Remembering the Titanic: 100 Years on
(img via Wikipedia)
This year’s tax day, April 15, 2012 marks the 100th year since the tragic sinking of the Titanic after it crashed into an iceberg. The accident resulted in a little over 1500 deaths, about half the amount that occurred in New York City on September 11, 2011. With the draw of a Hollywood Oscar winning movie, many of the common details of the sinking are known to most people. Here are some interesting facts you may not have known:
- An author named Morgan Robertson wrote a novel 14 years before the sinking of the Titanic with an “unsinkable” ship named Titan that hit an iceberg in the Atlantic on an April night. If that doesn’t give you the shivers, nothing will.
- The Titanic used 825 tons of coal per day, which is enough energy to power more than 6 houses for a month!
- The ship only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people but carried 2,223 on board.
Remembering the tragedy
The historic event has not been forgotten and will be celebrated in many towns this year including cities on the Titanic’s route like NYC, Southampton, the port of Queenstown (now known as Cobh), and Belfast in Ireland.Cruise to remember the Titanic – There is a cruise for the titanic centenary celebration that was sold out more than a year before the start of the route. Some people would caution against taking a cruise on the same route as a ship that crashed into an iceberg. However, people were excited and ready to sign up and paid thousands of dollars for tickets.
New York City – The final destination of the Titanic, New York City, will hold an auction in Manhattan on April 11, 2012. The auction has over 5,000 artifacts from the Titanic’s wreckage with items of all sizes. For those who are fans of antiques and the Titanic, this auction is a great event to celebrate the memory of the steamship.
Belfast, Northern Ireland – Belfast was the first location in Ireland that the Titanic set sail from (it is a figure of speech; the actual ship was a steamship). The city has been constructing a marvelous piece of architecture to honor the memory of the Titanic and is rumored to be completed in 2012, making it a great tourist attraction.
Cobh, Ireland - Known as Queenstown at the time, this small harbour town was the last port of call for the Titanic before setting off for New York. Cobh has already celebrated the centinary with a New Years Day event, and will continue to remember the Titanic's ill-fated vayage via a series of events held throughtout the year.
The tragedy of the Titanic has been remembered and honored for close to a century now. The story is one of caution reminding all humans to be humble and always respect the power of nature and earth. The world has come a long way with technology and safety since the Titanic, which gives more reason than ever to heed the wisdom to be found in the memory of the sunken ship.
