#american shipbuilding

[hellkitepriest]

do you think anyone ever did yaois of these guys

[tortoisesshells]

WIP Tag Game

Tagged by the lovely @enchi-elm, @jomiddlemarch, & @aloveforjaneausten. Thank you, kind friends!

RULES: Post the last sentence you wrote (fanfic / original / anything) and tag as many people as there are words in the sentence.

“Do you know,” she said, swallowing her wine, “I’d never heard of Donald McKay until I came to Collinsport?”

Tagging (oh my god i need to write shorter sentences i am so sorry): @boltlightning, @johnbly, @mercurygray, @shoshiwrites, @widowshill, @kazoobreakdown, @teamtadpole, @admiraleyk, @foolishpsychopomp, @itsalongwaytotipperary, @theonlyredcar, @starsuncounted, @r-osehips, @tockamybeloved, @homelesspersonchic, @evilbunnyking, @maggzblair, @intricatecaprice, @wendy-woodhouse, & you, denizen of blue heck dot com.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

protectionism is back on the menu, boys.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Errors, “Errors,” and Sci Fi

@strawberry-crocodile

tvtropes calls stuff like the wolf example "science matches on" which I think is a pretty fair shake

This.  This is what’s got me thinking so much about errors.  There’s a certain danger, here.  A certain way that this particular effect — delicious dramatic irony — tempts the mind when reading old stories, even true ones.

What do you know about R.M.S. Titanic? I ask my class every year, and the first hand rises.  “It was unsinkable,” the student inevitably says, and everyone is nodding, “or so they thought.”  I write the word UNSINKABLE on the board, underneath my crude drawing of a ship with four smokestacks.  It will be crossed out before the end of the hour, but not for the reason they expect.

“I find no evidence,” Walter Lord, preeminent biographer of the ship’s survivors, wrote, “that Titanic was ever advertised as unsinkable. This detail seems to have entered the collective mind so as to create a more perfect irony.”  Indeed, historians’ examinations of White Star Line documents show the shipbuilders themselves worried it would be so large as to risk collision; they stocked several more lifeboats than 1910s regulations required.

The War to End All Wars (deep breath, satisfied exhale), also known as World War ONE. Chuckle.  Shake of the head.  What if I told you that this phrase, used primarily in American newspapers after the fact, wasn’t meant to be literal? Nowadays we’d say The Mother of All Wars, or One Hell of a Fucking War, but we wouldn’t mean literal motherhood, literal intercourse.  What if I said the armistice and the Lost Generation and the Roaring 20s were all braced for another outbreak of European conflict, and yet we still failed to prevent it?

Did you know they were so confident in the safety of the S.S. Challenger that they put a civilian schoolteacher onboard? I do, because I’ve heard that one repeated many times.  Only, see, it’s got the cause and effect reversed.  Challenger launched on a day the shuttle’s engineers knew to be dangerously cold, because the first civilian in space was on board. And NASA knew its shuttle project would be cancelled entirely, if they couldn’t get that civilian’s much-delayed entry into space in the next two weeks.  So they launched on a cold day, and killed her instead.

These are all what cognitive science calls Hindsight Bias on the personal level, what sociology calls Presentism on the cultural level.  Social psychology’s a little of both, is primarily interested in why you’re sitting on your couch in a Colonize Mars shirt watching PBS and chuckling at the fools who believed in El Dorado.  It wants to know why the mind flees straight from “marijuana will kill you” to “marijuana will cure cancer” without so much as a pause on the middle ground of its real benefits and drawbacks, its real (mild) risks and rewards.

And they can paralyze the sci-fi writer, if you think too much about them. Jetsons is futurist one decade, retro the next.  “There are no bathrooms on the Enterprise,” the creators of Serenity say smugly, as if Gene Roddenberry should’ve simply known that decades later it’d be acceptable to show a man peeing in full view of the camera, nothing but the curve of the actor’s hand to protect his modesty.  “No sound in space,” the Fandom Menace says, “No explosions in space,” and “A space station can’t collapse in zero-G.”  Only then NASA burns a paper napkin outside of atmosphere, transmits music using only the ghost of nearby planets’ gravities, and logs onto Reddit long enough to point out the Death Star would implode in its own gravity field.  And now we’re the ones pointing, the ones laughing, at those earlier point-and-laughers.  Self-satisfied, smug in superiority.  As if we did the work to find out ourselves, instead of just happening to be born a little later than George Lucas.

[lindahall]

Donald McKay – Scientist of the Day

Donald McKay, a Canadian/American shipbuilder, died Sep. 20, 1880, at age 70. 

read more...

