Unsinkable?

Private exhibitions at museums are never cheap to enter are they? Luckily for us though we found some money off vouchers in the Sunday paper for the Titanic exhibition that had rolled into town. We seemed to have been chasing this around for quite a while now, always just getting to a place where it had just finished or just prior to it kicking off. So it was off to the Calgary's most hotchpotch building to check it out.  Over the past 15 years, more than 22 million people have seen this powerful exhibition in major museums worldwide from Chicago to Los Angeles to Paris and London. And now it was in Calgary's turn.

The Titanic, the largest moveable object ever built by man. Her maiden voyage from Southampton in April 1912 sank only four days later, and not discovered until September 1985. She lay lost for 73 years in 2 miles of deep north Atlantic waters where freezing water pressure reaches 6000 pounds per sq inch.

Sixty chefs worked in the Titanic's five kitchens. The store cupboard for the 5 day crossing held: 40,000 eggs, 75,000 pounds of meat, 15,000 pounds of fish, 40 tons of potatoes and 1,500 gallons milk! She carried 6000 tons of coal of which she consumed one piece per every foot travelled. Therefore a 60 pound lump could move the ship through about 60 feet of water or 1.5 seconds of forward travel when at full speed.

Titanic had its own newspaper, the Atlantic Daily Bulletin, prepared aboard the ship. In addition to news articles and advertisements, it contained a daily menu, the latest stock prices, horse-racing results, and society gossip.

A first class ticket cost $4,900 (around $90,000 in today's money) for 5-6 days travel. Although a first class ticket covered most things guests still had to pay extra for the turkish baths, the gym and various other sport activities. Sounds a bit like Centre Parcs, "sorry sir, tennis bats are extra".  A third-class ticket cost $40 (approximately $900 in today's currency). There were only two bath tubs for the more than 700 third-class passengers aboard the ship.

Due to the coal strike on at the time of sailing many other sailings where cancelled and most if not all of these stranded passengers were transferred onto the Titanic.

Prior to the fateful moment many other ships in the area had already reported sighting of massive icebergs in the North Alantic. HSS Masaba, HSS Amerika and HSS Califonia had all slowed or even stopped completely as in some cases there seemed no way past these huge floating blocks of solid ice. Still the Titanic continued at a speed of 21 knots, which was close to full pelt, the call to reduce her speed never came. When the ships telegraphs were found they were in the position of "full speed ahead". Some passengers recalled no jolts or shocks when she hit the fatal berg, just a mere dull thud.

The waters temperatures in the North Atlantic were well below minus. Most of those struggling in the water in their life jackets would have succumbed to hypothermia, while others may have had heart attacks. Even if all 20 lifeboats had been filled to capacity, there would only have been room in them for 1,178 people. Only 700 people survived.  Even after the final rescue boats where launched around 1500 people were still stranded on board, sinking to their graves.

RMS Titanic Inc. is the only company permitted by law to recover objects from the wreck of the Titanic. The company was granted Salvor- In-Possession rights to the wreck site by a US federal court in 1994 and has conducted seven research and recovery expeditions rescuing more than 5,500 artifacts. These expeditions have been conducted at the wreck site, located 963 miles northeast of New York and 453 miles southeast of the Newfoundland coastline. Submersibles are used that take 2 1/2 hours to dive down to the ocean floor. Bacteria and fungus growths are sucking away more than 100 pounds of metal from the wreck every day and by the year 2112 the ship will have rotted almost beyond recognition.