to get them to go back, but most of those in the boat wouldn't.

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.