Havenwood Happenings 4-27-2022
Happy Spring to all of my loyal readers. I hope you are enjoying some of the early signs. We spotted robins pretty early this year. They were snowed on three times which is the magic number to call it officially spring. Monday started out with our exercising sessions. Sometimes we do it in Grand Oaks and sometimes we have them in Havenwood. Tuesday we had the privilege of listening to John Lynch, a former member of the Boyceville Memories band. He’s a regular who comes once a month to sing for us.
Wednesday we did an interesting craft project. We painted stepping stones in many colored patterns. It’s always fun to see who does what. They will be sprayed and then we can do whatever we want with them. You might find mine by the entrance to Havenwood. I signed it to enhance its worth in years to come. Friday we had our bingo. We get quarters and treats and $5.00 for coverall. We also had a singer, Rod Hildahl sing for us. He does such a good job and it’s always good to have him come. This was also the month I like to reflect on the tragic day when the Titanic, a luxury British steamship sunk in the early hours of April 15th, 1912. It struck an iceberg leading to the deaths of more than 1500 passengers and crew. The Royal Mail Steamer Titanic was the product of intense competition amongst the rival shipping lines in the first half of the 20th century. According to some hypothesis, Titanic was doomed from the start by a design that many stated as state of the art. The Olympic ships featured a double bottom and is water tight bulk head compartments equipped with electric water tight doors that could be operated individually or simultaneously by a switch on the bridge. It was these water tight bulk heads that inspired ship builder magazine to deem them “practically unsinkable.” But the water tight compartment design contained a fatal flaw that was a critical factor in Titanic’s sinking, while the individual bulkheads were indeed water tight, the walls separating the bulkheads extended only a few feet above the waterline, so water could pour from one compartment into another. There are many questions surrounding this tragedy and here are a few. 1. When did the Titanic sink? The ship struck a massive iceberg on April 14, 1912. It took about 3 hours for the entire ship to sink. Completely submerged at 2:45 a.m. on the morning of April 15, 1912. 2. Where did it sink? In the Atlantic Ocean, the remains were located approximately 13 miles southeast of the location of the distress call, is why it took until 1985 to locate it. 3. What did it look like? It was 882 feet long, 92 feet wide, 175 feet high (11 stories) and weighed 46,000 tons. It was painted glossy black with white trim. 4. Where was it bound for? It departed South Hampton England, made two port calls to France and Ireland, bound for New York. 5. How many people died? There was a total of 2228 people on board. 1343 were passengers and 885 crew members. There were only enough lifeboats to hold 1178. A number of them were half full resulting in a significant smaller survivor number. The survivorship tends to vary but about 705 survived. The 1517 passengers that survived were comprised of 130 first class, 166 2nd class, 536 3rd class and 685 crew members. The “Dream Ship” was built by Harland & Wolff in Belfast Ireland. It cost $7,500,000 to build. Today it would be $400,000,000. It was built in 1909 and completed in 1912. Passengers on the ship were divided in 3 classes. The lower class occupied the lower part of the ship and you guessed it the upper class was on top. There was also a big difference in food served. While passengers in the 1st class ate egg a L’argenteuil, the second class settled for spring lamb, plum pudding and American ice cream. It still seemed good when compared to the stewed figs gruel and cabin biscuits that the 3rd class ate. The Titanic sinking remains a legend steeped in tragedy and mystery to this day.
Stay tuned—Lois Kilde (Titanic Expert)
