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200,000 Titanic-Related Documents Published Online 55

Posted by samzenpus from the my-papers-will-go-on dept.
With the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking coming up, ancestry.com has released 200,000 documents online relating to the ill-fated ship. The documents provide information about survivors and the 1,500 people who died, a number of wills, and hundreds of coroner inquests. You can look at the Titanic document collection for free until May 13. From the article: "The records include the ship's official passenger list, which shows the names, ages and occupations of those on board the ill-fated liner. It also details the nationalities, positions and addresses of the ship's crew which had more than 900 members."
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200,000 Titanic-Related Documents Published Online More

200,000 Titanic-Related Documents Published Online

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  • there were a lot of Syrian emigrants on the ill-fated oceanliner. I liked that in Cameron's movie, he actually had some Syrians on screen for 2-3 seconds in steerage, confused about directions. Nice historical touch.

    double useless trivia: the movie had to be renamed for the Middle Eastern market, as "Titanic" sounds like a slang term for "let's have sex"

  • 200,000?

    So that's the precise definition of a boatload.

  • All of these (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Titanic-related headlines lately, from Cameron going deep-sea exploring to this current one, would have a suspicious person thinking that a subtle publicity campaign were underway for a Titanic re-release or something... I guess this is the new way to infiltrate the net - keep publishing little bullshit quasi-related stories week after week to keep "top of mind". Just like facebook/Zuckerberg and co did months before "social network" was released, except that one started by trying to bulldoze over a bunch

    • It's the 100 year anniversary. That is why all the articles, re-releases, hype, etc.

      • It's also the 100th anniversary of MDMA, Life Savers candy, the traffic light, and the electric blanket. Guess which of those had a greater impact on modern-day life? (Hint: It's all of them.)

        • Guess which of those had a greater impact on modern-day life? (Hint: It's all of them.)

          Not so certain about that one. The RMS Titanic disaster was directly responsible for:

          * The FCC (because it highlighted the problems with folks stepping all over each other on a given frequency, especially when there's an emergency going on)
          * The International Ice Patrol (which still exists today, and greatly impacts trans-Atlantic commerce)
          * Regulation requiring enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew, on every commercial vessel. (for obvious reasons)
          * Required safety drills on any commercial passenger

  • who cares? (Score:3)

    by cellocgw ( 617879 ) <cellocgw.gmail@com> on Monday April 09, 2012 @12:26PM (#39619833) Journal

    This is about as interesting as posting every document related to every person who emigrated from w00tdorf, Germany to yayoubetcha, Minnesota in 1890.

    • its another shameless Titanic plug - and its getting really dam annoying. using Google news to search 'Titanic' - I find: 23,100 results for the time span of Jan 2, 2012–Apr 9, 2012 and 9,980 for Jan 2, 2011–Jan 2, 2012.

      We could probably teach the Chinese a thing or two about media control

    • This is about as interesting as posting every document related to every person who emigrated from w00tdorf, Germany to yayoubetcha, Minnesota in 1890.

      Maybe it's not interesting to you... but the world doesn't revolve around you. This is going to be very interesting to genealogists and historians.

      My niece (the family genealogist and historian) has been bouncing off of the walls since she first heard rumors of this... supposedly we have a distant relative who died onboard Titanic and now she has ano

  • Missing passenger (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why, oh, why couldn't have Celine Dion been on that ship, too?

  • more slash advertising (Score:5, Informative)

    by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Monday April 09, 2012 @12:32PM (#39619895)

    from the piece-of-shit company:

    14 day free trial: Only one free trial of one of our subscription options is allowed per person. Free trial requires registration with a valid credit or debit card. You will be charged the full amount of your chosen subscription price on expiry of the free trial, unless you cancel your subscription earlier by calling 0800-wont-you-blowme or visiting My Account.

    save yourself the link clickage. they are selling shit and we just don't care...

    • But you don't actually have to start the 14-day free trial to do the record search from the Titanic. Originally that's what I thought as well. However you can start entering searches without starting the trial (I guess I went through the page where I created a login but then when I got to the credit card info page I clicked back to their main page) by hitting the orange Search Now button.

      I agree that the "give us your info now and we won't charge you immediately so this is FREE!" bit is sleazy.

  • When I was in college, I got myself obsessed with the Titanic disaster for whatever reason. I still find myself going back to it from time-to-time, and with the anniversary coming up, I've been listening more and more to Gavin Bryar's 60+ minute composition 'Sinking of the Titanic' [youtube.com], (fave clip) a piece which emulates the sound of the violinists who 'played on', playing underwater. However haunting it is, I used to put it on every night to help me sleep.

