#britannic sinking

[purpletaleangel]

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[gamelpar]

the nostalgia of watching ships sinking to sleeping sun

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

so my brother just asked me how many millimetres are in a centimetres, and yesterday he asked me what 5½ inches is in centimetres, and i just want to know what about me made him think id know conversions.

yes, i have a lot of eclectic information in my brain, but its never useful stuff like conversions. theres a reason my friends labelled me the resident mormon expert, and not the one you go to for useful stuff.

[catdemondez]

So my autistic ass was OBSESSED with The Titanic as a kid and one thing I keep thinking about with this whole lost submarine incident is the “name curse”.

White Star Line, the company that produced the Titanic, made three Olympic class ocean liners: The Olympic, The Titanic, and The Britannic.

(Seen in order top to bottom. Picture stolen from reddit. X )

The Olympic is the only of those three that did not sink.

Now, the “name curse” that comes in to play here is related to greek mytholoical races from which each ship has supposedly taken its name: The Olympic Gods (also just called Olympians), The Titans, and The Giants. The giants are involved due to a claim that The Britannic was originally called The Gigantic, based on an unofficial poster featuring the ship with the supposed name above it, as well as a contemporary newspaper stating that the company announced a ship with said name three years before The Britannic was launched.

Both The Giants and The Titans were races that were vanquished by The Olympic Gods in what are called the Titanomachy and Gigantomachy, with the latter event being less well know.

Another race of gigantic beings seen in greek mythology is The Cyclopes. The Cyclops were never vanquished by The Olympic Gods as they were never at odds with the gods, even crafting artifacts for the gods themselves, namely: Zeus’s thunderbolts, Poseidon’s trident, and Hades’s helmet of invisibility. 

The submarine that went missing is part of the Cyclops class submarine line produced by OceanGate Inc., probably called such due to the design. Two vessels of the class have been produced with two more planned following a naming scheme of Cyclops I, Cyclops II, and so on. Cyclops II however was renamed to Titan specifically for its use in touristic viewing expeditions of The Titanic.

Now, more about the submarine itself;

Cyclops I performed well for its intended depth, Titan however has not, with OceanGate having lost track of it before. This is due to the vessel lacking a tracking beacon, as well as navigation controls and communication devices, relying on a support ship to text Titan’s captain its directions, as revealed by Journalist David Progue, who also said that they “turned off the ship’s internet to prevent tweeting.” Also, due to the lack of these features, Titan was denied official certification by ship classification societies for not meeting safety standards of ANY society. Problems started long before this, though.

During the testing of Titan’s design, OceanGate claimed that the dimensions and structure were partly designed and tested by NASA, Boeing (the plane company) and The University of Washington. All three of which have denied this. In fact, when Titan was first built, it was handed over to the company’s operations department with no testing whatsoever as well as an insufficient monitoring system. The Director of Operations, however, saw this and submitted a negative quality report, for which he was promptly fired. When they DID finally test it over a year later, the vessel resurfaced with signs of cyclic fatigue, which is the near microscopic bending of metal that happens before cracks appear. Instead of changing the design to prevent this from happening in future expeditions, the company simply replaced the damaged parts and called it good.

All in all, its just so funny to me that OceanGate used the same supposedly cursed naming pattern for its ONE safety violation riddled submarine only to send it to a lethal depth its not equipped to handle AND SOMEHOW not expect it to eventually crush like a soda can under a semi.

[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. 

[himmelheim]

If I see one more person comparing that ACME shitty homemade "sub" to the RMS Titanic I will genuinely murder somebody. Especially if you're taking the movie as truth (lovely movie, but it is innacurate). Know why?

Because that millionaire wacko didn't give a shit, but the poor workers that built the three Olympic class sisters? Those men did their damn best and actually gave a shit even thought of sailing there themselves, and comparing that shit ass sub with discount materials to 3 massive, premium ships that took YEARS of planning and work is disrespectful as fuck.

Even the fucking White Star Line didn't put the passengers on danger with full intention (and knowingly charged them for it btw) because they genuinely didn't think what happened was going to happen. And I can't blame them, honestly:

Titanic's design wasn't perfect, but it was good for her time (highlighting time because 1900s class divisions and American immigration segregation laws were shit but it's not like the engineers are to blame for those) and she was made by very skilled poor workers who would show the work on Sundays to their families and were very proud of her.

She also exceeded safety regulations of her time (not the design's fault that said regulations were absolute shite), her 3rd class accommodations were the best, actually (not her fault class system and USA immigration law was shitty in the 1900s) and her and her reinforcer little twin sister HM Hospital Ship Britannic sank because of genuine bad luck (she struck a German mine meant for military ships. Her watertight doors twisted but held however the medical staff left the portholes open to air the rooms and that's what did her in).

