Titanic

The Titanic was one of the largest and most luxurious ships in the world. It had a gross registered tonnage (i.e., carrying capacity) of 46,329 tons, and when fully laden the ship displaced (weighed) 66,000 tons. The Titanic was 882.5 feet (269 metres) long and 92.5 feet (28.2 metres) wide at its widest point. It was designed and built by William Pirrie's Belfast firm Harland and Wolff to service the highly competitive Atlantic Ferry route. It had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. Because four of these could be flooded without endangering the liner's buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable.

Shortly before midnight on April 14, the ship collided with an iceberg about 400 miles (640 km) south of Newfoundland, and at least five of its watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured. The first four of these five compartments filled with water, which pulled down the bow of the ship. The Titanic's compartments were not capped at the top, so water from the ruptured forward compartments filled each succeeding compartment aft as the ship's incline brought the bow below the waterline. The ship sank at 2:20 AM April 15. The Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat spaces for the 2,224 persons aboard, and many of the lifeboats were lowered into the water only partly filled with passengers, thus leaving many people stranded on the sinking ship. As a result, about 1,500 people died. (Although the facilities proved to be inadequate, the Titanic had actually exceeded the lifeboat requirements of the British Board of Trade's regulations, which had been formulated for much smaller ships.)

Inquiries held in the United States and Great Britain alleged that the Leyland liner Californian, which was less than 20 miles (32 km) away all night, could have aided the stricken vessel had its radio operator been on duty and thereby received the Titanic's distress signals. Only the arrival of the Cunard liner Carpathia 1 hour and 20 minutes after the Titanic went down prevented further loss of life in the icy waters.

Many of those who perished on the ship came from prominent American, British, and European families. Among the dead were the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to the Straus and Astor fortunes. The glamour associated with the ship, its maiden voyage, and its notable passengers magnified the tragedy of its sinking in the popular mind. Legends arose almost immediately around the night's events, those who had died, and those who had survived. Heroes and heroines, such as American Molly Brown, were identified and celebrated by the press. The disaster and the mythology that has surrounded it have continued to fascinate millions.

As a result of the disaster, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London in 1913. The convention drew up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that lifeboat drills be held during each voyage; and, because the Californian had not heard the distress signals of the Titanic, that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch. The International Ice Patrol also was established to warn ships of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes.

Bow of the Titanic,
some 400 miles
south of Newfoundland, Canada.

On September 1, 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright in two pieces on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). The expeditions found no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship's hull by the iceberg. The scientists posited instead that the collision's impact had produced a series of thin gashes as well as brittle fracturing and separation of seams in the adjacent hull plates, thus allowing water to flood in and sink the ship. In subsequent years marine salvagers raised small artifacts from the wreckage and even attempted to lift a large piece of the hull.In the mid 80's Captain Bob Ballard located
the exact location of the infamous Titanic...an endeavor not always shared by the general public and indeed the surviving passengers of the great ship.In Newfoundland we have a saying 'those who go down to the sea in ships have found a sacred burial ground' Maybe the rest of the world should follow the wise sayings of England's oldest colony.

R Brentnall

Famous Newfoundland People

John Joseph Murphy was born at Catalina on 13 May 1849, the son of coastal sailing captain James Murphy and Alice (McDonald) Murphy. He was educated at St. Bonaventure's College in St. John's and became manager of the Greenspond branch of the Harbour Grace firm of Ridley and Sons in 1869. Murphy started his own fishery supply firm in 1871 and was in business at Greenspond until 1876. In that year he left the "general business of the country" and established a sawmill and shipbuilding company at Gambo. A succession of poor fisheries at Greenspond had forced Murphy to give up the supply business. Fortunately, he had previously purchased some sawmill machinery. Murphy applied himself to the development of Newfoundland's interior and natural resources and became one of Newfoundland's first lumber operators. For the next 28 years, "Gambo" Murphy (as he became known) oversaw an expanding establishment at Mint Brook, Gambo. In 1893 he constructed a hotel at Gambo, anticipating that he would be able to attract sportsmen and tourists, as Gambo was connected to the railway being constructed across

Newfoundland by Robert G. Reid. Murphy's hotel also served as station depot for the railway.
In 1904 Murphy sold his mill and logging rights to Newfoundland Timber Estates Ltd., a company owned by timber speculator Harry Crowe, W.D. Reid and American businessman Henry Whitney. He probably invested the proceeds of this sale in his growing interests in "electrification", particularly the United Towns Electric Company, which had been formed in 1902 by Alfred Penney and John P. Powell to supply electric power and lighting to Harbour Grace, Carbonear and other communities in Conception Bay.
Murphy entered politics when he was elected MHA for Harbour Main as a supporter of Edward Morris in the tie election of 1908. He was re-elected when Morris won a majority the following year. Murphy did not seek re-election in 1913, but accepted an appointment to the Legislative Council. He held his seat in the upper house of the legislature until the establishment of Commission of Government in 1934. By 1914 Murphy was United Towns Electric Company's majority shareholder and he was elected president of the company in 1915. In 1919 he formed the Avalon Telephone Company, to purchase the St. John's telephone system from Western Union. Murphy remained president of both companies until his death at St. John's
on 4 August 1938.
(Originally appeared in Vol. XXII of The Newfoundland Quarterly Aug 1974)

Bad Contractors on the internet

It was a crazy year with a few clients to fit the mould.They now have on the internet a list of bad contractors people should be aware of.I am not on it . I did however talk to a few guys over the past month about some pretty bad clients.Think I'll start that up though an internet

web service if I can find enough contractors with their own horror stories.This country...I don't know.Granted they both exist but the bad ones change their company names every year to keep their dishonest bank accounts above water.The city of Toronto does nothing to help

either side so what can one expect.When "Holmes on Holmes" aired on HGTV a couple years back Canadian Homeowners got this idea that

their saviour had arrived.This man is making millions not on helping a few people here and there but selling Dewalt Power Tools to an uneducated public who has come to believe he is the way to a better

construction future.How very sad.You've seen him advertising coffee,

food products and the latest "Help the united Way" This is a Canadian Celebrity and no Saviour. See Here to try finding an answer from "Holmes on Holmes".Look a little closer Canada .Give me your views......... pro and con. Video