Sky HISTORY’s Series 2 of their successful Secrets of the Lost Liners is coming soon! The first episode features Titanic and will be broadcast on 29 April 2024. I contributed to some episodes in Series 1, which were broadcast in 2022, and I was pleased to contribute to Series 2 as well.
#SecretsOfTheLostLiners @HISTORYUK
The On A Sea of Glass and Part-Time Explorer 112th Anniversary Titanic Livestream, which was broadcast on Thomas Lynskey’s Part-Time Explorer channel on YouTube, is available to replay.
As I reflected earlier this week:
It was incredible to be part of the On a Sea of Glass livestream for the 112th anniversary of Titanic’s loss, hosted by Thomas Lynskey with special guests Alex Moeller and Levi Rourke; On A Sea of Glass co-authors and historians Tad Fitch, J. Kent Layton, Bill Wormstedt; and guest historians George Behe, Ken Marschall and Don Lynch.I’ve learned so much from these guys and, as I think I mentioned during the event, Ken Marschall’s paintings illustrated the children’s book Exploring the Titanic, which was my first book about the subject as a young child. If I had been told back then that I’d have the honour of being part of this event, all these years later, I wouldn’t have believed it!…Not forgetting the many other excellent events happening this last week, including Bruce Beveridge and Steve Hall discussing the countdown to collision and Titanic: Honor & Glory’s own livestream with stunning animations.As we talked through the real time animation of the sinking, it struck me how fast time was going and my perception of it. It was ‘midnight’ before we knew it and I think many of us felt the pressure of time, simply trying to get in points of historical commentary. The sinking was relatively long compared to Britannic (1916), Lusitania (1915) or Express of Ireland (1914), but that was not how it seemed – and we had the advantage of knowing how much time was left. Those aboard Titanic had no such advantage and their circumstances were not editorial concerns for a programme, but a matter of life or death.I did not sleep that night. In the morning, I emerged from the hotel to daylight and looked over the slipways where Olympic, Titanic and Britannic were built. Later, we saw a rainbow.
I am honoured to have been invited to participate in the On A Sea of Glass and Part-Time Explorer 112th Anniversary Titanic Livestream, which will be broadcast on Thomas Lynskey’s Part-Time Explorer channel on YouTube. It starts at 9.30 p.m. Eastern Time (United States) on Sunday 14 April 2024 / 2.30 a.m. (United Kingdom) on Monday 15 April 2024. The livestream will also be recorded and available to replay afterwards.
Hosted by Thomas Lynskey, it includes special guests Alex Moeller and Levi Rourke; historians and On A Sea of Glass co-authors Tad Fitch, J. Kent Layton and Bill Wormstedt; and guest historians George Behe, Don Lynch, Ken Marschall and I.
A new article, ‘Big Ships and Small Boats’ has been uploaded.
In the years leading up to the Titanic disaster, ships were getting significantly larger. A lot of comment at the time and up to the present day has focused on the increasing size of ships in relation to the lifeboats they needed to carry under the law. However, this overlooks the fact that the size of a ship was not necessarily a reliable indicator of how many passengers and crew she could carry. This article provides a snapshot comparison between Olympic and Carpathia in April 1912 and some comparative British government data looking at the largest foreign-going passenger steamers, their passenger and crew capacity and lifeboat provision.
It was first published in the Titanic International Society’s Voyage September 2022: Pages 3-4.
It was great to be able to present my lecture about Thomas Andrews and the observations he made during Olympic‘s maiden voyage in June 1911. I spoke at PRONI, in a lecture jointly supported by PRONI and the Belfast Titanic Society:
In June 1911, Thomas Andrews was onboard Olympic during her maiden voyage to observe how she performed under normal operating conditions at sea; to monitor her progress; and make all sorts of notes. His comments were wide ranging and went beyond matters of shipbuilding in a number of cases. These included recommendations for changing particular operating procedures or improving the working practices of the ship’s crew; improving aspects of the ship’s passenger accommodation and increasing her earning power, such as by adding additional staterooms; or in making economies (he saw no need to provide both linoleum tiles and carpeting in the captain’s sitting room). He made a particular recommendation to try and help keep third class female passengers safe from unwanted attention. Andrews’ notes included many aspects where Titanic‘s design was improved compared to Olympic‘s. They show a remarkable attention to detail, demonstrating the concerns of a knowledgeable professional who was intent on improving her design in even the slightest way.
My Titanic Talkline podcast (Season 1, Episode 17) is available online: ‘Mark Chirnside comes aboard this week for a great chat about the Titanic and her sister ships, Olympic and Britannic, as well as the Harland and Wolff shipyards!’ Thanks to Alexia Thirumalai for inviting me and hosting.
A new article, ‘”The Old Rules…Are Entirely Obsolete”: British Lifeboat Regulation in the 1880s’, explores lifeboat regulations in the 1880s. They were comparatively worse than the rules in force when Titanic foundered in 1912, but a senior official argued ‘you can make ships perfectly safe by [watertight] subdivision’.