Plunging Into History

Imagine yourself on the maiden voyage of the world’s most popular and exciting ocean liner. Everyone has said this ship to be “unsinkable”. People would die to have the opportunity to go. And many do.

On April 14, 1912, the bridge of the R.M.S. Titanic was phoned that an iceberg was straight ahead. The officer tried to avoid it by turning, but it wasn’t fast enough. The ocean liner rammed into the iceberg, shearing the side of the boat off and filling the watertight compartments. The ship plunged into the freezing ocean. 1522 people were killed on the sinking boat, while lifeboats saved 705. No one would see the Titanic for 73 years, until a French-American expedition was successful. On June 28, 1985, Robert Ballard and his team used the most advanced equipment: side-scan sonar, underwater video cameras, and robotic submersibles. Ballard saw the ship just as the captain was about to abort the mission. They sent down Jason Jr., a robotic submersible, to get a closer look. One of the things they found was that the Titanic split into two major halves, not in one piece like many believed. Five years after their discovery was made, Hollywood made a billion dollar movie, and a Broadway musical was made as well.

The story of the Titanic has always fascinated me, and this article condensed the story nicely. I think that we need to use this story as an example for future inventions and preparations. Slacking off in even the smallest things like preparing lifeboats affected thousands of people’s lives. We need to use this event in history as an example for ourselves.

The trial run for the Titanic only lasted a few short hours because the engineers and crew felt so confident that they didn’t feel it needed a longer test. They never had safety drills, so no one knew what to do when the time came for them to use them. They didn’t even have enough boats for everyone, and many people died because there just wasn’t room for them, or they didn’t even think it was serious.

We need to learn from this gruesome story that you can never be too prepared. We need to be more careful with our safety and drills. We need to take things like fire or earthquake drills more seriously. What if the school really was burning, and no one knew where to go or what to do? Many people could get hurt. Anything can happen! Expect the unexpected!