The Titanic - A Night to Remember
...the tugs nudged her out into the grey waters of the English Channel.
It was cold that night...bitterly cold.
Welcome to Titanic - A Night to Remember.
It was cold that night, bitterly cold, there was no moon and a million stars shone down reflecting in the inky blackness of a smooth sea. Upon the surface of that sea stood a great ocean liner – motionless, her eight accommodation decks ablaze with lights. Around her, a little way off, you could hear the splash of oars being handled by inexperienced hands. From the ship itself came the creak of davits as lifeboats were being lowered and every twenty minutes a rocket would rise, swiftly towards the sky to burst into a dazzle of light which gradually faded into nothing.
From the great ocean liner the message went out in Morse Code.
The message went out in Morse Code. CQD, CQD, CQD. Any ship, and station, any ship any station. DE this is, MGY MGY, the wireless call sign of the great vessel. That signal oscillated along the long wire aerial strung out between the tall mast. It radiated into the ionosphere far above the earth to be heard in the headphones of radio operators as far away as Cape Race and as close as fifty-eight miles. CQD, CQD, CQD. Come quickly. Ship is sinking by the head. Need immediate assistance…”
The Ill-fated luxury liner ready to sail.
This luxury liner was conceived in the minds of men...
She was conceived in the minds of men and born in the dockyards of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, Ireland. And her labor was long. Her midwives were the hundreds of riveters, fitters and turners, boiler makers, carpenters, tradesmen of all sort who labored over her hard and long for two years. But when she was born, when she was launched there had been nothing like her before, or since. 882 feet long, 92 feet wide. That was as long as four downtown city blocks in New York City in those days. And not four, six, but eight accommodation decks. And she was so tall that when you stood at the wharf it was like looking up at an eleven story building.
The filmakers did wonders, but this is a photograph never taken in real life.
fifteen water-tight compartments, she was considered unsinkable.
A coal-burning steamship, she had not one, nor two, or three but 29 boilers. 159 furnace openings. It was said her engine room completement number 240 persons. And luxurious, she had everything.
These are the opening lines to my orally presented story.
These are the opening lines to my orally presented story, "The Stars Look Down," which deals with the tragic events which unfolded in the North Atlantic on Sunday 14th April through to Monday 15 April in 1912. This most famous and well-known of all sea stories; an event which has stayed with us now for over 100 years, still remains popular among my repetoire of stories taken from history.
Our Titanic - A Night to Remember, which celebrated the centenary of the passing of this great ocean liner was a spectacular success. And I'm pretty sure that many people will want this story retold again, and again, and yet again.
