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Secrets of the Titanic
The tragedy of the Titanic has fascinated all since
she sank with 1,500 of her passengers and crew in 1912. Much later, scientist
Robert Ballard set out to find and explore the wreck, despite difficulties of
depth and location. Using the research submarine Alvin and a remote-controlled
underwater robot, he was the first human in over 70 years to see the giant
resting beneath the North Atlantic waves.
It began here in Ireland at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast.
3000 men would labor here for more than two years. They were building a monster,
the largest ship the world had ever seen. In the spring of 1909, a mountain of
steel began to rise against the sky. The ship would weigh 66,000 tons; her
hull
would span 4 city blocks. Each of her colossal steam engines was the size of a
3-storey house.
The huge scale of these things was a source of delight. It was a scene out of
Gulliver's Travels when 20 draft horses were needed to haul the ship's anchor
through the streets of Belfast.
Some few observers found this giant threatening and wrote of her nightmare
scale. But their forebodings fell short of the event, for the fate of this ship
still fascinates the world and her name is a synonym for tragedy.
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( Oct 27 )
