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Last Titanic Survivor Dies
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topsy
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
I've always been fascinated by the Titanic. When I was in Halifax, I was taken to the funeral where many of the recovered bodies were buried. It was very moving. The movie is what it is, but I really appreciated Cameron's attention to detail and his inclusion of video shots of the wreckage of the Titanic. He actually timed the movie so that from the time the iceberg hit to the time the ship went down was the same time it actually happened.

I hope this lady can rest in peace and as Stagtasticfantastic said, is with her family now.
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artyfarty
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
When I was a teenage, my aunt had a coffee table book about the Titanic and there was one particularly chilling photo from an underwater camera of a porcelain doll head that had become lodged in other wreckage. I thought about all the kids on board and how this was just some girl's doll and for some reason it just stuck with me for years. I have an odd fascination with the normal stuff of people involved in extraordinary events.
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Rare Affinity
06/01/09

@artyfarty: I remember seeing images of all shoes in the wreck. Then someone explained that the people's skeletons had completely disintegrated over time but that the shoes they were wearing remained.
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Glitterbug (likes life shaken, not stirred)
06/01/09

@artyfarty: I remember the photograph of the entrance hall - the chandelier was still hanging, but had a huge kind of coral fan growing out of it. It was a haunting image.
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Rare Affinity
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
As part of my Finnish course at University I did some research into the Finns who were on the Titanic. In one case a woman explained that she was going to America with her second husband but her youngest son, who was still only a child, insisted on staying behind in Finland because he believed the ship would sink. Sadly he proved correct and his family were all killed. Another mother set sail with her five sons, including her babe in arms to start a new life in Pittsburgh where her husband worked in the steel mills.After the ship sank the body of a small child was found by sailors who paid for a wreath and funeral. In recent years DNA meant that the grave of the child was open and a fragment of bone had survived on the metal part of the wreath. This enabled them to discover that the child was not Swedish as thought but the son of the Finnish woman travelling to Pittsburgh and the tombstone was amended and the child's Finnish relatives were invited to the ceremony. However there is a further twist to the tale that even I was not aware of until today. I came across a report in the Telegraph that the initial DNA findings were incorrect and in fact the fragment of bone belonged to an English boy. Perhaps the original dedication on the tomb "to an unknown child" was the correct one, representing as it did all the young children who died that night and whose bodies were never recovered.

[www.telegraph.co.uk]
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tell Dolly Parton again
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
I was so, so fascinated by the Titanic as a child, and even did a 7th grade history project in character as a survivor. It feels very strange that that living link is now gone.
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PhillyLass
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
How incredibly sad that she had no recourse in her old age but to support herself by selling her story of tragedy.
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BiteMeMitchell!
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
RIP Elizabeth. I've long been fascinated by the Titanic, as the daughter of a Belfast shipyard worker (my dad was the third generation of his family to work at Harland & Wolff). I've hear a few conspiracy theories about the sinking, although I believe they have mostly been disproved. But it's an eternally fascinating story.
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Rare Affinity
06/01/09

@BiteMeMitchell!: The terrible thing about the tragedy that it need not have happened. The blueprints for the ship show that originally there were sufficient lifeboats for everyone. Then a senior member of staff at Harland and Wolff drew a red line through many of the lifeboats to create more space on deck. Because, at the time, you did not need to have sufficient lifeboats to accommodate everyone in the event of an emergency, no one was ever prosecuted for what would now be deemed wantonly criminal act.
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BiteMeMitchell!
06/01/09

@Rare Affinity: I'd always heard it was the White Star Line who refused the extra lifeboats, rather than Harland & Wolff? In any case, it's just unimaginable now that provision wouldn't be made for all passengers. It must have been so frightening to be there, gives me judders just thinking about it....
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Rare Affinity
06/01/09

@BiteMeMitchell!: White Star may have said they didn't want so many lifeboats but Harland and Wolff were equally neligient in complying with their wishes as they actually built the boat. How the Diretcor of the White Star line Bruce Isamy had the callousness to take a precious place in a lifeboard when he knew he was condemning others to death because of his firm's deliberate failure to provide enough for everyone, is something I cannot understand.
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topsy
06/01/09

@BiteMeMitchell!: The one thing that has always fascinated me is the story of the ship that was near by but didn't go in time. I read that ship company that owned that it's been a subject of ongoing litigation. I always wondered if that's why Cameron only showed another ship's captain receiving the SOS signal and....new scene.
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queenieinmanhattan
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
I grew up completely fascinated by shipwrecks, and the Titanic was no exception. That said, a good part of the fascination is with the idea that there's this whole huge part of our world that lies beneath the water.

Raising the Titanic would be disastrous (I'm sure, based on what I've read, that it would be damaged beyond salvage in the process), and disrespectful. It would also end the fascination so many people feel at its otherwordliness.
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colormeroutine
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
I really dislike how people feel that they have a right to other people's tragedies just because they were well-publicized. If her father had died in a car crash or of a heart attack no one would have felt comfortable questioning her about it. Same rules apply people
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NefariousNewt
06/01/09

@colormeroutine: Look at Elisabeth Fritzl. Look at John Kennedy, Jr., who must have been asked about his father's death more times than he cared to ever think about. We are too easily fascinated by the tragedies of others; it would not be so bad if the majority were fascinated out of sympathy or empathy.

I wish her peace and tranquility.
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Mav
06/01/09

@colormeroutine: There is a line. As a person, yes I want people to have the ability to escape after they survive such a horrible experience.

But as a historian, I'm sorry, these things ARE important. The Titanic had major social repercussions other than you know, just being a big ship that went down and massive loss of life. So, in a sense, yes it is important to remember these events, to study and understand them. I don't see anything wrong with that.
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hortense
06/01/09

In reply to Last Titanic Survivor Dies
I can not imagine what it must have been like to be constantly asked questions about an event--and a father--that you were much too young to remember.

The Titanic fascination is so strange. They should never raise it. It's a graveyard. People seem to forget that.
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NefariousNewt
06/01/09

@hortense: It will never be raised; it is no shape to be handled. It is, as far as I recall, declared off-limits by international law, which limits what may be done with the wreck, though artifacts and samples of the ship have been removed.
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hortense
06/01/09

@heavymetalkarma: This is true. It's spread out over miles and miles as well.
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MiseAmiee
06/01/09

@hortense: I donno, it's interesting that you don't want it to be raised as it is a "graveyard" - what about the pyramids and preserved bog bodies? At what stage does human interest differ from prying?

I totally just realized the same question was raised in The Sisterhood of The Travelling Pants II (which I watched on my flight to America - while gazing down at the ocean and wondering where the Titanic was).
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topsy
06/01/09

@MiseAmiee: I guess because up until now, there were still survivors and family members living who could be hurt. And what would be the point anyway?
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