Meanwhile, her older twin sister RMS Olympic got rammed by a military ship HMS Hawke and survived BEFORE Titanic's sinking (after which she was reinforced along with Britannic) when the design was new and at its weakest, and after she got reinforced she fucking rammed an U-boat and. kept going. She survived the war, all that shit and then instead of turning into a beautiful museum ship she was sent to the scrap yard after the Great Depression ended the White Star Line, her company.

[darkbluekies]

Hello there lovely, was wondering what an ocean liner was and realized it's a ship! It's actually quite interesting and if you were ever in the mood and time for it, you can tell us! no rushing or forces at all! I'm sure most of us would love to hear more about it, learning new things is a great way to expand your knowledge and ships are really interesting but quite complex, I tend to know the sunken ones a lot, mainly because I wondered what happened and it leaves me a certain type of feel? Perhaps it's grief and curiosity. Nevertheless, have an awesome day! Take care of yourself as always. ♡

—🌊

do you have an hour?

I can tell you some of my favorite knowledge about ocean liners (THAT I HAVEN'T SEEN DONE BEFORE, so no Violet Jessop or Titanic theories) until a get a story in progress lmao

— (according to Oceanliner Designs' Youtube video) After WW1, when America and Britain lost ships due to german forces, they were given the Imperator class as compensation, but they were so petty as not to give the blueprints for one of the ships (said that they could buy them for 5 million dollars) so a pair of men measured the ENTIRETY of the ship, inside and outside, millimeter for millimeter. It took 2 years.

— When the german liner Imperator was built, they were so persistant on making it longer than the british liner Aquitania that was also being built at the same time, so they installed a big golden eagle at the bow to make it just a few centimeters longer than Aquitania ... only to realize that Aquitania was never supposed to be longer, so they installed the ugly eagle for no reason

— (this is a rumour, i'm not sure that it is true) but during WW2, a certain german leader who got butthurt over not getting into art school (guess who) said that the one that could sink the Queen Mary would get 250 000 dollars, but no one could catch the Grey Ghost (QM's nickname)

— During WW1, a german ship called Cap Trafalgar wanted to infiltrate Britain, so they disguised themselves as the british ship Carmania ... only to meet Carmania on the way to England and get sunk by the ones they disguised themselves as.

— Britannic sank in 55 minutes, Lusitania sank in 18 minutes and Impress of Ireland sank in just 14 minutes

— The man who plays JJ Astor in the Titanic movie was a survivor of the Wilhelm Gustloff disaster, which is the deadliest sinking in the history with over 9000 deaths in one night. He had trouble filming the water scenes in the movie because it reminded him of the WG disaster.

— There was a ship to be named RMMV Oceanic which never got completed because White Star Line went bankrupt, which original designs looked like an addition to the Olympic class, but with a cruise-styled stern. Here you can see the first design vs the second design

These were some that I could come up with for the moment, but I know that there are so many more! Please let me know if you want to know more lmao

[hatsalad]

Legit, the HMHS Britannic is my roman empire. From the fact that she never got to be a passenger ship to how she shouldn't have even sank in the first place. Just her consistent bad luck. She never had the long interesting career of Olympic, and her sinking never had the tragedy of Titanics. She is just forever trapped under the shadow of her sisters stories. She was the largest of the sisters. She was supposed to the grandest and most beautiful of the sisters. And she never got to be.

[your-resident-boat-person]

What is it about the RMS Olympic that makes it stand out from other ocean liners?

For me it's a lot of things. I'm going to start with a weird one. Her engines.

The RMS Mauretania was the biggest ship in the world until the Olympic was completed in 1911, and the fastest until 1927. She was designed for speed first and foremost. She had 4 propellers powered by steam turbines, which were the new hot thing at the time. Cunard built 2 "test ships," the Carmania and the Caronia. Carmania had steam turbines, and Caronia had traditional triple expansion steam engines. Carmania was faster, so Cunard used turbines. Mauretania had a top speed (at the time) of about 27.75 knots. Which is impressive. However, her service speed, the speed she went at when she crossed the ocean, was 23.69 knots. Mauretania was designed for speed. This was an impressive speed. The fastest way to cross the ocean for 20 years.

