• Forums Software Updates

    The forums will be undergoing updates on Sunday 10th November 2024.
    Little to no downtime is expected.
  • We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

MrRING

Android Futureman
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
6,053
from Yahoo:

Nature, Visitors Taking Toll on Titanic
By BIPASHA RAY, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - When Robert Ballard discovered the Titanic on the North Atlantic seabed in 1985, he was amazed at how well-preserved it was and predicted the wreck would change little in his lifetime.

But scientists and other experts now say that the wreckage — almost covered with corrosive microbes after seven decades under the salty water — is decaying so fast that the 100-foot forward mast has collapsed nearly a decade earlier than previously predicted.

And the crow's nest from which a lookout shouted, "Iceberg, right ahead!" has disappeared.

Atlanta-based RMS Titanic Inc. has sole salvage rights to the ship, but the company says it has no plans to retrieve additional artifacts.

The outer wall of the captain's cabin has fallen away, leaving fixtures like a bathtub to open view. The poop deck, where passengers crowded as the ship sank, has folded under itself. Parts of the stern are falling apart and the ship's bow has yawning holes in it.

"I was really quite shocked," said Alfred S. McLaren, an oceanographer and former nuclear submarine captain, who went on a dive there in 1999 and again this past July. "It just is deteriorating so much more rapidly than I expected it would."

The culprit, experts say, are clusters of rusticles — iron-eating microbial bits of rust shaped like icicles — that have spread, possibly fueled by a drop in fish in the area that would otherwise gobble up marine life that encourages the rusticles to grow.

Others blame increased human activity. Since its discovery, the Titanic has been a big draw among divers, scientists and tourists.

Artificial flowers and about a dozen plaques have been left on the decks. Strewn around the area were plastic sampling bags, a small handheld fishing net, lead weights and even beer and soda bottles, said Capt. Craig McLean, ocean exploration director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who led a dive in June.

The Titanic, a 46,000-ton luxury liner, sank on April 14, 1912, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. More than 1,500 people tumbled to a watery grave.

The wreck was found 73 years later, 380 miles off Newfoundland in two pieces — its bow half a mile away from the stern.

In 1986, Congress directed the federal government to enter talks with Canada, Britain and France regarding the Titanic's fate. The countries have yet to decide on a final agreement, leaving the site almost entirely unregulated, except for a provision giving sole salvage rights to RMS Titanic Inc.

Since then, the company has removed about 6,000 artifacts from the site, including an 18-ton slab of the hull. These have attracted more than 13 million people to exhibits held around the world, from Los Angeles to Paris, CEO and president Arnie Geller said.

Debate continues to rage on whether to leave the ship alone or salvage everything possible.

In 1996, D. Roy Cullimore, a Canadian microbiologist who has done three dives to the site, found that bacteria in the rusticles were consuming 200 pounds of iron from the ship each day. Two years later, Cullimore returned to find that the microbes were removing 600 pounds of iron a day.

In 2001, NOAA recognized that the wreck was fast disintegrating and estimated "the hull and structure of the ship may collapse to the ocean floor within the next 50 years, perhaps sooner."

The agency, in consultation with Britain, Canada and France, issued guidelines for the research, exploration and salvage of the wreck.

In June, McLean's NOAA team returned to the wreck site and took photographs to compare them to Ballard's 1985 pictures, hoping to accurately document the ship's condition.

Human activity, including tourism and expeditions, needs to be limited, said Ed Kamuda, the president of the Titanic Historical Society in Springfield. For $36,000, anyone can visit the site in mini submarines, known as submersibles.

"Every time they go down there, they do damage. The propellers whirl up the sediment and the rusticles," Kamuda said. "If they would just leave it alone, it would last a lot longer."

Scientists say there's no evidence that visitors are speeding up decay, but admit that materials left by visitors can be an eyesore.

Although studying the Titanic's decomposition patterns can help scientists predict the fate of other historical shipwrecks, some preservationists say the site should be a simple maritime memorial and left alone.

"Let nature take back what is hers," he said. "It's only a matter of time before it's a brown stain and a collection of pig iron on the ocean floor."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=1&u=/nm/20030828/od_nm/penis_dc
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Artificial flowers and about a dozen plaques have been left on the decks. Strewn around the area were plastic sampling bags, a small handheld fishing net, lead weights and even beer and soda bottles, said Capt. Craig McLean, ocean exploration director at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who led a dive in June.

Beer bottles? Who the heck goes on a dive and has a beer? :confused:

Jane.
 
probably dropped overboard by tourists visiting the scene above water. I don't think it's usually a good idea to open the window in a submersible at that depth to throw your rubbish out...
 
So sad. It's a sight I always find very emotional. The prow of the shiip ploughing through the bottom of the ocean like that. Apparently, it's the first view of Titanic Ballard had. Incredibly spooky and deeply upsetting.

The only thing about the abominable film that made me cry was the ship going down. To think - all those real life stories going on, and Titanic was just a wealth of real people with real tragedies and courage and sacrifice, and we get three interminable hours of Kate Bloody Winslet and Leonardo di Capri Ghia. Dunno why we were supposed to be upset by two fictional characters.
 
