It was a disaster like no other at that time. The world’s biggest (and self-proclaimed ‘unsinkable’) ship set off from Southampton on 10 April 1912, bound for New York. It was her maiden voyage, and the crowd seeing it off was huge. Little did they know that just 5 days later all onboard would be fighting for their life, with the vast majority not making it.

2.20am, 15 April 1912, just a mere 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean, the unthinkable happened to the unsinkable. The Titanic sank.

Route of Titanic’s first/last maiden voyage, 10-15 April 1912
(Creative Commons licence, Prioryman)

total capacity: 3547 passengers and crew
total onboard: 2206 passengers and crew
total survived: 703 passengers and crew 

That was 105 years ago, and it still has an impact.

The movie below is from British Pathè’s collection, and is just one of the 85,000 old movies they have made freely available. Showing actual footage of the ship, the rescue ships, together with interviews of some survivors, it is chilling.

There’s no doubt that the Titanic has become the stuff of legend.

I remember asking my grandma about it though she wasn’t born at the time, but her older sisters were, and they remembered it, being aged 11 and 12.

So I decided to see what the local South Australian newspapers wrote about it.

The following was the first report of it in South Australia’s “The Advertiser”, was was dated 18 April 1912. Not too bad considering that communication back then wasn’t as instant as we have today. It didn’t make front page like it did in the US or England, but it did make a big article on page 9. The article blow is just a small portion of it.

The Wreck of the Titanic, (18 April 1912, The Advertiser , p. 9.) http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article5336985

And as you would expect, every Australian newspaper ran the story, together with all the reports afterwards. For newspapers just in South Australia, and just in April 1912, Trove has 1000 articles. I’ll admit it, I didn’t read them all.

There’s no doubt this tragedy rocked the world, but something that I was reminded of reading a current news article relating to the 105th Anniversary of this event, was of those who had to go out afterwards and “collect the dead”. We tend to think of the rescuers, but forget about those who went in afterwards.

“As rescue ships approached the ghostly sea where the Titanic plunged into the ocean in the dead of the cold night on April 15, 1912, white specks began to appear in the distance. To onlookers aboard, they looked like “clustering and moving along the waves like a flock of seagulls”. Hundreds of them. All grouped together. The white specks were frozen bodies of the dead, wrapped in the ill-fated steamer’s life belts. For days, great quantities of these bodies, along with doors, pillows, chairs, tables, and scattered remains, floated along the North Atlantic.”

You can read the “Rescue Crews Reveal the Grisly Aftermath of the Titanic Tragedy” here.

So on this day, 105 years on, we remember not only those who lost their life and their families, as well as who were fortunate enough to survive this tragedy, but also those who had the horrific task of “cleaning up” afterwards. Every one of them would have had their life changed from the events that took place on 12 April 1912.

More info on the Titanic:
For more Titanic related old movies from British Pathè click here
100 Facts about the Titanic
Timeline of the Titanic
Wikipedia’s entry for RMS Titanic

Please Note: there are slight discrepancies in the number who died, and the number who survived. One articles says 703 survived, another says 706, another says 705. Another article says 1503 died, another 1517. I’m no professional historian, so I can’t say for sure which is the real figure, but it would be a matter of looking further at how each have calculated their numbers.

Day 12 – at Sea (Thursday 25 February 2016)
Our cruise continues, and this post is part 1 of my report of Day 12 of the 10th Unlock the Past cruise. I spent the whole morning of this day exploring the ship. And I don’t mean the regular public areas (any of the 16 decks), even though there are areas of this ship I haven’t seen yet. But in this case I’m meaning the areas that passengers normally don’t get to see. I was fortunate enough to be able to take part in a “Behind the Scenes” tour of the ship. The rest of Day 12s happenings will follow in a separate post.

The day was sea day, so it was a full day of talks, but I skipped the morning ones to take part in the tour and to say it was fascinating is an understatement.

We were taken to the bridge and met the captain, the stage and costume area, the mooring station (where the ropes and anchors are) – they are beyond HUGE, the recycling area (they recycle nearly everything), the food storage and freezer areas, the wine and beer storage room, the engineering room, one of the nine or so galley (food preparation areas), the crew “mess hall” meal area, the crew bar and their shop, the main hall way (highway I95). Two places that I was hoping to see, that wasn’t on this tour was the laundry and printing areas – they are fascinating. Oh well. The tour was followed by a special lunch at the Silk Harvest Restaurant (the asian specialty restaurant onboard), however I didn’t stay for that, as I needed to get back to the conference.

Anyway I wanted to share some of the amazing stats and pictures from this four hour tour. As with the pics in my earlier posts, click on each for a larger image.

