#Boat Bulkhead

[lets-try-some-writing]

idea

Considering that tfp cybertronian don't have lips like humans,to """kiss""" eachother, they basicly bonk heads together like cats with a light electric current running between them.

I LOVE THIS IDEA

I swear I've written about it before, but here I go again.

Keeping in line with my personal headcanon that touching is just a way to bond, I can see Bumblebee hurrying to bonk his helm against everyone he likes. Arcee gets one, Bulkhead had to kneel down to get one, Ratchet gets two happy bonks, Optimus gets one long bonk. The kids are even offered the bonks but Bee has to be very careful so as to not accidently hurt them. Smokey doesn't get bonks, nor does Ultra Magnus. They are too new or important for him to feel comfortable.

Arcee doesn't do helm touches. That's for sparklings and very close pairs. No instead she does leans. She will rest her helm against the leg or torso of those she likes. No hugs here. Just a light touch. She's a tad too short for most other interaction anyway.

Bulkhead is very gentle with everyone he does helm touches with. He doesn't touch Ratchet with a ten foot pole and he is VERY conservative with the touches he offers Optimus. The Prime will get light touches like the ones Arcee offers. Bumblebee often gets full blown helm touches. Arcee doesn't like getting helm touches so Bulkhead instead touches her back whenever he can. Wheeljack though? Whenever he's at base Bulkhead and Wheeljack will butt helms like rams. He might pat Magnus's shoulder, but that's all. Smokey gets no helm touches, but shoulder touches are acceptable.

Ratchet isn't particularly stingy about touching. He's a medic after all. It is literally his job to stick his digits everywhere. But when he's feeling particularly touchy he will offer helm touches to Bumblebee and Optimus exclusively. He knows them the best and so is far more comfortable touching them. Bulkhead and Arcee get back touches and in Bulkhead's case, hip and torso touches as well. Ultra Magnus is in a similar boat. Smokescreen is too new for serious touching, but Ratchet is willing to throw him a bone due to his youth and will give him back touches as well when he's feeling down.

Technically the rules state that it is heretical for anyone to touch the Prime without going through various rituals, but Optimus gave everyone the green light so now he will go about touching his team whenever he feels like it. Helm bonks go for whoever he trusts and is comfortable with it. Back, arm, and pretty much anywhere else touches go for the rest of the team. Smokescreen never emotionally recovered when Optimus spontaneously decided he trusted Smokescreen enough for the rookie to get touches.

Ultra Magnus will only touch his Wreckers, Ratchet, and Optimus. He may give Bee a few touches, but its RARE. He will touch helms with Optimus and Bulkhead, even Wheeljack eventually. It is all a matter of trust, one which he first engaged in begrudgingly but now secretly really enjoys.

Smokescreen both REALLY wants touches but also isn't entirely sure about what to do. Standard dictates that touches are reserved for close companions. But the war meant that the usual time it takes for trust to build has significantly shortened. He spent several weeks totally touch starved until Bulkhead accepted him first. The rest of the team followed suit and poor Smokescreen has never gotten so much physical affection in his life.

Touching reaffirms bonds. There is nothing weird about it. The whole process is just to solidify companionship. Despite that eventually being explained to the humans, they will never not blush when the team will nonchalantly stick their servos in places humans would see as being very reserved. Arcee is the worst offender in their eyes since she is often too short to reach anything except the legs and crotch of taller bots.

[skepwith]

More Parts of the Revenge for OFMD Fans

Part of a series: Revenge Master Post.

This post is about stuff in the body of the ship, going more or less from top to bottom. I’m saving the sails and rigging for my next post. If you want to know more basic terms like fore and aft and bow and stern, look for “Parts of the Revenge” in my master post.

Obviously, using these terms is entirely optional, since David Jenkins et al. are free and easy with the ol' historical accuracy. This list is for pedants like me and people who like historical and specialized language. Enjoy!

Main Deck

The low “walls” on the sides of the open decks were called the bulwarks—they were to keep people from falling overboard. On the Revenge, the bulwarks are topped by a rail (railing).

A gap in the bulwark, together with a set of rungs on the hull, was called an entry port. It allowed people to climb aboard from a dinghy.

The top edge of the bulwark was the gunwale, pronounced gunnel. The expression “loaded to the gunwales” is still used to mean very full. The top edges of a dinghy are also called gunwales.

An opening in the deck is called a hatchway. I wrote about hatches a while ago, but what I didn’t realize was that the hatch is the part that covers the hatchway. The wooden grid that lets light and air through is called the grating.

In the bow, the curving rail that goes from the figurehead to the hull is called the head rail, which would’ve been really helpful to know for my toilet post. Oh well.

Stede’s journal could at a stretch be called a logbook (or log). This was a book in which an officer noted details of the ship’s daily progress and journey. Probably a bit less fanciful than Stede’s version.

Weaponry

The Revenge has guns (the word used for cannons) on her main deck and her gun deck. Before a gun was fired, the barrel was cleared with the sponge, then loaded with gunpowder and shot and wads of cloth, all of which was tamped down with the rammer. There were different types of shot, or ammunition; cannonballs were called round shot.

To fire a gun, a lit fuse (usually a slow match) was brought in contact with the vent at the top of the gun—called the touchhole—to ignite the gunpowder. (The wick added in OFMD isn’t accurate. Shocking, I know.) The slow match was usually held with a staff called a linstock, tucked into a notch on the end. You didn’t want to be right next to the cannon when it went off, because there was a non-zero chance it would misfire and explode in your face.

Despite what you see in movies, cannons didn’t produce a lot of fire and smoke; the cannonball did damage by going unstoppably through hulls, masts, and people—often many at a time—like a deadly Energizer bunny.

The gunpowder was kept in kegs in a small room called the powder magazine. (A magazine is an ammunition storage area.) This room was in the hull of the ship, below the water line, to minimize the chances of a stray spark sending the whole ship up in flames. The shot was kept in the shot-locker, a small room in the hold (though this word wasn’t recorded till 1805). As we know, Stede calls this the ball room.

Besides the regular cannons, the Revenge also has swivel guns, small cannons mounted on swivels. These were too small to damage another ship; they were there to fire at boarders and approaching boats. Or, you know, to set off fireworks.

To take an enemy ship, sailors might use a grapnel (or grappling hook). These were attached to a rope and thrown at enemy bulwarks or rigging so the ships could be pulled together for boarding.

The Gun Deck

Everything on a ship had to have a special name: stairs were always called ladders; the floor was called the deck; and a wall or partition inside the hull was called a bulkhead.

Some of you may know that a ship���s kitchen is called a galley. However, this usage wasn’t recorded until 1750; the earlier word was cook-room.

Likewise, the mess is where you eat on a ship, but this sense wasn’t recorded until the late 1800s. In OFMD’s time, mess meant “a group of people who eat together,” like officers of the same rank or sailors on the same watch.

You might know a berth as a shelf or box to sleep on, like Stede’s (and Ed’s) bed, but this usage wasn’t recorded until the 1790s. The earlier meaning, used from at least 1706, is “a room where a particular group (such as officers or midshipmen) eats and sleeps.” So you might call Jim’s room a berth—except that it changes hands, and its name has been firmly established as the Room.

A berth is also a place in a port or harbour where you can moor (park) a vessel, and thirdly, the safety margin around another vessel or object, which gives us the phrase “to give [it] a wide berth.”

Finally, the area where the animals (remember them?) were kept was a small triangular area in the bow called the manger. This seems to be where the Revenge’s en suite is, at least as far as I can figure, but if you want to include the animals for whatever reason, they’d probably live somewhere around there.

