The RMS Titanic - AMA!

BoarderPhreak I just saw this today in the local newspaper, you've probably already read it but I'll post the link in any case.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/days+after+...story.html

A timely story, Marko - while nothing new is presented, it's an interesting take on the event... The post-sinking scene. Grisly, no doubt.

Today is the fateful day... 105 years ago on April 14, 1912 - a Sunday - would mark the last full day the RMS Titanic steamed upon the waters of the north Atlantic. As she made her way westward, the air and sea temperatures would drop - ultimately with the former at, and the latter just below freezing, at 32/28ºF respectively. Reports of ice ahead come in from 9am until 10:50pm. The Titanic, traveling at 22.5 knots on calm seas with stunning, clear skies - would hit the iceberg at 11:40pm. The impact itself was only about ten seconds but would cause enough damage to sink her. Measuring only 12 square feet in total, it was spread over several of the watertight compartments - and being below the water line would cause the water to enter at a high pressure... Some 7-14 tons of it per second. 2:40 hours post-impact, at 2:20am on April 15, 1912... She was gone. Along with 1,512 of her passengers. For the 706 saved, help from the Carpathia wouldn't arrive until 4:10am when the first lifeboat was unloaded.

This tragedy has fascinated (and even haunted) me since I was a very young child. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit a Titanic exhibit. Among other things, they displayed some items that had been recovered from the ship and shared some stories of the passengers. It was a very sobering and thought-provoking experience. And was of course nothing compared to the tragedy itself, and everything that happened within those few hours on that fateful night.

I attended a lecture before attending arctic survival school by this senior chief corpsman. He talked about frostbite and keeping hydrated and the strange reactions of victims like stripping clothing because they feel hot. Then he got goulish and said drowning and freezing were actually pleasant ways to go after the initial panic as your body shuts down in increasing unconsciousness. I asked him 'How do you know?' and got chewed out.
I figured then, and now there are no nice ways short of in your sleep. I went to the PX, bought 12 fat Hershey bars, instant coffee and some beef jerky and sewed them into my issued parka. Everybody was drinking pine needle tea and eating the few unlucky rabbits caught in snares ( after we were lectured about rabbit starvation.) I'm in my survival trench covered with spruce bows and snow inside my sleeping bag drinking coffee with chocolate and jerky.