A Night to Remember (1958): Sinking of the Titanic

This British made film is named after the book written by American Walter Lord, and it is considered by many to be the most historically accurate movie about the disaster, although it too has some non historical content, with perhaps the most glaring non historical event being the opening of the film about the ceremony for the launching of the Titanic. Historically, there was no launching ceremony for the Titanic. I'm not sure when I first saw this movie on television and I'm not even certain if I first saw it on national network television or on a local station, but it was definitely decades ago.     

 

There was a large cast in this film, so I'm only listing a very limited number of the cast members. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Kenneth More was a pretty well known English actor, although he was naturally better known in Britain. This is just my own guess, but by the late 1960s, the 1970s and the 1980s, American television executives were looking to get their hands on movies, as films were highly popular (and thus, profitable) for the television networks and also local stations, which had pretty much exhausted the catalog of available films. Thus Americans began to see more and more British, and other European films, and my recollection is that this was how I became somewhat familiar with Kenneth More, with several of his movies being shown on television. David McCallum became well known in the U.S. in the 1960s for his role as Illya Kuryakin in the television series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," which also starred already well known British actor Leo G. Carroll and American Robert Vaughn. Tucker McGuire (her real first name was Anne, but her middle name was Tucker) was an American married to British actor Tom Macaulay, which might have helped her (?) land several roles in British films, including this one. Harold Goldblatt played wealthy American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, although Goldblatt himself was from England, not the U.S.     

 

Partial Cast: 

Kenneth More as Second Officer Charles Lightoller 

Michael Goodliffe as Thomas Andrews, the naval architect for the Titanic

Laurence Naismith (born Johnson) as Captain Edward Smith 

Kenneth Griffith (born Griffiths) as radio operator Jack Phillips

David McCallum as assistant radio operator Harold Bride

Tucker McGuire as Margaret "Molly" Brown

Frank Lawton as managing director of the White Star Line J. Bruce Ismay

Harold Goldblatt as American businessman Benjamin Guggenheim  

This movie is pretty much a straightforward telling of the fateful night in April 1912 when the great ship struck an iceberg and sank some 375 + miles from Newfoundland, which at the time was not a part of Canada, but rather a British dominion, with the British monarch as the head of state (in 1912, that was King George V), but with Newfoundland, otherwise, being self governing. The first part of the movie shows us examples of the passengers aboard the Titanic, with a great number of poorer Irish people heading to America for a new life, but on the other hand, very wealthy people of rank and privilege occupying the elaborate first class area of the great ship. On Sunday, April 14, the Titanic's radio operator begins to receive reports of ice and icebergs from other ships as the Titanic reaches the general vicinity of the Labrador Current, a cold flow of ocean water that comes down from the arctic and often carries icebergs southward, frequently broken off from glaciers in western Greenland. (Note: From what I understand, and it makes sense, these icebergs can be at any time of year, but they are more common in like March through June, when the weather in the Northern Hemisphere shifts into spring, then summer, bringing warmer temperatures, which weakens the ice of glaciers and can cause parts to break off; that is, forming icebergs, which then drift southward with the current to the area around Labrador and Newfoundland; thus, the name of the current. The area is called "Iceberg Alley" due to the many icebergs that travel the current there, and these pose many risks to North Atlantic shipping. To complicate matters, the warm water current that comes up from the south is called the Gulf Current, and when the warm and cold currents begin to mix, it can cause fog and mist, sometimes dense, which makes icebergs even harder to spot.) 

 

The movie deservedly gives a lot of attention to a British cargo ship, the Californian (the British owning company named its ships after American states, which had just recently increased to 48 from 46 in 1912), which was traveling to Boston in the same general area as the Titanic, which was headed to New York City on the night of the disaster. The Californian comes upon a field of ice on the evening of the 14th, and the captain has the engines stopped rather than proceed into the ice. He also tells his radio operator to contact the Titanic, which is in their area, to report the ice and its location. When the radioman tries to carry out his orders, the radioman on the Titanic is busy with all sorts of private messages being sent ahead by individuals to New York City, and he cuts off the Californian's radioman and tells him to stay out because he's interfering with radio traffic. Earlier, the Titanic's radioman was so busy with all the personal messages, he took a message reporting ice, but the message got mixed into all of the personal messages and was not passed on to the captain.    

