98 years ago, the great "unsinkable ship" slipped below the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. She took some people with her, left many to die in the water from hyperthermia, and her life boats afloat, only partially filled, for the majority of them.

The ship's officers and men performed admirably, while the band played on, in order to help maintain calm among the passengers.

The fortunate male passengers stood by calmly, on the deck, while watching their wives and children depart on a lifeboat, knowing their families were going to be saved but facing a life without the husband/father. The unfortunate males did what they could, trying to protect their families from the inevitable.

A truly tragic event.

"...A truly tragic event..."

Yup. And sadly it could have been avoided...

Terrible event.

Although I normally hate the use of the word tragic to describe catastrophic or disastrous incidents, it is probably appropriate in the case of the Titanic.

With improvements in radio communications and the closing of some watertight doors, many more may have survived.

As with countless other historical events, we are reminded by the Titantic incident how the arrogance of humans leads inevitably to their painful loss. No matter how big, how strong, how durable we make things, nature will always find a way to overcome our will to control our world and remind us just how puny we really are. We can be flicked aside with little more effort than it takes to flick away a bug. We are figuratively as fragile as the most delicate of glass figurines.

I had to be the bearer of bad news, but it's the 96th anniversary of the RMS Titanic sinking (she went down in April 1912).

However, to make up for being a history fanatic, I want to share a great website for radio communication buffs: The Titanic Redio Website . I found it to help debunk some of the silly Titanic myths.

- Brian

CQD CQD

^^^^^^^lol^^^^^^^^^ Its also my friends birthday...and the day abe lincon was shot (is this correct).....and tax day...Yay you all get to be envious of my cuz I dnt have to do taxes..yet

My wife, the former Navy Radioman, read those with great interest...

That's funny, but I feel weird laughing about it.

wasn't meant to be funny.

OK.

My mistake. I thought it was humorous, because from what I've read the use of CQD was one of the problems. As i said, it feels weird laughing about such a disastrous event, but we also laugh only when to do otherwise would hurt.

One of the most complete radio logs of the RMS Titanic disaster is here. From what research I did on the Titanic back in middle or high school, the confusion was not caused by the use of both the CQD and SOS prosigns. Each receiver of the distress call successfully understood that the Titanic was reporting a distress call, but it seems that no one fully understood or believed the severity of the Titanic’s situation.

Yeah - I've read a lot of the logs. I agree - almost all the radiomen who had their radios on (Hello Carpathia....) understood these were a distress call. As said above, I don't think they thought she could really be going down THAT fast. I also think that some of the radiomen realized she was going down that fast, but could NOT convince their Captain - of if they could, they were just too far away to do anything