When I was a kid, I dreamed of finding and raising the Titanic. I could picture what it would look like and then take her to New York. Back then, many people thought she went down in one piece. Then, in 1980, they made a movie called To Raise The Titanic. Although it wasn’t a good movie, it was fun seeing their version of the raised ship. It actually matched my naive vision. I wanted so badly to walk on its deck. I’m keeping this post a little lighter at first anyway. Along with Walter Lord’s book, I remember hearing about crazy plans to raise her. Then, we will get into something more serious.
Before it was finally found in 1985, there were many ideas about how to raise her, many of them based on guesses about where the ship was and what condition it might be in. Since nobody had seen the wreck, engineers and dreamers came up with plans that ranged from serious engineering proposals to ideas that sounded like science fiction. Because again, most people thought the ship was in one piece.
One early idea was to attach giant electromagnets to the hull and lift the ship with cables from salvage ships above. Another proposal involved filling the Titanic with ping-pong balls or petroleum jelly to create buoyancy. In the 1960s and 1970s, some suggested pumping liquid nitrogen (it would take only 500,000 tons) into the wreck to freeze the water inside and out and make the ship buoyant enough to rise. Ironically, encasing it in an iceberg! You can’t make this stuff up. Others thought about attaching enormous flotation tanks or inflatable balloons to the hull. There was also an idea to use millions of hollow glass spheres that would sink down and displace water around the ship, helping lift it from the bottom. But you had to find it first!
Even back right after she sank, there were plans to get the family’s possessions off the ship. Little did they know where it was, and nothing at that time could have got even near it. The maximum they could dive in 1912 would have been 90 to 100 meters (300–330 feet). Much shorter than the 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) it would take.
Personal Stories
Most of the male passengers who survived the Titanic had to live with the stigma of surviving the wreck. That was because people automatically thought they took a child’s or a woman’s place. The truth is, there weren’t many at all like that. People did not want to get into a lifeboat at all at first. They wanted the warmth and the lit Titanic. They were sending out boats that were not completely full. They soon let some male crew members row, and if there were no women or children around, they would let a man get in. Boys over 13 years old were considered men. The crew was not immune to this stigma either. Although no one would want to put inexperienced men, women, and children in a lifeboat in the Atlantic without an experienced hand.
The crew was ridiculed by passengers when they woke them up and tried to get them on a lifeboat. The ship was never advertised as “unsinkable,” but many of the passengers believed that. The press used phrases like “practically unsinkable“. The company stated that the ships were “designed to be unsinkable as far as it is possible to do so,” and many did think it was unsinkable.
Frederick Fleet was one of the lookouts aboard the RMS Titanic and is remembered as the crewman who first spotted the iceberg that led to the sinking. Stationed in the crow’s nest with fellow lookout Reginald Lee, Fleet saw the dark shape directly ahead and rang the warning bell three times before telephoning the bridge with the famous message, “Iceberg, right ahead!” Although the officers reacted quickly by attempting to turn the ship, there was not enough time to avoid impact. Fleet survived the sinking by escaping in Lifeboat 6, but he later testified during official inquiries about the events of that night, including the absence of binoculars in the crow’s nest. Fleet struggled financially and emotionally and died by suicide in 1965 after his wife died, and he was evicted from his home at age 77 by his wife’s brother. He carried the weight of that night for decades.
Bruce Ismay was painted as the villain at the time, but not as much now. He was the chairman of the White Star Line and traveled aboard during its maiden voyage. As one of the most senior company officials connected to the ship, Ismay became controversial after surviving the sinking while many passengers and crew died. During the evacuation, he helped load lifeboats and eventually entered a collapsible boat shortly before the ship made its final plunge. After being rescued by the RMS Carpathia, Ismay faced harsh criticism in newspapers and public opinion, with many accusing him of saving himself while others stayed behind. Official inquiries found no evidence that he had disguised himself or taken a place from a woman or child, but his reputation never fully recovered. He resigned as chairman of the White Star Line and president of the International Mercantile Marine (IMM) in 1913.
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
One thought on “RMS Titanic – Schemes to Raise the Titanic…and personal stories”