Storage

Some of the stuff on board was stored in casks, a.k.a. barrels. These could be any size, but a large cask was also called a butt. A scuttlebutt was a butt full of water attached to the deck for sailors to drink from. Unfortunately, the word wasn’t recorded before 1800, and the “gossip” meaning not till a century after that. But it’s a great word and you should use it anyway.

A keg was a small cask, usually less than ten gallons, used for things like gunpowder or rum.

A sea chest was a wooden box used to store an officer’s personal effects—or to confine a nosy hombrecito.

The Ship’s Bottom

(As it were.)

In several of my posts and diagrams I said the lower decks of the Revenge were the gun deck, the orlop, and the hold. But my friends, I made a grievous error: the Revenge has no orlop. I know!

In season 2, for the first time we get to see what’s below the gun deck. When Frenchie opens the secret passage in the kitchen, he reveals a set of stairs—sorry, a ladder—down to a grim, damp space. The kitchen is on the gun deck, so this is the deck immediately below it, and while on most ships that would’ve been the orlop, in this case it’s the hold.

The hold was the lowest compartment of the ship, used for storage and cargo. It also sometimes held the ballast—heavy stuff (e.g., pig iron, gravel, stones, lead) put there to improve the ship’s balance. The lowest part of the hold itself was called the bilge or bilges—the area where bilgewater collected and had to be pumped out.

Episode 3 shows the water on the floor—sorry, deck—making it pretty clear we’re in the bilges of the hold. On top of that, an Instagram post by crewmember Will Giles (shared on Tumblr by @ourflagmeansbts) mentioned repurposing the “bilge set.”

Which all proves that the Revenge’s hold is immediately below the gun deck, with no orlop in between.

The keel is the structural piece that runs lengthwise along the middle of the hull’s bottom. Keel-hauling was to drag someone along the outside of the keel, underwater, as a punishment—very nasty, often fatal.

Also underwater, at the stern, is the rudder, whose movement makes the ship turn. On a dinghy you steer by moving the tiller, a horizontal bar attached to the rudder post. On a ship like the Revenge, you turn the ship’s wheel, which is attached to the tiller via cables, and that moves the rudder.

That’s all for now! Coming next: sails and rigging, in port, and more sailing lingo.

Sources: Wikipedia, historicnavalfiction [dot] com, Oxford English Dictionary

[grimm-the-tiger]

I made this post a little while ago listing some facts about shipwrecks that probably only I find interesting, so now I’m back to talk about some of them. Specifically, the Olympic. The Olympic was the namesake of the Olympic-class liners, whose most notable member was the Titanic. Out of the three Olympic-class ships - Titanic, Olympic, and Britannic - only one of them was actually unsinkable, and that was the Olympic. 

Over the more than 20 years of its existence, the Olympic was never once in real danger. The Olympic was the danger. On its fifth voyage in September 1911, Olympic was running parallel to the HMS Hawke, a British warship designed specifically for ramming things. Olympic suddenly turned to starboard (right side of the ship if you were facing towards its front), catching Hawke’s commanding officer off-guard; he wasn’t able to avoid the collision and ended up ramming the other ship. Olympic was left with a substantial hole beneath the water line (although flooding was for the most part averted due to its bulkheads actually working properly, *cough* Titanic *cough*) and a slightly less substantial hole above it. Hawke, meanwhile, had its entire bow caved in. Olympic made it back to port just fine under her own power, while Hawke almost capsized. Somehow, no one was seriously hurt or killed. 

Three fun facts about this situation: Violet Jessop, a woman famous for surviving the sinkings of both of the Olympic’s sister ships, was onboard the Olympic when this happened. This incident also reinforced the idea that the Olympic-class was unsinkable. The famous postponement of the Titanic’s maiden voyage also occurred because of this incident; a propeller shaft was damaged in the collision, they needed a new one ASAP, and, well, the Titanic was right there... 

Four years later, WWI broke out. The Olympic was requisitioned as a troop ship, given 6-inch naval guns, and sent on its way. In 1918, while travelling to France with a literal boatload of American soldiers, Olympic spotted U-103, a German U-boat chilling on the surface of the ocean. Olympic opened fire on U-103, which immediately crash dived to keep from dying, then turned to ram the U-boat. Olympic hit U-103′s conning tower and tore open the hull with its propellers. U-103′s crew decided “fuck this” and abandoned ship; Olympic didn’t bother to stop to pick them up, so a nearby American warship did instead. It was later found that U-103 was preparing to torpedo Olympic when they’d been spotted, but they couldn’t flood the torpedo tubes in time. Olympic remains the only merchant vessel in WWI recorded to have sunk an enemy vessel (which would become a more common occurrence during WWII, to the extent that the Nazis apparently tried and hanged at least one captured British merchant captain for ramming one of their U-boats. The Nazis were ones to talk, considering they rehired the man who sank the Carpathia and was notorious for war crimes that included things like “drowning surrendered enemy crews by forcing them to strip and stand on the roof of his submarine, then diving the submarine” and “attacking designated hospital ships that made it very obvious they were hospital ships”). 

Following WWI, while Olympic was being refit for civilian service, a sizeable dent was discovered below the waterline. It was later concluded to have been caused by a faulty torpedo, most likely fired by U-53 while the Olympic was travelling through the English Channel. 

Olympic collided with another, smaller ship, Fort St. George, in New York Harbor on March 22, 1924. There’s not much information on how badly Olympic fucked Fort St. George up, just that Olympic apparently fucked around a little too much and found out, because the collision broke its sternpost (support post in the back of the ship; think of it like a central pillar in a structure), forcing the entire stern frame to be replaced. 

On November 18, 1929, Olympic was cruising not far from the Titanic’s wreck site when the whole thing began shaking for two minutes. This was later found to have been caused by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Newfoundland. 

The Olympic’s last hurrah (and casualty) was on May 15, 1934, when it collided with the lightship LV-117. Olympic had known the lightship was in the area, but didn’t know where exactly it was until they were right on top of it. Olympic’s captain immediately ordered a hard turn and the engines slowed, so Olympic wasn’t moving particularly fast when it did hit LV-117 (about 3 and a half miles per hour), but Olympic was fucking huge, and the people onboard barely noticed when they practically crushed the lightship under them. Only four of the eleven crew aboard LV-117 survived; four went down with the ship and three died in Olympic’s hospital (yes, these things had hospitals; I told you there were fucking huge). 

Olympic was fully scrapped in 1937, forever going down in history as both the only Olympic-class ship that was actually unsinkable and the one with the longest reign of terror. Good God, man. I understand sinking the U-boat, but you didn’t need to bring like four other ships down with you. 

[aspideronmywall]

Goose....was not a very compatible RIO.

This has been an idea rattling around in my brain for a few months now. I feel it's an interesting concept. Goose being an aggressive, or demanding RIO. Wanting to push people to the limits of their flying, making Mav and Goose perfect for each other.

(Apologies for any spelling or grammar mistakes I may have missed!)

A bulkhead was slammed shut, the metal achingly bouncing off of its frame. Nick Bradshaw was storming through the halls of the boat, his pilot quickly in toe.

"Goose, look I'm sorry-"

The large man had whipped around so fast that a rush of air grazed over the pilot's face.

"You're sorry? Sorry." Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. "We were going to die out there, die, Bellbottom." Nick took a deep breath to try and keep his composure..

Bellbottom, Nick's pilot tried to defend himself. "Look, I was only following the training.-"

"And you won't take any risks because you got that book shoved up your ass!" Nick shouted. his voice rang through the pingy hallway. "Because you won't fly fast enough, you won't take a tighter turn to get an edge on the enemy, I can't fly for you! My life is in your hands, what the hell are you going to do when your lack of some fucking kahunas gets me killed and makes my wife a widow, and my child fatherless huh?"