The last half hour of that film makes me cry terribly, esp with the bit where the woman is found drowned in the water, clutching her baby in her arms, and the old couple lying on the bed as the water comes in. It must have been terrible. :(
Why do tourists want to go to the site where it went down anyway? You can't see anything! They are far better off just viewing the web cams online on the encyclopaedia titanica site.
 
Has anyone been to the Titanic exhibition at the Science Museum? It ends in early September so I think I'm gonna be too late.
Anyone seen 'Ghosts of the Abyss' at the IMAX either. Also on my list of things to do but just haven't got round to it yet.
 
Hi everyone,

This just arrived in my inbox; never heard of the guy who has sent it to me but I thought I would pass it on to you all for your reading pleasure...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have come to a terrifying conclusion; THERE ARE PEOPLE STILL ALIVE TRAPPED ABOARD THE TITANIC!!!

Consider, if you will, the undeniable evidence:

1) Video taken by submersibles that have visited the wreck show that that The Titanic has not broken up but is in one piece; this means that the ship is water-tight.

2) Any survivors of the tragedy would have no doubt used their Edwardian ingenuity and constructed an air filtration device to allow the circulation of breathable air throughout the ship.

3) When The Titanic sank there were 7,000 people aboard; if only a handful of them survived the catastrophe there would be enough food and water on board the ship to last them for generations!

4) This is possibly the most disturbing evidence; there is fully documented accounts of ships receiving a bizarre SOS message when crossing the Atlantic sea at the point were The Titanic sank. Everytime, the message is the same; “We are the survivors of RMS Titanic, trapped aboard the ship on the ocean bed-if anybody can here us, for God's sake help us”!!!

Right now, there are people trapped on The Titanic who have been born aboard the ship, and have never seen the light of day and know nothing of the outside world!!

I believe that we have a moral duty to help these poor souls and I am raising funds to attempt a rescue mission; anyone wishing to discuss this with me should contact me via this Newsgroup.

Ian LaSalle

[email protected]
 
Cuckoo!

what a morbid thought :shock:

anyone else ever heard anything about morse code signals in the area?

I once knew a guy who was obsessed with the Titanic, Russian history and Karen Carpenter. I think the Titanic, like Elvis, attracts weirdos.
 
1939. Its 3 days after war is declared on England. Out in the Atlantic, the new superliner, Goliath, steams towards America with 1,860 passengers aboard. Suddenly, a U-boat torpedo hits her port side. The ship sinks quickly with all hands presumed lost.
1981. Onboard a research ship, led by scientist Peter Cabot (Mark Harmon) the sonar picks up something very large below. The divers descend and find it to be the long lost Goliath. As Cabot swims along the side, he starts to hear tapping, coming from inside, accompanied by music. Just when it couldn't get weirder, a port hole opens and a beautiful young girl peers out!
Admiral Wiley Sloan (Eddie Albert) doesn't buy Cabot's story, but sets up a joint British/American expedition to the ship, in hopes of finding and destroying top secret papers, on its way to President Roosevelt in 1939.
When the team goes in through the torpedo hole, they see light above! Upon breaching the surface, they discover that 337 survivors and descendents have lived for over 40 years in an air bubble utopian existence!
The group is ruled by the mysterious Mr McKenzie, who may have other plans when the outsiders tell them the plan to rescue them from Goliath.
Filmed all over the Queen Mary, in Long Beach, California, and utilizing footage from "Gentleman Prefer Blondes"&"The Last Voyage" this movie was shown in 2 parts, as part of ABC's Operation Prime Time on November 16 &17th, 1981. The movie has been released on VHS and Laserdisc in a shabby 110 minute version, as opposed to its original 3 hour running time.
This movie is a must for ocean liner enthusiasts, and action movie lovers! Try to find the original version.

http://www.jimusnr.com/GoliathAwaits.html
 
This was definitely deserves a big fat :wtf:

As if people will still be alive on the Titanic after 95 years..... unless they all turned cannibal.
 
I'm sure I've read this story before, especially the radio message from the survivors bit. I've never seen the Goliath Awaits miniseries, by the way.
 
PlagueRider said:
This was definitely deserves a big fat :wtf:

As if people will still be alive on the Titanic after 95 years..... unless they all turned cannibal.

Yeah, but the survivors, feeding on passing fish, could have had offspring.
 
It's also the premise of the novel The Watch Below, by James White.

The setting for this story is a W.W.II tanker which is sunk, but which finds zero buoyancy below the surface due to a trapped air pocket, where a few have survived. At the same time an Alien race heads for Earth, where they become unlikely saviours. This book is considered by many to be James's finest work.

It's a very good story, though it's yonks since I read it
 
Hello. Dis amazing story has come to de attention of de Nigerian Navy, and I would like to offer you de opportunity to assist in funding de forthcoming rescue attempt by de Navy to save de poor Christian peoples on de Titanic and to salvage de zillions of pounds sterling on de ship. A small donation on your part to help defray de costs of dis operation will insure a sizeable return as your part of de salvage recovery.