[whencyclopedia]

Squanto (l. c. 1585-1622) was the Native American of the Patuxet tribe who helped the English settlers of Plymouth Colony (later known as pilgrims) survive in their new home by teaching them how to plant crops, fish, hunt, and generally acclimate to life in the so-called New World. He is also known as interpreter between the colonists and the Native Americans of the Wampanoag Confederacy led by the chief Ousamequin, better known by his title Sachem Massasoit (l. c. 1581-1661). Squanto's real name is believed to have been Tisquantum (as he is consistently called by colonist and chronicler Edward Winslow, l. 1595-1655) while “Squanto” is a nickname given him by the second governor of Plymouth Colony, and his close friend, William Bradford (l. 1590-1657). Squanto was kidnapped by the English captain Thomas Hunt in 1614 to be sold into slavery but either escaped or won his freedom in Spain and traveled to England where he learned English and worked as interpreter and shipbuilder. He returned to North America as interpreter on a trade mission and traveled with one Thomas Dermer back to his home village near present-day Cape Cod only to find his tribe had been wiped out by disease (probably smallpox) brought by European traders. In 1621, he was introduced to the settlers at Plymouth (who had founded their colony at the site of his old seasonal village) by the Abenaki chief Samoset (also known as Somerset, l.c. 1590-1653) who also spoke English. Squanto quickly became indispensable to the colonists and, recognizing his own power, he secretly worked to undermine the authority of Massasoit and empower himself. Once discovered, Massasoit demanded he be turned over for execution, but Bradford refused, a decision which endangered the treaty between the Wampanoag Confederacy and Plymouth Colony if Massasoit had insisted or tried to take Squanto by force. Squanto continued to serve as the colonists' guide and interpreter until 1622 when he died of fever or, as some historians have speculated, was executed by poison on orders from Massasoit. He is almost always depicted in history textbooks and children's books as “the friendly Indian” who saved the pilgrims and participated in the feast which has come to be known as the First Thanksgiving. These narratives ignore his plot against Massasoit or the circumstances surrounding how he came to learn English and, for the most part, he continues to be depicted as a one-dimensional character in the story of the pilgrims and the First Thanksgiving, although modern scholars and historians have made significant efforts to correct this image.

[ltwilliammowett]

Today we have door 18 and here we have an East Indiaman. A fragile beauty hiding in Salem- The Friendship of Salem

Friendship of Salem

More about her:

The original Friendship, a two-decked, three-masted, square-rigged, 342-ton vessel was built from 1796-1797. The ship was constructed in the Stage Point yard of Salem shipbuilder Enos Briggs across the South River from today's Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Friendship was launched on 28 May 1797 and registered at the Salem Custom House to merchants Aaron Waite (1742-1830) and Jerathmiel Peirce (1747-1827).

Friendship was an “East Indiaman,” the type of merchant ship that was used in the East Indies trade in the years after the American Revolution. Friendship made 15 voyages to countries including China, Indonesia, India, Venezuela, Spain, and Russia. The cargo brought back to Salem consisted of pepper, silk, sugar, coffee, ale, sherry, tin, salt, cheese, candles, and other goods and merchandise.

On 5 September 1812, Friendship was returning from Archangel, Russia, when the ship was captured by the British sloop of war HMS Rosamond. The War of 1812 between the British and the United States began while Friendship was in Archangel, Russia. The war had started in June, but the captain and crew were unaware of that fact and set off for Salem, only to be captured in the Atlantic Ocean and taken as a prize of war. The captain and crew were able to return to Salem, but Friendship was sold at auction in London, England on 17 March 1813.

The replica tall ship, is docked at Derby Wharf and was designed to present the appearance an original 1797 Salem-built vessel. The keel was laid in Scarano Shipyard in Albany, New York in 1996 and uses modern technology and materials to meet today’s safety and accessibility requirements.

She represents New England’s influential role in the development of global and domestic maritime trade and in the economic and political development of the United States.

[scotianostra]

On 20th September, 1967, the QE2 launched from John Brown’s yard in Clydebank.

By the end of the 1950s, discussion over the replacement of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth was taking place. The decision to replace the ‘Queens’ was deemed to be of national importance and as such a special committee, known as the Chandos Committee was created to advise the Government and to determine whether such a project was economically viable. Originally Cunard had wanted to build two new liners with the help of a Government subsidy, however the committee’s report proposed that the Government loan Cunard £18 million towards the construction of one vessel. The project became known as ‘Q3’ and six British shipyards were asked to tender – this prestigious project was a huge opportunity for home based shipbuilders to construct a transatlantic liner.

