Titanic Eve

Check out this AMAZING Titanic model that Greg has been working on for the last few weeks!! He just finished it yesterday, and it looks REALLY cool. It will provide the perfect centerpiece on the table for our Titanic party. Tomorrow is the big day--the 100th anniversary of when the Titanic hit the iceberg! It is certainly not an occasion to be celebrated, but definitely commemorated. I think what is so fascinating about the Titanic disaster is that it was so improbable. So many little things went wrong--things that could/should have been prevented. It was a horrible tragedy. So I am happy that at this time of the 100th anniversary we can be especially mindful of the people who lost their lives. Greg and I are looking forward to having some friends over tomorrow evening for our Titanic commemoration party. We did all of our grocery shopping last night. Our menu will include dishes from the last dinner served on the Titanic for both first and second class passengers. One portion of our dinner will not be historically accurate, however--we will not be serving a different type of wine in between each course :)

One highlight of the evening will be our trivia game. Here are the answers to the questions (along with some explanations and information about the other answer choices):

1. B
The "R.M.S." in R.M.S. Titanic stood for Royal Mail Ship. On board the Titanic was a sea post office with five mail clerks who were responsible for the 3,423 sacks of mail being transported on the ship (7 million individual pieces of mail).

2. C
The Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland. It departed Southampton, England on April 10, 1912, and made stops at Cherbourg, France and Queenstown, Ireland before heading out to sea. The last photograph of the Titanic was taken in Queenstown.

3. D
John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on the Titanic. John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, and Colonel in the Spanish-American War.His estate was worth $150 million in 1912 (which would be $119.2 billion today). He died on the Titanic, but his pregnant wife survived. Benjamin Guggenheim, an American businessman, also died on the Titanic. Isidor Straus was co-owner of the Macy’s department store and served briefly as a member of the US House of Representatives. He and his wife died on the Titanic. (Interestingly, Isidor Straus tried to join the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but he was too young.) Margaret Brown, known by historians as “Unsinkable Molly Brown,” became wealthy through her husband’s efforts as a mining engineer in Colorado. She survived the Titanic disaster.

4. C
The Carpathia was the ship that rescued Titanic survivors. Though it was 58 miles away and was headed in the opposite direction from the Titanic, it immediately changed course upon receiving the Titanic's distress signal. It took the Carpathia almost four hours to reach the Titanic survivors. Interestingly, the Carpathia later sank after being hit by a torpedo from a German U-boat during WWI. The Californian was a steamship that was stopped by ice less than ten miles from the Titanic's location on April 14, 1912. The Californian's wireless operator turned off his headset and went to bed just ten minutes before the Titanic hit the iceberg. The Californian never responded to the distress rockets fired by the Titanic (their captain was asleep, and the subordinate officers didn't know what the rockets meant). Many think that the Californian could have reached the Titanic before it went down if they had immediately headed for it when the distress call was first issued. The Mackay-Bennett was a cable repair ship that was chartered by the White Star Line to recover the bodies of Titanic victims. It recovered 306 of the 1,517 victims. The Olympic was one of two sister ships of the Titanic. It was slightly smaller than the Titanic, but looked almost identical. The other sister ship, the Britannic, sank in 1916. Compared to the Titanic's losses of over 1,500, only 30 died on the Britannic. 1,036 were saved by nearby ships that came to its rescue.

5. A
There were 12 confirmed dogs traveling on the Titanic. One dog, a gift from Benjamin Guggenheim to the Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith, spent the night on board, but was then sent home to Captain Smith’s daughter before the Titanic left port. The Titanic had kennel facilities, and it is even reported that an on board dog show was scheduled for April 15, 1912. Only three of the 12 dogs survived—a Pekingese and two Pomeranians. Some of the dogs who didn’t survive were Kitty, an Airedale belonging to John Jacob Astor; a King Charles Spaniel and another Airedale; a Toy Poodle; a Fox Terrier named Dog; a French Bulldog named Gamin de Pycombe; a Chow; and several unknown breeds. A woman named Elizabeth Ann Isham wanted to take her Great Dane with her on a lifeboat. She was told that the dog was too large, so she opted to stay on board with her dog. Several days later, the recovery ship Mackay-Bennett found her body
holding onto her dog. There was a cat rumored to be on board the Titanic, but several witnesses claim that they saw a cat, along with several kittens, get off the ship at Southampton.

6. B
Elizabeth Gladys Millvina Dean, the last living Titanic survivor, died on May 31, 2009. She was only nine weeks old when the ship sank. Her parents were emigrating from England to Kansas. The family traveled as third class passengers. Her father did not survive the sinking of the Titanic, but she, her mother, and her brother Bertram survived. Bertram died on April 14, 1992, exactly 80 years after the ship struck the iceberg. During her later years, Millvina’s healthcare became too expensive for her to afford. “Titanic” movie stars Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslett donated $20,000 to a fund set up to assist her with medical expenses in April 2009—just one month before she died. Her ashes were scattered from a dock at Southampton, England--the Titanic's port of departure.

7. C
Captain Smith was planning to retire after sailing on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. His first
officer William Murdoch was the officer on the bridge when the Titanic struck the iceberg. Both men died on the ship. Second officer Charles Lightoller was helping to remove one of the
collapsible lifeboats when the rising seawater washed the boat away. Realizing there was nothing more he could do, he dived into the water, only to be sucked down by the sinking ship. A blast of hot hair from the ship came out of a ventilator and blew him to the surface. He was able to climb aboard the overturned collapsible lifeboat with 30 other people where they stayed until being rescued by other lifeboats. Third officer Herbert Pitman also survived.

8. A or B
The song most-widely thought to be the last one played by the Titanic’s orchestra is “Nearer my God to Thee,” however surviving wireless operator Harold Bride said that the last song played was “Song D’Automne.” The song “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” was sung at the worship service held on the Titanic on April 14, 1912. “Asleep in the Deep” is a song written in 1897 that seems to foreshadow shipwrecks. Bandleader Wallace Hartley and seven other musicians famously played music as the Titanic was sinking, hoping to calm the nerves of the passengers. None of the men survived. Hartley’s body was found in the ocean almost two weeks after the Titanic sank. He was wearing his bandsman’s uniform and still had his music box strapped to his body.

9. B
When it became clear that the Titanic was going to sink, Captain Smith ordered that the lifeboats be filled with "women and children first." So most of the survivors were women and children, although a total of 338 men survived. Thirteen second class women went down with the ship, compared to only 4 first class women and 89 third class women. One first class child died, zero second class children died, and 52 third class children died. One of the second class women to perish with the ship was Irene Colvin Corbett, from Provo, Utah, who had been studying midwifery for six months in England.

10. A
In 1912, Hershey founder Milton S. Hershey paid a $300 deposit for a first class ticket on the Titanic. He was on a trip to Europe, but was requested to come back early to deal with some business issues. He left Europe three days early aboard the ship America. Interestingly, Alfred Vanderbilt, a wealthy American sportsman, died in 1915 aboard the RMS Lusitania, which was sunk by a torpedo during WWI.

In honor of the answer to question 10, everyone participating in the trivia game will receive a Hershey bar (with the old fashioned Hershey's label). It should be a good time . . . pictures to come in the future!