9 thoughts on ““1912 Titanic Disaster: Was Racism To Blame?””

  1. “After sectarian assaults on Catholic shipyard workers in the highly charged political atmosphere of 1912, a belief spread among many Catholics that the sunken ship had enshrined anti-Catholic messages, such as the alleged ship number 3909 ON.”

    McCaughan points out that this number was a mirror image of the sectarian slogan “No Pope.” In fact, Titanic had never had the ‘No Pope’ number assigned to it. Its registry was 131,428 and its yard number was 401. Still, revenge, in some people’s minds at least, was thought to be sweet.

    http://www.thewildgeese.com/pages/titanic.html

  2. In my Catholic grammar school in Chicago, there was talk by the nuns of the Titanic as a challenge to God. It was supposedly said, “Not even God can sink this ship !” U learned a lot Catholic versions of history, such as what a devil Elizabeth I was. No “Good queen Bess ” for us.

  3. The exquisite humor of the link triggered two reactions. First, that of Sgt Mom (*giggle*). Second, disgust at the MSM for putting Malard Filmore vs Doonesbury on the Editorial Page when they could have something worth the comparison.

  4. Michael – Catholic or not when Man is so arrogant as to think he can design something impervious to nature he is setting himself up for a fall.

    I read that the sinking shocked people accustomed (in the Edwardian age?) to believing that they could engineer anything to be perfectly safe. The fact that they didn’t provide enough lifeboats was a testimony to that arrogance.

    I had first read that the Captain was trying to get to NY in good (record?) time on the Titanic’s maiden voyage; then I subsequently read that it was “natural” for Captains to just plow through waters infested with icebergs.

    Whatever his reasons he didn’t respect the potential dangers.

  5. The People’s Cube has been a bookmark of mine for years. It’s very well done in both content and a highly professional level of visual design.

    If you didn’t know, the site was created by a Soviet Russian immigrant.

  6. On Sunday afternoon, I was driving home with my wife, and she noticed 3 individuals wearing hoods climbing the concrete ramparts over Interstate 280 along the east side of Potrero Hill in San Francisco. (Ramparts are necessary to support the Hill, because the construction of 280 required the removal of a practically the entire east side of the Hill. They are very high. For those familiar, we were traveling west on the 20th Street 280 overpass) The ramparts are not an easily accessible area, and very dangerous to climb as they are high above 280. One must surmount high fencing, and risk falling off the ramparts.)

    So-called “tags” have appeared on the ramparts within the past 6 months, and I assumed that the hooded crew indeed were about to add to the “urban adornment.” I called 911, and said that this is not an emergency, and the operator proceeded to tell me to call SF Police. As I was driving I asked her to connect me, and she did, but not willingly.

    I’m a lawyer so I cogently and succinctly described the circumstances of the misdemeanor. But, before determining the exact location, the very first question she asked “Was are the persons white, black or Asian?” I said race had nothing to do with it, they were in the act of doing wrong – causing a danger to themselves highway travelers and defacing public property. Then, I informed here that they were wearing hoods and were 50 yards distant. It was evident that the operator was not knowledgable of the City’s geography, and could not apprehend the location, but first wanted to now the race description.

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