The lookout spots an iceberg right ahead of the ship, and the Titanic begins to turn to miss the berg, but it's too late and the ship grazes by the iceberg, with some chunks of ice falling on board the lower deck. Most passengers and crew don't notice the shudder when the collision takes place, nor do many people notice that the engines stop not long afterward. Captain Smith sends for the ship's architect, Thomas Andrews, to get his assessment of how serious the damage is. After checking the damage, Mr. Andrews tells the captain the ship will sink in about an hour and a half. Captain Smith orders the lifeboats to be readied and staffed and he has the radioman send out distress signals. The British passenger ship Carpathia answers the Titanic, but the Carpathia's captain let's it be known that his ship cannot be to the Titanic's location for a few hours. The Carpathia was slightly less than 60 miles away from the Titanic at that time. Meanwhile, the Californian sits just about 8 miles away (I chose 8 miles as a sort of compromise, as I've seen 5 miles, 6 miles and up to 12 miles). The radioman had gone to bed, so he never heard the distress calls (radio was relatively new and there were no regulations requiring constant radio monitoring aboard ships, and indeed, not all ships necessarily even had a radio, with the Californian having acquired a radio just a few months before this incident with the Titanic). The Californian's officers and crew see a big passenger liner not far from them, and it seems to be stopped, but they believe, that like their own ship, this big liner is stopped because of the ice field. The captain of the Californian goes to bed to get some sleep before he tries navigating this ice field in the morning. The Titanic's crew begins firing distress rockets and the crew of the Californian see the rockets, but they are perplexed by what they mean. One officer awakens the captain to tell him about the rockets, but the captain wonders if they might be a company signal by the big ship to let other ships from the same company know about the ice field. The captain orders that they try signaling the big ship by flashing Morse code light signals, and he then goes back to sleep. The light signal lamp is too small for the officers on the Titanic to read the signal, and they conclude it is just some flickering light on the ship. The Californian's officers and crew don't even know which ship they're seeing, but without the messages from the radio, it really didn't matter. Likewise, Captain Smith and his crew on the Titanic can see a ship nearby, but they don't know which ship, as they can't get through on the radio. (Note: Of course, while we know the historical end result with the Titanic, many have wanted to know, still to this day, how many people might have been saved if the Californian had come to the rescue. Remember, about 1500 people perished from the Titanic that night, and a rescue of such a number would have involved more than the Californian showing up and 1500 people simply somehow magically transferring to it from the sinking Titanic. The Californian was a cargo ship, but it could "accommodate" a hundred plus passengers and crew, although it had no passengers that night [the movie script has one of the Californian's officers mention the ship's passengers, but historically that is incorrect]. "Accommodate" is meant that passengers and crew would be somewhat comfortable, not with extra people crammed aboard in an emergency such as was taking place that night. It had 4 lifeboats, 1 gig, a type of rowboat usually with a sail that had to be put up, and a pinnace, another type of small boat, usually equipped with a sail and oars.* How many people the cargo area could have held, I have no idea, but the thing to remember is, the Carpathia was nearing the Titanic's location and it arrived about an hour and twenty minutes after the Titanic sank. Other ships were also on the way, but arrived at later intervals. It may not have been pretty or comfortable, but being crammed aboard the Californian would certainly seem preferable to becoming shark doo doo. It is my understanding, that in those times, not having lifeboats for all passengers was not uncommon on passenger ships, because the technology was thought to be enough to keep the ships afloat for a period of time [some likely call this "arrogance," or "tempting fate"], and that lifeboats would be used to shuttle passengers to rescue ships, then return to the damaged vessel to take more passengers to safety. All of the possibilities about the Californian is beyond the scope of this article, but it's something to think about, although not one person can be brought back to life. Perspective.)