The new ship, code-named was built by John Brown & Company Ltd, Clydebank (later Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd) and scheduled for May 1968. On 20th September 1967 the keel was launched by Queen Elizabeth II and the ship was named Queen Elizabeth 2. She was the last Atlantic Ocean Liner of it’s kind to be built in the UK.

QE2’s maiden transatlantic crossing set sail on 2 May 1969. She was well received by the American public, and became a profitable ship in her early years of service. During her first season, Cunard were able to repay £2.5 million of the Government loan. Her dual purpose design had allowed QE2 to thrive where her transatlantic counterparts could not.

In January 1971 while cruising in the Caribbean, QE2 received a distress call from the French liner Antilles. Antilles had run aground off the coast of Mustique in the Grenadines and caught fire. Being a fast ship in close proximity to the Antilles, QE2 went to her assistance.

However, by the time the QE2 arrived the passengers had been taken ashore. Antilles passengers and crew were brought aboard QE2 and taken to Barbados. As a testament to the quality of service offered aboard QE2, some of the Antille’s passengers booked subsequent cruises on the Cunarder.

In May 1972, while at sea during a transatlantic crossing, Captain William Law received notification that there was a bomb aboard QE2. Cunard took this threat very seriously and alerted the British Government who sent a bomb disposal unit out to the ship. Bomb disposal experts parachuted into the sea close to the ship and were brought aboard by QE2’s tenders. After a full sweep of the ship, the all clear was given as it turned out to be a hoax.

Later the FBI arrested the culprit for making similar threats against Pan American Airways. The bomb disposal teams were awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.

As QE2’s cruising popularity increased and in response to the ongoing decline in shipping traffic on the North Atlantic, Cunard reduced the number of transatlantic crossings that QE2 took. The company maintained a strong summer presence on the Atlantic, however shifted the focus for the ship towards cruising. This saw QE2 undertake her first world cruise, an event that was well received – QE2 undertook a further 25 world cruises during her career.

Queen Elizabeth 2 was retired from active Cunard service in November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

Following a multi-million-dollar investment programme, the 13-deck ship has been restored to her former glory and today serves as a world-class entertainment, tourism, hotel and dining destination in Dubai.

[adastra-sf]

Vikings regularly visit North America 100s of years before that other guy stumbled upon the continent

Not only did Vikings travel to the Americas hundreds of years before Columbus (from 985 - 1450 CE), it also appears they made routine trips to extract natural resources there, including hemlock and jack pine - tree species not native to either Greenland or Europe.

A study published in the University of Iceland journal Antiquity argues that Norse colonists in Greenland relied on imported American timber for shipbuilding and large construction projects.

The study backs up Viking legends that say they had regular trading routes between Greenland and North America at least 500 years before other Europeans voyaged west.

source story: X

[rjzimmerman]

Oil Interests Gave More Than $75 Million to Trump PACs, New Analysis Shows. (New York Times)

Oil and gas interests have given an estimated $75 million to Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee and affiliated committees, far more than has been previously known, according to a new analysis of federal campaign data.

The billionaires Harold Hamm of Continental Resources, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer Partners and Jeffery Hildebrand of Hilcorp Energy Co. are among the highest-profile oil and gas contributors to Mr. Trump, giving along with their spouses and companies more than $15 million this cycle.

But the total amount of money flowing to Mr. Trump and his allies from donors with links to fossil fuels is more than five times greater, according to an analysis by the environmental group Climate Power. It comes from mine operators, shipbuilders, engineering firms, hedge funds and little-known oil producers.

That is just the campaign cash that can be found in public records; donations made to nonprofits such as 501(c)(4) organizations, also known as dark money, are usually not publicly disclosed.

“It’s important to start by looking at this systematically and structurally,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island and chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who is investigating oil industry campaign donations.

Mr. Whitehouse referred to an analysis by the International Monetary Fund that found American fossil fuel companies receive $700 billion of subsidies each year, when accounting for federal tax breaks and undercharging of environmental costs. He was not surprised by the contributions from oil interests to Mr. Trump.

“To protect a $700 billion subsidy, what is the amount that would be economically reasonable to spend in its defense?” Mr. Whitehouse asked.

Mr. Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

He has promised the oil and gas industry unfettered access to drilling on public lands and in federal waters, reducing his energy platform to “DRILL, BABY, DRILL.”

At an April 11 dinner with oil executives at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s private club in Florida, he asked them to donate $1 billion to his campaign, saying they would save far more than that in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several attendees who requested anonymity to discuss a private event.