Meanwhile, Olympic was built with comfort in mind. Steam turbines were a relatively new technology and not well understood. Ships that had them had really bad vibration issues, and White Star didn't care about speed. They weren't looking to compete with Cunard on that front. So, they equipped the Olympic with traditional triple expansion steam engines. However, after the steam was exhausted from the final cylinder, it was redirected into a low-pressure turbine. This strange combination engine system gave the Olympic 3 Propellers. Without the turbine, she probably wouldn't have gone above 18 knots. But with that little extra push, her top speed became competitive with Cunard. Her top speed was 21.75 knots. So even without the new fancy turbines, she was effectively only 2 knots slower. But that's not the impressive part about all of this.

In a single day, the Mauretania burned on average 1,000 tons of coal to go 23.69 knots. Meanwhile, Olympic, with her weird engine Mish mash, only consumed 650 tons in a day. And she was only 2 knots slower! And with the turbine propeller right behind her (comparatively) large rudder, she was a really good turner for a ship of her size. I just love the engineering here.

Anyway, that's only one reason I love her so much. Her career was another great thing about her. After Titanic sank, White Star refitted Olympic to make her even safer (she was objectively the safest ship in the world both before and after this refit) and White Star pulled the biggest PR comeback in history. Her return to service in 1913 was widely celebrated. During World War 1, she served as a troop ship, and she is the only Ocean Liner to have ever sunk enemy tonnage in either World Wars. A German U-Boat was trying to torpedo her, but because she could turn so well, they were actually able to swing her around, ram the U-Boat and sink it! She also survived a separate torpedo attack because it failed to detonate when it struck. After the war, when they put her in dry dock, they found the hole. They didn't even know they were hit! The double hull contained the flooding. After the war, she returned to passenger service and became extremely popular with the rich and famous, earning herself the nickname of "the movie star liner." By the 1930s, White Star's new flagship, the Majestic, was having some extreme problems. She was a German ship given to them as compensation for the loss of Britannic. She began having some electrical problems that caused frequent fires, and her hull plates were tearing. Even though she was 10,000 tons bigger than Olympic, and she was a newer and safer ship, Olympic was still in fantastic shape, suffering from none of these problems.

Next, is her interiors. I love the Edwardian wood paneling. Ships before Olympic like the Adriatic are a bit too sparse for my taste, and ships like the Aquitania just don't look comfortable to me. Her interiors are gorgeous, but it's kind of imposing. I wouldn't want to sit on the furniture or get close to the walls. It's like a work of art, but that doesn't make her comfortable. I have the same problem with the Normandie. Beautiful, but not comfortable. People nowadays forget that you actually had to live inside these ships for about a week at a time. We can only look. Occupying these interiors is very different. Meanwhile, I feel like the Olympic gets that perfect balance between looking gorgeous, but not being imposing. I can imagine myself sitting comfortably on a chair in the grand staircase and watching the people go by. I like the pseudo art deco of the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Mauretania 2, but I just prefer the Edwardian decor of the Olympic.

Next is her exterior. She's not my favorite in this regard, that title goes to the SS United States. But the Olympic is still gorgeous. I like the height to width ratio of her funnels, I think they're a good size relative to the rest of her. For an example of funnels I don't like, I think the Normandies funnels are way too thick and tall. The Olympics superstructure is appealing and isn't too tall. The rounded bridge atop the flatter lower decks has just an incredible effect. The Big 4 had the bridge separate from the rest of the superstructure, and it looked kinda goofy to me. Olympic is just all around really good in this regard. Not the best, but really good.

I think it's such a shame that she's been reduced to "Titanic's sister." She was so much more than that. I can talk about the Olympic for hours, but this post is too long already.

[rms-mauretanic]

Some interesting facts about the most under-appreciated of the Big Four, RMS Cedric, because she was a great ship and I think she deserves some love.

Her name was actually pronounced "Seed-ric," not "Sed-ric."

When she entered service in 1903, she was the largest ship in the world at 21,073.49 GRT, taking the title from Celtic by 169.42 GRT. She'd later lose it to Baltic by 2,802.38 GRT.

She was known for being something of a klutz, being involved in several collisions over the course of her career, but thankfully none that ever managed to significantly damage her.

She was one of the first White Star ships to be fitted with the newer Wellin davits that would be later used on Olympic and Titanic. These davits were much more efficient than the bent-arm type used on the other three (it's unclear why they didn't use them on Baltic or Adriatic).

A third-class passenger once gave birth to a baby boy during a particularly rough crossing, and decided to name him Cedric after the ship.

While she was an extremely profitable ship, Cedric was the least popular of her sisters, carrying a total of 335,357 passengers over the course of her 28-year career - 663 less than carried by Adriatic.