 

The movie goes on to show the lifeboats lowered away and the Titanic tilting more and more into the Atlantic until the end comes and the ship disappears beneath the water.** A while later those in the lifeboats see and hear a rocket. It has been fired by the Carpathia. Meanwhile, aboard the Californian, the captain is awakened and told the big ship has moved on, as they still don't realize the ship they had been viewing a few miles away was sinking and that the rockets were distress signals. At one point earlier, one of the officers mentions how odd the ship looks in the distance, "like it's listing," but another officer attributes this to the angle of the big ship to the Californian. We see daylight and the Carpathia has picked up the passengers and crew members of the lifeboats. The captain of the Carpathia is told that the captain of the Californian has contacted them and wants to know if he and his ship can help. ***  

* I just wanted to include some basic information about the Californian, and Wikipedia is great for such information, and while its article on the Californian says the ship's lifeboats, gig and pinnace could hold a total of 218 people, that specific entry's source isn't noted, although the information is likely accurate, I am unable to say what the actual source of that info is. Just another note about the Californian, it was sunk by German U-boats in the Mediterranean Sea during World War One, with the loss of one life (see section on Californian in Encyclopedia-Titanica.org). 

 

** In the 1953 film, starring Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck, the passengers gather and sing the Christian hymn "Nearer My God To Thee," and the version most popular in the United States is used. There has long been historical controversy over the last song on the ship, and one of the questions raised has been why would a British ship play what was basically an American song? And the passengers and crew all know the words, including the Straus couple, who were Jewish? (The song is a Christian hymn.) In "A Night to Remember," the band plays the British version of "Nearer My God To Thee," which is very different from the other version. As I noted, there has been a lot of controversy over the song, and some survivors claimed the last song was neither version, but rather a song called "Autumn." For movie purposes, I can understand why they chose the American version, as the dramatic music fits perfectly with what was already a dramatic and emotional scene. The American version has often been played at funerals and the scene in the movie just before the ship heads to the deep is a funeral setting.    

*** Interestingly, I found 3 different numbers for the total number of survivors: 705 (which is also stated in the movie), 706 (that's according to titanicfacts.net, which shows 492 passengers and 214 crew members) and 712 (this is listed on encyclopedia-titanica.org and also the figure given at the end of the 1953 movie "Titanic"). For the article on the 1953 movie, here is the link:  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/01/titanic-1953.html

 

Photo is of the 1998 The Criterion Collection DVD

WORD HISTORY:

Founder (this is the verb for "to sink")-This verb is distantly related to "bottom," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to the noun "founder;" that is, "one who sets up or establishes something," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French (but it is NOT related to the  word of the same spelling, "founder," nor to "foundry," both of which have to do with melted metal being poured for forming into shapes and sizes). "Founder" goes back to Indo European "bhundhm," which meant "base," with the beginning rendered in Latin as "f," giving Latin "fundus," which meant "bottom, base, foundation," which in French, a Latin-based language, became "fond," which also meant "bottom, base," but also, "ground." This gave Old French the verb "fondrer," meaning, "fall, fall to the ground, fall to the bottom;" thus also, "sink, sink to the bottom." English borrowed the word in the first part of the 1300s as "foundren," meaning "to fall to the ground or floor, collapse, send to the bottom," and Old French had the noun form "fondour (Anglo-French "fondur/fundur?"). The meaning of a ship sinking became more and more the most commonly used meaning in English, and the idea of "sinking" or "falling" gave the word many figurative uses, as in, "His problem with alcohol caused his career to founder." 

