Mark Chirnside’s Reception Room has been overhauled to improve the user experience on mobile devices, make it easier to order books and generally refresh it for the 2020s. All credit for the work goes to TMB Studios!
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‘Olympic & Aquitania: Eyeing up the Competition – Cunard’s “White Star Liner”‘
‘Olympic & Aquitania: Eyeing Up the Competition – Cunard’s “White Star Liner” ’
While Olympic was under construction, White Star’s rival Cunard was not idle. They were planning their answer to the competition in the form of their new Aquitania. Unlike Lusitania and Mauretania, which were financed with state support, Cunard had to finance Aquitania on a commercial basis and opted for comfort and luxury rather than speed. That led them to design a ship whose key particulars were very close to Olympic in size and speed. Maritime historian John Maxtone-Graham called her Cunard’s ‘White Star Liner’.
Cunard’s directors and engineering staff found out what they could about Olympic while she was being built and then their naval architect Leonard Peskett sailed on her in August 1911. He noted some features worth considering as Aquitania’s design was finalised, including bringing elements of her design more into line with Olympic. My September 2022 presentation at PRONI covers the key details and provides ‘a brilliant insight’.
Above: Aquitania‘s first class grill room, with its Jacobean decor, had significant visual similarities with Olympic‘s first class dining saloon. During the design phase in July 1913, Cunard actually opted for some slight changes to try and differentiate it. (Author’s collection)
‘Titanic at 110: Learning, Unlearning & Relearning History’
‘Titanic at 110: Learning, Unlearning & Relearning History’
My presentation in April 2022 at PRONI discussed some key Titanic topics.
PRONI in partnership with the Belfast Titanic Society welcome Mark Chirnside to give a talk to mark the 110th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic.
Titanic is one of the most famous ships in history and people might justifiably ask whether there is anything new to learn. However, 110 years after her loss many commonly-cited facts about the ship are either based on questionable evidence or are demonstrably untrue. Statements are often repeated from one modern-day source to another without reference to contemporary documentation from 1912.
Mark Chirnside takes a look at some of the testimonies of survivors from the bridge, engine and boiler rooms in a discussion about what happened before the collision; explores an example of documentation being mischaracterised in modern-day media; and discusses recently unearthed evidence about Titanic’s propeller configuration.
‘Olympic & Titanic: “A Very Remote Contingency” – Lifeboats for All’
‘‘Olympic & Titanic: “A Very Remote Contingency” – Lifeboats for All’
My presentation in September 2021 at PRONI discussed the topic of lifeboats. I set the scene by covering the key points about lifeboat provision during the decades preceding the Titanic disaster; the regulations in 1912 and how they had evolved; and how Harland & Wolff and the White Star Line exceeded the legal requirements for lifeboat capacity.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence that Harland & Wolff recommended to the White Star Line that more lifeboats should be fitted. What they did do is provide a new Welin davit design which would enable them to carry more lifeboats in the future, if the regulations changed. They also provided four additional semi collapsible boats for each ship. Comparing the number of lifeboats shown on the ‘Design “D”‘ concept which the White Star Line approved in July 1908 with Titanic as completed in April 1912, the number of lifeboats increased from 16 to 20.
I closed the presentation by covering some examples of inaccurate claims about Titanic‘s lifeboats in the mass media. One was a completely inaccurate characterisation of a Harland & Wolff drawing office notebook, which a television programme claimed was evidence that Harland & Wolff had intended originally for Titanic to be fitted with enough lifeboats for everyone (in fact, it was a document recording changes to Olympic‘s lifeboat configuration in the 1912-13 refit). Another was a newspaper article mischaracterising notes which were authored by Board of Trade surveyor Captain Maurice Harvey Clarke. They were written after the disaster, not before.
Mark explores the issue of lifeboat regulation over the decades preceding the Titanic disaster and discusses the context immediately prior to 1912. He discusses the question of lifeboat provision for these new White Star giants and dispels a few longstanding myths and false claims made about Titanic’s lifeboats.
