R.M.S. Titanic
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------- Before You Read R.M.S. Titanic Literary Focus presented in an engaging and compelling manner. In subjective writing the writer Irony: It's Unexpected adds his or her opinions, judgments, or The following account of the Titanic's feelings. As you read, determine Baldwin's maiden voyage illustrates both situa approach. What stance does he strike tional irony (which occurs when what immediately in his first paragraph? happens is the opposite of what we expect to happen or should happen) Reading Skills ~ and dramatic irony (which occurs in literature when the reader knows some U nderstanding Text Structures thing important that the characters do The sinking of the Titanic involved a com not know). plex series of actions occurring within a The passengers on the Titanic, including few hours. In writing his account of the the great ship's builders and disaster, Baldwin uses the headings 1-V its financial backers, be as text structures to organize and divide lieved that they were chat complicated rush of events. Each on an unsinkable ves numbered part covers a different stage in sel. Their confidence, the tragedy. Another chronological text or arrogance, is one structure is the notation of time--as the of the great ironies minutes tick by in Part II. These reminders of twentieth-century build suspense and help you keep stark history. Even the nam track of the unfolding disaster. ing of the ship is ironic. The Titans were ancient Greek gods possessing enormous size and incredible strength. For eons they reigned supreme in the universe, according to Greek mythology. Perhaps those who named the ship had forgotten that even the Titans did not rule forever. Objective and Grade 8 Subjective W riting Review Reading This account of the sinking of the Titanic Standard 2.7 may remind you of other disaster stories. Evaluate the structural When reporting on a catastrophe, differ patterns of text. ent writers may begin with the same facts Reading yet present the event in vastly differing Standard 3.8 ways. Interpret and evaluate the In objective writing only the facts impact of are included; the writer's views aren't The Titanic, underwater 375 miles southeast of ironies in a text. revealed. Those facts, however, can be Newfoundland, in the summer of 1991 . 328 li@§j Irony and Ambiguity • Generating Research Questions and Evaluating Sources • ' The Titanic's captain, E. J. Smith. Make the Connection Quickwrite t' Choose any kind of disaster- a sinking Vocabulary Development ship, an earthquake, a raging tornado, a flood, an avalanche. Put yourself there. superlative (sa · pttr'la · tiv) adj.: supreme; Write briefly about how you think you'd better than all others. feel and what you'd do. Save your notes. ascertain (as'ar- tan') v.: find out with certainty; determine. Background corroborated (ka- rab'a. rat'id) v.: sup The following article on the Titanic disaster po~ed; upheld the truth of. was written by Hanson Baldwin in 1934. quelled (kweld) v.: quieted; subdued. Baldwin's account was based on exhaus tive factual research at the time, including poised (poizd) v. used as adj.: balanced; a review of ship logs and other records as in position. well as numerous interviews. perfunctory (par, furik'ta · re) adj.: not Since the publication of this landmark exerting much effort; unconcerned. article, public fascination with the Titanic garbled (gar'bald) v. used as adj.: con disaster has continued to grow, and more fused; mixed up. information has been revealed. For exam recriminations {ri ,krim'a,na'shanz) n.: ple, a pioneering underwater exploration accusations against an accuser; counter of the wreck in 1986 was unable to find a three-hundred-foot gash in the ship, which charges. Baldwin described. Instead, divers in a· pertinent {pttrt''n · ant) adj.: having some mini-submarine saw buckled seams and connection with the subject. separated plates in the ship's hull, which vainly (van'le) adv.: without success; are probably what caused the ship co flood fruitlessly. and sink. R.M .S. Titanic 329 R.M.S. I he White Star liner Titanic, largest ship the world T had ever known, sailed from Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York on April 10, 1912. The paint on her strakes 1 was fair and bright; she was fresh from Harland and Wolff's Belfast yards, strong in the strength of her forty-six thousand tons of steel, bent, hammered, shaped, and riveted through the three years of her slow birth. I. strakes n.: single lines of metal plating extending the whole length of a ship. There was little fuss and fanfare at her sailing; on Thursday, April 11, she stood out of Queens her sister ship, the Olympic-slightly smaller town harbor, screaming gulls soaring in her than the Titanic-had been in service for some wake, with 2,201 persons-men, women, and months and to her had gone the thunder of the children-aboard. cheers. Occupying the Empire bedrooms and Geor But the Titanic needed no whistling steamers gian suites of the first-class accommodations or shouting crowds to call attention to her were many well-known men and women superlative qualities. Her bulk dwarfed the ships Colonel John Jacob Astor and his young bride; near her as longshoremen singled up her moor Major Archibald Butt, military aide to President ing lines and cast off the turns of heavy rope Taft, and his friend Frank D. Millet, the painter; from the dock bollards. 