Titanic: 1953

I first saw this film in the early 1960s when it initially aired on television on NBC's "Saturday Night at the Movies," and the movie sparked an interest within me about the history of the ill fated ocean liner. Keep in mind, when this movie was made (1952) and released to theaters (1953), there was not a great deal of information to be easily found about the Titanic disaster. It was not long after the movie was made that American historian Walter Lord did a lot of research on the ship's sinking, which he assembled into a book called "A Night to Remember," released in late 1955. This book was used as the basis for a British movie of the same name released in 1958. That movie was much more of a re-creation of the known historical events of the Titanic disaster. The 1953 film uses a fictional story and many fictional characters, supplemented by actual historical characters, to tell the story of the Titanic. Remember too, the Titanic was a British ship, not an American ship, although there were many American passengers aboard, as well as people from many countries, often poor people, trying to get to America for a new life; and indeed, the actual social division on the ship is depicted in the movie (first, second and third class/steerage). The Titanic was the most modern ship afloat, with the latest technology, including the ship being divided into a system of watertight compartments, that when the doors were closed could seal off water and prevent the ship from sinking in many of the likely scenarios. Notice I said "many of the likely scenarios." The worst thing many could imagine for the ship was that another ship might hit it at the junction of two of its watertight compartments, which would not be enough to sink it. Even the possibility of a head on collision didn't seem to threaten to doom the great ship, as it could stay afloat with its first four compartments flooded. The nightmare that developed, however, was that the iceberg opened the first 5 or 6 compartments to the sea (sources vary on the number, but since the discovery of the wreckage and analysis of metal and such, it "seems" the iceberg caused rivets to pop and metal plates to buckle, rather than the "can opener effect" which had long been suspected by many). With 5 or 6 compartments filling with water, this was something the ship's watertight compartments could not handle, as these compartments only extended partially up the multi-level deck ship. Once the first 5 or 6 compartments flooded, that extra weight pulled the ship down, which caused the water to flow over into the next compartment, which pulled the ship down even more, which caused the water to flow over into the next compartment and so on, until ... well, you know.  

I was in Germany when Robert Ballard and his crew discovered the Titanic in September 1985. I bought American newspapers at German newspaper kiosks to keep up with the discovery. If my memory is right, it was the European edition of "USA Today." 

Main Cast: 

Clifton Webb as Richard Sturges

Barbara Stanwyck as Julia Sturges

Audrey Dalton as Annette Sturges

Harper Carter as Norman Sturges

Robert Wagner as Giff Rogers

Thelma Ritter as Maude Young, see note below cast

Brian Aherne as Captain Edward Smith

Richard Basehart as George Healey

Allyn Joslyn as Mr. Meeker 

James Todd as Sandy Comstock 

Frances Bergen as Madeleine Astor

William Johnstone as John Jacob Astor IV

Edmund Purdom as Second Officer Lightoller

 

(Note: Thelma Ritter played the real life "Maggie Brown," a wealthy woman aboard the Titanic, who became popularized as "the Unsinkable Molly Brown," but she was renamed in the film as "Maude Young." Over time I've read that the film producers and Brown's family seemed to have some disagreement about Brown's portrayal in the film, and that perhaps to avoid any potential legal action, the name was changed to "Maude Young," although admittedly it seems a bit strange why anyone would contest the use of the real name. The real "Molly Brown" died in the early 1930s, so well before the filming of the movie in 1952 and its release in 1953. A few years after this movie there was a stage play released about "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," followed in the mid 1960s by a major motion picture and box office hit starring Debbie Reynolds. The film took in millions, and that was in the money value of those times. Keep in mind, both the stage version and the movie version were simply "based" upon Molly Brown's life, and they were not any attempt at historical reenactment.) 

 