She was in New York when Titanic sank - J. Bruce Ismay actually attempted to hold her so she could take him and the crew back to Britain. This was unsuccessful, and he later returned to Britain on Adriatic after American inquiry.

During WWI was used as an armed merchant cruiser, then as a troop transport. At one point, while she and Celtic were sailing in a convoy, she collided with Canadian Pacific's Montreal. Cedric was mostly unharmed, but Montreal was significantly damaged; attempts were made to tow her, but she ended up sinking.

With her passenger numbers falling and the arrival of the new Britannic and Georgic, she was pulled from service in 1931, and was scrapped at Inverkeithing in 1932.

[angels-gen]

-Discovering The Mesh-

A knock sounded sounded on the door, breaking my attention from a floating screen; I looked up and noticed Titanic walking up to me with her arms crossed.

"You know we're supposed to be asleep right?" She asked as I swiped away a screen as it floated up top. "I know, I'm just busy checking on everyone else is all. I'll be back to our room, I promise." I said as I looked over at another floating screen, she sighed as she leaned on my desk.

"Fine, but why do you need to check up on anyone anyway?" She said as she looked at a floating screen I had swiped away, watching another Titanic smiling through the screen. "It's not like something bad is gonna happen, you know?" I scoffed, "that's what you think; it's not always the case to be honest." She giggled as she looked over at another timeline and universe.

"What's this?" I looked over at Titanic, my face paled as I realised the universe she was looking at. "Don't touch that." She jumped, a bit taken back as she'd never seen me react this way. "Sorry… it's just… that universe… that timeline…" she knelt down, holding my hand. "Hey… I'm just curious that's all, but why the sudden reaction? You know you can tell me, we're twins." I looked into her ice blue eyes, the same colour as mine. "Olympic, please tell me…" I sighed, "I-i… I don't k-know… it's just like that… I'm not sure what even happened in that timeline…" I said, my eyes cast downwards. Usually I'd have an answer, but for this I don't know. Titanic stood up before pulling me into a tight hug, "well whatever it is, we definitely shouldn't be telling Britannic about this." I nodded as hugged back; she let go as she walked over to the door.

"I'm gonna go tell Britannic you'd be back soon. Don't stay up too late~" I chuckled as she left, before turning my attention to the floating screen Titanic was looking at. Unlike all the other screens, this one glowed red and at the bottom it read 'UNIVERSE 01'. I furrowed my brows; Universe 01? What does that mean? Usually it says the name of the universe not the number. I shook my head as walked over to the door, I don't think the Olympic in that timeline knows she's been infected; but by what exactly?

I sighed, walking out the door and locking it before I left. Whatever that thing is that's on my ship in that universe, in that timeline. Needs to be investigated. Immediately.

~

I woke up in a cold sweat, panting from a nightmare again. While Titanic's sinking has now been debunked, I'm now plagued with much newer ones. Ones that are more gruesome and terrifying. I feel powerless against these nightmares; usually Titanic helps me with them but these are too horrific for her too see.

I looked out the window, the moonlight shining through the curtains. I sighed and got up, about to walk to the door when I suddenly collapsed, my energy drained almost to the max. I looked over at Titanic to see her staring at me from her bed; I looked away as I tried to get up again. But failed miserably, my eyes getting a little heavier with each passing second. I felt myself be picked up off the floor before being violently shaken by my sister.

'Are you insane!?' My head rang with Titanic's voice in it. I glared at her sleepily 'why are you still up?' 'I heard you wake up from a nightmare.' I winced at the thought of the nightmare. 'I'm fine…' I thought looking away; Titanic grabbed my face and made me look her dead in the eyes 'no. You're not.' Her ice blue eyes more piercing than usual; I sighed as she let my face go. I looked over at Britannic, who's passed out, deep in slumber before sighing and motioning Titanic to follow me.

"Why are we going back to the room? Also what have you been dreaming about? Why aren't you telling me anything right now—" "shhh." I covered Titanic's mouth as I heard footsteps pass by; I let out a sigh of relief as I let go of my sister. "Why are you so on edge? You own that room and only you and I can access it, why are you acting like it's illegal to go there?" I grabbed Titanic's hand as we quickly went in the room, the blue glow and slight hum of the many screens floating above filled the sparsely decorated room.

I sat at my desk, going through each and every single universe and timeline to make sure everything was alright. Before turning my attention to the glowing red screen floating a little off the side, away from all the blue.

I looked through the timeline of the universe; nothing seems to be adding up. Titanic watched as the timeline played out, growing more and more confused with every passing memory being played out.