Bellbottom had shrunk against the wall by now, while Goose may have a slightly goofy exterior, the burning fire behind his eyes is felt through the intense stare that heats up his cheeks.

"We are lucky alert 5 made it in time..." Goose sighed, backing away from his pilot. "You're gonna have to find a new RIO... because I won't settle for a pilot who is incompetent."

Nick meandered his way to the mess hall, ever since he quit smoking, for caroles mental peace of mind, his new addiction was food, not that he didnt have a healthy appetite before, but stress eating became his new poison. The moment Nick sat down with a plate of food, his ears were drawn to an arguing pai of officers who had just walked past him.

"Jesus Christ Maverick, you aren't a stunt pilot, you're gonna get us killed out there!"

The short one, who Nick could only assume was Maverick, turned around, having to look up at his fellow officer.

"We were on alert five Ford, what was I supposed to do? Take a Sunday drive to an F-14 in the water with no MiGs in sight? we had to get there, and we had to handle it. End of story."

The taller of the two grabbed Mavericks arm.

"Listen here, kid. You're daddy may have been a hotshot pilot like you, but one way or another, that attitude is gonna get you, or someone near you killed, you just watch it happen. Find a new fucking RIO..."

After that insult to his father, maverick slumped into the seat across from Goose, with Maverick's back facing him. After Nick took his time chewing his food, he finally spoke up.

"You're Maverick?"

Maverick turned his head, and solemnly nodded. He swung his leg over the bench to face Nick. "Yeah, I'm Maverick alright, can't keep a damn RIO."

"And that's cause you fly too fast?" Nick questioned.

Maverick nodded his head, looking up at Nick.

There was a long pause between them, before Nick spoke again. "And I just got done yelling at my pilot for not flying fast enough."

[moonlight-tmd]

Mermay blitzbee headcanons or story please?

Oh gee, you folks are really into these mermay stuff, huh?

Unfortunatelly I don't have much to offer since I was never interested but I'll try-

Somehow these big sea monsters ended up together in Detroit- I suppose they adapted to be in both sweet and salt water so yeh. One day a little girl is hanging out with her dad at the shore and she runs off and tadah, she meets a funky lemon shark!Bee. Then the rest; orca!Optimus, puffer fish!Ratchet, marilin fish!Prowl and sea turtle!Bulkhead.

Then there's others- the mean ones; great white shark!Megatron, anglerfish!Lugnut, hammerhead shark!Shockwave, mimich octopus!Soundwave catfish!Blackarachnia and finally... flying fish/tiger shark!Blitzwing- an odd combo thought of as ugly but sturdy.

I think the two would separate and occupy the two nearest bodies of water- Autobot tribe is occupying Lake Erie while the Decepticon Tribe inhabits lake Huron.

The two tribes generally try to stay out of each other's ways with with a limited supply of fish it's rather hard not to stay out of conflicts- the con tribe has begun to be aggressive to the bots and certain boats that hunt the remaining fish in the water. That being said the bot tribe is actively trying to keep the cons busy so they both don't get discovered.

One day when Bee was looking around the bridge and the shores for fun human stuff that might have fell in he saw a shadow lurking behind some rocks- upon closer look it was Blitzwing, who literally jumped him in attempt to eat him. Of course Bee was swift to dodge. He started talking/bantering and it was revealed that the odd fish mix was left to starve because the other tribe members thought he was fat enough to get by on lower amount of food. Bee decided to take Blitz for a meal- ever since they met Sari the kid has been bringing them shockingly huge amounts of food at the docks. The feeder was there still and it wasn't much issue getting it open- Blitz ate the whole supply. He thanked the little shark and apologised for trying to eat him and swam off. From then on every other day Blitz would sneak into autobot waters and look for Bee to take him to the feeder.

Over time they started to take liking to one another- one may even spot signs of courting happening if they looked closely. Truth be told, Bee was interested in Blitzwing ever since he saw him- he was a sucked for all the odd and unique things and Blitzwing was all that, although the fact he was trying to eat few of the bots on multiple occasions was a bit alarming. Blitzwing on the other- fin? has been charmed by the tiny yellow sharkie- the curiosity, fun nature and hte kindness he offered made him Blitz's favorite mer soon. The two would meet up outside of the feeding times too, the small Lake St Clair and the rivers that connected it made a great place to hang out without being spotted by either tribe.

It was all going fine until the con tribe noticed Blitz has been putting on weight despite not eating- and it was not starvation swelling. They decided to spy on him and found out he was getting stuffed with the help of the teensy weensy lemon shark. Autobots had ways to get food so of course they invaded into their waters and tried to get it for themselves. Idk what else, there might have been a huge fight over it and then Sari got hurt in the water and yadda yadda the conflict was resolved in a peace agreement to not harm anyone and share food- oh and Sari's half mer thanks to her mother (who died when she was tiny) so she can go hang out w/ the mers in the lake.

I would guess Bee and Blitz have made their courtship public after the agreement and the cons have let him go; while the cons did nothing to better their relationship with him, he's been oddly welcome with the bots. He and Bee are quite a cute oddity.

And yes, he promised to not eat any of them nor the humans.

[tfp-is-my-lifeblood-lol]

How would the tfp cons and bots react to finding a bunch of sparkling in an escape pod

I headcannon that sparklings are tiny enough for humans to hold their entire bodies and look like loaf blobs and make beeping sounds

I hope this is good, because I'm gonna be totally honest: I know next to nothing about sparklings. I know they're pretty much baby Cybertronians, but that's about it. Are they canon? Idk but here goes nothing😂

TFP Autobots Reaction to Sparklings in an Escape Pod

Optimus Prime:

-Dad mode activated

"As Autobots, it is our duty to protect any life on this planet. Especially small fragile life, be it humans, or sparklings."

-He'd assign the other Bots tasks to look after them whenever he can't do it himself. In fact, he lets the humans care for them as well

Miko: "We have to take care of Cybertronian babies instead of going on missions? Laaame!"

Jack: "Well, Miko, maybe this is how the Bots always feel having to constantly look after YOU."

Miko: "Phht. Rude."

Ratchet:

-Oh boy, he's NOT happy

-He'd mutter to himself:

"Oh, joy. Another small, loud creature to distract me from work. How have I managed to get reduced to the team babysitter?"

-He'd have a harder time connecting with the sparklings than with the children, because at least the human kids can TALK.

-In fact, having the sparklings around might bring Ratchet closer to the humans, since he's on the same boat as them, not wanting the responsibility of caring for sparklings

-He isn't a MONSTER, though. Of COURSE he grows to love the sparklings eventually. He's a softy, deep down

Arcee:

-Where IS Arcee, anyway? Nobody's seen her much since Optimus assigned Team Prime tasks involving caring for the sparklings. She said: "I'm going for a drive" and peaced out.

-In short, Arcee is having NONE of this

-Babysitting? No thank you.

-She leaves the MOMENT anyone asks her to feed the sparklings some energon. And she takes Jack with her. Byeeeeeee.

Bulkhead:

"Uhhh...Are we gonna have to take care of them?"

-What a silly guy. He's doing his best.

-He has NO clue what he's doing, though. Like he said, on Cybertron, he was a laborer. He's never cared for a sparkling in his life

-Not to mention Miko's judging him harshly for even trying😂

Miko: "Bulk, we're supposed to be smashing Con tailpipes! When did YOU become some kind of nurse, looking after toddlers? Isn't that RATCHET'S job?"

