Titanic

Enzo Fiermonte is a forgotten star of Italian cinema who acted in over 100 films between 1941 and 1979. His screen career started with "L’ultimo combattimento" (The Last Fight), in which he played the role of the main character: a boxer who was on his way to stardom – until he met a wealthy American woman: he felt in love with her, and she gradually persuaded him to get rid of the gloves and live as a gentleman. It was quite an ordinary story for film-goers to see, but actually that was Fiermonte’s real story.

Prior to join the film world, Enzo was a boxer himself – and a very talented one. He won Italy’s middleweight crown at just 23 years old, and after a series of brilliant bouts in the U.S. he entered the list of the main contenders for the world championship title. Success in the boxing ring, however, was not Enzo’s only success. Women literally felt at his feet: his was tall and muscular like a Michelangelo’s statue, with olive skin and black curly hair. For press reporters, he was “the Rudolph Valentino of boxing”.

In 1932, his beauty was noticed by one of the richest women in the world – Madeleine Astor Dick. She was mother to the heir of America’s most influential family – the Astors – and was known in her country for having survived his husband in 1912, as they were honeymooning aboard the most disgraceful ocean liner of human history – the Titanic. Very soon, Madeleine became infatuated with that gorgeous and kind Italian; Enzo, too, could not stop thinking of her. After a few months, the two got married amid sensational headlines: not only Fiermonte was a boxer with peasant origins, but he also was much younger than her: 25 years as opposed to Madeleine’s 39.

For Madeleine and for the privileges of being married with a millionaire, Fiermonte announced his retirement from boxing, but then he changed his mind; he left his wife, returned into the ring, and the whole world talked about him. Such a story, however, was just one of the many incredible stories he happened to be involved with. Enzo Fiermonte’s life was rich with hazards and hard-to-believe situations in every respect, to the point that Hollywood producers have occasionally thought of making a film about him. ***MORE INFO AT g.memola@yahoo.com***

Gina Bellafante wrote in the New York Times on 3/1/20 that the city would soon feel the impact of its hospital shortage when the Covid-19 Virus arrived.  She specifically singled out the closure and sale of St. Vincent's Hospital, noting its replacement by luxury condominiums.  My article here provides an example of St. Vincent Hospital in action at the turn of the twentieth century when it cared for over a hundred Titanic survivors.  Its disaster expertise is now sorely missed in New York City.

St. Vincent's Hospital was founded and run by the religious order Sisters of Charity in the Nineteenth Century.  This article is part of a larger project that examines the full scope of disaster relief for Titanic survivors in New York and London from 1912 to 1950.

This article discusses several minor refinements to Titanic's design based on experience with some specific riveted joints on Olympic (similar changes were then incorporated into Olympic and Britannic).  It is a greatly expanded version of an article originally made available on the Titanic Research & Modelling Association (TRMA) website in 2005, which published information about these changes for the first time.  This expanded article appeared in the British Titanic Society journal Atlantic Daily Bulletin in December 2019.

In his essays on Brecht’s epic theater, Walter Benjamin stresses the relationship between the Verfremdungseffekt (estrangement effect) and the funny effects epic theater produces. Like alienation, laughing has a mind-opening effect. Indeed, Brecht himself considered the estrangement effect to be a method that is rooted in the “old artistic devices” of comedy. In this essay, I will explore further parallels between epic theater and comedy: on the one hand forms of Cool Fun (sensu Hans-Thies Lehmann), on the other hand strategies of self-distancing that enable the actor to make social gestures “quotable.” Tracing back to the debate between speech act theory and deconstruction about the “performative forces” that are at stake when theatrical practices are re-cited on stage, I introduce Derrida’s notion of “grafting” in order to demonstrate how contemporary comedy and satire are producing Cool Fun with performative gestures of quotation.

Lorsque les passagers de troisième classe observaient, depuis les ponts inferieurs, la vie sur les ponts promenade de Première classe ils prenaient alors certainement conscience qu’ils n’appartenaient pas à la même catégorie sociale et comprenaient ainsi la raison de leur séparation spatiale d’avec les autres passagers.
En amont, déjà, il apparait que lorsque le projet du Titanic a été conçu, il s’agissait d’un projet mené par des capitalistes pour le confort de la bourgeoisie, la construction étant faite par le prolétariat.
Etudier les rapports sociaux sur le Titanic n’apparaît dès lors pas anachronique.

This paper explores how disaster relief was carried out in New York City in the immediate aftermath of the Titanic's sinking. The paper is the first part of a larger project (now in progress) on short- and long-term aid for those survivors who remained in the United States.