The basic gist of the fictional story used to tell the story of the Titanic is about the Sturges family, led by estranged husband and wife, Richard and Julia. Julia takes older teenager Annette and ten year old Norman and she prepares to head to the United States, where she intends to make her separation from Richard all legal. Richard heads to the new Titanic where he pays a Basque man for his ticket, with the man planning to take another ship and to meet his family in America. During the voyage, the Sturges couple air their differences, Annette meets, and begins to get close with, a young man named "Giff," and Norman plans to spend time with his father, whom he idolizes, participating in some of the ship's activities, including shuffleboard. (There is also a side story of a moody and often drunken man, George Healey, a man we learn has been dismissed from the priesthood for persistent drunkenness. When the ship is sinking, although Healey has struggled with his life and alcohol in the priesthood, his inherent goodness comes to the fore when some of the boiler crewmen are left in the flooding boiler room. As he prepares to descend the steps to almost certain death, one of the escaping men says, "For God's sake mister, don't go in there," but Healey replies, "For God's sake I am going in there.") The animosity between Richard and Julia takes an especially hard edge when she tells him that Norman is not his son. Richard is shaken by the revelation, and he goes off to a big card game, and he devastates Norman by shunning him. Of course, all of these matters become meaningless as the supposedly "unsinkable" ship grazes an iceberg, which opens the ship below the waterline. While the collision with the iceberg is a "grazing," with most people not even realizing there has been anything happen, Richard feels the big ship shudder a bit and a little later he sees the crew reacting as if there is an emergency (which of course, there is). Richard goes to the captain and insists he tell him the truth, and indeed, the captain says the ship is going to sink. Richard goes to his family and acts as calmly as he can in an effort to comfort them, in spite of the dire predicament he knows to be the true situation. As the lifeboats are readied to be loaded, and distress rockets are fired to signal any nearby ships, rumors circulate that there are not enough lifeboats for all of the passengers and crew, which is true, and Julia now knows that Richard's downplaying of the seriousness of the situation was simply a performance. Women and children are ordered to get into the lifeboats. Julia tells Richard she knows the ship is sinking and that there are not enough lifeboats. The two express their regrets over not making their marriage work and Julia, Annette and Norman go to their assigned lifeboat, but Julia doesn't see that Norman gives up his seat to a woman and he goes to find his father. When Julia learns what has happened, she screams and cries, as she knows her son is likely to die. Norman finally finds his father and tells him "I thought we could make a swim of it together." Giff, Annette's love interest, falls into the icy water while trying to help lower one of the lifeboats. He is pulled into this lifeboat and he is thus saved from the fate of most of the other men on the sinking ship. 

 

Isador and Ida Straus, real life co-owners (with Isador's brother, Nathan) of Macy's Department Store, died that night and Mrs. Straus would not get into a lifeboat without her husband. John Jacob Astor IV, one of the richest of the rich, died that night, but his pregnant wife survived in a lifeboat, and a few months later the baby, a son, was born. Captain Smith was set to retire after this voyage, as he was in his early 60s. Barbara Stanwyck later told of the filming of the sinking, which was done at night and she was in a lifeboat about to be lowered away. She noted that she looked at the people they were leaving behind to die and how it struck her that this had happened in real life and that emotion overtook her and she burst into tears

 

The historical accuracy of the movie has been battered by historians, beginning with the early part of the movie. We hear in the film that the ship is sold out, and that's why Richard Sturges has to buy a ticket from a passenger; but in reality, the Titanic was not sold out; in fact, there were hundreds of tickets available. A truly glaring error in the film is when the iceberg and the Titanic make contact. The film correctly (historically) shows the ship trying to clear the iceberg, which is on its right. Then comes an underwater shot of an ice spur ripping open the Titanic, but on its left! (Some clips, and perhaps even some versions of the entire movie have reversed the scene to show the ship grazing by the iceberg on its right side, as happened historically.) By the way, remember what we've heard many times, that more than three quarters of an iceberg is underwater; so, the idea of a spur tearing the Titanic open below the waterline was not farfetched, but the movie has it on the wrong side of the ship (until, at least, some editions had the scene corrected). The movie depicts the iceberg as absolutely monstrous, dwarfing the Titanic, and this was just the part above the water, but reports from survivors and from ships in the area in daylight indicate the iceberg was not anywhere near the size shown in the movie (ships in the area noted several icebergs in the aftermath of the sinking). The Titanic itself was slightly less than 900 feet long (about 270m). The events that had to happen to bring the Titanic and the iceberg together late on April 14, 1912 were mind boggling. Hundreds of square miles of the North Atlantic with this iceberg and the Titanic meeting at just the right instant to cause a catastrophe. Further there were no binoculars for the crow's nest, perhaps because the original crew member with the key to the storage for the crow's nest had been assigned to a new ship at the last minute in Europe, and he forgot to leave the key. In the movie, I believe some dialogue indicates the binoculars for the crow's nest had been accidentally left behind, with Captain Smith intending to get another pair in the U.S. Another thing was, the sea was basically calm; thus, no waves, even minor waves, lapping up onto the iceberg to help the lookout's to spot it. Remember too, the ship was damaged late on April 14, but sank shortly before 2:30 on the morning of April 15.     

