Titanic

August 30, 2010

The Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when she set off on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England to New York City on April 10, 1912. Four days into the crossing, at 11:40 pm on April 14, 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank at 2:20 am the following morning. It resulted in the deaths of 1,517 people, in one of the deadliest, peacetime, maritime disasters in history. The Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers and used some of the most advanced technologies available at the time. It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank.

The Titanic has been the subject of many books and movies. Did you know that one book, written in 1898, actually seemed to be foretelling the sinking of the Titanic? Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan is about a large passenger steamship believed to be 'indestructible', that sank after hitting an iceberg in the North Atlantic. The Titan was 882 1/2 ' long and the Titanic was 800' long. Neither ship had nearly enough lifeboats for their passenger capacity. The Titan had 2,500 passengers and the Titanic 2,207. This book was rejected by editors time and again. They told the author, Morgan Robertson, that the story was unbelievable, that the events of which he wrote could not possibly happen to an unsinkable ship. More than 1/2 of the passengers from each ship died. One fictional, one true.

The Excelsior Springs Branch will be featuring a display of books and movies about the Titanic during the first week of September. Come in and check some out!