Titanic, released in 1997, is an American epic romantic film that ends in a disaster. The film has been directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are in the lead roles. And they belong to two different social classes who fell in love with each other in the film. The theme of the film is the love story between the two main protagonists which is infused with the human loss. The film was released worldwide in English
language on December 19, 1997 and it was distributed by 20th Century Fox (international) and Paramount Pictures (USA). The characters in the film were Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Jane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Victor Garber, and Bill Paxton. The music was given by James Horner. It was the most expensive film ever made at that time.
Titanic is basically a ship which unfortunately got hit with an ice berg and broke into two pieces, thereby drowned maximum of the passengers boarded on the ship.

A brief paper published with the British Titanic Society proposing a new theory based on survivor testimony of the loss of RMS Titanic and forensic evidence from the wreck.  Accounts of the sinking frequently reference 'boiler explosions' or boilers breaking free, but the mostly-intact in-situ boilers on the wreck disprove these claims.  Often overlooked as a consequence, this paper suggests that the accounts may still be correct.  With warm boilers at a low pressure coming into contact with cold water,  the new theory is that they imploded - causing minimal damage as found on the wreck but still reverberating with an 'explosion'-type noise.  Although only having a psychological effect on the disaster (rather than affecting the sinking itself), it also demonstrates that even when not immediately correct in belief, survivor accounts are still imperative to understanding historical calamities.

The purpose of this essay, written from the viewpoint of a moderately supportive viewer of 'history on film', is to explore and assess what it is about the topic that provokes such expressions of hostility and defensive  enthusiasm. The strengths of film, in an historical context, are examined within the broad category of public consumption and impact. Weaknesses are considered under the headings of firstly: accuracy, authenticity and invention and secondly: interpretation. While the essay concentrates on historically-themed feature films (using Titanic and Zulu as examples) since these provoke the most discussion, the theoretical ‘reality’ genre of newsreels, propaganda films and documentaries is also evaluated.

There is all too much incomplete, out of context, inaccurate or plain misinformation about Titanic.  Much of it stems from media sensationalism or simply the dissemination of inaccurate information in secondary sources.  That is particularly true when it comes to Titanic’s lifeboats.  There are many facets of the subject far beyond the scope of this short article, which merely draws a comparison between the original proposals for her lifeboats (July 1908) and the lifeboats she sailed with on her fateful maiden voyage (April 1912).  It demonstrates that Titanic's lifeboat capacity (as a proportion of her total passenger and crew capacity) increased by nearly 39% between the original design proposal being approved and her departure on her maiden voyage.

This paper highlights the rescue efforts of the ship Carpathia (its captain, crew, and medical staff) as it came to Titanic's aid.  It also examines the central role that Carpathia's passengers played in the relief efforts once the survivors were on-board, and concludes with a look at the survivors' committee that Margaret Brown formed as the ship headed for New York City.

Disasters have grabbed the human imagination since antiquity. Whether for heroism or arrogance, folly or fate, these tales show the best and worst of humanity when faced with extreme danger.

This book introduces seven events of tremendous importance, yet while some have risen to legendary proportions – cloaked by myth and error – others have become all but forgotten despite their shocking details.

All are a warning from history:

The two ‘unsinkable’ ships
Britain’s deadliest railway error
The torpedo that changed warfare
An engineering nightmare
The darkest day on the Thames
The English Hindenburg

This article discusses a number of false, sensationalised claims made by conspiracy theorists about Titanic in recent years, including unsubstantiated claims of deliberately flawed construction.  It was published originally in the Titanic International Society journal Voyage in December 2015.

This article examines a last-minute change to Titanic's design: the enclosure of the fore end of the ship's promenade deck, A. It proved to be one of the most obvious external features to distinguish Olympic and Titanic at a distance, but a lot of claims have been made about the reason for the change which do not stand up to scrutiny.  The article looks at them in detail and provides little-known evidence from Olympic's career.  It was first published in the British Titanic Society journal Atlantic Daily Bulletin in March 2016.

This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban studies to explore the social welfare milieu of early 20th century New York City and its connection to disaster relief efforts for Titanic survivors.  Part Two appeared in Voyage 108 in Summer 2019 and is also posted on Academia.edu.

