2012: Year of the Titanic

Well folks. It’s 2012–the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic. Anticipation has been building for years and April 15 is fast approaching (day of the two big T’s–taxes and Titanic, of course). A handful of people are reportedly laying down $60,000 to look at the wreck through a porthole on a Russian sub on the hallowed 100th. Russians are not the only ones cashing in on the anniversary buzz.

part of Titanic auction bloc

As the AP reported last week:

The owner of the largest trove of artifacts salvaged from the Titanic is putting the vast collection up for auction as a single lot in 2012, the 100th anniversary of the world’s most famous shipwreck.

More than 5,500 items including fine china, ship fittings and portions of hull that were recovered from the ocean liner have an estimated value of $189 million, according to Premier Exhibitions Inc., parent of RMS Titanic Inc. — the Titanic’s court-approved salvor.

The auction date is April 1 but the results will not be announced until the anniversary. I’ve addressed some of the larger concerns with selling our finite cultural heritage to the highest bidder before (see here) so no need to repeat. Fortunately, the Titanic collection cannot be sold piecemeal because of a legal agreement between the company and the federal government. Even better, material salvaged from the Titanic must, according to convenant, be available “to present and future generations for public display and exhibition, historical review, scientific and scholarly research, and educational purposes.” A reasonable compromise for an “international treasure.”

Rock out with year’s last post

Well folks — last post of the year for me. It’s been a great year. Look out 2012!

To send out 2011 — an epic shipwreck-themed tune brought to my attention by Alan O’Cain (see this earlier post–keep posted for more about his current project). As he describes it:

the greatest piece of rock music ever recorded about shipwrecks is the truly monumental track “Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” by Van der Graaf Generator (the saxophone player Dave Jackson – does a mind-blowing double saxophone rendition of a shipwreck plumb in the middle of the track).

Happy New Year!

Quote of the Day: Marine Salvage

Marine Salvage — A science of vague assumptions based on debatable figures taken from inconclusive experiments and performed with instruments of problematic accuracy by persons of doubtful reliability and questionable mentality

–C. A. Bartholomew, Mud, Muscles, and Miracles: Marine Salvage in the United States Navy

 

Recent Shipwrecks

The reports of shipwrecks inundating my news feed over the past month are a forceful reminder of just how dangerous and unpredictable the maritime world remains in the 21st century. Here are three notable wrecks from the past week. (There were more: see below)

Four days ago, the Voice of Russia reported the wreck of a passenger boat in the Niger Delta. Forty people were on board and at the time of publication only three survivors had been pulled from the water.

The next day the TK Bremen ran ashore in a fierce coastal storm. French authorities have begun cleaning up some of the freighter’s 220 tons of fuel, which is leaking into the Bay of Biscay. No word yet on the salvage effort.

Two days ago, a wooden vessel carrying 250 asylum seekers–many from the Middle East–sank off Java. According to USA Today, rescuers continue to search for more than 200 missing passengers. The image below shows several of the 33 rescued so far. Officials blame the wreck on overloading. Tragically, this is the second shipwreck of a vessel carrying asylum seekers on the coast of Java in as many months. We can only hope these tragedies will compel Indonesia, Australia and nearby  governments to address migrant smuggling operations in the region.

For more about Bremen and other wrecks take a look at  Shipwrecks Log, a “log of maritime accidents around the world.” It’s the place to find out about contemporary shipwrecks–you’ll find a link on the blogroll on the right hand side of this page. 

Shipwreck Poem: ‘The Wreckers’

Here’s another shipwreck-themed poem pulled from the archives [for others see this and this]. Originally published in 1854, The Wreckers, by George S. Burleich, relies on the mid-century trope of the piratical wrecker–one who lured ships ashore, murdered survivors and plundered anything in sight–in a prohibitionist tract that derides the the ills of “liquid fire” and the “ruin and shame” attending “the Drunkard.”

By the 1850s the wrecker had become an established character in an American culture inundated with stories of shipwrecks. (The above depiction of “The Wrecker” appeared in the April 1859 edition of Harper’s Magazine.) Artists, authors and cultural commentators frequently used the wrecker as a metaphor to make a point about everything from the ills of alcohol to the questionable character of duly elected public officials. The Wreckers a fantastic example of the wrecker-metaphor in action.

The Wreckers 

By George S. Burleich

.

Hark to the roar of the surges!

Hark to the wild wind’s howl!

See the black cloud that the hurricane urges,

Bend like a maniac’s scowl!

Full on the sunken ice-ledges

Leaps the devoted barque,

And the loud waves, like a hundred sledges,

Smite to the doomed mark.