2 She was not only the John 13. Thayer, vice president of the Pennsylva largest ship afloat, hut was believed to be the nia Railroad, and Charles M. Hays, president of safest. Carlisle, her builder, had given her double the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada; W. T. bottoms and had divided her hull into sixteen Stead, the English journalist; Jacques Futrelle, watertight compartments, which made her, men French novelist; H.B. Harris, theatrical manager, thought, unsinkable. She had been built to be and Mrs. Harris; Mr. and Mrs. Isidor Straus; and and had been described as a gigantic lifeboat. I. Bruce Ismay, chairman and managing director Her designers' dreams of a triplc-screw3 giant, a of the White Star Line. luxurious, floating hotel, which could speed to Down in the plain wooden cabins of the New York at twenty-three knots, had been care steerage class were 706 immigrants to the land uf fully translated from blueprints and mold loft promise, and trimly stowed in the great holds lines at the Belfast yards into a living reality. was a cargo valued at $420,000: oak beams, The Titanic's sailing from Southampton, sponges, wine, calabashes/ and an odd miscel though quiet, was not wholly uneventful. As the lany of the common and the rare. liner moved slowly toward the end of her dock The Titanic took her departure on Fastnet that April day, the surge of her passing sucked Light0 and, heading into the night, laid hn away from the quay4 the steamer New York, course for New York. She was due at quarantine' moored just to seaward of the Titanic's berth. the following Wednesday morning. There were sharp cracks as the manila mooring lines of the New York parted under the strain. Sunday dawned fair and clear. The Titanic The frayed ropes writhed and whistled through steamed smoothly toward the west, faint the air and snapped down among the waving crowd on the pier; the New York swung toward 5. calabashes (kal';i,b,ncl1':J1) 11.: large smoking pipes the Tita11ic's bow, was checked and dragged back made from tht' necks of gourds. to the dock barely in time to avert a collision. 6. Fastnet Light: lighthouse at the southwestern tip of Ireland. After the fastnet Light there is only open sea Seamen muttered, thought it an ominous start. until the coast of '.'>Jorth America. 7. quarantine I kwrlr'Jn •ten ) 11.: place where a ship is Past Spithead and the Isle of Wight the Titmzic held in port after arrival to determine whether its steamed. She called at Cherbourg at dusk and passengers and cargo are free of communicable di, eases. Quamnti11e can also be used for the length of then laid her course for Queenstown. At I :30 P.M. time a ship is held. 2. bollards (bal'.xdz) 11.: strong posts on a pier or wharf for holding a ship's mooring ropes. Vocabulary 3. triple-screw: three-propellered. superlative (sa · ptlr'la · tiv) adj.: supreme; better than a 11 others. 4. quay (ke) 11.: dock. 332 li@tfj Irony and Ambiguity • Generating Research Questions and Evaluating Sources --4:i,y the nearby Leyland liner, Californian, calling the Titanic. The Californian had some message about three icebergs; he didn't bother then to take it down. About I :42 P.M. the rasping spark of those days spoke again across the water. It was the Baltic, calling the Titanic, warning her of ice on the steamer track. Bride took the message down and sent it up to the bridge. 11 The officer-of-the-deck glanced at it; sent it to the bearded master of the Titanic, Captain E. C. Smith, 12 a veteran of the White Star service. It was lunchtime then; the cap tain, walking along the promenade deck, saw Mr. Ismay, stopped, and handed him the message without comment. Ismay read it, stuffed it in his pocket, told two ladies about the streamers of brownish smoke trailing from her icebergs, and resumed his walk. Later, about 7: 15 funnels. The purser held services in the saloon in P.M., the captain requested the return of the 8 the morning; on the steerage deck aft the immi message in order to post it in the chart room for grants were playing games and a Scotsman was the information of officers.