With art, artifacts, and entire extinct locales beneath its surface, the ocean has become the most expansive excavation site for society to learn from. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the primary mode of cross-continental travel was by ship; when unsuccessful in their journey, those ships became frozen in time at their wreckage sites. While few will disagree with the archaeological merit of the locations, there is little exploration of the sites through an art historical lens. This thesis investigates the context and value of the visual and material culture of shipwrecks through the unique remains of the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania. These sites function as heritage sites but also as gravesites for those who lost their lives and for the objects unable to be recovered. Fascination with sinking ships has turned these vessels into subjects of the arts as well, introducing their viewers to a multifaceted dialogue with the past that deals with disentangling fiction and history. By exploring the cultural memory and multiple ways in which one can view these microcosms, we are able to appreciate the ruination of materials as a different, but equally respectable, life phase of an object. These sunken passenger liners function like matryoshka dolls, with layers embedded underneath what we initially view. The Titanic is one of the most notable shipwrecks in history, but it is viewed primarily as a symbol of tragedy rather than a site and object of grandeur after its sinking on April 15th, 1912. Similarly, when the Lusitania sank on May 7th, 1915, it became a contributing catalyst for World War I, thus imprinting its legacy into history, but also overshadowing the ship’s glory. Branching away from these common viewpoints, I will delve into the value of these ships, what they encompass, and what they still have to offer.

Keywords: collective memory, gravesites, heritage sites, Lusitania, material culture, ruination, ruins, shipwrecks, Titanic, visual culture.

This 2:1 essay seeks to discuss Slavoj Zizek’s theory that blockbusters give audiences an official narrative that allows them to enjoy a film whilst secretly satisfying their right wing unconscious. Using examples from various secondary sources including but not limited to the works of Zizek himself and the works of Louisal Althusser with regards to his theory of ‘interpellation’ as discussed in his publication Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation), the essay will explore the ways in which Titanic sets out an official narrative path for the audience to follow and the social and political implications and ideologies presented with regards to class and status. The essay also seeks to discuss how Titanic presents a sense of ‘Hollywood Marxism’ with focus upon the relationship between Titanic’s protagonists, Jack and Rose, and how this focus pulls attention from the tragedy that inspired the movie adaptation of events.

April the 15, this year the  time of Good Friday in 2017, recalls momentous occasions in history. The paper contains explorations of connection and congruities that emerge when one considers the field of associations that centre on April the 15th,

Fakta dan Kisah Nyata Di Balik Rahasia Tenggelamnya Kapal Titanic Dzargon. Film drama yang dibintangi Leanardo De' Caprio dan juga Kate Winslet berhasil meraih berbagai penghargaan perfilman termasuk Piala Oscar. Film yang diangkat dari kisah nyata yang diambil dari kisah tenggelamnya kapal Titanic di Samudra Antlantik berhasil menarik perhatian jutaan penonton dari seluruh dunia. Film yang release pada tahun 1998 adalah sebuah kisah yang diangkat dari peristiwa nyata yang terjadi pada tahun 1912. Kapal yang pernah menjadi kapal termegah dan tercanggih dimasanya diklaim takka mampu ditaklukkan oleh laut. Ironisnya dalam pelayaran pertama yang bermula dari Liverpool ke Amerika akhirnya tenggelam menalam kekuatan Alam di Samudra antlantik setelah menabrak Iceberg atau Gunung Es. Namun, bagaimanakah kejadian sebenarnya dari kisah nyata di balik tenggelamnya kapal Titanic, mengapa jumlah korban yang tenggelam begitu banyak dan apakah tidak ada penanganan khusus yang dilakukan oleh kru kapal pada saat kejadian tak terduga sehingga menelanbanyak korban. Berikut ini beberapa fakta mengenai tenggelamnya kapal Titanic versi Dzargon. Warga Jepang dalam Peristiwa Kapal Titanic Pada perjalanan naas yang menenggelamkan kapal Titanic, ada seorang warga Negara Jepang yang berhasil selamat pada peristiwa tenggalamnya kapal Titanic. Namun pada saat kemabli ke Negara Asalnya dan terbatasnya sumber informasi pada saat itu, warga jepang tidak mengakui bahwa dirinya ikut dalam pelayaran perdana dari Titanic. Ia malah bercerita bahwa dirinya tidak ikut dalam pelayaraan karena malu dianggap sebagai pengecut karena tidak ikut menjadi korban yang meninggal bersama dengan ribuan orang lainya yang dinytakan tewas. Automne Songe Jika anda menonton film Titanic terdapat sebuah adegan dramatis dan emosional dimana sekelompok pemain music yang tetap memainkan musiknya ditengah hiruk pikuk orang berusaha menyelematkan diri. Tahukan anda bahwa adegan ini adalah sungguhan yang diceritakan oleh padar korban yang selamat. Anggota band inbi membawakan sebuah lagu dengan judul Automne Songe Waltz karya dari Archibald. Lagu ini terus dikumandakan oleh band Titanic pada tanggal 10 April 1912 bersama dengan tenggelamnya sang mega bintang Titanic, namun sayangnya tidak satupun dari anggota band yang dinyatakan selamat termasuk sang pemimpin Orcresta Wallace Hartley. 30 detik Sebuah fakta yang mencengangkan bahwa jika saja sang penjaga menarah bersiaga terlambat memberikan informasi menganai sebuah gunung es raksasa berada di depan kapal. Kapten Smith yang pada saat itu dibayar dengan gaji 1.250 Pounsterling dalam satu bulan atau setara dengan 25.000.000 yang pada saat itu adalah sbeuah bayaran fantantis ternyata tidak berhasil menyelamatkan kapal terbesar di abad 19 tersebut. Milton Hershey Seorang pengusaha Coklat, bernama Milton Hershey, yang sangat terkenal pada masa itu berhasil selamata dari tragedi kapal Titanic. Faktor yang membuat nya selamat justru berita duka dari bisnis coklat yang ia kelola mendapat masalah sehingga ia membatalkan reservasi tiket yang telah dipesan. Cerobong asap Palsu. Pada film yang berjudul terlihat bahwa kapal megah Tetanik memiliki cerobong berjumlah empat buah yang

