100 years ago, the New York Giants, the defending National League champs, were getting ready for the start of the season. On April 11, Opening Day, they beat the Dodgers 18 to 3. Three games later, McGraw’s men started a nine-game winning streak.
On April 15, everything took a backseat. For the next few days and beyond, all eyes were on the headlines, such as this one from the New York Times:
Biggest Liner Plunges to the Bottom at 2:20 a.m.
We are, of course, talking about the SS Titanic. On her maiden voyage from England to New York City, she hit an iceberg off the coast of Greenland. Almost 1,500 souls were lost. The disaster was one of the worse at the time, and is without a doubt, the most famous maritime disaster of all time.
Events and exhibits are taking place, as well as books. What looks like one of the best, if not the best, in terms of understanding exactly what happened, is “Report into the Loss of the SS Titanic: A Centennial Reappraisal.”
Samuel Halpern, a Titanic expert, and one of contributors to the book, spoke on the book yesterday at National Archives. Some of his presentation got bogged down in technical detail, but plain facts were also discussed.
Halpern said the book took what the British and American investigations found, and the used modern technology to determine what happened. He said the group of writers is particularly proud of the chapter which gives a timeline of events. No previous book listed footnotes for each reference.
Turnout was the most I have seen at the McGowan Theater, maybe 100. C-SPAN recorded.
The book packs in a lot of info, including all the names on board, and those who perished. Various charts break down information, such as passengers lost/survived by class and gender. Of the 891 crew members, 679 went to a watery grave. The total number of those who died, 1,496, and were resecued, 712, is different from some other sources.
National Archives has an exhibit on the Titanic, as well as Nat Geo downtown.
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