April 11, 2024
Volume 54 - No. 15
TITANIC
TREASURE HUNTING
by Don Logay This Monday, April 15th , is the 112year anniversary of the most famous shipwreck in history. The much-heralded new flagship of the prestigious White Star Line had taken three-years to build and was widely-publicized as state-of-the-art in luxury travel and virtually “unsinkable.” As such, just two weeks after completion and with great fanfare, the RMS Titanic left port on April 10th with 2,200 jubilant passengers and crew aboard on its maiden voyage from the docks of Southampton,
England destined for New York and Pier 59. Just four days later, what began at 20minutes before midnight – when the massive 46,000 ton hull of the 883foot RMS Titanic grazed a huge iceberg in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic – slowly escalated over the next 2-hours and 40-minutes, ultimately evolving into an unimaginable disaster of epic proportions. On that fateful night, only 700 would survive… and among the 1,500 that perished, were the crème de la crème of American business, finance and
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high society. Famous names like Benjamin Guggenheim and John Jacob Astor IV – and a long list of notable authors, star performers and popular personalities of the day, along with Thomas Andrews, designer of the Titanic – were but a few of the people and names that shocked the world. While news of the sinking was widely reported, many factors remained unanswered… and a lingering mystery wrapped in a dark fascination for nearly three-quarters of a century… long recorded in the annals of history as the day unsinkable became unthinkable.
Turning Points There were many milestones in the intriguing history of Titanic that eventually answered the haunting questions and mysteries of the famous ship that sank and disappeared. First was the long-sought discovery on September 1, 1985 – by American Oceanographer, Robert Ballard, based out of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts – who, after numerous expeditions and attempts, using an unmanned submersible named Argo, finally found the wreck of the Titanic.
Titanic
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