The essays mentioned in the title concern the intimations of  novelists who have entertained doubts about the way modern technical civilization is progressing. To conclude a video clip reveals a more recent take of this question in the idiom of the 'Hard Rock' subculture.

Benjamin Fondane' (1898-1944), poète juif roumain exilé en France en 1924, nous a laissé une oeuvre poétique hantée par l'exil sous le titre général du Mal des fantômes. Je me propose d'interroger la mythification du moi dans ses grandes oeuvres poétiques et en particulier dans Ulysse (1933), Titanic (1937) et L'Exode (1965). Le «je narratif » du poète, en sollicitant diverses figures mythiques ou religieuse de la tradition grecque ou judaïque, puis le paradigme catastrophiste du naufrage du Titanic parviennent-ils à la structuration narrative de sa propre existence ? La judaïsisation de la figure d'Ulysse qu'elle propose n'est-elle pas plutôt apte à exprimer la déréalisation des hommes par la temporalité et l'exil ? Je vais tenter de parcourir la relation existant entre la déréalisation du moi consécutive à l'exil et la réaffirmation poétique du «je » errant pour montrer que cette dernière constitue une attestation existentielle plutôt qu'une identité narrative du poète. A travers cette attestation, les délocalisations historiques (L'Exode) ou existentielles (Ulysse et Titanic) de l'homme confronté aux grandes migrations, au malheur individuel et aux dépossessions culturelles, instaurent un « je » errant qui rejoint, comme chez Walt Whitman, un corps souffrant universel. Notre thèse centrale est que l'ancrage autobiographique dans le poème fondanien sert de support à un dépassement de la « fantômatisation du moi » en ouvrant un espace de réhabilitation éthique avec le lecteur.

Artykuł został opublikowany z okazji 110 rocznicy zwodowania "Titanica", którego ogólnie znana katastrofa miała mało znaną przyczynę związaną z organizacją pracy i sposobem wynagradzania pracowników, którzy go budowali. W artykule nie powtarza się informacji powszechnie znanych, związanych ze zderzeniem z górą lodową i złą ewakuacją pasażerów. Zamiast tego dyskutowane są przyczyny technologiczne, co rzuca na znaną katastrofę zupełnie nowe światło.

Η παρούσα μελέτη πραγματεύεται την εμφάνιση και την ωρίμανση του συναισθήματος της αγάπης μεταξύ των ηρώων στις ταινίες "Τιτανικός" και "Το Μυστικό του Brokeback Mountain".
Το κεντρικό ερώτημα συνίσταται στη διερεύνηση του σημασιολογικού - ιδεολογικού φορτίου με το οποίο οι δημιουργοί των εν λόγω ταινιών επενδύουν την έννοια - αξία της αγάπης. Μέσα από τη σημειωτική ανάλυση επιλεγμένων σκηνών αναδεικνύονται όλες οι σημασιολογικές διαστάσεις μέσω των οποίων στοιχειοθετούνται ο ετεροφυλοφιλικός έρωτας των πρωταγωνιστών στην πρώτη ταινία και ο αντίστοιχος ομοφυλοφιλικός στη δεύτερη.

This article was first published in the Titanic Historical Society’s Titanic Commutator 2008: Volume 32 Number 183. Pages 108-12.
The original article examined what was then a new photograph of Britannic, showing her official transport number as ‘G.608’, in the early part of 1916, and another which showed it as ‘G.618’ in October 1916. The evidence available indicates Britannic had the number ‘G.608’ for the first phase of her career as a hospital ship and then ‘G.618’ for the second phase.  The reason for the change is still not known as it is not specifically documented.  However, it seems reasonable to suggest that the original number was simply freed up to be allocated to another ship, when Britannic was initially withdrawn from hospital ship service.  She was then allocated another one when she returned to service a few months later.