Photo is of the 2003 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD

 

WORD HISTORY:

Mourn-This is NOT the same word as "morn" or "morning," both having to do with the early time of a day, nor is it even related to those forms. "Mourn" means "to grieve, to remember someone or something in a sorrowful way." It is distantly related to a number of words having to do with remembering, for example: commemorate, memorial, memorize, memory and remember, all words of Latin derivation, most of them borrowed by English via Latin-based French. "Mourn" goes back to Indo European "(s)mer," which had the notion, "to remember, to think (about)." This gave Old Germanic "muranan," meaning, "to remember in a sorrowful way, to think of." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "murnan" meaning, "to remember in a sorrowful way," but also seemingly a secondary meaning of "to worry about." This then became "mornen," before the modern version. The noun form in Old English was "murnung," meaning "the act of expressing or showing grief or sorrow." The 1300s saw the idea of particular clothing worn during a period of grief (mourning), as "mourning clothes or habit," and this seems to have simply been shortened to "mourning" by the 1600s (mid?) for the clothing or home adornments expressing grief (typically of dark colors, usually black). Its seems only English "mourn" and "mourning" have survived into modern times among the Germanic languages (unless there are dialectal forms), but Old French borrowed a form from Germanic Frankish, although it too seemingly has died out of usage.       

Donald Trump, Captain of the Titanic

Donald Trump is the captain of the new "GOP Titanic." The ship took years of hate and division to build. Years of hate and fear mongers like Morton Downey, Jr., Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter preaching against government, minorities, women, gays, labor unions and just about any change, and using various conspiracy theories to scare Americans, usually white Americans, into supporting an ever more reactionary agenda and the reactionary politicians who pushed it. If you think such propaganda doesn't work, Joseph Goebbels would not have had such a prominent position in the Nazi regime. Rush Limbaugh, "seemingly" somewhat diminished in the number of listeners in the last year or two, was so powerful a force within the Republican Party, that any Republican officeholders who dared criticize him, spent the next day groveling at his feet to regain favor. Of course, another monumental moment in the march of reactionaries into the lives of many Americans came when long time conservative Republican operative, Roger Ailes, was given his own personal fiefdom with the creation of "Fox News" on cable television. It became a "conservative media paradise," where Republicans and leaders of conservative causes ran for cover, as it was anything but, "fair and balanced." (NBC then chose to make cable station "MSNBC" the anti-Fox News outlet; thus liberal/progressive.)  

While the ship was built, the escalating harshness and stridency of the hate preachers continued with barely a peep from the Reagans, the Bushes, or the Mitt Romneys and Bill Welds of the world. Some of these same folks got into a panic when Donald Trump began moving like a juggernaut toward the Republican nomination for president. Some panicked so much, they tried to derail Trump with Ted Cruz, a true fire-breathing fascist, who lacks only the armband and a raised right arm salute. Trump prevailed by a large margin. The so called "Republican establishment," those who previously tolerated this crap for so long, and who did not speak out, not even to save their own honor, have further removed the mantle of "the party of Lincoln" from the Republican Party, a party now based upon racism, bigotry, extreme nationalism, militia groups and conspiracy theories. When basically good people fail to speak out, this is how fascists take hold. I've written here before, that once you let fascists in, you can only get them back out with great difficulty and pain. The GOP regulars are passengers on board the Titanic, and they bought their tickets long ago, on an installment plan, just paying the final balance about the first of the year. There is an immense iceberg unseen in the distance and there are not enough lifeboats for all the GOP passengers.
       