A few statistics:
– 16 decks
– 317m (1041ft) length, 43m (121ft) width
– maximum cruising speed 24 knots
– uses 240 tonnes of fuel per hour (126 gallows per mile)
– 1426 staterooms
– 2690 passengers (max 2850)
– 1246 crew members
– crew comes from 70 different countries
– English is the common language
– 17 bars and/or restaurants

And a few average stats for food and drink based on an average 7 night cruise. For more see the last photo below.
– 22,654 pounds of beef
– 10,211 pounds of chicken
– 26,812 pounds of fresh vegetables
– 9,235 dozen eggs
– 2,450 tea bags
– 120 pounds of herbs and spics
– 11,904 bottles of wine
– 19,200 litres of beer

view backwards from the bridge of the Celebrity Solstice

view from the bridge

One of the many rope wheels (that’s my term btw) in the mooring area. These are the ropes that are used when the ship docks

one of the anchor chain wheels in the mooring station

costume area of the stage performers

a sign on the I95 corridor on the Celebrity Solstice

a few of the 1000s of boxes of fruit onboard

great to see South Australian melons being used

just a few of the 1000s of bottles of wine

one of the galley (food preparation) sections onboard

one of the galley (food preparation) sections onboard
chefs of the left preparing food, the waiters on the right getting their orders

the Silk Harvest Restaurant

average store supplies used on the Celebrity Solstice

The rest of Day 12 and following days to come shortly …

Related Posts:
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 1-3 Embarking, Roses and Glow-worms
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 4-6 Genealogy, Crazy Wind and Step Record
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 7-10 Chocolate, Bagpipes, Mountains and Talks Galore
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Day 11 Hummer, Didgeridoos, Sunshine

It’s hard to believe that a week on the 10th Unlock the Past cruise has passed by already. But what’s harder to believe is how many more days are still left.

So the adventures continue with the ship stopping at Dunedin and Fiordland where we saw Dusky Sound, Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound (ok, technically it didn’t stop, but we gently sailed through them) and then it was time to leave New Zealand and head for Australia.

Day 7 – Dunedin (Saturday 20 February 2016)
While I have visited New Zealand previously, I hadn’t been to the South Island at all, so everything there was new to me, including Dunedin. This was also the next stop for shore seminars for the Unlock the Past team, but for me it was a day to explore again. We docked at the freight yard and were bused into Dunedin city. The city map I was given showed that there was a Cadbury Chocolate Factory in the city centre, so being the chocoholic that I am, that’s where I headed first. Not only do they have a shop with “Cadbury” everything, but I was able to do tour of the factory, getting samples along the way … of course. After exploring a few more streets and shops I headed back to the port, after which I then decided to walk up a big hill that overlooked the harbour the dockyards. Why I still don’t know – but  I did. And the view was spectacular, which was just as well, after all that effort. The ship left Dunedin at 5pm and headed for The Sounds, but at around 7pm we were turning around and the Captain advised that there had been a medical emergency with a passenger onboard and we needed to return to Dunedin. We actually didn’t make all the way back to Dunedin as a medivac helicopter came (yes, the ship even has a helipad) and took the passenger off to hospital. So we lost a little time, but we continued on toward The Sounds. Judy Russell was up again for the evening talk. This one was titled “Feme sole, feme covert: Women under the common law” which was about women, and finding their records. Feme sole is the term used for a 21 year old women who was unmarried (which includes those who were divorced or widowed), while Feme covert is the term use if they were married. Judy said that term “covert” essentially means hidden and once a women was married records for her become harder to find, as they are in her husbands name (ie. Mrs William Smith) – we all know about that don’t we, and the frustration it causes!! But Judy gave many fabulous examples of way to be able to find these women – including looking for records through the men and listed oodles of record types  where you may well find them. Now I just need to find some time to search for all the women ancestors.

Celebrity Solstice docked at Dunedin

the Cadbury factory in Dunedin, New Zealand

the original Cadbury milk truck from the early 1900s

free samples from the Cadbury tour

the Scottish Pipe Band competition was on, on the day we were in Dunedin

the view of (half of) the ship from the top of the big hill

view of Dunedin harbour from the top of the big hill

the Anglican Holy Trinity Church,
Port Chalmers, Dunedin

Rosemary and Eric Kopittke

Judy G. Russell talking about Feme Sole, Feme Covert

Day 8 – Fiordland (Sunday 21 February 2016)
After leaving Dunedin and heading to The Sounds (also known as Fiordland) we were hit with rough seas … which wasn’t fun for anyone. I didn’t hear of anyone actually getting seasick, but I’m sure there were a few. It was very much a case of if you weren’t holding on to something when moving around, you were likely to go flying. After leaving the sea, and heading into Fiordland, the rough seas subsided and in fact it went dead calm. Our day in Fiordland was a tourist sea day so no talks were scheduled. It was a day to sit on the ship and watch all the scenery of  The Sounds.