This article, published in two parts, combines insights form travel writing, history, and urban studies to explore the social welfare milieu of early 20th century New York City and its connection to disaster relief efforts for Titanic survivors.  It should be read with Part One, which appeared in Voyage 107 and is also posted on Academia.edu.

Over time the RMS Titanic which was a revolutionary development in shipbuilding has become a symbol for loss and calamity, completely losing its glamour as a state-of-the-art ocean liner. While it is easier to recall these memories of its tragedy over ones of it as a separate entity from its demise, it is imperative to reflect back on what the past has to offer, lest history turns into lost memory. Through various forms of documentation and recollection, the Titanic proves that it is, and always has been, in a class of its own.

A television programme made a number of false claims about Titanic's lifeboats, claiming that the ship's original design had included enough lifeboats for all the passengers and crew but that this had been changed.  The programme showed viewers primary source documentation which purported to support these claims, but an examination of their source shows the programme completely misrepresented the contents.  This article highlights the danger of inaccurate claims in secondary sources.  The article was published in the British Titanic Society journal Atlantic Daily Bulletin in March 2019.

Published with the British Titanic Society, this article outlines the fallout of the Titanic Disaster from the perspective of the GPO.  Using contemporary documents from the Postal Archive, it reveals not only the broader impact of the so-dubbed 'Ryan Trial' but also how Titanic's mail became one of the earliest cases of post-WWI Anglo-German/Austrian co-operation.
Atlantic Daily Bulletin (December, 2015), pp.22-32.

Objectives. We developed a survival scorecard from the Titanic passenger dataset using statistical scoring methods. We discuss the scorecard development process, assess the effectiveness of statistical scorecards, and analyze the characteristics of Titanic passengers that led to survival. Methods. From the Titanic dataset of 1,309 passengers and a binary dependent variable representing survival, we assessed nine (9) features using chi-square, Weight of Evidence (WoE), and Information Value. A logistic regression was fitted on the feature WoEs to predict survival, feature coefficients were used to determine score weights for each attribute, and an additive model on attribute scores per passenger determined survival scores. The resulting scorecards were assessed for risk ranking, and the characteristics of the passenger population were assessed for survivability and population shifts. Results. The resulting survival scorecard was able to rank survivability amongst Titanic passengers (K-S 0.558, ROC 0.892, CAP 0.765) with survival classification accuracy varying by score cutoff (AR 0.63-0.84). Sex was the strongest predictor of survivability (IV 145), followed by fare amount (IV 53), cabin class (IV 52), and passenger class (IV 51). Women passengers had four times higher survivability compared to men (72% vs. 16%). Passengers who paid $100 or more for their trip had nearly ten times higher survivability compared to free passengers (75% vs. 7.6%). Cabin passengers had higher survivability compared to non-cabin passengers with cabin B having nearly three times higher survivability compared to non-cabin passengers (75% vs. 27%). Class 1 passengers had nearly three times higher survivability compared to Class 3 passengers (62% vs. 22%). Conclusion. This paper illustrates the benefits of statistical scoring methods compared to other machine learning approaches in the analysis of event likelihood risks and performing population risk segmentation. Machine learning approaches usually focus on prediction accuracy while scorecards allow for cross-sectional analysis of population risks. Scorecard cutoffs provide avenues for decision-making on populations accounting for tradeoffs in accuracy, recall, precision, and specificity.

Özet: Sosyal ve kültürel içerikli konularda bireylerin ilgisini çekebilmek ve yaratıcı zekânın gücünü ortaya koyabilmek için iletişim ortamlarında sözlü ve yazılı mizahtan yararlanılmaktadır. İşlenen sosyal konuların içeriğinde ölüm ve kayıplara yol açan, üzerinden uzun yıllar geçmesine rağmen toplum hafızasından silinmeyen trajik olayların parodi gibi mizahın güçlü türleriyle ironik bir şekilde ele alındığı görülmektedir. Son yıllarda bu durumun özellikle internetin gücü sayesinde sadece yazılı ve sözlü mizah alanında sınırlı kalmayıp sosyal medya ve blog web sitelerinde grafik mizah, caps, gif gibi görsel mizahın yaygın olduğu alanlarda da paylaşımlara konu olmaktadır. Bu çalışmada Titanik kazasının, sosyal medya ve blog web sitelerinde bağlamından koparılarak mizahi bir dille nasıl kullanıldığı ele alınacaktır.