[78-L] Titanic Songs ENOUGH ALREADY

[Cary Ginell]

It was mainly because of two reasons: one was the fact that this monstrosity was proclaimed over and over again to be "unsinkable." Second was who was on board: the wealthy hoi polloi of industry and upper crustian status. People magazine would have drooled over a story like that. 
 
But you are correct - the Titanic was not the only ship to sink. And here's a perfect example. A similar disaster occurred only a year-and-a-half later on a vessel called the Volturno. This was the ship my family was coming to America on from Russia. You've never heard of it because there were no rich people on board and the ship was nothing extraordinary. But it was big news in 1913, big enough to monopolize the pages of the NY Times for several weeks. I wrote an article about this, which was published in the Jewish Journal in 1998. Here's a link:
 
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~daamen1/volturno/saga.htm
 
To be perfectly selfish about it, I am grateful for the Titanic's sinking because it enabled emergency communication devices to aboard the vessel that sank with my family on board. I would not be here today if not for those measures being installed in all ocean liners after the Titanic calamity.
 
Cary Ginell
 

> Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 17:45:54 -0400
> From: dlennick at sympatico.ca
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Subject: Re: [78-L] Titanic Songs ENOUGH ALREADY
> 
> Am I the only person in the world who finds Titanic obsession sick beyond 
> belief? Was this the only ship that ever sank in the history of the world? 
> Sorry, but I have to let it out. As for the movie, I stood 4 minutes of it till 
> I heard DiCrapio's so-called acting and said "That's it, folks". Yes it was a 
> tragedy. It sank. People died. People died when the Hindenburg exploded. People 
> died in mine disasters. People died in WWII. People died the other month when 
> an idiot captain ran a luxury liner aground. People die because dictators are 
> dictators. Will someone PLEASE explain what was so special about this one 
> particular tragedy that raises it above others?
> 
> Ready to receive brickbats.
> 
> dl
> 
> On 4/9/2012 5:35 PM, Philip Carli wrote:
> > Well, not only were the crew British, the ship was the pride of Britain's merchant marine at a time of enormous competition (TITANIC was exceeded as "world's largest ship" by the German HAPAG liner IMPERATOR in 1913, which itself was exceeded by the Cunarder AQUITANIA in 1914 and then bounced back to HAPAG's VATERLAND that same year before war broke out), and the majority of passengers were British or under British governance. As for popular song memorialization at the time, perhaps this was too awe-inspiringly terrible. Take a look at two poems written immediately after the disaster: Ben Hecht's bitter "Master and Man" (referring to White Star Chairman J. Bruce Ismay surviving while Capt. Edward Smith went down with the ship), and Thomas Hardy's sombre "The Convergence of the Twain". Both were written for public display, Hecht's for printing in a Chicago newspaper, and Hardy's for reading at a London Titanic benefit performance. They might give some sense of contempor
> ary general popular feeling. PC
> > ________________________________________
> > From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com [78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] on behalf of Rodger Holtin [rjh334578 at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 12:34 PM
> > To: 78-L Mail List
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Titanic Songs
> >
> > Hmmm. so that's the story: one Hebrew prayer record issued in America and a handful of patriotic items from the British, and the rest waited until the Dalhart Era. I can see why this may have resounded with the British a bit more than in America - the crew were British, we lost tourists and incoming immigrants. Still seems a little odd that Tin Pan Alley didn't jump on this, they sure cranked out the maudlin in previous decades, and could have churned out something.
> >
> > That said, I have noticed, however, that a bunch of Christian hymns with nautical themes got recorded or re-recorded about that time:
> > Let the Lower Lights be Burning
> > Throw Out the Life Line
> > Remember Me Oh Mighty One
> > There Is a Sea
> > Oh God Our Help in Ages Past
> > and others, not to mention Nearer My God to Thee which was supposed to have been played by the band as the ship went down, or so it was told at the time. I think I even read that on a vintage news paper or somewhere like that. I think I've heard that later research seems to inidicate it was another, similar tune and those who have read the books about the band members might have more information on that. True, those are and have been evergreens for decades, but I see them show up on records from the 'teens pretty regularly.
> >
> > I also note that Asleep in the Deep was recorded in 1913, so no direct Titanic items until the Dalhart Era, but lots of ancillary items in America anyway.
> >
> > Rodger
> >
> > For Best Results use Victor Needles.
> >
> > .
> >
> > --- On Mon, 4/9/12, Eric<bear128 at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> > From: Eric<bear128 at verizon.net>
> > Subject: Re: [78-L] Titanic Songs
> > To: "78-L Mail List"<78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
> > Date: Monday, April 9, 2012, 4:18 AM
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I don't know if the following cantorial will help, but Cantor Yossele
> > Rosenblat recorded the funeral prayer, "El Mole Rachmin für Titanik (Farn
> > Titanik)" in 1913 on Victor 35312-B. It certainly does not fall under
> > bluegrass/country.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bill Knowlton
> > Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2012 9:53 PM
> > To: 78-L (2)
> > Subject: [78-L] Titanic Songs
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hey, Gang...help me with country/bluegrass recordings about theTitanic so I
> > can get some of 'em on my tribute show next weekend.
> >
> > Thank yew!
> >
> >
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