[dailyunsolvedmysteries]

15 Inventors Who Were Killed By Their Own Inventions

Marie Curie -  Marie Curie, popularly known as Madame Curie, invented the process to isolate radium after co-discovering the radioactive elements radium and polonium. She died of aplastic anemia as a result of prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation emanating from her research materials. The dangers of radiation were not well understood at the time.

William Nelson - a General Electric employee, invented a new way to motorize bicycles. He then fell off his prototype bike during a test run and died.

William Bullock - he invented the web rotary printing press. Several years after its invention, his foot was crushed during the installation of the new machine in Philadelphia. The crushed foot developed gangrene and Bullock died during the amputation.

Horace Lawson Hunley - he was a marine engineer and was the inventor of the first war submarine. During a routine test, Hunley, along with a 7-member crew, sunk to death in a previously damaged submarine H. L. Hunley (named after Hunley’s death) on October 15, 1963. 

Francis Edgar Stanley - Francis crashed into a woodpile while driving a Stanley Steamer. It was a steam engine-based car developed by Stanley Motor Carriage Company, founded by Francis E. Stanley and his twin Freelan O. Stanley. 

Thomas Andrews - he was an Irish businessman and shipbuilder. As the naval architect in charge of the plans for the ocean liner RMS Titanic, he was travelling on board that vessel during her maiden voyage when the ship hit an iceberg on 14 April 1912. He perished along with more than 1,500 others. His body was never recovered.

Thomas Midgley Jr. - he was an American engineer and chemist who contracted polio at age 51, leaving him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to help others lift him from the bed. He was accidentally entangled in the ropes of the device and died of strangulation at the age of 55.

Alexander Bogdanov - he was a Russian physician and philosopher who was one of the first people to experiment with blood transfusion. He died when he used the blood of malaria and TB victim on himself.

Michael Dacre -  died after testing his flying taxi device designed to permit fast, affordable travel between regional cities.

Max Valier - invented liquid-fuelled rocket engines as a member of the 1920s German rocket society. On May 17, 1930, an alcohol-fuelled engine exploded on his test bench in Berlin that killed him instantly.

Mike Hughes - was killed when the parachute failed to deploy during a crash landing while piloting his homemade steam-powered rocket.

Harry K. Daghlian Jr. and Louis Slotin -  The two physicists were running experiments on plutonium for The Manhattan Project, and both died due to lethal doses of radiation a year apart (1945 and 1946, respectively).

Karel Soucek -  The professional stuntman developed a shock-absorbent barrel in which he would go over the Niagara Falls. He did so successfully, but when performing a similar stunt in the Astrodome, the barrel was released too early and Soucek plummeted 180 feet, hitting the rim of the water tank designed to cushion the blow.

Hammad al-Jawhari - he was a prominent scholar in early 11th century Iraq and he was also sort of an inventor, who was particularly obsessed with flight. He strapped on a pair of wooden wings with feathers stuck on them and tried to impress the local Imam. He jumped off from the roof of a mosque and consequently died.

Jean-Francoise Pilatre de Rozier -  Rozier was a French teacher who taught chemistry and physics. He was also a pioneer of aviation, having made the first manned free balloon flight in 1783. He died when his balloon crashed near Wimereux in the Pas-de-Calais during an attempt to fly across the English Channel. Pilâtre de Rozier was the first known fatalities in an air crash when his Roziere balloon crashed on June 15, 1785.

[leguin]

Pérez embodied many aspects of the immigration debate. He had exactly the skills that American companies are desperate for. He was an expert welder, willing to work in the cramped, dangerous spaces inside ships. And Pérez was able to earn $23 an hour at a shipyard in Houma, many times more than he could in his home country. Slightly built with jet-black hair, Pérez was funny, diligent and eager to succeed. He had begun building a life in the U.S.

But, like millions of others, Perez had not been able to do that legally. This spring, the secretary of Navy, Carlos del Toro, called for creating exactly such a pathway, to help construct the ships the Navy needs. “What we’ve got to do is open up the spigot a bit,” he said. “Allow blue-collar workers to come here.”

Without a work permit, Pérez was vulnerable. He worked at the shipyard but not for it, a contractor for a subcontractor.

Pérez’s story is emblematic of a system that relies ever more on immigrants, even as employers and politicians vilify the very people doing work that generates profits and serves the nation. Employers use subcontractors and independent contractors to pass the risks and costs on to the workers, said Laura Padin, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project. “These companies, particularly in occupations and industries with high rates of health and safety violations, use this to shield themselves from responsibility,” she said. “We also see that they do this with workers who are immigrants if they think they’re undocumented so that they can avoid responsibility for hiring someone who’s undocumented.” The point, Padin said, is to “protect the entity at the top.”

