Thursday 12 April 2012

RMS Titanic

Morning,

RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on 10th April 1912.

Engineers Memorial in Southampton

Being a born and bred Southampton girl I have seen one of our city's memorials to this grand ship everyday walking to the bus stop after school and although I'd looked it over several times, my youth didn't really help me to appreciate it.  However Southampton has been remembering this event so much over the past months so none of us could have missed the importance that this maritime disaster had on our city.  The city that lost the greater percentage of people was ours with sadly 549 local people going down with the ship.  The last known survivor of the ship died in Southampton in May 2009.

The total capacity of the ship was 2566 and due to a national coal strike in the UK, RMS Titanic set sail with 1317 people on board.  Maybe for once a strike actually did plenty of people a favour?  The strike postponed many people's cruising and it only ended days before the maiden voyage.

The wages of some of the crew on board, in today's equivalents are as follows:  Captain earned £7704 pm compared to a stewardesses earning of £257.  Of the 885 crew members only 23 were female.  The passengers included people from all walks of life and the financier/owner was J P Morgan who cancelled his ticket at the last moment.

RMS Titanic sets sail from Southampton docks 10th April 1912

One hundred years ago tonight this magnificent vessel floundered as she hit a massive iceberg at high speed and sunk resulting in a huge loss of life.

Ive really enjoyed researching this and very much looking forward to going to our new museum called Sea City which has a huge section dedicated totally to the RMS Titanic.  
Long may all of those lost rest in peace. 

Thanks for your visit,
Keryn x

4 comments:

Claire said...

Oh Keryn what a fabulous post in remembrance to this tragic event. I have been watching lots of programmes on TV over the last few weeks and this was such a sad loss of life. Have a fabulous day sweetie. Hugs, Claire x

Annie said...

Such a terrible loss of life. May they all rest in peace.
Hugs,
A x

Clare said...

Here, here Keryn. Thank you for this post honey. May they all rest in peace xxx

Annie said...

Hi Keryn really enjoyed reading this piece. Of all the things I've seen about the Titanic I don't think I've ever noticed before that it could have been so much worse. Thank goodness for the strike! Hope you enjoy your trip to the museum.
Ann xxx