"W-why's this d…different…?" Titanic asked, her voice giving away how scared she was. "I don't know… but something's not right with this universe." She nodded in agreement, leaning against my chair as we watched Britannic exploding. She winced, watching our sister take mere seconds to go under. "T-this is way too different… normally all the timelines are the same as the original, but this… I'm alive and you're alive. But Britannic… oh, our sister…" I nodded as sighed in disbelief. "I need to investigate this further." A chuckle escaped Titanic, a sound so sickly sweet and melodious "so what? You're gonna go to that timeline alone or something?" I bit my lip, I thought of it; but in doing so it means that I'm leaving my sisters behind. Not to mention my own girlfriend would be worried as fuck. "In a universe like this it'd be best for just one person to go—" "you're insane if you think I'm letting you leave us behind!" I kept quiet, I know she knows I've been thinking about it. "Look, it's just that it looks too dangerous for all of us to go there." "And you think I don't know that? I've been following you throughout your whole life. Your whole career. Watching you, wishing we'd see eachother again. And we did, we finally did! But now you're just gonna throw all that away just because of some timeline that's fucked up!?" Tears streamed down Titanic's face as she sniffled, as much as I hate to admit. My sister was right. We'd been waiting for too long to see eachother; but this timeline is off. It feels dangerous.

"This timeline feels like it has a parasite, and I want to investigate what it does…" I said as I wiped my sister's tears away. "Like Host and Parasite?" I nodded "almost, but this feels different… it feels dangerous…" Titanic shivered, feeling a little bit frightened by what that could mean. "You mean this parasite is different from Parasite…?" I nodded, as we both stared at the screen, watching a flesh eating blob consume someone.

"Only thing we can do is just watch for now…"

-

Well this took a while—

[valkyries-things]

VIOLET JESSOP // STEWARDESS

“She was an Argentine woman of Irish heritage who worked as an ocean liner stewardess and nurse in the early 20th century. She is most well known for having survived the sinking of both the RMS Titanic in 1912 and her sister ship the HMHS Britannic in 1916, as well as having been onboard the eldest of the three sister ships, the RMS Olympic, when it collided with the British warship HMS Hawke in 1911.”

[ltwilliammowett]

How the USS Constitution got her nickname

The first major naval battle of the War of 1812 was between the USS Constitution, 54 guns, commanded by Captain Isaac Hull, and the HMS British Guerriere,44 guns, commanded by Captain James Richard Dacres. The two ships were classed as frigates and were similarly armed. The event took place on 19 August 1812. Now the two knew each other from an event that had taken place a few weeks earlier. The Guerriere was one of the ships of a British squadron that Hull and his crew had overtaken a few weeks earlier, leading to a race from which Constitution successfully escaped.

USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere, by Patrick O’Brien (x)

But now the two were alone and the Guerriere came within a mile of the Constitution, hoisted her flag and fired a broadside, but the cannonballs missed their target.

The crew asked Hull for permission to return fire, but he refused, not wanting to waste the first broadside. Soon, however, the Constitution pushed alongside her opponent and Hull gave the order to fire. The battle began. The Constitution's thick hull, made of white oak planks and oak frames, proved resistant to enemy cannonballs. During the battle, an American sailor was heard to exclaim: "Huzza! Her sides are made of iron! Look where the shot came out!"

In a letter written to Secretary of the Navy, Captain Hull (Captain Hull's account appears in: Grant Bruce, Isaac Hull, Captain of Old Ironsides (1947, reprinted in Angle, Paul The American Reader, 1958); Forester, C.S., The Age of Fighting Sail; the Story of the Naval War of 1812)  describes what happened as the Constitution continued to close with its enemy:

As we bore up, she hoisted an English Ensign at the mizzen gaff, another in the mizzen shrouds, and a Jack at the fore, and mizzen top gallant mast heads. At 5 minutes past 5 p.m. as we were running down on her weather quarter, she fired a broadside but without effect the shot all falling short. She then wore and gave us a broadside from her port guns, two of which struck us but without doing any injury.

At this time finding we were within gunshot...The enemy continued wearing, and maneuvering for about 1/2 of an hour, to get the wind of us. At length finding that she could not, she bore up to bring the wind on the quarter and run under her topsails, and jib. Finding that we came up very slow, and were receiving her shot without being able to return them with effect, I ordered the main top gallant sail set, to run up alongside of her.

At 5 minutes past 6 p.m. being alongside, and within less than pistol shot, we commenced a very heavy fire from all our guns, loaded with round, and grape, which was done with great execution, so much so that in less than fifteen minutes from the time, we got alongside, his mizzen mast went by the board, and his main yard in the slings and the hull and sails very much injured, which made it difficult for them to manage her.