[zvaigzdelasas]

From the 1960s to late 1980s, the Unification Church was stridently anti-communist. More than 300,000 South Korean troops were sent to support American forces defending South Vietnam and Moon was a vocal supporter of the Vietnam War. His position was fully shared throughout the war by all mainstream Protestant churches in South Korea. At home, critics of the South Korean military deployment risked detention and torture by the KCIA, and massacres by Korean troops in Vietnam were covered up.[...]

Moon also sponsored the 1970 Tokyo meeting of the World Anti-Communist League, with which the IFVOC and Shokyo Rengo were affiliated. The WACL grew out of the Asian People’s Anti-Communist League, formed in 1954, at the request of South Korea’s Rhee Syngman and Taiwan’s Chiang Kai-shek, to fight communism in Asia after the end of the Korean War. The WACL, established in Taiwan in 1966, expanded the scope of anti-communist activity onto a global stage. In the 1970s, the European division of WACL became notorious for a large influx of fascist groups, especially after British white supremacist Roger Pearson took over as WACL chairman in 1978. Geoffrey Stewart-Smith, who headed the League’s British chapter, resigned in protest, describing the WACL as “largely a collection of Nazis, Fascists, anti-Semites, sellers of forgeries, vicious racialists, and corrupt self-seekers.”

Unification Church expansion in the United States began after Moon moved there with his rapidly growing family in the early 1970s, settling in a sprawling country estate in Tarrytown, in the Hudson Valley outside New York City. His religion appealed to young people seeking a communal ethos but turned off by the drugs and free love of the hippie counterculture. Converts hawked flowers and candles at airports and street corners, and with money also pouring in from Japan, the Unification Church bought the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan, a seafood operation said to supply half of the sushi sold in the United States, a cable TV network, a recording studio, and a shipbuilding firm.[...]

When Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, chief of staff of U.S. forces in Korea, and a former field officer of the CIA, criticised the troop drawdown [from Korea] in an interview with the Washington Post, he was relieved from duty and later resigned from the military. In 1981, Singlaub founded the U.S. chapter of the WACL, the United States Council for World Freedom.

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

What will it take to save the United States?

nurture her, then unleash her. like our founding fathers did. we have neglected her.

not sure how specific/deep you want me to get but i'll give you some ideas: we need to reshore manufacturing (specifically high-tech manufacturing. china can keep making plastic children's toys and shit (actually we should near-shore that shit to latin america) but robotics, batteries, automobiles, drones, shipbuilding, etc, need to be built in america). do this with a combination of tariffs and subsidies.

we need civil service reform. i love bureaucracy. i love the civil service. but it's become bloated and stagnant and too unruly. it needs to be reformed, purged, and revitalized.

secure the border and reform immigration to close asylum loopholes.

tax reform. reduce or abolish income tax. add vat and lvt. basic income or negative income tax or something along those lines.

streamline regulation. i love the state. and i love state intervention. but again, regulations have become unwieldy and outdated. keep the necessary shit, get rid of the bloat.

establish my dream agency -- OPUS. cultivate and preserve american culture and way of life. foster a new american renaissance. a new great awakening. a new wave of national identity and patriotism and unification. sounds nebulous but i believe there are concrete steps to this end.

reform education. again, not sure how in depth you want to get. but i think it's overdue.

i could keep going but i gotta start dinner.

[fantasyandromancelover]

Titanic AU

In 1996, Shiki Granbell and his team search the wreck of the RMS Titanic and they recover a safe that contains the drawing of a young nude woman The sketch is dated April 14, 1912, the same day the Titanic struck the iceberg that caused it to sink. The discovery is televised by the news and witnessed by Rebecca Bluegarden and her grandmother Lucy. Lucy recognizes the drawing and calls Shiki, revealing that she is the woman in the picture.

Now according to many rumors, countless treasures had vanished the night that the ship sank and Shiki and his team have searching the titanic remains for them. These treasures include a gold pocket watch that had belonged to the shipbuilder, a blue diamond necklace known as The Heart of the Ocean, and a 15-karat rose gold and silver bracelet with the name Wendy encrusted in diamonds.

Wanting to locate these treasures and sell them for profit, Shiki invites Rebecca and Lucy on board their vessel in hopes that the old woman knows where the missing valuables are. At first, Lucy isn’t too eager to share due to the trauma and tragedy of the event, but upon seeing Rebecca and Shiki fall in love at first sight, her happy memories of the event are rekindled and she recounts her experiences aboard the Titanic.