  • 2012 is also the 100th anniversary of the Oreo cookie and it is believed to be the end of the world by the Mayan calendar. Coincidence? I think not.......

  • Titanic deniers unite! (Score:3)

    by CODiNE ( 27417 ) on Monday April 09, 2012 @01:09PM (#39620365) Homepage

    I find this kind of blatant propaganda spreading disgusting!

    The whole idea that the Titanic sank is just another media hoax perpetrated by a clandestine organization to gain sympathy for their cause.

    The photo evidence? Doctored...
    The survivor interviews? Professional actors playing a role.
    The newspaper articles? A fraud perpetuated by media barons.

    Notice how in popular movies the passengers on the Titanic are always portrayed as VICTIMS?? They throw in all this sentimental romanticism... don't fall for it! They're manipulating the public and re-writing history.

    It's time we stand up against this and tell them we can't be deceived! It's time to teach our children the truth and turn students against their indoctrinating educators. Because if we don't then soon they'll take the reigns of power and change our way of life. It's time to stand up and say...

    TITANIC DENIERS UNITE!!!

  • More and more often I wonder (Score:3)

    by Lucas123 ( 935744 ) on Monday April 09, 2012 @01:09PM (#39620369) Homepage
    Do you think any of those 1,517 passengers who died ever imagined how famous they'd be simply because their ocean liner struck an iceberg and sank? I recently heard a really funny comment on NPR radio during the "Wait, Wait. Don't Tell Me" segment. "Titanic, the movie that spawed a real-life shipwreck."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
      There have been other maritime disasters but Titanic was the grandest with state of art technology, an unsinkable ship that went down on her maiden voyage. It has everything for compelling documentaries and dramatic movies. Regarding maritime disasters, an interesting site with lotsa photos of freighter transport loss at http://www.cargolaw.com/gallery.html#ocean.loss [cargolaw.com]

  • Oh, one of the later ships of the class (Score:4, Informative)

    by Lincolnshire Poacher ( 1205798 ) on Monday April 09, 2012 @01:12PM (#39620403)

    And the people of Belfast patiently await mention of RMS Titanic's sister-ship and first of class, RMS Olympic, which made her maiden crossing to New York on 31st May 1911 and continued in service until the early 1930s.

    A fine example of Harland & Wolff shipbuilding, she even survived the impact of a Royal Navy cruiser which collided with her making 19 knots.

    The launch of the Titanic, second of class, was a minor event compared to the ongoing adulation lauded on the Olympic. So you see, the Titanic was neither the largest ship in the World at the time, nor the most famous or glamorous. But that doesn't sell a film very well, does it?

    • And now, the rest of the story... (Score:4, Informative)

      by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater@@@gmail...com> on Monday April 09, 2012 @01:55PM (#39620907) Homepage

      And the people of Belfast patiently await mention of RMS Titanic's sister-ship and first of class, RMS Olympic, which made her maiden crossing to New York on 31st May 1911 and continued in service until the early 1930s.

      And they hope there's little mention of HMHS Britannic, the third sister - who also had something of an inglorious career.
       
      Her completion was delayed by months when WWI broke out and efforts were shifted to higher priority wartime Admiralty contracts. When she was completed she was laid up for months because the White Star line considered it too risky to place her into service.
       
      Then, after being requisitioned by the Admiralty and just a years service as a hospital ship - she struck a mine off the Grecian coast. Despite post-Titanic modifications (which prevented too many compartments from flooding), a damaged watertight door and open portholes on the lower decks lead to rapid flooding - and her Captain ordered he abandoned only twenty minutes after the explosion. Fifty five minutes after the explosion, she rolled over on her starboard side and sank.
       

      So you see, the Titanic was neither the largest ship in the World at the time, nor the most famous or glamorous. But that doesn't sell a film very well, does it?

        Olympic 45,325 tons. Titanic 46,328 tons.
       
      You should read the contemporary press - all of which lauded Titanic as the largest, most glamorous, most famous, etc... ship of the time. The hyperbole wasn't invented for the film and predates the sinking.

    • Your wrong. The Titanic was bigger than the Olympic.

      Sources:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic [wikipedia.org]
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic [wikipedia.org]

      -americamatrix
  • will they be in 3d or will we have to wait 10 years for them to be "improved with 3d technology"?

  • http://xkcd.com/

    • http://xkcd.com/

      I think you mean http://xkcd.com/1040/ [xkcd.com] - or you will do next week.

      I'm here for you with the Raymond Chandler sig. though. That's the stuff that dreams are made of...

      • Yes, thanks! Cut and Paste error, and I should have done a better job of previewing. Posterity will thank you, as they do Chandler :)

  • 200,000 is just the tip of the ....

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