USS Constitution vs. HMS Guerriere, by Anton Otto Fischer date unknown (x)

As the ships clashed, boarding parties were formed, and Lieutenant William Sharp Bush, commander of the Constitution's naval command, took the initiative. Sword in hand, he leapt onto the rail and shouted to Hull, "Shall I board her?" No sooner had he uttered the words than a musket ball struck him in the cheek, killing him instantly. Seeing Bush fall, Lieutenant Charles Morris jumped in his place, but he too was badly wounded by a bullet to the abdomen. On board the Guerriere, Captain Dacres was seriously wounded when an American musket ball hit him in the back. Before either side could regroup, the two ships were torn apart. The badly damaged Guerriere was forced to surrender.

I ordered a boat hoisted out and sent Lieutenant Reed on board as to see whether she had surrendered or not, and if she had to see what assistance she wanted, as I believed she was sinking.

Lieutenant Reed returned in about twenty minutes, and brought with him James Richard Dacres Esq. Commander of his Britannic Majesty's Frigate the Guerriere, which ship had surrendered to the United States Frigate Constitution.

Frégate Américaine La Constitution Prenant à L'abordage La Frégate Anglaise La Guerriere, by Valnest after Stradonwort; c.1814 (x)

Throughout the night the Americans tended to the wounded and dead and transferred the British prisoners of war and their belongings to the Constitution. By morning it was clear that the Guerriere was beyond saving, and Hull made the difficult decision to sink the ship by detonating the gunpowder in the magazines. The Constitution sailed with the prisoners to Boston, where she arrived on 30 August. Through this battle and the exclamation that her hull is made of iron. She was given the nickname Old Ironsides. 

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

not really enjoying tumblrs trend of comparing Thomas Andrews to Stockton Rush 😒Could you share how the two differ despite the fact they died by their own creations?

ive been trying to figure out how to tackle this ask for a few days now because theres so much to disentangle, but disentangle i will.

see, this comparison relies on common misinformation and misconceptions about titanic. its a ship thats been romanticised and mythologised for decades, and every portrayal of it from william randolph hearts yellow newspaper coverage to robin gardiners conspiracy theory to jim camerons film.

what im gonna list to disentangle this whole thing is by no means an exhaustive list of titanic misconceptions, only those relevant to this topic

-titanic was a cruise ship - titanic was an ocean liner not a cruise ship (ive detailed the differences in a different ask here)

-titanic was a brand new unique ship never seen before - not true, ocean liners had existed for decades. theres debate about which was the first, but many agree that its the ss great western which launched in 1843. titanic wasnt even the first launched in her class; that honour goes to the rms olympic.

-it was built with substandard materials and cut corners - this is one of those where theres potentially some truth, but its been misrepresented. theres some evidence that the rivets werent the best made, but the board of trade cleared the ship and she was built with the same materials and basically the same design as her sister ship, rms olympic which sailed for 24 years under the nickname "old reliable" and literally rammed a u-boat during ww1 when she was requisitioned as a troop ship. ultimately, the builders were not blamed in the wreck inquiry and the materials used were not substandard.

-it was built as said above due to the choices of j bruce ismay - yeah so this one obviously ties into the above. theres a lot of unreliable sources who seem to believe ismay oversaw the entire design and every cut corner was due to money. this simply isnt true and isnt how this sort of thing worked. white star had a contract with harland and wolff wherein they would build the ship agreed upon and when it was finished, it would be presented to white star and undergo sea trials, and during that time, white star could reject the ship if they considered it substandard. this is what happened to the ss city of rome. unles. the design itself was to be changed a la britannic after titanic sank (improving safety measures), white star could not interfere. ismay could not force them to use different materials.

-it was all ismays fault - okay, i could go on about this for a long time, but this ask isnt about ismay. the gist of it is that history has blamed ismay due to the influence of william randolph hearst (yeah, the guy from newsies and supported hitler) who hated ismay and blamed him entirely. actual evidence shows ismay helped a lot of people during the sinking itself.

-titanic was badly designed - ive kinda gone over this a little already, but again, titanic was not badly built. she was practically identical to olympic which was a fantastic ship. in the design, no risks were taken. most of the designs were enlarged versions of parts of previous successful ships. she was considered the safest ship on the sea. four of her water-tight compartments could be breached without her sinking which was a big fucking deal.

-thomas andrews was the sole designer - there was actually a team of designers that included andrews. he didnt even draw up the original plans; that was alexander carlisle.