In 1912, young English heiress Lucy Heartfilia is boarding first class on the Titanic with her widower father Jude Heartfilia, her trusted Norwegian maid Levy, and her wealthy fiancé Dan Straight. Also boarding first class is American writer Gray Fullbuster, two newly weds, English shipbuilder Jellal Fernandes and his American bride, nouveau riche socialite Erza. And Scottish designer Mirajane Dreyar and her husband, the captain’s grandson, Laxus Dreyar.

Meanwhile Natsu Dragneel, a poor young, Italian artist wins a third class ticket in a poker game and excitedly boards it along with many other third class passengers eager for new opportunities in America. Among them are Irish siblings Juvia and Gajeel, Jewish widower Gildarts and his daughter Cana, and Wendy a French orphan girl who stowed away on board.

But despite being called the ship of dreams, many of the passengers have terrible misfortunes in their lives. Lucy’s engagement to Dan is one of connvience rather than love, arranged by her father who is in debt and is constantly pressuring her to go through with the marriage even though Dan is snobby, arrogant, and Lucy cannot stand him. Juvia is under the abusive care of her embittered and insanely jealous stepmother Selene, a former stage actress who was forced to retire because she had gotten older but blames it on her marriage to her now deceased husband and her stepchildren. Gajeel is in a secret relationship with Levy and the two both desire to elope, but he can’t bring himself to leave his sister with their stepmother. Jellal and Erza are madly in love and wish to start a family but Erza cannot get pregnant which deeply hurts her. 

On the first day, Natsu befriends Gray and Gajeel, and the three discuss their plans for when they arrive in New York. Natsu plans to become a famous artist, Gray hopes to become a self-made man through writing instead of relying on his late father’s inheritance, and Gajeel dreams of becoming a famous musician. As the three young men are goofing off around the front of the ship, Natsu spots Lucy on the first class level, looking over the horizon and it’s love at first sight. 

Later that night, Lucy goes to dinner with her father and Dan, and as the two men discuss their plans for her, she becomes distraught over nit having any control of her own life. She leaves the dining room, climbs over the stern railing, and intends to commit suicide by jumping overboard. Luckily though Natsu sees her and coaxes her back onto the deck. As he is pulling her back up, she slips, screams, and falls while pulling Natsu on top of her. Her screams alert the crew who assume that Natsu had assaulted her but she corrects them in that he saved her life and decides to reward him by inviting him to dinner in the first class dining room. He accepts and later as Lucy is getting ready for bed, Dan gives her a gaudy but expensive engagement ring to wear. 

That same night, Gray is exploring the ship, keeping a journal of everything he experiences. He is suddenly lured to the third class level by a lovely voice and observes Juvia singing an Irish folk song while her brother plays his flute. He is smitten by her beauty and song but is startled into fleeing when Gajeel spots him. However in his haste, he drops his journal which Juvia finds. She goes to the first class level to return it to him but is stopped by two crew members who harass her. Gray sees this and defends her, making her quite bashful with his chivalry. He thanks her for returning his journal and also invites her to dinner in the first class dining room to make amends for all the trouble he’s caused. 

Meanwhile Wendy who has been hiding in the boiler room becomes terribly hungry and sneaks into the first class dining hall for something to eat. She is caught stealing food and is about to be severely punished but Erza kindly pays for the stolen food and allows the child to dine with her and her husband. Both she and Jellal grow fond of Wendy and become sympathetic upon learning she is an orphan with no one to look after her. Unable to let her starve or spend the night cold, they decide to let her stay with them in their suite until they reach New York, then they’ll decide what should be done with her.

The next day both Natsu and Lucy, and Gray and Juvia stroll aboard the ship, getting to know each other. A tentative friendship develops between each couple. At the same time Erza and Jellal take Wendy on an outing, bonding almost like a real family. Jellal even gifts Wendy with a silver and golden, diamond bracelet that belonged to his late grandmother who happens to have the same name as the child. As the day ends, Natsu and Juvia are introduced to Erza who decides to loan Natsu one of Jellal’s suits and her friend Mirajane loans Juvia one of her designer gowns. 

Before the dinner, Jellal and Laxus discuss the voyage with Captain Makarov Dreyar and Owner of the White Star Line Precht Gaeblog. Precht insists that Makarov push the ship to go faster for better publicity but Jellal recommends not doing so, claiming that they still are not sure how much the ship can take. Makarov believes Jellal is right but Laxus convinces him to rule in Precht’s favor. The ship’s speed is doubled that evening.

