Sinking of the Titanic April 14-15, 1912 North Atlantic Ocean Voyage UK-US: Survivors Interviews

Last edited Fri Apr 14, 2023, 09:33 PM - Edit history (4)

- Titanic Film Footage, 1911-12 (6 mins). Leaving Belfast, Ireland before disaster; rescue ship Carpathia & Capt.; Titanic Captain Smith; some survivors of the Titanic crew; reporters interviewing survivors: White Star offices, NYC, crowd awaiting news; Cunard docks in NY the morning after Carpathia's arrival; Marconi; the Mackay Bennett leaving Halifax in search of the dead.
- Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, (25 April 1874 – 20 July 1937) was an Italian inventor & electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based wireless telegraph system. He was also an entrepreneur, businessman, & founder of The Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company in the UK in 1897 (the Marconi Co.)...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guglielmo_Marconi



- Survivors' Interviews, 1957, BBC Titanic Archive (15 mins).
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- The Titanic sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, 4 days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, Titanic had an estimated 2,224 people on board when she struck an iceberg at around 23:40 (ship's time)[a] on Sunday, 14 April 1912. Her sinking 2 hours & 40 minutes later at 02:20 (ship's time; 05:18 GMT) on Monday, 15 April, resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 people, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.

Titanic received 6 warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling at a speed of roughly 22 knots when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard side & opened 6 of her 16 compartments to the sea. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with 4 of her forward compartments flooded but no more, & the crew used distress flares & radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. In accordance with existing practice, Titanic's lifeboat system was designed to ferry passengers to nearby rescue vessels, not to hold everyone on board simultaneously; therefore, with the ship sinking rapidly and help still hours away, there was no safe refuge for many of the passengers & crew with only 20 lifeboats, incl. 4 collapsible lifeboats. Poor management of the evacuation meant many boats were launched before they were completely full.

Titanic sank with over a thousand passengers & crew still on board. Almost all of those who jumped or fell into the sea drowned or died within minutes due to the effects of cold shock & incapacitation. RMS Carpathia arrived about an hour & a half after the sinking & rescued all of the 710 survivors by 09:15 on 15 April, some 9 & a half hours after the collision. The disaster shocked the world & caused widespread outrage over the lack of lifeboats, lax regulations, & the unequal treatment of 3rd-class passengers during the evacuation. - Subsequent inquiries recommended sweeping changes to maritime regulations, leading to the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)...https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_Titanic



- Survivors' interviews, British Pathe news (8 mins). - More Titanic videos on YouTube.



- Eva Hart, Titanic survivor, 1993.

- Eva Miriam Hart MBE (31 Jan. 1905 – 14 Feb. 1996) was a British woman who was one of the last remaining survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic on 15 April 1912. She was born on 31 Jan. 1905 in Ilford, Essex.. In early 1912, her father Benjamin decided his family would emigrate to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He was influenced by his brother, who already lived there & economic recessions at that time in England, in his decision to emigrate. Aboard Titanic: Eva was 7 years old when she & her parents boarded Titanic as 2nd-class passengers on April 10, 1912. They had been booked on the SS Philadelphia, but a coal strike at Southampton that spring kept her from sailing & many of her passengers were transferred to Titanic.

Eva's mother allegedly felt uneasy about Titanic & feared that some catastrophe would happen; the hubris of calling a ship unsinkable was, in her mind, flying in the face of God. With such fear, Eva's mother slept only during the day & stayed awake in their cabin at night fully dressed. Eva was sleeping when Titanic struck an iceberg at 11:40 pm on 14 April. Her mother was awake at the time & felt "a slight bump." She immediately asked her husband to investigate the disturbance & he reluctantly left the cabin. Upon his return, he alerted her & Eva to the collision &, after wrapping Eva in a blanket, he carried her to the boat deck. Eva's father placed his wife & daughter in Lifeboat No. 14 & told her to "be a good girl and hold Mummy's hand". It was the last thing he ever said to her & the last time she ever saw him; he perished in the sinking & his body, if recovered, was never identified.

Eva & her mother were rescued the following morning by the rescue ship RMS Carpathia. Soon after arriving in New York City on 18 April, Eva & her mother returned to the UK, because her mother never wanted to set sail for New York in the first place. Eva was plagued with nightmares & upon the death of her mother in 1928, when Hart was 23, she confronted her fears head-on by booking a ticket on a passenger ship heading to Singapore, upon which she locked herself in her cabin for 4 straight days until the nightmares went away. - In April 2012, an audio walking guide to Titanic memorials in Southampton was produced, featuring audio clips of Hart talking about her experience. The guide takes the listener on a walking route around Southampton, where Titanic set sail on her maiden voyage. Being 7 years old at the time of the sinking, she maintained several vivid memories:... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Hart