-titanic sinking was a unique situation - yeah nah, boats sank a lot around that time. literally two years after, there was a similar disaster with the rms empress of ireland which goes entirely forgotten nowadays. in the same decade, you also had the sinking of lusitania in 1915, principe de asturias in 1916, volturno in 1913 and even thrown in princess sophia in 1918.

-the sinking was actually caused by a coal bunker fire - this is simply horseshit and im sure im gonna end up having to explain and debunk that one too

-the crew were taking unnecessary risks to win the blue riband - this myth is widespread because of the movie, but titanic was not trying to beat the record of the fastest ship from southampton to new york (thats what the blue riband) is; she physically couldnt. it was held by mauretania at that point with a record of 26.06 knots/48.26 km/hr. titanics top speed was 23 knots. white star as a line never focussed on speed and ismay never told the captain to speed up.

-she was "unsinkable" - this is a little harder to disentangle. the claim itself was "practically unsinkable", but the context of that was to do with how safe titanic was as mentioned above. also, the idea of an unsinkable ship was not quite to white star or harland and wolff; most of the shipping industry believed it.

-almost everything youve heard about the life boats - okay so here you need to throw out your preconceptions of what a life boat is because our modern conception does not match that from the early 1900s. to not get into all the details of life boat philosophy at the time (if you do wanna know, just send me an ask lmao), the main purpose of life boats at this time was ferrying passengers to a rescue ship. that was it. this attitude was informed by both the wrecks of the ss valencia and ss clallam, as well as the miraculous rescue of the rms republic. titanic did not have enough life boats for everyone because it was never expected for the passengers to be alone in the life boats for hours; it was not a design flaw, it was a feature.

-that fucking stupid ship swap myth and the idea that the crew were trying to sink the ship - i dont even want to get into why this is bullshit, plus ive also debunked it in another ask

i highlight all of the above to emphasise the fact that titanic was not a badly built ship. she was designed well, built well and sailed well. many experts agree that the way that she hit the iceberg was the only way she could have sank.

this is not the case with titan and stockton rush. in a previous post, ive gone over the design of the titan, the flaws in it and what experts in the field believe, so im not gonna go over it again, but rest assured, the titan imploded because of rush's actions and decisions.

titanic did not sink because of thomas andrews. its due to his design that anyone survived the titanic because she stayed afloat for over two hours which allowed the crew to launch all the life boats. thomas andrews himself helped many survivors during the sinking and evacuation.

he also was not a rich man using a gravesite as tourism; nepotism was certainly involved in his career but he spent ten years working his way up in the company, helping with the design of countless ships. he was mostly regarded as a good man who worked hard and recognised the hard work of others.

its honestly ludicrous to compare them because the disasters themselves are simply not comparable. the titanic did not sink because of the folly of rich men cutting corners; titan did.

thomas andrews, for any faults he had, knew what he was doing and built a good ship that was unlucky. almost every other ship he helped design didnt sink or if they did, most of them were due to ww1.

its just such a ridiculous comparison, and thats all it is. without the misconceptions and misinformation about titanic, the comparison simply falls apart. its built on a foundation that fundamentally misunderstands the titanic disaster.

if you want to talk about shipwrecks caused by stupid decisions made by rich men, go look up the last incarnation of hms captain or the gunilda or the fucking vasa if you want, you can literally go see that one. but dont besmirch the memory of a guy who, by all acounts, died a hero helping other survive.

[grimm-the-tiger]

Dumb shipwreck facts because I need to hyperfixate for a moment: 

The only Olympic-class (Britannic, Titanic, and Olympic) ship that was actually unsinkable was the Olympic. Olympic took full advantage of this and became the only merchant vessel in WWI on record to sink an enemy vessel (it didn’t discriminate, either; Olympic actually sank two vessels during its service, one of which was a friendly lightship during peacetime). 

It took 150 years to discover what happened to the infamous Lost Franklin Expedition because the English were too racist to ask the natives. The Canadians, meanwhile, found the wreck of one of their ships, HMS Terror, in a fraction of the time by asking an Inuit hunter named Sammy Kogvik for help. 

There are at least two wrecks in Lake Erie that we may never find because the lakebed quite literally swallowed them. 

On a related note, Lake Erie might have the highest concentration of shipwrecks of any body of water in the world. 

Lake Superior is actually the least lethal Great Lake, despite its reputation, but over half of its wrecks are located around Whitefish Point, most notably the Edmund Fitzgerald. 