Ratchet: "YEPYEPYEPYEP that is NOT my job!!!!!!!😤"

-Bulkhead's like:

"Uhh...how much do you feed sparklings again?"

-At least he's trying

Bumblebee:

-He's probably the best at caring for the sparklings, next to Optimus, and he has no problem doing it, once they find them in the escape pod

-If Optimus is the serious, responsible caretaker, Bumblebee is the more fun one

-He plays with the sparklings, and takes them for rides

-Raf helps out, as well

-It's adorable

Wheeljack:

-Bulkhead dragged him along to help care for the sparklings, but he's taking Miko's side. He isn't feeling it.

"If you want me to go soft, you've got another thing comin'."

-Once the sparklings are of age, he'll gladly teach them to be Wreckers

-But until then, he'll try to explain to them how grenades work whenever Bulkhead isn't looking. They don't understand what he's saying, of course, because they're only sparklings, but you've gotta start them young.

Ultra Magnus:

-He's kinda like a supervisor

-He knows exactly what the sparklings need, and when, but whatever the need is, he isn't going to attend to it himself

-He mainly dishes out orders and tells everyone else what to do.

-He doesn't mean to be rude. He's just used to being a commander. During the war, sparklings had to be protected from explosions and whatnot, so he saw to it that soldiers under his command took care of them.

-If anyone could convince Arcee to come back though, it's him, so at least there's that

Smokescreen:

-Chaotic fun uncle energy

-You'd have to keep an eye on Smokescreen at ALL TIMES, because, when the sparklings are under HIS watch, it's pure anarchy

-He'd probably let them drink engex (Cybertronian version of alcohol) and teach them how to conduct pranks on Ultra Magnus

-He's a "no rules" guardian

-Really, Team Prime has to babysit HIM more than the sparklings

[happyminyards]

i'd be interested in the titanic fact-check post if you'd still like to write it 👀

Oh tumblr user @burr-ell, i am giving you a friendly little kiss on the forehead for asking this. I would love nothing more. 

Let's give the rundown of some common Titanic "facts" that people love to parade around especially nowadays and why they're either fully wrong, misinterpretations or actually close to the truth! With sources, because I'm nice like that. 

This will be long, but I feel like it needs to be to actually give y'all the proper information and context, and frankly I think I'm writing this mostly for myself. 

I'll divide it up into two parts, so here's "not enough lifeboats", "untrained crew", "no lifeboat drills" and "speeding & ignoring ice warnings".

Part two featuring "half empty lifeboats", "locking folks below deck", “missing binoculars", and "fire sank the Titanic, actually" is here!

"They didn't have enough lifeboats because they thought the ship was unsinkable"

Almost ship back then had enough lifeboats for all its passengers. Lifeboats were considered a very, very last ditch attempt at safety and more often than not resulted in the deaths of the people in them due to capsizing in bad weather, accidents while being lowered, drifting off etc etc. (SS Clallam, SS Valencia, SS Atlantic). 

If they had to be used, the idea was to use them as ferries to other boats. Ocean liners started getting more watertight compartments, bulkheads and double bottoms, meaning they were able to survive collisions and stay floating for longer. Since the Atlantic shipping lanes were VERY busy back then and most accidents happened near the harbor someone was expected to be in reasonable distance at all times when such an accident occurred. 

Besides that, ships had just gotten new, sparkly wireless machines, the Marconi transmitters. While their operators were technically not employed by the ship and their tasks consisted of sending letters from passengers, it was expected that they'd facilitate communication in accidents. And that system worked, for a while! 

Best example is the sinking of another White Star Line ship, the RMS Republic in 1909. She got rammed, sunk, every ship nearby ran up to help her, all her passengers got transferred over, how nice, our procedures worked!

So while it's true that regulations for the amount of lifeboats hadn't kept up with the steeply increasing size of the new ocean liners (Titanic was actually carrying more than her size demanded), the authorities expected that these new technological advancements were sufficient. 

Titanic showed them that this was not correct, so they were adjusted mainly through the SOLAS treaty (which actually resulted in tragedy itself, when ships not designed to fit so many lifeboats suffered from accidents due to the refitting, like the SS Eastland, who rolled over in dock, killing 844 people)

As for the ship being unsinkable, some surviving advertisements described Titanic and her sister Olympic as "And as far as it is possible to do so, these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable". Which was fairly common at the time (Captain Rostron actually does it in the inquiry after the sinking) due to the aforementioned new, fancy safety features. Hubris? Yes, but not a stand out characteristic of the Titanic.

"The Titanic Crew was untrained & overwhelmed"

Captain Smith had been at sea for 49 years, a commander for White Star for 25 years and the captain of their maiden voyages for ten years, including the then biggest ships in the world Baltic and Olympic. He was regarded as a "safe captain" by both the line and passengers, some who only booked with him. His most notable incident was probably when Olympic collided with the HSM Hawke, but he wasn't even in command of the ship at the time. They were under compulsory pilotage, i.e. a harbor pilot was giving the orders.

All her officers were also very experienced. From Chief to Sixth:

Wilde, on sea since his teens, with White Star for 15, including Majestic and Olympic

Murdoch, on the sea since he was 18, 12 years at White Star line, including Olympic, Celtic and Adriatic

Lightroller, with White Star for 13 years, including Oceanic and Majestic

Pitman, on the sea for 16 years, White Star for 5/12

Boxhall, on the sea for 13 years, with White Star for about 4 1/2 years 

Lowe, on the sea for 14 years, with White Star for 15 months

Moody, on the sea for about 9-10 years (including his Navy education), with White Star for about half a year on the Oceanic

So really the only one you could clock for being inexperienced was Moody, who was the sixth officer. And he was well educated and perfectly qualified for that position. Wilde was actually pulled in sort of last minute just after Titanic's sea trials, bumping down Murdoch & Lightroller one position and causing Officer David Blair to leave the ship entirely, presumably so that the well-oiled team of officers from the Olympic could set Titanic up for a good start. 

(This also caused the supposed missing binoculars, more on that below).

This was White Star's newest, biggest ship. White Star's whole sales pitch was luxury and comfort, they're the line running the "Millionaire's ship". They're not gonna risk anything, even if it's just their rich passengers having to deal with inexperienced officers. They were gonna put their best on it.

There were no lifeboat drills

Titanic needed drills to get her certifications and completed them in early April. The officers (minus Wilde plus Blair) were all there and involved, everything got checked and a bunch of the lifeboats lowered. 

There was also a separate Board of Trade drill on the 10th of April. Lightoller, Pitman, Lowe, Moody and "[nearly all seaman], including able-bodied seamen, ordinary seamen, lookouts and quartermasters" were all involved. There was also the bulkhead and the emergency boat drill.

Now there is some confusion around the "Sunday Drill". This was another drill involving the crew, not the passengers. 

It's essentially a muster plus a check of the boats, not actually anything to do with the procedure of loading the boats. This didn't happen on Titanic, but there seems to be no clear reason why. Some crew members state it was scheduled, others said the drill didn't happen due to weather, some said they only happened on Sundays "in New York", potentially because otherwise the firemen wouldn't join in. The "Sunday in New York" one is the one that gets mentioned the most, but truly this is anyone's guess. 

However, it's clear that this drill would have changed nothing. The crew already had undergone similar drills before, this one was not new information. Here's a really good, well sourced article on the whole drill issue.

The Titanic was speeding & ignoring ice warnings.

Titanic had received multiple ice warnings throughout her journey. This was nothing unusual, it was April in the North Atlantic. The ice warnings were communicated via the wireless, given to the bridge and marked on the board. 