Jan Gow had the evening talk which was titled “Gadget Janet: 12 Devices or Programs that Will Turn your Computer Into a Friend Instead of a Foe”. Covering: cameras, smartphones, tablets, Flip-Pal scanner, scanner mouse, voice records, pen Livescribe and more … there are lots of tech tools that you can use to help you with your genealogy and research.

the seas were rough coming around the bottom of New Zealand

but was dead calm when we got to Dusky Sound.
This is the view from my cabin

a selfie at Milford Sound

Milford Sound is stunning!

Day 9 – At Sea (Monday 22 February 2016)
After our easy day of visiting The Sounds, we had two full days of talks. Of the 8 talks scheduled during the day, I sat in on 7 of them:
– Internet searching from go to woah! Or is it woe? (Jan Gow)
– Government, police and education gazettes (Rosemary Kopittke)
– Discovering your Irish roots part 2 (Paul Blake)
– It’s no tall online: where else can I look (Shauna Hicks)
– Australian women in the First World War (Marg Doherty)
– Of public wrongs: our common scoundrels (Judy Russell)
– Using life events and ages to solve genealogy problems (Louis Kessler)

The last session of the day wasn’t a talk as such, but rather a panel discussion on “Future Proofing Your Genealogy” which covered topics such as genealogy software, paper vs digitising, and what happens to your research when you die. These topics where discussed by Jan Gow, Judy Russell, Shauna Hicks, Paul Blake, Helen Smith, and Louis Kessler each giving their views … and to say that it was a lively discussion would be an understatement. The one hour time slot for the panel discussion came and went, and it would have kept going all night if we couldn’t. It was a topic that everyone was interested in.

And I couldn’t write about today without making mention that it was also one of three formal nights on our cruise. Actually on this ship it is it is now no longer called “formal night” but rather “evening chic” – a night to dress up and eat in the snazzy dining room. It really isn’t my style, but I did say I’d do it once … so I did. And while the food was fine, the company was lovely.

the formal dining room on the Celebrity Solstice

one end of our formal dinner table:
Judy G. Russell, Helen Smith, Jennie Fairs, Maureen Trotter

Jan Gow, Louis Kessler and Alona Tester at the formal dinner

the “Future Proofing Your Genealogy” panel
Jan Gow, Judy G. Russell, Shauna Hicks, Helen Smith, Paul Blake and Louis Kessler

Day 10 – At Sea (Tuesday 23 February 2016)
Our second day in row of talks and I made it to 7 of the 9 talks.
– Mining ancestors: knowing where to look (Shauna Hicks)
– Using timelines in genealogical research (Helen Smith)
– Organizing your genealogy computer files … the better way to do it (Louis Kessler)
– Preservation or perish (Diane Foster)
– Protestant nonconformity in England and Wales part 2 (Paul Blake)
– ABCs of DNA (Judy Russell)
– Beyond just indexes (Rosemary Kopittke)
It was an amazing day day of learning covering so many different aspects of genealogy, which you can tell simply from the titles. But I can guarantee you that there no new step records for me today – it just doesn’t happen when you sit on your butt and listen to talks all day!!

Shauna Hicks speaking on Mining Ancestors

Louis Kessler speaking on Organizing our genealogy computer files

Judy G. Russell speaking about the ABCs of DNA

sunset

the Celebrity Solstice grand staircase at night

Related Posts:
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 1-3 Embarking, Roses and Glow-worms
10th Unlock the Past Cruise: Days 4-6 Genealogy, Crazy Wind and Step Record

I’ve written before about how excited I am about going on the 8th Unlock the Past cruise to the Baltic. With just a few days until I hop on a plane and head to England, that excitement hasn’t diminished one bit … in fact it’s getting super exciting.

As I’ve already written about the Celebrity Eclipse ship and so forth, but I wanted to share with you one of the key factors that made me choose to go on this cruise. And that is the speakers and their talks. Afterall I am going for the conference. The ship and the touristing is in fact secondary – well sort of.

Anyway the group of speakers on this cruise is awesome, and their combined knowledge is mind-blowing. Just check out the list of what they’ll be speaking on:

CAROL BAXTER (Australia)
Crafting a good book
Gripping writing
Help! Which information is correct? Strategies for determining historical truth
Publishing options
Sensory writing
Solving the ‘unsolvable’
Structuring a family history or other work of non-fiction

CAROL BECKER (United States)
So you are married to a genealogist?

