Original drawing of the apparently "unsinkable" Titanic, image courtesy Lloyd's Register HORIZONs Magazine

-By Christopher Browne, Editor of Lloyd’s Register HORIZONs magazine

The message was brief and cryptic: “Struck an iceberg and sank in latitude 41.16 N, longitude 50.14 W”. It might have been just another daily entry in Lloyd’s Register’s Casualty Returns. But it hid perhaps the most infamous event in shipping history – the sinking of the Titanic.

That was 100 years ago – on 14 April 1912 to be precise. Since then a flurry of historians, scientists, investigators, conspiracy theorists and media pundits have pondered and puzzled over just why this great and ‘unsinkable’ vessel should founder on a lone iceberg.

A spectacular array of events are being held this year in the seven European and North American cities involved in the mighty ship’s last voyage. However behind the ritual and razzamatazz are some curious post-disaster stories including one about the role of Lloyd’s Register.

A few days after the incident, the national press wrote a series of reports suggesting the Titanic had been built ‘considerably in excess of the requirements’ of Lloyd’s Register. Although we had not classed the vessel, and the information was patently wrong, you could argue it was a form of faint praise by association. Although our Secretary at the time, Sir Andrew Scott, didn’t quite see it like that.

“I am directed to say that these statements are inaccurate. On the contrary, in important parts of her structure the vessel as built did not come up to the requirements of Lloyd’s Register for a vessel of her dimensions,” he wrote in a letter to The Times of London.

“I do not for a moment suggest that this circumstance had any bearing whatever upon the loss of the vessel and therefore, for obvious reasons, this letter has been delayed until after the close of the Inquiry (the Mersey Committee set up in the UK to investigate the loss). But in justice to this society and to those who rely upon its classification, it is felt to be only right to dispel the erroneous impression which might be created regarding the standard of classification of Lloyd’s Register for such vessels if the statements referred to remain uncontradicted.”

A pithy riposte indeed. As Andrew Scott points out, we were not involved in classing the Titanic, however we did approve her anchors which still lie intact on the seabed of the North Atlantic Ocean. We also classed the passenger liner Carpathia which arrived to assist the sinking ship a few hours later, saving 705 men, women and children from the Titanic’s lifeboats.

The tragedy with its disturbing death toll of 1,523 had an important sequel. In 1914, the impact of several inquiries in the UK and USA led to the set ting up of the fir st International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS), its aim to improve maritime safety and help prevent any future catastrophes.

SOLAS’s principles – robust lifesaving appliances and lifeboats, improved vessel design and equipment, better fire protection, effective satellite communications, rescue planes and helicopters and properly trained personnel – have been the major safety code for the global marine industry ever since.

Christopher Brown edits HORIZONs magazine, a quarterly publication by the UK-based classification society, Lloyd’s Register. Mr. Browne’s accolades include: Winner of the 2006 Consumer Broadsheet Journalist of the Year in the BIBA Awards; nominated in 2007; shortlisted for journalism’s Oscars, the British Press Awards; nominated four times for the IBP Journalism awards.

Yep. Queensland Nickel Group's Chairman of The Board, Professor Clive Palmer.

MELBOURNE–Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has formed a shipping business to handle ore freight for his Queensland Nickel Group, with plans to commission four 64,000-metric-ton vessels from the Chinese shipyard already tasked with building a 21st-century version of the passenger liner Titanic.

Palmer said in a statement Friday that the new business, Asia Pacific Shipping Enterprises, will operate the fleet of ships out of Singapore. The vessels are to be built by state-owned CSC Jinling Shipyard.

Queensland Nickel owns the Palmer Nickel & Cobalt Refinery near Townsville on the coast of Queensland state, and the Styx Coal development project in central Queensland. It also owns golf courses and resorts.

“This is an exciting time for the Queensland Nickel Group of companies, which has an expanding international footprint across Asia and the South Pacific region,” Palmer said. “The group has been expanding from minerals processing activities to embrace tourism and hospitality, resource exploration and development and shipping opportunities.”

Palmer said earlier this week that he had commissioned CSC Jinling to build Titanic II, a luxury cruise ship that will have the same dimensions as its ill-fated namesake, with 840 rooms and nine decks. His new shipping company, Blue Star Line Pty. Ltd., plans a fleet of luxury liners alongside the Titanic II, which is scheduled to make its maiden voyage in late 2016, he said.