At dinner, Natsu is dressed so handsome like and Juvia is dressed so beautifully that the first class guests are amazed while Lucy and Gray are left speechless. Gray then presents Juvia with a necklace to wear for the evening, a family heirloom, The Heart of the Ocean. They all dine together with Dan being very rude to Natsu and Juvia, much to Lucy’s disgust, but Erza eventually shuts him up by throwing a subtle insult back at him. After dinner, Gray escorts Juvia back to her cabin but she asks him to stay for the third class party which Natsu invites Lucy to as well. The night is spent laughing, dancing, singing, and drinking as Gajeel leads the band in a grand jig and later serenading Levy with an Irish love ballad. 

When the party ends, Gray and Juvia say goodbye, and having fallen in love with her, he allows her to keep the blue diamond necklace. She returns his love and accepts his gift. This is witnessed by Gajeel and Selene, but while Gajeel is pleased to see his sister truly happy for once, Selene is jealous of her stepdaughter gaining the attention of a wealthy young man. When Gray leaves, she drags Juvia into the cabin and locks Gajeel out so he can’t stop her from ruthlessly beating the girl. With each beating, she tells Juvia that she’s worthless and that she’ll never be anything but a poor wretch and that she doesn’t deserve to be loved by anyone, let alone a man like Gray. When the beating is over Gajeel furiously tries to kill Selene but she screams alerting the others and whispers a threat that she’ll tell a lie about Gajeel assaulting her which will end with him getting arrested. Juvia then pleads with her brother not do anything for his sake and he reluctantly agrees. Left alone, the siblings comfort each other.

Up above, Natsu escorts Lucy back to first class and he confesses that he loves her. She laughs and calls him crazy, he agrees with her but says he can’t help how his heart feels and calls her the most amazing girl in the world. At that moment, Lucy realizes that she has fallen in love with Natsu. This is witnessed by Dan who becomes jealous and in the morning he orders Lucy to never see Natsu again. When she argues that he has no right to say who she can and cannot associate with, he viciously reminds her that they are to be married which means (In his twisted mind) that he owns her and that she will do as he says without complaint. Adding to her fear and confusion is her father also forbidding her to have contact with Natsu and calling her selfish for not wanting to marry Dan which would pay all his debts. Scared, she tells Natsu that they can’t see each other anymore when he comes to visit her in secret.

On the other side of the ship, Gray looks for Juvia and finds her still crying over last night. He takes her to his room where he tends to her wounds (his late father was a surgeon) and gently asks what happened. She tells him the whole story of how she and her brother have been abused and mistreated by their stepmother since their father passed when they were children. She wants to leave but she has no where to go because she has no education and she doesn’t want to be a burden on her brother, whom she believes should just leave and live his own life. Unable to bear the thought of Juvia living such a life any longer, Gray asks her to come live with him and to let him take care of her. She declines his offer, saying that she appreciates his pity but cannot accept. He then tells her that it’s not out of pity and confesses his love for her. They kiss, she agrees to go with him, but insists that he ask Gajeel for his blessing first.

Meanwhile in her suite, Erza is teaching Wendy how to read and the girl stops her for a moment to thank the woman for her kindness, saying that if she had a family, she would want them to be just like Erza and Jellal. This touches Erza so much and she realizes that she and her husband have developed parental love for Wendy. She then proposes to Jellal that they adopt her. He hesitates at first but quickly agrees with the idea.

As for Lucy, she is so confused about her feelings for Natsu and is not sure what to do. She goes to Levy for advice and the maid assures her that if she follows her heart then she won’t regret it, telling her of her own love story with Gajeel. Inspired, Lucy runs to Natsu and tells him that she loves him too. She then invites him back to her room where he sketches her nude form, they have sex, and she declares that when the ship docks she’s getting off with him. They sneak off to the forward deck leaving behind her picture, the engagement ring, and an insulting note for Dan. When Dan finds these three things, he is furious and refuses to let Lucy go.

In third class, Gray and Juvia tell Gajeel their plan and he gives his blessing, glad that he’s found someone willing to love and look after her, giving her the happiness she deserves. And he can now elope with Levy without fear of leaving Juvia unloved and unprotected. They rush to tell Levy the good news but Gray is stopped by Selene who tries to seduce him. Repulsed, he rejects her. Enraged, she screams and falsely accuses Gray of raping her. Gray and Juvia flee from the crew members who pursue them and hide in the boiler room until the panic dies down. Gray pleads his innocence to Juvia but she assures him that she knows her stepmother is lying.