CHRIS BRAUND (England)
An evening with Master Christopher: 17th century barber surgeon

TRICIA FAIRWEATHER (Australia)
Bride ships in all but name: Miss Monk and the servant girls

JANET FEW (England)
A to Z of family history: some less well known UK sources
Coffers, clysters, comfrey and coifs: the lives of our 17th century ancestors
Farm, fish, faith or family?: emigration from North Devon 1830-1900
Putting your ancestors in their place: a guide to one place studies
’Til death us do part: causes of death 1300-1948

CAROLINE GURNEY (England)
Tracing merchant seamen
Using manorial & parochial records to trace agricultural labourers

SHAUNA HICKS (Australia)
Caring for your family archives
Diaries and letters: fleshing out the family history
Family history on the cheap: tips and tricks
Military ancestors: discover their stories
Skeletons in the family: looking at convicts, prisons and asylum records
What was the voyage really like

ERIC KOPITTKE (Australia)
German family history in the ‘Information Age’
Locating your ancestor’s place of origin in Germany
Researching in German civil and church records

ROSEMARY KOPITTKE (Australia)
Directories and almanacs
Getting the most out of Google
TheGenealogist.co.uk: what’s the difference?

CYNDI INGLE (United States)
A guided tour of Cyndi’s List 2.0
Building a digital research plan
Evernote for every genealogist
Foreign language tools for English-speaking genealogists
Maintaining an organised computer
Pin your ancestors down with Google Maps & Google Earth
The internet: lower your expectations to raise your research potential
Timelines: the straight line between you and your ancestor

PAUL MILNER (United States)
1914: tracing your British WWI soldier
Are you lost? Using maps, gazetteers & directories for British Isles research
Buried treasure: what’s in the English parish chest
Discover English census records
Discover English parish registers
Occupation and Guild records
Tracing your pre-WWI British soldier
What were our ancestors really like?

GORDON NUTTALL (United States)
Creating videos for online (YouTube)
Rescuing water-damaged photos from Hurricane Sandy … in the US
The story behind the birth of the Flip-Pal mobile scanner

CHRIS PATON (Scotland)
British and Irish newspapers
Discover Irish land records
Discover Scottish civil registration records
Discover Scottish land records
Down and out in Scotland
Genealogy without borders
Irish records online
The Godly Commonwealth: discover Scottish church records

HELEN SMITH (Australia)
Ask grandma: getting the family stories before it is too late
Making genealogical research time
Researching Australian and New Zealand Great War soldiers
Researching your health history
Using DNA to solve genealogical puzzles

JANE TAUBMAN (England)
Family Historian: general introduction
Family Historian: entering information Focus Window and Diagrams
Family Historian: creating and customising reports and books
Family Historian: creating and customising diagrams
Family Historian: using queries and plugins
Scanning and restoring old photographs

BARBARA TOOHEY (Australia)
Chart your family history

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I won’t be getting to every one of them, as some are on in parallel. But on a previous cruise I did get to about 50 or so, and I must say that I was completely brain drained by the end of it. But there’s no doubt I certainly learned a lot. The beauty of an Unlock the Past cruise is you can simply pick and choose what you want to go to. One or two in the morning, then do your own thing for the rest of the day – or have a whole day of conferencing, followed by none for a few days. You get to pick and choose what you’d like to attend.

So geneacruisers (or those who hope to one day)… which talks would choose to go to? As I said in the heading SO. MUCH. CHOICE.

———————————————————

And for those that love your numbers and facts, here’s a few interesting tidbits about the ship and this Voyage

1 – it is the first Unlock the Past cruise to the Baltic region
8 – this cruise is the 8th Unlock the Past cruise
16 – the number of presenters
68 – the number of talks in the conference on this voyage

8 – the number of metres the ship is underwater (27ft draught)
17 – the number of decks on Celebrity Eclipse
24 – 24 knots is the cruise speed (44 km/h; 28 mph)
37 – the ship is 37 metres wide (121ft)
61 – this is how many metres high the ship is (200ft)
317 – the length of the ship in metres (1041ft)
1250 – number of crew
2010 – the Celebrity Eclipse was first launched in 2010
2850 – passenger capacity
122,000 – the ship weighs an immense 122,000 tonnes (or 122000000 kg)
750,000,000 – this ship cost US$750 million, – that’s a whole lot of money … but it’s also about how many steps I’ll probably have done by the end of this cruise!!