Titanic "a Voyage Into History" Dvd

[johndawsonjune1955]

Hi all.

Your local history group have just released Titanic "A Voyage into History" DVD

Its available from our website at http://www.sixtownships.org.uk

There is a connection with Tyneside and the Titanic.

A century has sailed by since the luxury steamship RMS Titanic met its catastrophic end in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage in April 1912. More than 1,500 people lost their lives in the disaster.

The largest passenger steamship ever built, Titanic created quite a stir when it departed for its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, on April 10, 1912.

However, the Titanic's reign as "Queen of the Sea†was short lived off the coast of Newfoundland when it hit the iceberg. That encounter took place roughly four days out, at about 11:30 p.m. on April 14.

A little more than an hour after contact with the iceberg, an evacuation process began with the lowering of the first lifeboat. In compliance with the law of the sea, women and children boarded the boats first; only when there were no women or children nearby were men permitted to board.

Titanic managed to stay afloat for close to three hours, before finally sinking at approximately 2:20 a.m. on April 15.

Those hours witnessed acts of extraordinary bravery. Hundreds of human dramas unfolded between the order to load the lifeboats. Men saw off wives and children, families were separated in the confusion and selfless individuals gave up their spots to remain with loved ones or allow a more vulnerable passenger to escape. Many of these acts of bravery are recalled in this DVD.

Cunard's RMS Carpathia, built by Swan Hunter, Wigham and Richardson at Wallsend, Tyneside in the UK, received Titanic's distress call at midnight and went at full speed dodging ice floes all night and rounded up all of the lifeboats. They contained only 705 survivors.

The Mackay Bennet was sent from the port of Halifax in the US with the grim task of recovering the bodies. It became known as the "Ship of Death†as it entered Halifax with the victims of the tragedy. However a great deal of the bodies were buried at sea by the Mackay Bennet.

In this superb DVD we begin our story from the design and building of the Titanic to its launch, its departure from Southampton and the tragedy. Witness rare archive footage along with survivors accounts of the tragedy. Witness the Carpathia's part out at sea and on its return with survivors. Also the Mackay Bennet's part in finding the bodies and there are some very sad scenes with some of the dead on board and in coffins being labelled up for identification purposes.

We then have the return of the Mackay Bennet to Halifax and the makeshift morgue with the dead, being photographed and the photograph sent to the White Star Line Offices for identification purposes.

Witness the burial of the victims in a mass grave.

This all adds up to a superb and emotional DVD to give an insight into this terrible tragedy.

total running time of DVD approx 45 minutes

Edited May 28, 2012 by johndawsonjune1955