200,000 Titanic-Related Documents Published Online

With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking coming up, ancestry.com has released 200,000 documents online relating to the ill-fated ship. The documents provide information about survivors and the 1,500 people who died, a number of wills, and hundreds of coroner inquests. You can look at the Titanic document collection for free until May 13. From the article: "The records include the ship's official passenger list, which shows the names, ages and occupations of those on board the ill-fated liner. It also details the nationalities, positions and addresses of the ship's crew which had more than 900 members."

Comments

useless trivia

[circletimessquare]

there were a lot of Syrian emigrants on the ill-fated oceanliner. I liked that in Cameron's movie, he actually had some Syrians on screen for 2-3 seconds in steerage, confused about directions. Nice historical touch.

double useless trivia: the movie had to be renamed for the Middle Eastern market, as "Titanic" sounds like a slang term for "let's have sex"

Re:useless trivia

[StikyPad]

the movie had to be renamed for the Middle Eastern market, as "Titanic" sounds like a slang term for "let's have sex"

Sorry, I'm going to have to call bullshit on that one.

who cares?

[cellocgw]

This is about as interesting as posting every document related to every person who emigrated from w00tdorf, Germany to yayoubetcha, Minnesota in 1890.

Missing passenger

[Anonymous Coward]

Why, oh, why couldn't have Celine Dion been on that ship, too?

more slash advertising

[TheGratefulNet]

from the piece-of-shit company:

14 day free trial: Only one free trial of one of our subscription options is allowed per person. Free trial requires registration with a valid credit or debit card. You will be charged the full amount of your chosen subscription price on expiry of the free trial, unless you cancel your subscription earlier by calling 0800-wont-you-blowme or visiting My Account.

save yourself the link clickage. they are selling shit and we just don't care...

Re:more slash advertising

[Cormacus]

But you don't actually have to start the 14-day free trial to do the record search from the Titanic. Originally that's what I thought as well. However you can start entering searches without starting the trial (I guess I went through the page where I created a login but then when I got to the credit card info page I clicked back to their main page) by hitting the orange Search Now button.

I agree that the "give us your info now and we won't charge you immediately so this is FREE!" bit is sleazy.

Re:Kudos

[TheGratefulNet]

Good job by ancestry.com

yes, very good job. they conned the slash guys into taking a free advertisement fo their PAID SERVICE.

oh, and you have to give a CC to get the 'free' goodies; and of course you have to CALL THEM (long distance, no less) to cancel.

THIS IS PURE BULLSHIT.

Re:All of these

[bigredradio]

It's the 100 year anniversary. That is why all the articles, re-releases, hype, etc.

Re:All of these

[StikyPad]

It's also the 100th anniversary of MDMA, Life Savers candy, the traffic light, and the electric blanket. Guess which of those had a greater impact on modern-day life? (Hint: It's all of them.)

Titanic deniers unite!

[CODiNE]

I find this kind of blatant propaganda spreading disgusting!

The whole idea that the Titanic sank is just another media hoax perpetrated by a clandestine organization to gain sympathy for their cause.

The photo evidence? Doctored...
The survivor interviews? Professional actors playing a role.
The newspaper articles? A fraud perpetuated by media barons.

Notice how in popular movies the passengers on the Titanic are always portrayed as VICTIMS?? They throw in all this sentimental romanticism... don't fall for it! They're manipulating the public and re-writing history.

It's time we stand up against this and tell them we can't be deceived! It's time to teach our children the truth and turn students against their indoctrinating educators. Because if we don't then soon they'll take the reigns of power and change our way of life. It's time to stand up and say...

TITANIC DENIERS UNITE!!!

More and more often I wonder

[Lucas123]

Do you think any of those 1,517 passengers who died ever imagined how famous they'd be simply because their ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank? I recently heard a really funny comment on NPR radio during the "Wait, Wait. Don't Tell Me" segment. "Titanic, the movie that spawed a real-life shipwreck."

Oh, one of the later ships of the class

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

And the people of Belfast patiently await mention of RMS Titanic's sister-ship and first of class, RMS Olympic, which made her maiden crossing to New York on 31st May 1911 and continued in service until the early 1930s.

A fine example of Harland & Wolff shipbuilding, she even survived the impact of a Royal Navy cruiser which collided with her making 19 knots.

The launch of the Titanic, second of class, was a minor event compared to the ongoing adulation lauded on the Olympic. So you see, the Titanic was neither the largest ship in the World at the time, nor the most famous or glamorous. But that doesn't sell a film very well, does it?

And now, the rest of the story...

[DerekLyons]

And the people of Belfast patiently await mention of RMS Titanic's sister-ship and first of class, RMS Olympic, which made her maiden crossing to New York on 31st May 1911 and continued in service until the early 1930s.

And they hope there's little mention of HMHS Britannic, the third sister - who also had something of an inglorious career.
 
Her completion was delayed by months when WWI broke out and efforts were shifted to higher priority wartime Admiralty contracts. When she was completed she was laid up for months because the White Star line considered it too risky to place her into service.
 
Then, after being requisitioned by the Admiralty and just a years service as a hospital ship - she struck a mine off the Grecian coast. Despite post-Titanic modifications (which prevented too many compartments from flooding), a damaged watertight door and open portholes on the lower decks lead to rapid flooding - and her Captain ordered he abandoned only twenty minutes after the explosion. Fifty five minutes after the explosion, she rolled over on her starboard side and sank.
 

So you see, the Titanic was neither the largest ship in the World at the time, nor the most famous or glamorous. But that doesn't sell a film very well, does it?

  Olympic 45,325 tons. Titanic 46,328 tons.
 
You should read the contemporary press - all of which lauded Titanic as the largest, most glamorous, most famous, etc... ship of the time. The hyperbole wasn't invented for the film and predates the sinking.

Re:All of these

[Penguinisto]

Guess which of those had a greater impact on modern-day life? (Hint: It's all of them.)

Not so certain about that one. The RMS Titanic disaster was directly responsible for:

* The FCC (because it highlighted the problems with folks stepping all over each other on a given frequency, especially when there's an emergency going on)
* The International Ice Patrol (which still exists today, and greatly impacts trans-Atlantic commerce)
* Regulation requiring enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew, on every commercial vessel. (for obvious reasons)
* Required safety drills on any commercial passenger-carrying vessel (because the disaster perfectly outlined the confusion and general fuck-uppery that occurs when you don't)
* Radical changes in vessel design and engineering
* The death of quite a few big-name people, which in turn radically altered a lot of the (at the time) big-name companies that they owned or ran.

For some odd reason, I'm not seeing LifeSavers as having that kind of immediate and radical impact on anything, let alone history.