10 items that went down with the Titanic

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 3:06 pm

http://history.howstuffworks.com/europe ... itanic.htm

Fascinating!

I think they left something out though. I remember reading there was an Egyptian mummy in a sarcophagus on board. That it was stored near the bridge.

I once read that the "curse of the mummy" could have sunk the ship! That there was some bacteria or deadly ancient germ on the thing, made the captain sick, and then he couldn't think properly to save the ship.

DJ · Post by DJ » Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:03 pm

Stefani, on a similar note, I very recently viewed a program on one of the history channels about how a huge, only-one of-its-kind dinosaur fossil was decimated during the bombing of Berlin during WWII.

Think of what was lost when the library in Alexandria, Egypt, burned during the reign of Cleopatra. (Elizabeth Taylor's take on this in the Cleo-flick is unintentionally amusing.)

Stefani · Post by **Stefani** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:19 pm

You are right. So much of the past has been lost to us. Of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, we have only the Great Pyramids of Giza left to us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Wond ... ient_World

doug65oh · Post by **doug65oh** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:05 pm

It always amazes me when the subject of Titanic’s lifeboats comes up in things like this. While the 20 boats she left Southampton with were undoubtedly inadequate, that number actually exceeded British Board of Trade regulations, which only required 16 boats. The BoT lifeboat regs in effect at the time came about in the mid-1890s and were based not on the number of passengers & crew at all, but rather on gross tonnage of a passenger liner. The largest ship envisioned when the regulations were enacted was about 10, 000 gross tons – and that’s why and how White Star could boast that Titanic carried more than the required number of boats. (On paper, that was entirely true.)

I’ve also heard it said that they might well have overloaded the boats and gotten away with saving more folks – nearly twice the 700+ who did ultimately survive. The lifeboats Titanic carried were designed, tested and proven to have a maximum capacity of approximately 68 passengers. (In one of the documentaries years ago that was mentioned, along with photographic proof. The photo clearly shows a lifeboat, stuffed with passengers. (These were not just your garden-variety lightweight rich folks, but good-sized Belfast Irishmen of just the sort who built Titanic.)

That same documentary also mentions what has to be the ultimate in irony as well as tragedy. Titanic’s original design – as envisioned by Andrew Carlyle, Thomas Andrews’ predecessor called for a total number of 64 lifeboats – that is to say the 16 boats required plus an additional 48 boats. There was so the story goes a good deal of discussion, after which Andrew Carlyle left Harland & Wolfe never to return. Had Andrew Carlyle’s recommendations been taken, there would have lifeboat space for everyone aboard and then some!

kssunflower · Post by **kssunflower** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:03 pm

A very interesting article. To quote a character from Cameron's movie, that ship truly was a wonder. But no mention of the Renault motor car in the cargo hold?

doug65oh · Post by **doug65oh** » Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:42 pm

As Stefani said, it looks as if that list missed many things, or lumped them all together in a single category perhaps. One of the documentaries - a Discovery Channel program I think it was - pictured a set of bagpipes thought to belong to a 3rd class passenger.

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 6:37 pm

Stef, under #9 - "Freight", it says that the Titanic was not carrying any Egyptian mummy.

I wonder who the Rubyiat belonged to?

And, yes, I was surprised too that they didn't mention the car.