We know of a bunch of specific warnings that were received and posted on the bridge, mainly from the Caronia and the Baltic. The Baltic one is the famous message that made it to Bruce Ismay's, chairman of the White Star Line, pocket. He showed it to some passengers before giving it back to Captain Smith.

There's two warnings that probably didn't make it to the bridge, captain or all officers. One from the Californian to the Antillian that the Titanic happened to overhear, warning of "three large bergs 5 miles southward of latitude 42° 3′ N, longitude 49° 9′ W". Harold Bride, junior wireless operator, testified he delivered this warning to the bridge, but Pitman testified he wasn’t aware of it. It could be that Murdoch, who was actually on duty at time of collision, was, but he ended up dying in the sinking. 

The other one is from the Mesaba at around 9:40 PM, stating: "In latitude 42° N to 41° 25′, longitude 49° W to longitude 50° 30′ W, saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs, also field ice, weather good, clear". While this message was received by Phillips, Titanic's senior wireless operator, we’re pretty sure it never made it to the bridge.

There's also the infamous Californian warning at 11:00 PM, about 40 minutes before Titanic hit the iceberg, that Phillips interrupted with a seemingly harsh "Shut up, I'm busy, I'm working Cape Race". Now, that seems rough, but was actually a really common "tone" between the wireless operators of the time:

They were a fraternity of pioneers, considered to be cranks, and had the curious habit of addressing one another as O M ("Old Man"). A common signal exchanged between them was GTHOMQRL ("Get to hell, old man, shut up, I'm busy"), or A S O M ("Wait a minute, old man!"). [James Bisett, Commodore of the Cunard Line, “Tramps and Ladies - My Early Years At Steam]

What happened is that Phillips was working through a backlog of messages, Titanic's wireless had been broken earlier and he had fixed it against standing orders from the Marconi company (which actually made it possible for any of them to survive in the end). 

He had cranked the power all the way up to be able to understand the messages of Cape Race, which was on the edge of his receivers' span. Californian's operator, Cyril Evans, chimed in in the middle of that with a "I SAY, OLD MAN, WE ARE STOPPED AND SURROUNDED BY ICE!" essentially blasting Phillips' ears off, since Californian was much closer. 

Phillips told him to pipe down, Evans signed off and went to bed. The issue is: no one is at fault here. Phillips had already received and delivered multiple ice warnings, Evans was telling him nothing new or indicating that it was an urgent message, so Phillips had no reason to consider it important. Evans, in his inquiry, literally states that he was "jamming" him and gives no indication that Phillips was acting rude.

Titanic's speed at the time is debated. Boxhall says he estimates it at around 22 knots based on the propeller speed, Lightoller at 21.5, the US inquiry at "no less than 21". However, that is an estimation, and we nowadays think that Titanic was going around 20-21 knots. 

The officers were also unsure about the exact position of the Titanic, Boxhall actually calculated her a good 13 nautical miles further west than she was, so some mis-estimates are to be expected. We actually aren't quite sure what her exact top speed would have been, Lightoller estimated it at 22-23 knots based on "general rumours", Lowe at 24 to 25, which is a really hefty difference. 

We can assume Titanic's top speed to be similar to her sister ship Olympic's after Olympic got refitted with a three-bladed central propeller, which was around 24.5 knots (according to Chirnside). So while we can't be fully sure of her potential, it's a pretty safe bet that she wasn't going full speed, she was essentially going "cruising" speed. 

Now, was Titanic ignoring all the ice warnings? No. The surviving officers testified they were aware of them, and that Smith had told them to expect ice at around midnight and to get him immediately (his cabin was right on the bridge) if anything changed. 

Now, was she speeding? That, actually, comes down to your interpretation of events. Some could say that going "cruising" speed at night with ice warnings would be constituted as reckless speeding. However, all evidence indicates that holding your speed and posting look outs, only reducing once you actually spot dangerous ice yourself, was the common procedure. Here's an excerpt from the UK inquiry that sums it up well:

It was shown that for many years past, indeed, for a quarter of a century or more, the practice of liners using this track when in the vicinity of ice at night had been in clear weather to keep the course, to maintain the speed and to trust to a sharp look-out to enable them to avoid the danger. This practice, it was said, had been justified by experience, no casualties having resulted from it. I accept the evidence as to the practice and as to the immunity from casualties which is said to have accompanied it. But the event has proved the practice to be bad.

Titanic, by her best judgment, was not acting recklessly. She was following common procedures for a ship her size and built at the time (very, very unlike the Titan, since I see that comparison often). 

The idea that "as long as the weather is clear, you go top/normal speed" is also backed up by other captains in the inquiry, mainly Pritchard (commander of the Mauretania, who as mentioned was much quicker) but also Andrew Braes, Hugh Young, Edwin Cannons and William Stewart as well as others. They all say the exact same thing: if they were warned about ice and it was clear weather, they'd go their normal speed, day and night. They would only add extra lookouts in bad weather conditions, and only do "what they thought was proper" once they actually saw any ice themselves. 

They really emphasize the "in clear weather" part, and we know that the Titanic thought they were traveling in clear weather (Smith and Lightoller had even discussed it that very night). And they were! 

The issue is that it was almost TOO clear. 

The waves didn't even break on the iceberg, and the stars didn't even reflect off it. Meaning they saw it way later than they would usually. This was very, very unusual. Lightroller said that "the first time in my experience in the Atlantic in 24 years, and I have been going across the Atlantic nearly all the time, of seeing an absolutely flat sea.". 

This was an unprecedented condition for them, and they had no way of knowing how it would impact visibility of icebergs.

Cameron shows a scene where Ismay urges Captain Smith to go quicker to reach New York a day earlier. This seems to be entirely based on the testimony of Elizabeth Lindsey Lines, who states that she overheard Ismay and Smith discussing Olympic's and Titanic's maiden voyages, and that Ismay was saying:

"Well, we did better to-day than we did yesterday, we made a better run to-day than we did yesterday, we will make a better run to-morrow. Things are working smoothly, the machinery is bearing the test, the boilers are working well". They went on discussing it, and then I heard [Ismay] make the statement: "We will beat the Olympic and get in to New York on Tuesday."

It's true that Titanic was being quicker than Olympic, but we know now that that is mostly down to Titanic's superior propellor system (something we actually didn't know until someone dug up an engineering notebook like a decade ago). We have zero other evidence that Titanic was trying to be quicker, or that Ismay somehow was trying to force Smith to speed. 

No other passenger or crew member testified anything of that nature. Titanic was also not gonna get the Blue Ribband, as mentioned previously Mauretania was a whole few knots quicker. Arriving a whole day earlier would only throw the travel plans and hotel bookings of the passengers into chaos. There was nothing to gain from speeding.

[just-someone-online]

TFP AUs I Probably Won't Expand Upon

Exactly what it says on the tin. Just little AUs I've thought about but probably won't do anything with.

Masterforce AU - In which several headmaster and powermaster transtectors land on Earth. Three of them are found by the Autobots and are used by Jack, Miko, and Raf, while a fourth has been snatched up by Silas and MECH. Whether or not this means Breakdown avoids being used as a suit by Silas is anyone's guess.

Terrorcon Cliff AU - In which Cliffjumper's death was recent enough that the dark energon truly reignites his spark. Aside from a new uncanny valley effect and hearing the voices of Megatron and Unicron, he's as healthy as ever.

Out of Body Experience AU - In which Bumblebee is able to fight off Megatron and prevent the Decepticon leader from returning to his own body. Unfortunately for Bumblebee and the Autobots, it means the base now has a new permanent resident.

