Unsinkable Thinkable – The Titanic, The Olympic & The Britannic

Early in the morning of 15th April 1912, the unthinkable happened to the unsinkable, it sank. The maiden voyage of the White Star Lines Fleet ship “Titanic” was forebode as a disaster even before this trip.   Everyone knows more or less the story of the sinking, so I am taking a different tack on its origins, construction, associations and sinister rumors, which abound regarding the lesser-known aspects of the White Stars 3 Olympic class ships.

Conception

In 1907 a discussion was had between two very successful J’s, the White Star Lines chairman J. Bruce Ismay and the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan.  Ismays Company was owned by Pierponts Mother Company and as result both were losing out to the faster passenger ships of the Cunard line, notably the Lusitania (my grand uncle actually went down with this ship in 1915).  Instead of trying to compete for speed they changed the playing field and opted for size.  Three ships were to be constructed in a new Olympic size class, which would offer the most sumptuous luxury crossing of the Atlantic to those who could afford it.

This tender went out to the Belfast shipbuilding firm of Harland & Wolff who had been building ships since 1861.  No expense was to be spared in the most innovative construction and fittings; 3 million pounds sterling was allocated for the first two of the three vessels.  Everything about the magnitude of these ships was innovative, the two slips to release them had to be specifically made from three regular slips.   They all employed a combination of reciprocating engines with a centre low-pressure turbine, as opposed to the steam turbines used on the Cunard vessels.

Hull 400 – The Olympic Ship

The Olympic ship was the lead ship of this triumvirate and construction began three months earlier than the Titanic to accommodate the pressure the shipyards would be under from such an order.   It was hull no. 400 built by Harland & Wolff.  She was launched on October 20^th 1910 with an id no.131346.  Her maiden voyage began on June 14^th 1911 at which time she was the largest ocean liner in the world.

Her first mishap occurred on September 20^th of the same year when she collided with the British warship HMS Hawke off the Isle of Wight causing two of her compartments to flood (a bleak forewarning perhaps).  At the time the ship was under the command of Captain Edward Smith, one of the most experienced seafaring men in the world.  He later transferred to the Titanic.  Violet Jessop was also on board as a stewardess.

The Olympic had an illustrious career being the scene of mutiny in 1912 and the only merchant ship to engage and sink a German U Boat during WW1.   Being identical to the Titanic it attracted many passengers to sail as a way of vicariously experiencing the voyage of its ill-fated sister ship until it was finally scrapped in 1937.

Hull 401 – The Titanic Ship

The Titanic ship was the second ship to be completed albeit a little later than originally planned (due to the mishaps of the Olympic).  It was yard no. 401.   She was launched on May 31^st 1911 with an id no. 131428.  The mythical id no 3909 0N never existed (NO POPE backwards).  Her maiden voyage began on April 10^th 1912 at which time she became the largest ocean liner in the world.  It sailed out of Southampton (England) to Cherbourg (France), to Cobh (Ireland) with its final destination being New York (USA).

Her mishaps were numerous prior to this maiden voyage.  During construction, 6 workers died, 246 injuries were recorded, and 28 of them “severe”, such as severed limbs.  On the launch day a piece of wood fell from the ship and killed a worker.  There was a near collision with the docked S.S New York as the suction snapped the tie ropes from its mooring.  Tugboats acted quickly to avert any danger.  It is ironic that it never reached either the ship New York or the port of New York.

She sank when five of her sixteen watertight compartments flooded when they were ripped asunder by a glancing iceberg (4 and it would have stayed afloat).  There have been some suggestions that if the other compartments had been opened it would have staggered the listing rather than let the water flood in from the top.

The Titanic had the capacity to carry 64 wooden lifeboats with a capacity for 4000 occupants but the White Star Line decided that 14 lifeboats (65 people) and 4 collapsibles (47 people) and 2 cutters (40 people) would suffice (accommodating 1178 people).  Board of Trade regulations stipulated that all vessels over 10,000 tons had to carry 16 lifeboats with a capacity for 990 occupants.  Out of the 2, 224 people on board only 710 survived partly due to the lifeboats being launched only partially full.  Those that foundered in the water were not due to a lack of lifejackets but rather hypothermia.  The captain of the Titanic Edward Smith went down with his ship.  Violet Jessop was on board as a stewardess and survived.

Hull 433 – The Britannic Ship

The Britannic ship was the final Olympic class liner to be built, partly due to cost, WW1 and new safety improvements being implemented as a result of the Titanic sinking.  She was launched in February 26^th 1914 but never got to make her maiden voyage as a luxury liner.  WW1 interrupted her fitting and she was requisitioned on 13 November 1915 as a hospital ship from her storage location at Belfast. Repainted white with large red crosses and a horizontal green stripe, she was renamed HMHS (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship) and armed with four anti torpedo guns. After completing five successful voyages to and from the Middle East transporting the sick and wounded.  The Britannica was steaming at full speed into the Kea channel with 1066 people on board when it was hit by a torpedo on November 21^st 1916 taking only 30 lives.  It was the largest ship lost during WW1.  Violet Jessop was on board as a nurse and survived.

Ships are referred to in the feminine because they are traditionally the name of the boat’s owner loved one (wife, daughter, mother). It has also been surmised that all ships were once dedicated to goddesses.  If they were still dedicated to the female deities they may not have sunk, perhaps Violet would have been a lucky name.  Interestingly enough none of the three vessels were ever christened.  Whether the new or old Gods were displeased with the White Star Line or a mixture of arrogance and inadequacy were the cause of the failure of the first Olympic class liners we will always surmise but never really know.  One thing is for sure you cannot avoid your fate, whatever it may be.

