Episode 505: Titanic: Icebergs, Hubris, and Death
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On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we travel back in time and look at the short life of the doomed ship, The RMS Titanic. The Titanic famously sank on April 15, 1912 and had a massive cultural impact, just like the Challenger or 9/11 did in more recent times. Of the 2240 people on board, only 706 survived, in spite of having three hours from the time of the iceberg collision to the total sinking of the vessel. The chaos and poor management during the crisis lead to a great many deaths, and the entire event lead to both Oscar winning films and tons of pretty cool conspiracy theories.
The Titanic was built by the White Star Line, which was in a trade battle with the Cunard line. These two companies were the main passenger lines across the Atlantic, so building bigger, nice, and faster was sort of a corporate cold war at the time. The Cunard line had been winning for years, so the three Olympic class vessels built by White Star were supposed to win this war. The Titanic, obviously, was the first of these to launch.
The ship was heralded for its beauty and size. Even the second class cabins were said to be nicer and bigger than first class cabins on any other ship. Third class, which was where the bulk of the passengers were (and where the bulk of the prophets were made) was also nicer than any other third class. So, the grandeur of the ship along with celebrities and tycoons such as John Jacob Astor IV and Benjamin Guggenheim made this THE ship to be on.
So, packed with staff and passengers, it set out to cross to New York. The launch went smoothly (aside from a small coal fire), but after four days of smooth sailing, they were warned of ice bergs. They didn’t listen. They hit one. People died. The ship sank.
You know the drill, but we’ll go over the time line and try to paint a vivid picture of what it would have been like on the ship or in the water. And it all points to conspiracy theories because, come on, what doesn’t? Why do they say that the ship sank because it secretly said “No Pope” on the side? What is this about a mummy’s curse? Did JP Morgan have the ship sunk to kill his rivals on the creation of the Federal Reserves? Was it actually the sister ship Olympic that sank and not the Titanic at all? Listen, laugh, learn.
Visit Our Sources:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-the-titanic-still-fascinates-us-98137822/
https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/titanic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/titanic/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17665970
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_RMS_Titanic
https://www.history.com/news/titanic-sinking-conspiracy-myths-jp-morgan-olympic
https://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-sinking-conspiracy-theories-2018-4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Titan:_Or,_Futility
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmo_Duff-Gordon
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