| Titanic, The Irish and the Weather | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: March 28 2011, 05:46 PM (939 Views) | |
| Mark (IWO) | March 28 2011, 05:46 PM Post #1 |
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![]() As the 100th anniversary (15 April 1912) of RMS Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage nears, Irish Weather Online has compiled a comprehensive online list (see video) of Irish passengers and crew who travelled on the ocean liner’s doomed maiden voyage in April 1912. Weather conditions on that fateful night are also examined and we explain why the sinking is described as one of the most significant weather related stories of the 20th century. On 14 April 1912, the ship collided with an iceberg and sank in the early hours of 15 April. Of the ship’s 2,223 passengers and crew only 712 were saved. Although Titanic was a British registered ship, the story of its tragic sinking has many Irish dimensions to it. The ship was built at the Harland and Wolff Shipyards in Belfast while the designer of the Titanic, Thomas Andrews was Irish. The County Down native was managing director and head of the draughting department for the shipbuilding company Harland and Wolff in Belfast. Mr. Andrews went down with the world’s largest ship. The ship that Andrews designed was 882 feet long and had a gross tonnage of 45,000 ton. No one ever claimed that the Titanic was "unsinkable" despite common belief. The quote, "practically unsinkable" was taken out of context. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article describing the construction of the Titanic. The article stated that when the watertight doors were closed, the ship would be "practically unsinkable". Weather maps for the period 10-15 April 1912 show that Titanic enjoyed fine weather for most of its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. On the night of 14 April 1912, however, the ship encountered a cold front extending from Canada south-eastwards across the northern Atlantic. Air temperatures at this time dropped close to 0c. The sea itself that night was a frigid 28 degrees Fahrenheit - 4 degrees below freezing. This would explain why only 10-14 people were pulled from the water alive into lifeboats following the sinking. Not all survived. Eyewitness reports following the disaster suggest the cold weather drove most of the passengers indoors. Meanwhile, north-west winds behind this front would have resulted in the giant ice field, which the Titanic sailed into, being steered towards the ship. Other ships in the area alerted Titanic to the shifting ice field in the hours leading up to her collision with an iceberg. At the time of the collision with the iceberg there was no wind and the sea was flat calm. Patches of sea mist were reported but the sky was said to be clear. ![]() The Titanic hit the iceberg on the starboard (right) side of the bow. It has been speculated that the Titanic may have suffered only minor damage and minimal loss of life had it hit the iceberg head-on. It has also been suggested that the Titanic may have completely avoided colliding with the iceberg had the bridge not requested that the engines be reversed ("Full Astern"), prior to steering the ship to the left ("Hard-a-starboard"). This action would have decreased the forward momentum of the Titanic causing it to turn at a slower rate. Inquests into the tragedy found that the ship’s lookouts in the crow's nest did not have binoculars. The time interval from first sighting of the iceberg to impact was a little over 30 seconds. The inquest concluded that having binoculars might have prevented the Titanic tragedy. The Titanic sank 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting the iceberg. The sinking of the Titanic spurred the global marine community to create an iceberg patrol. The first ice patrol was sent by the United States Coast Guard in 1913 utilising two Cutters. From then on, the International Ice Patrol (IIP) has been providing prudent iceberg information to vessels transiting the North Atlantic shipping lanes. IRISH CREW AND PASSENGERS Research carried out by Irish Weather Online shows that 110 passengers and crew members from the island of Ireland died when the ocean liner sank while 54 survived the most famous ever maritime disaster. A further five Irish people, all from Belfast, died during the construction of the ship at the Harland and Wolff shipyards. Among the Titanic victims were eleven men and women from Addergoole in County Mayo. They were among a party of fourteen from the north Mayo Parish to board the ship in Cobh. The three survivors were Delia McDermott, Annie McGowan and Annie Kate Kelly. The 100th anniversary of the tragedy will be remembered in Addergoole in 2012. Many passengers and crew from Ballydesmond (previously Kingwilliamstown) and Ballydehob in County Cork, as well as Belfast also died on Titanic. Another tragic story is one that is repeated many times during the sinking. Johanna "Hannah" O’Brien (nee O’Brien) Godfrey and her husband Thomas O’Brien, a farmer from Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, boarded the ship at Cobh. The ‘Women and Children’ directive regarding the occupation of lifeboats, issued by the Titanic’s captain EJ Smith, allowed Johanna to escape the sinking liner while her husband remained on board, despite having made his way from the third class section of the ship to the lifeboats on deck. Donegal native Neal McNamee and his English wife Eileen, who were married three months before Titanic set sail, both lost their lives in the tragedy. Meanwhile, six members of the Rice family from Athlone, Co Westmeath also perished on night of April 14-15 1912. Margaret Rice and her five children were emigrating back to Spokane, Washington. Her husband William was killed in a rail accident at his place of work in Washington in 1909 after which she returned to her native Ireland. Like the Rice family, the majority of Irish passengers boarded the ship at Cobh, known as Queenstown at the time. Cobh native William Burke, who as a waiter on the ocean liner, served Isidor and Ida Straus on the night of the sinking. He survived the sinking and was among 712 passengers and crew rescued by the Carpathia. One of the more fortunate passengers on board Titanic was Cork native, Father Francis M. Browne. The Jesuit priest, who disembarked at Cobh, captured priceless photographs of the maiden voyage of the Titanic from Southampton to Cobh. There is also the story of 24-year old engine room worker John Coffey from Cobh who “deserted” the ship when it docked in his home town. Meanwhile, Athlone native Eugene Daly spoke in the months following the disaster about his miraculous escape from the sinking ship. He claimed to have leapt overboard, and to have reached and clung to "an upturned collapsible raft," probably Collapsible B. He said that only the thickness of his overcoat kept him alive in the freezing water and that whenever he travelled he took this lucky coat with him There is also the mysterious story of Katherine Connolly and Katherine ‘Kate’ Connolly, aged 35 and 22 respectively, who both shared addresses in Tipperary Town. The youngest of the passengers survived. See below passenger lists. Other reading: The Sun-Climate Connection (Did Sunspots Sink the Titanic?) - LINK |
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8:14 PM Jul 11