Titanic: Solving the Mysteries
Titanic: Solving the Mysteries
In January 2017, British television aired a programme entitled Titanic: The New Evidence, which later aired in America under the same title. It sparked a media frenzy around the world. During the programme, it was postulated that new photographic evidence had recently come to light proving that Titanic suffered severe hull damage from a coal bunker fire, and that the damage could be seen from outside the ship on the day she left for her trials, 2 April…
Following the subsequent media storm, when many demonstrably untrue statements were reported as if they were fact, I joined a team of researchers and historians in contributing to a collaborative research paper, which we published online as: ‘Titanic: Fire and Ice (Or What You Will)’ (see press release). Later, in November 2019, the research paper formed part of a monograph published in the book Titanic: Solving the Mysteries.
Our research paper is very detailed and with citations to the sources used. However, the below headline summary highlights our conclusions against each of the key claims (given in bold below)
The smudge [alleged mark of fire damage on Titanic’s bow] and its location. The inaccurate supposition that the smudge is evidence of damage to the Titanic’s hull led to the start of an investigation based on bad data. Other photographs do not show any kind of damage. While it is stated in the show that the coal bunker fire was ‘directly behind’ the smudge, its actual location was over fifty feet away from it. There is no damage visible near the actual location of the coal bunker fire.
The fire. One press account that has known errors is used in the programme to indicate that the fire was never extinguished. This disagrees with testimony given at the inquiries, which state the fire was out by Saturday, April 13 – the day before the iceberg was hit.
Financial pressures and substandard ships. This claim does not match the historical record. Examina-tion of letters to and from Harland & Wolff officials and the Board of Trade representatives referred to in the programme show they are not evidence of substitution of lower-quality steel and cutting corners.
Withholding information, and the decision to hold to the schedule. The situation was not unusual, considering that coal bunker fires were not entirely unheard of on coal-powered ships. Eyewitness testimony indicates that while a bunker fire was the exception rather than the rule, it was handled in line with typical procedures of the day. Since the fire was not regarded as extremely serious, telling passengers would only have made them nervous. If the fire was serious, there would have been clear evidence available to all aboard.
Covering up the fire at the British Inquiry. There is no evidence of a coverup at the British Inquiry. Some of the ‘facts’ stated in this portion are inaccurate. Testimony read during the programme were taken out of context, and do not represent the full extent of the inquiry’s questioning of various eye-witnesses on the matter over the course of multiple days.
The fire began to spread – a deteriorating situation. This is inaccurate. Multiple first-hand accounts by survivors said that it was extinguished on Saturday, and had cooled enough so that the bunker could be entered, and black oil rubbed on the ‘dinged’ bulkhead.
Titanic was short of coal. Inaccurate. Titanic had a reserve steaming time of up to 1.8 days at 21 knots, and even more at slower speeds.
Thomas Andrews believed the ship would survive. Inaccurate. Thomas Andrews told Captain Smith that Titanic was doomed 45 minutes before the rush of water Barrett saw, which the programme said was due to the collapse of the fire-damaged bulkhead.
The fire played one final, deadly role in the disaster: the fire-damaged bulkhead gave way, causing the ship to sink, and the enormous loss of life. Since the ship was doomed from the moment of the collision, whether or not the bulkhead collapsed was more or less immaterial to the timing of the disaster. Lives were not lost because it allegedly collapsed early.
There was a culture of coverup at the White Star Line, and the whole matter was buried. The claims made in the show on this point have nothing to do with reality. ‘YAMSI’ and other code words were routinely used to route traffic to the correct individuals or departments at White Star Line offices.When hard evidence is factored in, there is only one viable conclusion: the coal bunker fire aboard Titanic was not a primary factor in her contact with the iceberg, or in causing her to sink after the she struck the ice. It played no part in the significant loss of life.
Above: On 3 January 2017, I participated in a discussion of the ‘coal fire’ and various other claims on an episode of Talkback, hosted by William Crawley on BBC Radio Ulster. The episode is not currently online but may be available through the BBC archives.
Oceanic: White Star’s ‘Ship of the Century’
The ‘Big Four’ of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic
The ‘Big Four’ of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic
RMS Olympic: Titanic’s Sister
The revised and expanded edition of RMS Olympic: Titanic’s Sister is released by the History Press in the next few days. Thoroughly improved and expanded from the original edition that was published in 2004, the new volume has been expanded from 320 to 352 pages, with a revised colour section. Despite all this additional material, the new edition is being sold for the same price as the original was eleven years ago!