-By Robb M. Stewart, Dow Jones Newswires

Copyright © 2012 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

The new ship will look exactly like this, only newer.

An Australian billionaire has announced his plans to build the Titanic II, a modern-day replica of the ill-fated liner that sank over 100 years ago.

Clive Palmer, a coal mining magnate from Queensland, and his newly established Blue Star Line, have commissioned China’s state-owned CSC Jinling Shipyard to build the ship to the exact dimensions as the original, which at the time was the largest vessel ever constructed.

“It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic, but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st century technology, and the latest navigation and safety systems,” Palmer said in a statement.

Palmer said the new vessel has been designed with the help of a special research team to ensure historical accuracy, and will feature the four unmistakeable smoke stacks of the original, which will serve simply for show.

The only real changes from original would be what you can’t see, including welding rather than riveting, a bulbous bow, diesel power, and enlarged rudder and bow thrusters, according to Palmer.

The new ship is expected to be completed in 2016 and will sail on its maiden voyage from, where else, England to New York.

Clive Palmers fortune is estimated to be over $5 billion, making him the fifth richest person in Australia. The price of the project has not been disclosed.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Using advanced CGI supercomputers to recreate the tragic event, Cameron’s Hollywood team used physics and the pure mechanics of ship incidents to recreate the sinking. National Geographic Channel ran the footage during the showing of a 46-minute feature film, titled The Titanic: The Final Word With James Cameron.

National Geograpic tells us that Cameron, who has made more than 30 dives to explore the Titanic, brings together a team of engineers, naval architects, artists, and historians to solve the lingering mysteries of why and how an “unsinkable” ship sank. With their combined expertise, they examined the feature film and determined what technology has revealed since its release. An investigation of this magnitude has never been attempted before, and the director is hoping that some of the revelations may alter the fundamental interpretation of what happened to the Titanic on April 14, 1912.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912

On todays 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, there is not shortage of websites, videos and exhibitions providing pretty much everything you will ever need to know about the infamous ship. Here’s gCaptain’s top 10 picks for where to get your 100-year Titanic fix.

Top 10 Titanic Links on The Internet

1. National Geographic: Unseen Titanic Photos
2. NOAA: R.M.S. Titanic, 100 Years Later
3. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: The Quest to Map Titanic
4. Google Earth: Titanic Google Earth Tour
5. The Big Picture: Titanic at 100 Years
6. IMO: 100 Years After the Titanic
7. Titanic Stories: Official Website of The Titanic and it’s Home in Belfast, N. Ireland
8. National Museums Northern Ireland: Titanic The Exhibition
9. History Channel: Titanic by The Numbers Infographic
10. White Star Line: An In-depth Examination of the Ships of the Legendary White Star Line

Honorable mentions:

• National Geographic: Titanic 100 Years
• RMS Titanic, Inc: RMSTitanic.net
• NPR: Titanic, Voyage to the Past
• PBS: Saving the Titanic

According to  marine archaeologists the photos are so precise that they can view the wreck as the great ship were removed from the site and reconstructed – piece by piece – on dry land.

The image mosaics are part of a collection containing over 200 optical mosaics created by the Advanced Imaging and Visualization Laboratory (AIVL) at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The original imagery was collected by WHOI during “Titanic Expedition 2010,” an effort funded by Premier Exhibitions, Inc., the parent company of RMS Titanic, Inc. Post-processing of the optical data was funded by Premier Exhibitions Inc. and the National Geographic Society.

The AIVL, led by Bill Lange, used optical and sonar images collected during the expedition by a specially equipped remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), to stitch together the richly detailed, comprehensive views of the ship and wreck site.

The vehicles carried a combination of sonars used to make wide-area maps and advanced 3-D camera systems used to conduct detailed forensic-type investigations. Although the individual robotic systems provided new information about some pieces of Titanic, the fusion of the imagery provides for the first time a comprehensive view of the wreck site.

“‘Titanic Expedition 2010′ was arguably the most technologically advanced scientific expedition to Titanic,” said expedition organizer Chris Davino, president of RMST, the salvor-in-possession of RMS Titanic and its wreck site. “For RMST, and me personally, this was an incredible opportunity to bring together the leaders in the field of underwater survey and exploration to spectacular effect.”

In addition to AIVL, participants in the expedition included WHOI’s Ocean Systems Lab, led by Gregory Packard, which operated the two REMUS 6000 AUVs; archaeologists from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Park Service (NPS); and representatives from the Waitt Institute, owner of the two REMUS AUVs. WHOI Director of Special Projects David Gallo was co-expedition leader along with P.H. Nargeolet of RMST.