Suddenly the ship collides with an iceberg which Natsu and Lucy witness. They separate to warn the others but promise to meet back later. Unfortunately Natsu runs into Dan who frames him for theft by slipping the engagement ring into his coat pocket. His manservant Bloodman drags Natsu off and leaves him handcuffed in the lower decks. 

With the ship sinking, panic starts to ensue. The frightened crowds cause Wendy to be separated from Jellal and Erza as they hurry to the lifeboats. Jellal decides to go back and look for Wendy and forces Erza on to the lifeboat, giving her his beloved pocket watch as a promise that he’ll come back to her. Lucy flees Dan and her father, who has boarded a lifeboat and finds Natsu, freeing him but almost drowning in the process. In the third class level, the gates are closed off trapping everyone down there including Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia, Gajeel, and Levy. Gajeel uses his strength to break down the gates so they all have a chance to live but one of the officers accidentally shoot him in his spinal cord, rendering him unable to walk. Juvia tries to pull him along but he knows he’s a goner and makes Gray promise to love and protect Juvia in his place. Gray makes the promise and has to carry a tearful Juvia away. Gajeel urges Levy to go with them but she chooses to die with him, biding a tearful farewell to Lucy. Hand in hand, the couple sings one last love song as they wait for the inevitable.

Makarov and Laxus are both wracked with guilt over what’s happened and have decided to go down with the ship while doing everything in their power to save the passengers. Mirajane begs Laxus to let her stay with him but he refuses to let her die for his mistake. Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Juvia barely make it back to the boat deck and they urge the women to board the lifeboat. Juvia doesn’t want to go having just lost her brother and she tearfully pleads with Gray not leave her too, but he assures her that he has no intention of dying and swears to find someway to survive. Selene is among the group of women boarding and the sight of their love drives her so mad with envy that she pushes Juvia right off the boat. Selene is shot and killed, Gray immediately jumps after Juvia, and they manage to hold each other above water long enough for Erza to pull them on to her lifeboat. 

Dan convinces Lucy to board a lifeboat by falsely claiming that he can get Natsu off the ship but has actually just arranged to save himself.  As her lifeboat is lowered, Lucy, unable to abandon Natsu, jumps back on board. Furious, Dan tries to shoot the lovers, chasing them into the flooding first-class dining saloon. They get away, and he has no choice but to accept defeat. 

Jellal finally finds Wendy and gets her safely on to the lifeboat but gives up his spot for Gildarts, so he can go with Cana. Believing he won’t survive and that the sinking is his fault for not building a stronger vessel, Jellal gets drunk and chooses to go down with the ship as well. 

The lifeboats have departed and the ship's stern is rising as the flooded bow sinks. As passengers fall to their deaths, Natsu and Lucy desperately cling to the stern rail. The upended ship breaks in half and the bow section dives downward. The remaining stern slams back onto the ocean, then upends again before it, too, sinks. In the freezing water, Natsu helps Lucy onto a wooden panel buoyant, she tries to get him on too but it only has enough for one person. Natsu makes her promise to survive before tragically dying of hypothermia much to Lucy’s heartbreak.

Erza and Cana quickly take control of the lifeboats and go back for survivors. They rescue Lucy, Jellal who survived the cold due to the extreme amount of alcohol in his blood, and any other survivors. They are then picked up by the RMS Carpathia where the Fernades couple are reunited with Wendy, and Lucy hides from Dan and Jude, changing her name to Lucy Dragneel, in order to finally be free.

The elderly Lucy ends her story by revealing what happened to the other survivors. Jellal and Erza adopted Wendy, Gray published a book about the Titanic then married Juvia who made her brother’s songs famous by singing them and they later had two children, Mirajane never remarried and lived out her days with her sister, Dan committed suicide after losing his fortune, and Lucy herself later discovered that she had become pregnant by Natsu (Making him Rebecca’s grandfather), and raised their daughter alone while living a life of freedom and adventure. She then unlocks a safe in her room which contains the watch, the necklace, the bracelet and many other treasures such as photographs, letters, notes, and keepsakes. As the last living member of that group, she had been trusted to keep these treasures safe so no one would forget the stories behind them.

Touched by her story, Shiki decides not to sell the valuable items but donate everything in the safe to a museum so the memory of all those people would live on forever. Later that night, as Shiki and Rebecca get to know each other, Lucy dies peacefully in her sleep and as a young woman again, she enters an afterlife where she’s reunited with the souls of everyone she knew from her story including those who died on the ship. She is met by Natsu who kisses her and they are applauded by everyone.