The Bermuda Triangle doesn’t actually have a very high disappearance or wreck rate. It’s considered weird because the gulf stream carries any wrecks and debris out of the search area, making it that much harder to find any remains. 

There’s a disturbing tendency for ships, particularly freighters, to not only split in half while they sink, but for the back half (the stern) to keep going, sometimes for miles. The most notable case of this would be the SS Pendleton, an oil freighter that wrecked off the coast of Massachusetts; the rescue of the crew on its stern is considered to be one of the most daring Coast Guard rescues ever pulled off. 

Most ships built before 1950 were made with subprime or low-grade metal, which is believed to be part of the reason why they split in half so often. This metal turned brittle in colder water; guess where most of these wrecks were. Some wrecks believed to have fallen victim to this include the Titanic, the aforementioned Pendleton, the Carl D. Bradley, and the Daniel J. Morrell. 

An Arctic cruise ship took on a Venezuelan patrol boat and won. Said patrol boat was trying to force the cruise ship, the Resolute, to come ashore. Ships create depressions in the water (you most often see this in the “wake”) called displacement, and it’s generally believed the patrol boat underestimated the strength of the Resolute’s displacement and was sucked into its path, ending up crushed by Resolute’s icebreaker-grade hull. 

While we can be reasonably certain what sank the Marquette & Bessemer No. 2 (it was a train ferry with an open back and had previously had a near-accident when a wave slammed directly into the opening, almost flooding it), what we don’t know is what happened before and after. One of its lifeboats was found with nine bodies and the clothing of a tenth. The ship’s steward was found armed with two knives and a meat cleaver, and the captain’s body was found some time later with slash wounds. It’s agreed that the steward killed him, but why remains a mystery. 

Moby Dick was based on the sinking of the Essex, a whaling ship that was rammed and sunk by its own prey. The crew resorted to cannibalism to survive; ironically, they would’ve been rescued sooner had they not avoided a nearby island chain for fear of cannibal tribes. 

Don’t read about the sinking of the Estonia. Just...don’t. It’s not pleasant. For some hint of how awful it was, despite being reasonably close to the surface no one was ever able to get all the bodies out because of the sheer number of them. 

On a much lighter note, the Swedish Navy in the 1700s poured thousands of kroner into building a mighty flagship for their navy, the Vasa...only for the Vasa to sink less than 300 yards into its maiden voyage. Turns out they gave it too many guns, making it too top-heavy, and it capsized. 

The Canadian freighter Bannockburn disappeared in a storm in 1902. Almost all of its crew were in their late teens and early 20s; the youngest was 16. Companies would hire younger, less experienced men to work aboard their ships because they were cheaper. The Bannockburn has never been found. 

Speaking of Lake Superior shipwrecks, there’s a saying that “Lake Superior never gives up her dead”. It’s not wrong; the temperatures at the bottom are cold enough to halt the decaying process, which prevents the bodies from rising to the surface. The most notable instance of this is Old Whitey, the nickname for a body found in the engine room of the Kamloops who has never been identified. This is also the reason no one is allowed to dive to the Edmund Fitzgerald; the crew’s bodies are still aboard the wreck, and it’s considered disrespectful at best to dive to a place that for all intents and purposes is a graveyard. 

It took over 100 years and numerous deaths from scurvy for anyone to realize that eating raw meat can prevent it. They discovered this on a Belgian arctic expedition where one of the crewmen, drawing on past experience, somehow managed to convince the rest of the crew to eat raw penguin, rapidly decreasing the number and severity of scurvy cases onboard. 

To end this on a lighter note, the saying “Batten down the hatches” is an actual maritime phrase; hatches are openings in the ship’s deck used to bring cargo inside and, on older ships, allow passengers and crew on deck. Hatches let enormous amounts of water into the ship in bad weather, and are often “battened down” (covered up) to prevent water from getting in. It will probably not surprise you to learn that not battening down the hatches or not doing it properly has caused its fair share of wrecks; notably, it’s believed that the Cyprus, an ore carrier that was said to be leaving a red trail in its wake the day before it capsized, was leaving said trail because its hatches were improperly sealed; water was getting into the hold, mixing with the cargo of iron ore, and then being pumped out, hence the red wake. 

[timeguardians]

what are some real people that you'd rp if given a chance?

Violet Jessop (who survived the sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the Britannic, and was onboard the Olympic when it rammed into the HMS Hawke). So she survived 3 ship wrecks in six years.

Madaleine Astor (Titanic survivor)

Cora Cartmell (Titanic young Steerage girl)

((I'll work on some non-Titanic ones once I can focus better. Likely after my trip out of state))