“Until now some of the most memorable images we had of Titanic were created by acclaimed artist Ken Marschall,” said Gallo. “Ken’s paintings are fantastic, but we finally have the technologies and techniques to see the Titanic wreck site as it really is, in its entirety and in the context of the surrounding seascape. Even though our mission was scientific—to create the first archaeological map of Titanic—the results have attracted immediate public interest across the globe. It’s very rewarding.”

“Titanic has been a great driver and motivator for imaging, lighting and telemetry technologies in the deep sea,” said Lange, director of WHOI’s AIVL. Lange was a member of the 1985 and 1986 WHOI teams that first discovered and explored the wreck. “There’s no doubt in my mind that the public’s interest in Titanic helped propel the development of many of the technologies we use to explore the deep sea today.”

From the data collected at sea, the AIVL stitched together more than 250 individual mosaics to complete this comprehensive view of the ship and of the many thousands of objects in the surrounding wreck site. “Collecting the information at sea was challenging, but land-based processing of all of the data into useful information was equally challenging,” said Lange.

The work contributes to an effort by NOAA and NPS, two U.S. governmental agencies developing a “site formation plan” to tell the story of how the ship broke apart and where pieces of the ship fell to the seafloor. It is part of RMST’s overarching effort to advance ongoing efforts to preserve the wreck site as a cultural heritage site.

In their first mission, the two REMUS AUVs used side-looking sonar to define the total extent of the Titanic wreck site in the context of the surrounding seafloor terrain. This initial survey area is approximately 3 by 5 nautical miles—an area about the same size as Manhattan Island. This map was then used to define a tighter work area that focused specifically on the large pieces of Titanic (the bow and stern) and on the many thousands of artifacts that fell to the seafloor as the ship broke up and sank. The REMUS AUVs were then sent into this area—roughly equivalent in size to Midtown Manhattan—to make detailed down-looking maps that would be used to guide subsequent ROV operations.

“We modified a commercial ROV from Phoenix International by reworking the power system, telemetry, lighting, cameras, and flotation system and turned it into probably one of the world’s best underwater, close-up, optical survey vehicles,” said Lange.

The Titanic wreck site now represents perhaps the best-surveyed part of the world’s deep ocean. Using digital data, views extend from surface data collected by a satellite to the detailed underwater data that can resolve a teacup or the filaments on a crab’s leg.

Aside from the public fascination with Titanic, the mapping and science is required in order to best understand how to manage the wreck site. By comparing the data collected in 1985 and 1986, for example, the 2010 images and data will help provide a detailed picture of the condition of the wreck and its rate of deterioration over time. In addition, scientists can study the marine animals that have made the ship’s hull their home to better understand how deep-sea ecosystems develop and evolve.

“There are very few places on the bottom of the ocean that we have a 25-year history of what’s happened there, and this study will help scientists and others understand the long term fate of wrecks,” said Lange. “Having a better understanding of the conditions and long-term changes that can occur to these shipwrecks from corrosion, microbial activity, and the pressure in the deep sea will give policymakers and environmental managers the tools and data they need.”

“We are proud that our long experience in the deep ocean has been able to contribute so much to uncovering the full story of Titanic. For us, this has been an important opportunity to show how our advanced technical, imaging, and operations capabilities can combine effectively, whether for scientific, environmental, forensic, or historical purposes,” said WHOI President and Director Susan Avery.

Many of the images including the map, are a direct output of “Titanic Expedition 2010.” RMS Titanic will be adding both still images and interactive applications of the work done by WHOI to its touring exhibits, “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.” A full list of cities where these mosaics and more exclusive content from the most recent expedition will be on display is available online at www.rmstitanic.net.

Samuel Weiser, CEO and President of Premier Exhibitions, Inc. noted, “The contribution of Bill Lange’s and Greg Packard’s teams at WHOI have provided RMS Titanic, Inc. with provocative and engaging new content for our “Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition” exhibits and we are currently adding these features to enhance the story we tell of Titanic.”

The April 2012 issue of National Geographic is on newsstands now.

The App

If looking at photos is not interactive enough for you then be sure to download the new app by National Geographic titled Building the Titanic. The app takes you – step by step- from the great ship’s birth in 1908 when the first design for the liner was approved by White Star lines to an interactive timeline that follows the building of the Titanic from March 1909 when her keel was laid to April 1912, when the vessel embarked on her first and last voyage.