Earthspark AU - In which the kids get lost in a cave and stumble upon the Emberstone. Their Terran partners would all be original characters.

Action Master AU - In which Bumblebee's T-cog, while functional, isn't as reliable as it used to be, leading to him becoming stronger, faster, more alive to make up for the loss of his vehicle mode.

Miko & Arcee AU - In which Arcee is Miko's Autobot partner. I'mma be real, this is just an excuse to her face off against Airachnid.

Seaspray Lives AU - In which... well, you can figure it out. He and Wheeljack hunt down Dreadwing for trying to bump them off and decided to stay on Earth. To the surprise of nobody, Seaspray's alt mode is a boat.

Primal Mode AU - In which Optimus actually uses the T-rex mode he acquired in Rescue Bots. Whether this leads to the other Autobots taking on beast modes remains to be seen. At the very least, Bumblebee takes on the raptor mode one of his rescan toys had.

Fourth Human AU - In which Smokescreen picks a fight with one of Jack's classmates at the beginning of Legacy and they need to be brought back to base. Smokescreen is assigned to be their partner, which doesn't go well considering their initial meeting.

Actual Beast Hunters AU - In which Project Predacon is successful and the Autobots begin hunting the beasts before they can harm humanity.

Pretender AU - In which an unaligned Pretender lives among the humans, but comes out of hiding when the Cybertronian war threatens the humans they've come to care about.

Operation: Bulkhead AU - In which Bulkhead is the one to be captured by MECH, and whose corpse is later used to save Silas' life.

[kookaburra1701]

WIP Wednesday: Katabasis

Tagged by the lovely @thana-topsy @gilgamish this week, and in recent weeks past by @saltymaplesyrup and @dirty-bosmer

I'm not tagging anyone because I'm coming up on 2 WEEKS without power or internet after a severe storm, so there's no way to guarantee I'll see anyone's posts since navigating tumblr on my phone is a nightmare. :(

Fandom: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Rating: T (blood and violence) Category: Gen Genre(s): Action/Adventure Main characters: Khemor gro-Skaven (Male orc LDB), Calder, Gregor

Summary: A series of fics detailing how Khemor went from a senior magus in the College of Whispers to becoming the Last Dragonborn, Thane of Windhelm and the Pale, confidant of Ulfric Stormcloak and traitor to the Empire.

The broad square sail filled with wind as the Sea Hawk turned towards the ocean. When the first wave caused the bow to lift and then drop, Calder quickly sat next to Khemor and stuck his fingers under one of the ropes that secured the canvas-wrapped crate to the bulkhead.

“Up oars! Ice to port!”

At Revna’s shout, the men at the oars pushed down and held, lifting the blades as one from the water, and Torden leaned on the tiller, the rushing of water around the steering-oar increasing in volume as the ship changed heading.

Calder risked a glance over the topstrake. Submerged chunks of ice floated by, milky blue in the dark water. There was a hollow thump and a shudder ran through the hull, but Captain Torden did not seem bothered.

Above them the sky was a cloudless, azure bowl where seabirds wheeled and called. Below, the water was dark. Soon the shore was far enough away that the only indication of how quickly Kyne’s wind was carrying them was the bright white ice floes that passed by as the ship cut through the waves. A large horker bull amidst his harem of cows called out a challenge to them, but was soon left behind.

The men continued rowing, the creaks and groans of the oars in the ports blending with the sound of the water churning in their wake.

“We’re out of the ice-belt!” Revna called from her perch in the bow. A sigh of relief went up from the men at the oars, but they continued their slow, steady strokes, looking to Captain Torden.

“Ship oars!” he called, and the long pine shafts were pulled in, lashed to the strakes more quickly than Calder would have thought possible. There was a flurry of activity, shouting, cursing, and finally with several chants of heave-ho the sail was hoisted to its full height.

A great bird of prey was painted on the sail, its wings seeming to flap as the canvas rippled and billowed. The acceleration was immediately apparent, and the deck suddenly tilted as the Sea Hawk heeled against the wind. The cliffs and rocks of the mouth of the White River were small on the horizon: they were truly underway.

After a while, Calder felt he was less liable to tumble off of his perch with every pitch and roll of the deck and he released his grip on the rope to lean back against the upper strake. When Khemor glanced over, Calder was slightly gratified to note that his thane did not seem to find the motion of the ship any more pleasant than he did.

“Are you warm enough, Thane?” Calder said, leaning close to be heard over the sounds of the sea and the thick fur-lined hood that was pulled up over Khemor’s ears.

“I believe I am as warm as it is possible to be, under the circumstances.”

Behind them, Captain Torden let out a loud laugh. “This is as good a spell of weather as we could hope to have, Thane! Kyne is smiling on us!”

“Let her continue to do so,” Khemor responded.

“And look, Stuhn’s wolves have come to see us off!” Torden stretched out an arm, pointing towards the horizon.

A line of black, triangular fins rose from the ocean, and Calder caught a glimpse of shiny dark forms beneath the surface of the water before they disappeared.

The boat suddenly felt very small.

“Bah, they just think we have a net full of herring,” said Helvyn. The first mate finished securing the line holding the beitass to an iron ring set into the deck before standing and shading his red eyes, looking out towards the dark forms in the waves. “Thieving fetchers.”

The line of fins broke the surface again, closer. Before they had fully sunk beneath the waves a second rank of fins followed them, and this time one of the creatures lifted its blunt head out of the water and a plume of vapor rose into the air. A sharp white oval stood out starkly on the side of its face.

Is that an eye? It’s enormous!

[mintaka14]

WIP Wednesday (well, it was Wednesday when I was thinking 'I really should post something', so that counts, doesn't it?) 4 April 2024

This is a bit of the ML Lukanette hanahaki fic I've been working on (in between working on everything else). It's a little more angsty than my usual fare, but nobody dies, I promise! So, here... have a bit of Lily White and Blood Red:

Marinette couldn’t tell Alya that the thought of the Liberty was the only thing that had kept her going all day, through the attack of hanahaki that had left her wrung out, and the exhausting tedium of the afternoon’s maths class. It was all that was keeping her upright now.

She could breathe easier on the Liberty.

For such a chaotic, noisy place, it never failed to amaze Marinette how restful it felt to settle on the boxes haphazardly stacked all over the deck, while the band ran through their songs or argued amiably about instrumentation. They all seemed to take it for granted that she was there and a part of it all, and they were all focused on the music, and not on Marinette’s failing love life.

And down below deck, she could retreat to Luka’s bedroom whenever it all got a bit much. She could listen to the sound of the drums and bass rumbling through the hull of the boat as she curled up on his bed while she sketched. The last time she’d apologised for taking over his space, Luka had just given her that easy, sweet smile of his and told her she was welcome to it any time.

That was where he found her when the rehearsal eventually wrapped up and gave way to the muffled sound of talk and the occasional laugh from up on deck. Marinette heard the steady squeak as someone came down the galley stairs from above, and Luka paused in the doorway of his bedroom, his guitar in his hand.

“Hey, melody,” he said, and she gave him as much of a smile as she could muster as he came in and stretched out on the other end of his bed, his back propped up against the bulkhead. “Will it disturb you if I play?”

She didn’t bother to argue that it was his room – she was the interloper here – they’d had that discussion before. She just shook her head, and turned her attention back to her sketchbook as he settled his guitar in his lap and plucked out a soft melody that drifted into a rippling chord that became a familiar riff transposed into a slow, minor key.