Pearse Fee

www.yesteryearessentials.com

The Birth of Cinema – A History of Film

The History of Film

Throughout history people have claimed to have invented and reinvented everything.  I personally invented water but I don’t like to brag about it.  If you have ever stood at a bar waiting to order and the bar person has taken someone else’s order before you then you can get a sense of prospective on how unfair life can be.  Now multiply that by a google and you can see how inventors feel when someone else got to the patent office first (supposedly).

On 19th March 1895, two French brothers unknowingly made history by people watching with a new device, which they personally under rated as a popular medium.  Their achievement has had a profound effect upon every aspect of how we perceive governments, each other and ourselves through the glamour of the movies.  There were as always some pretty close runners up so let us applaud them in this article.

Everyone in this blog and countless others not mentioned have all contributed significantly to the subject examined.  I simply draw attention to a few and hopefully inspire others to be inquisitive on their own.

California Connection 1878 – Etienne Jules Marey

Etienne Jules Marey was an instrumental innovator in early cinematography.  His published “La Machine Animale” (1873) prompted California governor and horse owner Leland Stanford to employ Englishman Edward Muybridge’s photographic investigation of a horse in motion (1877). This is now lost, but his second experiment of “Sallie Gardner at a gallop” in Palo Alto, California is arguably the first motion picture which employed 12 individually triggered stereoscopic cameras in 1878.

This was viewed through a zoopraxograph and had its first public viewing 15 years later during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.  As the public had to pay for this it is in essence the first commercial movie theater.

Death Through The Lens 1888 – Louis Le Prince

The first single lens camera celluloid film was used in Yorkshire, England in 1888 by French man Louis Aime Augustin.  Known as Louis Le Prince he had as a child studied under the tutelage of his father’s friend Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre (Daguerrotype).   During a trip to the USA in the early 1880’s he built and patented his first invention, a camera that used sixteen lenses.  Although the camera was capable of ‘capturing’ motion, it needed adjusting to prevent the image from jumping.  On his return to Leeds, England he built and then patented, a single-lens camera.  It was on 14 October 1888 that he shot what would become known as the world’s first motion picture “Round Hay Garden Scene” using a single lens camera.  He also shot several other movies that were projected on a screen in Leeds, making it the first motion picture exhibition, but they were not distributed to the general public.

The same year Le Prince was granted an American dual patent on a 16-lens contraption combining a motion picture camera and projector.   However, a single-lens type patent was refused in the USA because of an interfering patent.  Interestingly though there was no such opposition a few years later when American Thomas Edison applied for the same patent.  This may be due to the disappearance of Le Prince on September 16^th 1890, which could be a coincidence.  Unfortunately such patent battles mar motion pictures early history in the United States and Europe.

Birth of Cinema – The Lumber Brothers

The French brothers Auguste  & Louis Lumiere patented the cinematographe on February 13 1895.  Even though they did not invent the term they obtained it from the unfortunate Emile Bouly’s lack of finances to pay the patent fees.  He had held the patent from February 12^th 1892.

The first footage being recorded on March 19^th of workers leaving the factory was titled “Exiting the Lumiere Factory”, (46 seconds) it was privately screened two days later.  It was publicly screened on December 28, 1895, at Salon Indien du Grand Cafe in Paris along with the first comedy ”The Gardener” (49 seconds) and several other shorts. This screening is considered by film historians to be the true birth of the cinema as a commercial medium.  Ironically the Lumiere brothers placed no great faith in the future of cinema and refused to sell their camera to other filmmakers.  They preferred to concentrate on photography.  With a name like Lumiere you would think they would have been brighter.

Father of Special Effects – George Melies

The first horror movie ever made was ”Le Manoir du Diablo” (1896) by George Melies.  Affectionately known as the “Father of Special Effects” it is obvious why George Melies has been given this accolade when you view his wonderfully mesmerizing “Un homme de tetes”  (1898).

Melies was an illusionist and early filmmaker famous for leading technical and narrative developments in early cinema. He was a prolific innovator of special effects, accidentally discovering the substitution stop trick in 1896.  He was one of the first filmmakers to make use of dissolves; multiple exposures, time-lapse photography and hand color in his work. He is also referred to as the first “Cinemagician” due to his ability to seemingly manipulate and transform reality through the camera.  He is also the maker of the famous “Trip to the Moon”.

Regardless of who claims the accolade of being the father of cinema the Lumiere brothers combination device of a camera, printer and projector has to be considered the most worthy.   Other illustrious contenders such as Emile Reynaud’s Theatre Optique (perforated projector), Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope (viewing), William Dickson’s vitascope (producing), Kazimerz Proszynski’s Pleograph (photographing & projecting) and the Sklandanowsky brothers Bioskope (projector) have not been forgotten or disregarded.  All have their respective place in history and it is merely conjecture as to who is right.

This does not even bring us up to the 20^th century, which sees even more fantastic developments within the industry from sound, to Technicolor and on to animatronics.

It is ironic that the earliest form of cinematography would have its roots in the same region as it is now headquartered very far away from the early innovators.   It is quite poignant also that the biggest winner at this year’s academy award was based on a cinematographic style, which was deemed obsolete over 80 years ago.   Whoever was first let us celebrate the endeavors of all who have strived to make a difference in the movie industry from the A of Augustin to the Z of up and coming film maker and good friend Zach Wright.

Pearse Fee

www.yesteryearessentials.com