Related Video:

Curious how they captured such detailed footage in the dark depths of the North Atlantic? Well here’s a video look at the camera’s used by researchers on the expedition:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Using data from National Geographic and NOAA, Google has released an updated 3D-Model of the infamous shipwreck as it rests on the bottom of the North Atlantic in Google Earth.  Included in the update is a fully interactive tour of the ship included with photos, video and descriptions of the wreck site in true Google Earth fashion.

Fom your Google Earth search bar, just search “titanic” and get started the tour.

Not sure how to use the tour function? Kurt’s Weblog has you covered.  For those of you that don’t have access to Google Earth right now, start off by watching this video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Google Earth Titanic project was created in partnership with National Geographic, the Institute for Exploration, the Center for Ocean Exploration at the University of Rhode Island and Jim Delgado at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Office of Exploration and Research.

Cheers to everyone that is making this year’s anniversary of the Titanic sinking so memorable.

Video message by IMO Secretary General Mr. Koji Sekimizu on the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, recalling the improvements to passenger ship safety introduced as a result of that tragic night a century ago.

The R.M.S. Titanic leaving Belfast on April 2, 1912, twelve days before she would hit an iceberg.

On the night of April 14-15, 1912, the R.M.S. Titanic struck an iceberg and sank with a loss of over 1500 lives. It was the greatest peacetime disaster in maritime history.

In the hundred years since, we have been assured that the victims of the tragedy did not die in vain. Thanks to their sacrifice, we are told, sea routes were moved south, regulations were changed to require sufficient lifeboats for all passengers, the International Ice Patrol was established and other essential safety measures were adopted.

And so it happened. But not at first. Not until after a squalid sequel of political grandstanding, finger pointing and whitewashing.

No sooner had the British liner Carpathia docked in New York with the Titanic’s survivors when William Alden Smith, an eager, self-promoting U.S. senator from Michigan, bounded up the gangplank to inform J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line who was among those rescued, that Smith was chairing a special inquiry into the disaster, and that Ismay and the crew would be detained for the proceedings.

Ismay had cabled New York from the Carpathia to arrange for a ship to take the him and the surviving crew back to England for an official investigation there. But the cable had been intercepted, and Smith had scented opportunity. On April 19, just four days after the sinking, the hearings began at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel. (Subsequently, they would be moved to Washington.)

Sir James Bryce, Britain’s ambassador to the United States, described Smith as a person of “singular incompetence” who was “always anxious to put himself forward where any passing notoriety can be achieved.” Bryce may have exaggerated, but there is no question that Smith was an ambitious politician with axes of his own to grind.

A maverick Republican with a marked distaste for big business, Smith had previously clashed with plutocrat J.P. Morgan. Smith was aware that although the Titanic had sailed under British registry and with a British crew, the White Star Line itself was owned by Morgan’s financial empire. So, in addition to garnering the widespread publicity that would attend the hearings, Smith saw a golden opportunity to embarrass Morgan.

Unfortunately for him, Smith’s qualifications to conduct the hearings were not equal to his investigative zeal, with the result that he frequently embarrassed himself. At one point, he actually inquired of a witness what icebergs were made of. “Ice” came the reply. Later, he asked if the passengers could have saved themselves by taking refuge in the Titanic’s watertight compartments – a question that earned him the sobriquet, “Watertight Smith.”

Despite his multiple gaffes, Smith managed to compile over a thousand pages of valuable eyewitness testimony. He also gave the public a villain in the person of White Star chairman J. Bruce Ismay.

Ismay’s very survival made him suspect. Although he insisted that he was no more than an ordinary passenger on the Titanic, as chairman of the line he was ultimately responsible for the lack of lifeboats and other failures that had contributed to the loss of so many lives. Furthermore, there is evidence that this “passenger” had pressed the Titanic’s captain, E.J. Smith, not to slacken speed despite radio warnings of icebergs in the ship’s vicinity.

Most embarrassing of all was Ismay’s claim that he had taken the last vacant seat in one of the last lifeboats to leave the doomed vessel because there were no other passengers in sight at the time. That may well have been true; there had been no lifeboat drills and confusion reigned during the sinking. But Ismay’s claim was met with understandable skepticism, and he himself was branded a coward and worse.