WORD HISTORY:
Sink-This word goes back to Indo European "sengw," which had the notion of "to go beneath water." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "sinkwanan," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sincan," which meant, "to sink, something to go below water." It also gave Old English, "besencan," which meant, "to sink something, to cause something to sink." The latter then became "sinken," before the modern form. The other form died out, or evolved, in part, into "sench," which kept the meaing, "to sink something, in the sense, cause it to sink." It has since died out, with both meanings now used only in "sink." The noun for a basin; as in, "the kitchen sink," originally developed from the verb in the 1400s, and it came from the idea of a hollow area of ground where water collected; the term then transferred to the man made objects "sunk" into a cabinet. Common throughout the other Germanic languages (verb forms): German has "sinken" (to sink) and "versenken" (to sink something, to scuttle), Low German Saxon "sinken," West Frisian "sinke" (to sink), Dutch "zinken" (to sink), Danish and Norwegian "synke" (to sink), Icelandic "sökka" (to sink, but it lost the "n" over time) and Swedish "sjunka" (to sink) and "sänka" (to lower, to cause to sink or lower).

Can We Get Out Of This Mess? Part Three

First, in April 1912 the "unsinkable" Titanic struck an iceberg and sunk. The Titanic had been pronounced "unsinkable" due to an amazing set of 22 watertight compartments built into the structure of the massive ship. The Titanic could remain afloat even if various combinations of watertight compartments were flooded, including, if I remember right, the first five compartments, if the ship were to experience extensive damage to the frontal area. The passengers were segregated by "class;" with some of the world's wealthiest people on the top decks, in "First Class." Below that was "Second Class," and in the lower areas of the "unsinkable" ship was "Third Class," also known as "Steerage." The iceberg punctured or crumpled the metal plates covering the ship, allowing water into the first SIX compartments. With that situation, the ship was doomed, as the weight of water entering the flooding forward compartments pulled the front of the ship down, which then allowed water from the sixth compartment to spill over into the seventh, and then that added weight pulled the ship down further to permit water to spill into the eighth compartment, and so on. A couple of hours later, the ship was gone.

Just a further note: Even though the ship was in such dire straights, the ship's personnel tried to prevent passengers in Third Class from getting up to Second or First Class to escape the rising waters below. Think about it!

Now, with housing prices in the tank and foreclosures mounting, unless those in need of help can be salvaged, others may well be pulled down, too. Here's why:

Once foreclosures began to rise and the housing bubble began to deflate, prices for housing fell. That may sound good (that prices fell), but when prices fell, it also began to endanger other homeowners with mortgages, as prices fell below what they owed on their homes. As foreclosures increased, and credit standards for a mortgage tightened, this general process continued, and in fact, it still continues to the point that at least 25% (some estimates say more) of all Americans who owe a mortgage now owe more for that mortgage than the property is worth. Now you might say, "So! What's that got to do with me?"

Well, if you happen to be one of those with such a situation, and the numbers are increasing, if something happens that your income falls to the point where you can't pay the mortgage, you won't be able to sell your property OR refinance it. Just for the sake of example:

So you owe $100,000 on your mortgage. Let's say your hours are cut at work, or that maybe you lose your job, or that maybe you have health issues with lots of medical bills. Whatever the reason, you can't afford the mortgage payment and you decide to sell your house and downsize to an apartment. When you talk with a real estate company, they tell you that due to foreclosures and the generally poor real estate market, that homes in your neighborhood are selling for $75,000. Now unless you've got 25 grand hidden under your mattress, or unless the "Good Fairy" slips that amount under your pillow tonight, you can't sell the property. The mortgage holder isn't going to eat the $25,000. The same problem is present if you want to refinance; you owe more on the mortgage than the property is worth. Ah, guess whose going to get a foreclosure notice? Then this will further decrease the property values of the homes in your neighborhood, so that Mr. & Mrs. Jones, who are having trouble making ends meet, decide to check into selling their house and are told essentially the same thing you were told. Guess who else is getting a foreclosure notice?

The Titanic sank from the bottom up, but eventually the water reached the top deck of First Class. Just for your information, we're ALL on THIS modern Titanic together.