He didn’t question it when she stayed where she was long after Ivan had gone home, and Rose and Juleka had vanished somewhere, leaving the Liberty uncharacteristically quiet except for the soft sound of Luka’s guitar and the desultory scratch of her pencil on paper. He might have glanced at her once or twice, but there were never any demands for answers she couldn’t give with Luka, just peace and music, and words when either of them had something they felt like saying.

There weren’t any questions that would force petals out of her mouth with Luka.

[your-resident-boat-person]

hi boat mutual you are in my fav mutuals circle. why is the RMS olympic ur fav ocean liner?

OOOOoooooh thank you SO much for asking. So, I measure ocean liners by a few criteria. External Appearance, Internal Appearance, Career, Speed (relative to the fastest liner of her time), etc.

In terms of External Appearance, I like the Olympic. She’s not my favorite, I think I might prefer the SS United States or the Queen Mary, MAYBE even the Mauretania too, but that's tough. Anyway, I love the shape of the Olympics forward superstructure. I think she pulls off the relatively square/flat superstructure much better than ships like the Aquitania. I think Aquitania's superstructure might just be ever so slightly too tall, but I’m not quite sure. I’ve also never been a fan of the split superstructure near the bow like on the RMS Oceanic and the Big Four. Anyway, The ratio of superstructure to hull to funnels is just fantastic. The shape/proportions of Olympics funnels are excellent. I also think the White Star livery suits her very well. Especially in the 20’s when her sheer line was lowered.

In terms of interiors, I absolutely adore the Olympics wood paneled Edwardian decor. I might be a BIT biased, because I have a much better understanding of the Olympics interior and decor thanks to Titanic: Honor and Glory. If I were to go back in time and sail on the Lusitania or Mauretania, I might prefer them, but the pictures can only convey so much to me now. I’ve also always preferred the Edwardian decor to the Art Deco decor on ships like the Normandie. Don’t get me wrong, the Normandie was gorgeous, but her interiors almost give me the vibe of an art museum. Cold, imposing, almost sterile. Not exactly a place I’d like to live for a week. The Queen Mary is much better in this regard, feeling much more warm and inviting, but I still just overall prefer the pre war decor of ocean liners. Olympic just happens to be my favorite.

In terms of speed, everyone makes a very big deal about how the Olympic class was just too slow to take the blue riband from the Lusitania class, but the Olympic wasn’t exactly slow either. With an initial service speed of 21 knots, and a maximum recorded speed of 24 knots, she was still very fast compared to most liners of her day, especially compared to the Big Four, which could only go between 16 and 18 knots.

However, standing above all else is the Olympics career, which for me, is what makes her stand above the rest.

When the Lusitania was launched, she beat the previous ship in terms of size by 6,969 gross registered tons. When the Olympic was launched, she beat the Lusitania by nearly twice that, being 13,774 gross registered tons larger. (For reference, The Kaiserin Auguste Victoria was 24,581 GRT, The Lusitania was 31,550 GRT, and the Olympic was 45,324 GRT). At the time of her launch, she was the largest man made moving object ever built, by far. Shortly thereafter she suffered a collision with the HMS Hawke, but survived easily thanks to her watertight compartments. After the sinking of her sister, the Titanic, she was withdrawn from service and refit, introducing safety features that made her by far the safest ship afloat. She already was the safest before the refit, but the refit fixed some critical flaws and oversights by adding lifeboats, raising bulkheads, adding an interior second skin to absorb damage (remember this one) and plenty more.

World War I began in 1914, and the Olympic was once again withdrawn from service. This time, she was refit as a troop ship. During the war, Olympic is reported to have carried up to 201,000 troops and other personnel, burning 347,000 tons of coal and traveling about 184,000 miles. She survived TWO encounters with German U-boats. Most ships don't survive one, and in one of these two encounters, the U-Boat didn't survive! The crew of the Olympic spotted the U-Boat and managed to ram and sink it. The Olympic was the only merchant ship to have sunk enemy tonnage during World War 1. Can't say definitively for other wars, but none come to mind. A plaque was placed in one of Olympics first class spaces to commemorate the event. The second encounter went a bit differently. The second U-Boat actually managed to hit Olympic with a torpedo. Luckily it was a dud, and didn't detonate. The torpedo did make a small hole in her hull, but the double hull contained the flooding. The crew of the Olympic didn't know she was hit until she was put in dry dock after the war and they found the hole.

After the war, she repatriated Canadian troops and earned the nickname "Old Reliable". A dance hall was even named after her. She was once again refit, giving her oil fired boilers. This significantly reduced the amount of crew necessary, from (approximately) 350 men to only 50. Also, this change increased her average speed by a 10th of a knot, and significantly reduced the amount of smoke and pollution she created. She could also be completely refueled in a day, rather than a week. Because oil is a liquid, they were actually able to store it in unconventional places like the space between the double hull. This gave Olympic incredible range and fuel capacity compared to her rivals. Throughout the 1920s, she became extremely popular with the rich and famous. This was despite the fact that Olympic was no longer White Star Line's flagship. That title went to the Majestic, originally a German liner, but ceded to the brits as a war reparation. But as I was saying, her popularity with celebrities of the time earned her the nickname of "The Movie Star Liner". By 1934, the effects of the great depression had taken hold. Very few people were traveling. Cunard and White Star were in pretty serious trouble (White Star wasn't just suffering from the great depression, but that's a story for another day). Cunard didn't have enough money to complete the RMS Queen Mary and made an appeal to the government for help. They agreed, but only under the condition that the Cunard line and White Star Line merge. At this point, many Cunard and White Star ships were sold or scrapped to get as much money as possible for the Queen Mary. This includes the 3 remaining ships of the Big Four, and even the Mauretania. The thing that doomed the Olympic was her lack of private bathrooms. Standards for travel and comfort had simply changed too much since 1911, and the Olympic no longer made enough of a profit for Cunard White Star to keep her in service. She was sold for scrap, and by 1936, she was gone.

Anyway, sorry for the huge info dump. Tl;dr - The Olympic is my favorite because of her interesting career. I'm very passionate about the topic. Also, apologies for any inaccuracies. Most of this was from memory, but I made sure to fact-check all the big stuff and the numbers.

[lets-try-some-writing]

Question. How do you think the TFP bots each find the squishies that are humans look. Like aesthetically. Which ones find them cute or gross or funny looking? Cause in the Scraplet episode, Ratchet said “Typically I find your fleshiness your least engaging qualities.” Meaning that Ratchet find the humans gross to some extent, meaning that the Autobots does have aesthetic opinions about the humans. And it seems like everyone got different opinions. So what’s your head canon for each of their opinions?

Ooooooh now this is a question I will happily answer!

Ratchet: His views on humans and squishies in general is summed up to GROSS. He sees humans as essentially a bunch of organs in a poorly made plastic bag walking around on stilts. They are worse than hairless cats in his optics. They may be nice enough, but he would prefer to poke them with sticks or handle them with a hazmat suit if given a choice. He's warmed up to them, but will never find them particularly appealing. Interesting? Yes. Appealing? Primus no.

Bumblebee: Bumblebee thinks humans are a little unsettling, but he appreciates them in the way one would a pet tarantula. He can find something to see as appealing in them, although as a general rule he is not particularly enthralled with them. He is fond of human eyes, largely because their pupils dilate a great deal like how his optics cycle. He also finds it fascinating how many colors humans can have their eyes up being.

Arcee: She sits in the same boat as Ratchet for the most part. However she has one aspect of humanity that she is surprisingly fond of. She thinks human hair is quite "cute" in a sense. It reminds her somewhat of stories of Solus and she has always found it fun how humans can style their hair in so many unique ways. She has even gone so far as to ask June to teach her how to braid hair simply because Arcee also finds the texture of hair to be facinating.