Please send a generous cheque to Nigerian Navy Officers' Retirement and Liquor Fund, box 99, Lagos, Nigeria.

God bless you.
 
Looks like our friend Ian LaSalle has found himself a winner. :lol:

Wonder how many innocents he'll manage to hoodwink with this desperate rescue appeal??

I can just see the dollars (American, Canadian, Australian), the pounds sterling, the euros, the francs, the...well, all kinds of money pouring in from all over the globe.

All to rescue those poor, poor great-great-grandchildren of Rose and Jack left behind on Titanic--as filmed by James Cameron.

LOL!!!
 
This is ace :).
....Consider, if you will, the undeniable evidence:

1) Video taken by submersibles that have visited the wreck show that that The Titanic has not broken up but is in one piece; this means that the ship is water-tight.
No it isn't, it broke in half. And is now in quite a few big drifty bits a mile or two down.
2) Any survivors of the tragedy would have no doubt used their Edwardian ingenuity and constructed an air filtration device to allow the circulation of breathable air throughout the ship.
..cos they'd have had plenty of time to do that, wouldn't they? I'm sure it would have been a cake-walk, especially as the rapidly sinking, freezing-cold-salt-water filled hulk was jam-packed with the foremost engineers of the day, complete with their equipment.
3) When The Titanic sank there were 7,000 people aboard..
No, there weren't. There were about 2,300 aboard, and about 700 odd were rescued.
...if only a handful of them survived the catastrophe there would be enough food and water on board the ship to last them for generations!
No, there wouldn't. Much of it was fresh food in cold storage. Besides, a lot of it would probably be in a different bit of sunken wreck to the handful of survivors. Mind you, what with all that Edwardian ingenuity I'm sure they'd soon work out a way of nipping out along the sea bed to get some milk.
4) This is possibly the most disturbing evidence; there is fully documented accounts of ships receiving a bizarre SOS message when crossing the Atlantic sea at the point were The Titanic sank. Everytime, the message is the same; “We are the survivors of RMS Titanic, trapped aboard the ship on the ocean bed-if anybody can here us, for God's sake help us”!!!
Have there? No, I haven't heard of this either. That's H-E-A-R-D, by the way, not H-E-R-E-D. Edwardian ingenuity never stretched to a spell-checker, then?
Right now, there are people trapped on The Titanic who have been born aboard the ship, and have never seen the light of day and know nothing of the outside world!!
Actually, there's a few like that on here, but they weren't born in the Titanic AFAIK...
I believe that we have a moral duty to help these poor souls and I am raising funds to attempt a rescue mission...
oh, are you now? What a nice chap.

I'll hold yer coat.
 
But don't hold your breath.
 
stuneville said:
4) This is possibly the most disturbing evidence; there is fully documented accounts of ships receiving a bizarre SOS message when crossing the Atlantic sea at the point were The Titanic sank. Everytime, the message is the same; “We are the survivors of RMS Titanic, trapped aboard the ship on the ocean bed-if anybody can here us, for God's sake help us”!!!
Have there? No, I haven't heard of this either. That's H-E-A-R-D, by the way, not H-E-R-E-D. Edwardian ingenuity never stretched to a spell-checker, then?
Don't be so horrible, Stu. Those poor souls have been trapped down there for nearly 95 years, the clock's ticking, they're almost out of biscuits (the nice ones, anyway), and you won't help rescue them because of a spelling mistake. Well, frankly, people like you make me angry. Now, where's my chequebook and extra-thick wetsuit? Hold on just a bit longer, you plucky Edwardians! Yes, I do realise that Edward VII died in 1910, but "Georgians" makes them sound like they're from Tblisi.
 
Of course, we could send them the equipment, not to release them from their watery prison but to watch the last Titanic film. We can then take their comments and criticisms of the conditions at that time and send them to the producers of the film. That'll teach them!
 
kevin_latch said:
anyone wishing to discuss this with me should contact me via this Newsgroup.

What newsgroup? Is there a link?

I did a quick Google and found nothing on this (but it doesn't sound like a one off) so any extra information on this would be appreciated.
 
Now I think about it - it has the feel of fiction and/or a scam. I wonder if it is some kind of viral ad.
 
I'm impressed that Stuneville took the time to dignify the post by refuting every one of his loony ideas. Excellent work!
 
This was a plot / story used in an episode of SeaQuest called "Knight of Shadows"
Quite a Fortean episode, it had supernatural phenomenon seen aboard the sunken wreck of a luxury liner with evidence of survivors trapped for years in a huge air pocket.
 
placeholder said:
anyone else ever heard anything about morse code signals in the area?

I wonder if this might have been a story from the WEAKLY WHIRLD NOISE?

That's the type of "news" story that tabloid runs. A decade or so back the WWN revealed that skeleton-filled TITANIC lifeboats still prowl the North Atlantic!
 
Back
Top