Oh the humanity!....

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Today, 6 May is the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the Luftschiff Zepplin 127 --- The Hindenberg. On that evening in Lakehurst NJ, the airship caught fire while docking and was completely destroyed in a matter of minutes.

ruveyn

I'm still waiting for the tear-jerking, cheesy romantic Hollywood movie with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. "I'll never let go, Jack. I promise!" Fwoooosh.

I've always wondered exactly how and why the Titanic managed to catch peoples' imaginations so much. It certainly caught mine. Titanic was one of my most major special interests when I was in grade and middle school. It wasn't the first ship to sink, and many more people died on other ships. As a matter of fact, the ship was never said to be unsinkable until AFTER it sank. It didn't really get any coverage, either, other than some articles saying it was the Olympic's younger sister or something. There have been some five movies on Titanic made, including a German one people know as the Nazi Titanic or something.

There are three Disasters in the 20 th century that seem to have a meaning or significance beyond that of the happening itself

The wreck of Titanic, the wreck of Hindenberg and the wreck of Challenger in 1986. The Challenger disaster showed what a corrupt of spoiled organization NASA was (and is).

ruveyn

Dear Ruveyn, Corruption?
Corruption anywhere in the American Government?
Oh, please...
Surely you jest!

Sylkat

especially as it made zeppelins (which i prefer above all other transport) unfashionable for the rest of the 20c.

Both shuttles that failed were using tanks built in New Orleans, They were the best political patronage could make, as fine as our levees.

NASA was told to shut up and not ask questions if they knew what was good for them.

Our space program was built by the lowest bidder, who was pre qualified by Members of Congress.

It was not corruption, it was the standard method of government procurment.

As The President said, just as the market crashed, "No one did anything, it was all legal, there is nothing to investigate." They are in charge and they have this under control.

The Hindenburg burned because the US refused to sell Helium to Germany, so they had to use Hydrogen.

The wierd thing is that the fascination with the Titanic disaster seems to have begun even earlier than you might have supposed.

The merchant seaman turned jeweler turned book author Morgan Robertson published a novel entitled "Futility" in which the protagonist has many adventures including a transatlantic voyage on the world's latest and greatest luxury liner. The voyage ends abruptly when the great ship collides in mid ocean with an iceberg and sinks with virtually all 3000 on board dieing because "the ship only carried the minimun number of lifeboats allowed by law".

The name of the fictional ship was the "Titan".

But the novel was published in 1898- fourteen years BEFORE the fatal maiden voyage of the Titanic!

So in a sense the first of the many fictional pop culture dramas set aboard the "Titanic" actually predated the Titanic!

There were other similaries between the simularly named fictional and real liners: both had three propellers, both sank in the month of April. The fictional Titan was bigger and faster than any ship existing in 1898 but was very similiar in size speed and other specs to the real Titanic of 1912.

There were some differences. The Titan was equipped with square sails which was normal for steamships of 1898-even big liners.

In 1905 the Germans came out with the first sleek four stacked liners that dispensed with sails - that had the 20th Centurey look that the Titanic would have.

Its tempting to think that Robertson was a psychic, but I think he just knew the maritime industry and knew how ruthless ship owners were and was able to extropolate from current trends how ships were going to evolve and was able to weave it into a great yarn.

I know I'm an as*hole for asking, but are you old enough to remember it?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

His age is right there under his avatar.

Apparently he was born the year it happened. So obviously hes almost-but-not-quite old enough to directly remember it.

I was not quite one year old at the time. So it did happen in my lifetime. If I had been at Lakehurst I am not sure if I would have remembered it or not. I do have some memories of things that happened before I was two years old.

I remember how upset everybody in the house was when the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbor. And I can remember bits and snatches of the 1939 World's Fair. I remember the Trylon and Perisphere structure all lit up a night.

ruveyn

Did you know that the Nazis had wanted the rename the Hindenburg the Hitler? As it turns out, the head of the Zeppelin company was a strident Anti-Nazi, and so resisted them.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Thats interesting for a number of reasons.
Hitler was very sensitive to publicity.
One of the "pocket battleships" was named "the Deutschland", but when the war broke out he hurriedly had the named changed to "the Lutzow" because he didnt want to run the risk that there would be a front page news story about "Germany" sinking. So though I salute mr zeppilin for saying no to the Nazis, it wouldve been kinda cool if "the Hitler" had gone up in flames! Its namesake might have gotten a heart attack!

That is true.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Is your memory of that in black and white? That's how I imagine everything from the 50s and prior, thanks to television.