Bulkhead: His thoughts on humanity can be summed up simply with: Smol Beans. He thinks they are adorable in the way one would look at a mouse and think it cute. Sure humans can do gross things like execrate and create strange internal liquids and sounds, but they are just so small. He can't help but find that fact appealing.

Wheeljack: He is neither grossed out or really invested in humans. He could care less what they look like. He's been everywhere and seen everything, so very little bothers him anymore when meeting new races. He does think that human teeth are interesting though. Cybertronians have their own version of the mouth bones, but humans growing the mouth bones and then having a few sets of them is something he just thinks is rather inspiring.

Smokescreen: He... doesn't like humans. He's in Ratchet's boat, but he's a lot less tactful in his outward reactions. His first few weeks on Earth involved a lot of gagging at humans as a whole. Squishies are not his cup of tea, but he's learned to handle it for the most part. So long as the squishes are clothed reasonably, he can pretend they are armored and ignore the fact that they are walking bags of bits and bone.

Optimus: He doesn't mind humanity. He doesn't think they are physically appealing in any real regard, but he admires their minds. Such small creatures holding hope and intellect on par with the more technological races is something he finds impressive. He also holds an appreciation for their voices simply because they are clear and without complication. It is new, and for that reason he finds it beautiful in a sense.

Ultra Magnus: He doesn't like humans. Period. He tolerates them for the sake of the team and negotiations, and he may be appreciative of human comrades and friends. But the species as a whole? He is not fond of them. He is largely more confused than anything else. He has no idea how such a fleshy and delicate species lasted so long. But he has largely shrugged it off and moved on with life.

[robot-rarepairs-dotcom]

continuing from the TFP Nightbee thing, everyone's opinions on her are very... Varied.

Optimus is happy that Bumblebee made a friend, and another living Cybertronian, but is also wary of her. She'd killed several Autobots and Neutrals before the Exodus. Ratchet is in the same boat, only he openly expresses his displeasure with Nightbird in the base. Bulkhead is overall also nervous around her, considering the fact that she's much taller and bulkier than any femme he's seen. (she's much taller than Arcee.) Arcee is quite suspicious of her and also makes it known. She just doesn't want Bee to get his spark broken by a monster using him.

The humans are also all mixed on her. Miko thinks Nightbird's awesome. A new cool lady bot, and she's got swords! Jack mostly stays away from her after Arcee told him what she used to do. He's courteous if she speaks to him, but never initiates it. Raf was initially apprehensive, but quickly became more trusting the more he hung out with Bee around her. If she makes his best friend happy, he's fine with her.

Ugh I love this so much waaaa

[sterekchub]

Stiles and Derek sign up for a year-long cruise, but there’s something supernatural about it. Starts with muscular Derek. By the end, they have to remove bulkhead walls to get blob Derek off the ship.

The headlines read: “Cruise makes emergency stop in Bermuda: Obese Passenger gets stuck in cabin!” The image is the walls being removed to the 2 family suite- bigger than most average apartments- and a massive wall of flesh spilling down the side of the ship.

Maybe it’s a time loop. It’s a year long cruise- but every day repeats for a month (unknown to the passengers, who only remember one day).

First day? Stiles tells Derek relax, enjoy! It’s all inclusive! They hit up the buffet three times, and order room service for dessert.

2nd day? They don’t think anything odd has happened, but Derek’s already got a beach bod going- abs gone and swim trunks a little too tight.

But it doesn’t seem strange to them. “What were we thinking, this couldn’t be our cabin, of course we got upgraded! You’d never fit in that tiny thing!”

“Yes, you’re banned from the hot tub! Last time you got in- all the water went out!”

“You’re going to be hungry….a dozen lobster rolls and a dozen burgers? You had twice that yesterday. Big guy like you needs to eat!”

“Der, come on, you know you can’t make it to the buffet without your scooter, you know how much work all that walking is.”

“Come on, you know the buffet doesn’t have enough food for you…if you could even get out of bed to get there. They’re rolling in your feeding tanks now…”

By the last day- Derek is too fat to really speak but he’s wondering when his next feeding is…and wondering why the hell Stiles would suggest a cruise when Derek’s never been able to fit on a boat…..

[yes-i-write-fanfiction]

Adding onto this: Jack and Raf being in a similar boat to Miko, but all three of them being unaware of each other's precidament. Jack, Like Miko is an Inkling, while Raf is an Octoling(Born from one of the few remaining viable Octoling couples in Octo Valley, who moved to Splatsville between the events of Splatoon1 and Splatoon2.)

Like Miko, they use holograms and translators to get by, and have found humans to shelter them until they can find a way home.

Jack confides his secret to Optimus before the team went down to fight Unicron, and then Arcee sometime in season 3. And while Arcee is only slightly upset with Jack for not being 100% honest with her, she understands his situation and need for secrecy.

Raf, meanwhile confides in both Ratchet and Bumblebee, as he is rather young still and feels better when his big secret isn't so big.

Like Wheeljack, they promise to do what they can to save humans from the wars that will wipe them out.

And for a while, things are calm.

Until Raf hums the Calamari Inkantation within earshot of Miko and Jack.

Immediately recognizing the tune, Miko asks Raf how he knows that song, since, according to her, Raf is 12,000 and change years too soon to know it.

Raf counters by asking how she knows that song, as he also believes Miko to be roughly 12,000 years too soon.

Then Jack walks over all "Hey that song sounds familiar where'd you hear it?"

And now Raf and Miko are losing it bc how does Jack know it??????

Suffice to say, it's a big relief when they all drop their disguises and find out they aren't alone in this.

Raf suggests the three of them keep in touch once they finally get back to their proper time, Miko and Jack agree, and the three exchange phone numbers on paper, adding them to their phones once they're back.

Naturally, with the three of them now on the same page, they gather Team Prime together and make the reveal.

Those who hadn't been told of the other's secrets but knew at least one of them wasn't actually human are surprised, but only briefly.

Ultra Magnus, Bulkhead and Smokescreen, however are thrown through a whole loop.

Magnus is, understandably immediately suspicious of the trio. Since they've been hiding this secret for as long as he's known them, what other, maybe more nefarious secrets are they keeping?

Bulkhead is upset with Miko and Wheeljack for keeping this from them but he comes around eventually and realises that his little wrecker won't be gone forever just yet.

Smokescreen is just like a little kid, asking the trio a bunch of questions about them and their culture and their history and and and...

Then, when the trio are finally back home, Miko finds the datastick and, after watching it, shows it to Jack and Raf and they see Team Prime have helped set up a human colony roughly the size of Nevada on a lush world habitable to humans!

Fowler finds out and bangs his head against the wall. How is he meant to explain this to his superiors? There's gonna be so much paperwork, he just knows it.

[cleverwordsandotherstuffilike]

Because a boat will flood until the water inside the hull levels with the water outside of it, Titanic could float as long as the weight of the inflowing water did not drop the bow more than 50 feet. Titanic’s architects designed the boat such that four of the forward sections could flood and the boat would still float high enough to keep the top of its bulkheads above the waterline.

Unfortunately, the iceberg sliced holes into five of them. Titanic took on 16,000 tons of water, the bow dropped more than 50 feet, and seawater flooded over the top of the bulkheads.

Had the bulkheads been 20 feet taller, or if Titanic had rammed the iceberg head on and thus contained the damage to the forward sections, the boat would have likely “come to harbor,” according to testimony of its assistant designer Edward Wilding. The moment it punctured five compartments, as the investigating commissioner later said, “the epitaph of the ship had been written.”