| The intrigue started
simple enough. While still in grade school, The Raptor saw
the penultimate move..."A Night To Remember" on late
night TV. Shortly after that, The Raptor picked up the book
of the same title from the Scholastic Book Service. It
should be noted that reading was the principal activity of young
people in the 60's since Cable TV and video games didn't exist at
the time.
Information about the Titanic took a back burner until
1985. In September of that year, Dr. Bob Ballard and his
crew of intrepid explorers charted a group of scientific sea going
vessels and teamed up with French scientists from IFERMER to
locate the sunken liner as in rested two miles below the ocean
surface.
This event shook up every one who had even a mild interest in
the sinking and jump started a new industry of documentaries and
movies as well as fresh books about the disaster.
The Raptor's own take on the disaster revolves around the twits
who piloted the ship into the ice field at full speed assuming
that since the Titanic was "unsinkable" and that the
worst could be avoided. We now know differently and the
compelling stories speak volumes.
There really isn't much more we can learn about this
event. Everyone who was aboard is dead. The hearings
and inquiries were conducted in 1912 when the disaster
occurred. All that's left is the volumes of testimony and
the wreck itself which is slowly disintegrating and will be
nothing but "rust dust" in about 25 to 50 years.
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