If the American hearings had featured grandstanding and finger pointing, the proceedings in Britain included a liberal application of whitewash. The British hearings were conducted under the auspices of the Board of Trade, the very government agency whose antiquated regulations had permitted the Titanic to sail without providing enough lifeboats for all passengers.

That aside, there was the matter of British prestige. In 1912, Britain was still the world’s preeminent maritime power – but just barely. A rising Imperial Germany was challenging the supremacy of the Royal Navy, and even Britain’s passenger ships were facing stiff competition from Germany’s Hamburg-Amerika and Norddeutscher-Lloyd lines. Public opinion in Britain had good reason to focus more on the heroism shown by the Titanic’s officers and crew and less on the incompetence that had caused the collision with the iceberg. As Lord Mersey, the chairman of the British inquiry, expressed it: “The importance of this Enquiry has to do with the future. No Enquiry can repair the past.”

Curiously, given the different lines of questioning pursued, both the American and British hearings came to the same conclusion: The sinking of the Titanic had been an Act of God, rather than the result of negligence. And both investigative bodies made broadly similar recommendations for preventing a recurrence of the tragedy.

Yet in the end, a rough justice prevailed over the politics that had driven the investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Act of God verdict did not stand. The British inquiry may have acquitted Captain Smith and the White Star Line of negligence, but a British jury found otherwise. In 1913, a man who had lost a son on the Titanic sued the White Star Line and won a heavy judgment. Other lawsuits followed. In 1916, the White Star Line settled the victims’ claims for the loss of life and property for $664,000. That was tantamount to an admission of guilt.

Similarly, J. Bruce Ismay had been officially exonerated by the British inquiry, but he was convicted by the court of public opinion. He would shortly resign as chairman of the White Star Line and retire to a remote estate on the west coast of Ireland, there to remain until his death in 1937.

The official posturings, evasions and petty politics have long since been mercifully forgotten. What we remember today are the sacrifices and the heroic deeds that illuminate the celebrated disaster. These are what make the story of the Titanic as compelling today as it was a century ago.

About the Author:

Hal Gordon, who wrote speeches for the Reagan White House and Gen. Colin Powell, is currently a freelance speechwriter in Houston. Web site: www.ringingwords.com.

This article originally appeared on PunditWire.com and is republished here with permission.

Exactly1309 paying passengers from all over the world set sail from Southampton on a 12 night cruise to commemorate the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic. Photo (c) Simon Brooke-Web

Exactly 1,309 passengers from all over the world set sail from Southampton on Sunday on a 12-night cruise aboard the Fred Olsen-operated cruise ship, the MS Balmoral, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Why 1,309 passengers? Because that’s the same number of passengers that sailed on the Titanic.

In fact, the entire cruise is part of a meticulous effort to recreate the maiden voyage of arguably the most famous ship of all time – from the food on board to a live band playing music from the era.

Image (c) Simon Brooke-Webb

Called the Titanic Memorial Cruise, the MS Balmoral will be the first cruise ship in history to retrace – and in some ways re-enact – the doomed liners route.

On Easter Sunday, the MS Balmoral set sail from Southampton en-route to New York, first stopping in Cobh, Ireland – just as the Titanic did 100 years ago – and is even planning on a visit to the Titanic site (41°43’57″N, 49°56’49″W) to host an April 15th memorial service paying tribute to the passengers and crew on board that fateful night.

Passengers on the cruise include relatives of those who lost their lives, relatives of survivors, authors, historians and people who are just generally fascinated by the Titanic story.  Many even dawned 1912-period clothing.

The food on board will be based on the dishes served during the period and on the original cruise. The menu has been created to match those that were served on board and a formal dinner on April 13 will have a menu made up entirely of dishes which were served on the Titanic.

The cruise will even include the five-piece string-band that will recreate the soundtrack from the era for passengers. The musician’s heroic actions played a key role in keep passengers calm during that fateful night, as you’ll remember from James Cameron’s flick.

In addition to the events, guests will be treated to a line up of ten specialist lecturers that include some of the world’s leading experts on the ship and tragic voyage.

Miles Morgan, managing director of Miles Morgan Travel, the agency that is hosting the cruise said: “This cruise has been five years in the making and every step of the way we have sought to make it authentic to the era and a sympathetic memorial to the passengers and crew who lost their lives.”

What’s the significance of the MS Balmoral? The MS Balmoral is operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, whose parent company, Harland and Wolff, built the Titanic in Belfast.

Let’s just hope the cruise does not re-enact the original voyage too closely.