Virtual Trip to RMS Titanic

Come with us as we journey through the Atlantic Ocean to discuss the fateful night of April 15, 1912 when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. We share a few links to YouTube 360 videos that let you walk through the Titanic as well as a link that simulates her sinking, in real time. 

We also share our visit to Fairview Lawn Cemetery, Nova Scotia where we paid our respects to those who lost their life in this tragic accident. As well as the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.

We also share information on two museums; one in the Republic of Ireland and the other in Northern Ireland. Both specific to just the Titanic. 

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SHOW TRANSCRIPTION

David: [00:00:04] Hi, I’m David Allen Lambert, I’m here with Terri O’Connell. We’re your Virtual Historians and it is the summertime. And I thought I would change it up a little bit and talk some more about some of the wonderful things that we can find historically online. And for me, well, if you can tell what’s over my shoulder, that’s the Royal Mail Steamer Titanic, which I’ve had a fascination with since I saw Raise the Titanic when I was about 11 years old, a couple of years ago.

Not as long back as when the Titanic actually sailed. I’m not that old, even though my kids might argue that fact. Terri, I think we can both relate to a couple of years ago when we both went to Halifax and saw some amazing Titanic related sites. 

Terri: [00:00:54] Definitely. I think that when we were planning that cruise, that was the one thing we both talked about.

It was we have to hit these few locations just to touch on the Titanic history. 

David: [00:01:05] Yeah to go to the cemetery (Fairview Lawn Cemetery) where so many of the Titanic victims are buried and a lot of them are still unknown. A number of years ago, had a baby that had remained unknown for so very long and they were able through DNA to actually identify the child.

In the way the cemetery was laid out like a bow of the ship. That was well planned out and it was even more amazing when we went to the office and you know, me, I’m, I’m a pushy historian. And I just said, you know, just out of curiosity, do you have any records of the burials on the Titanic?

She brought out that large ledger sheet and opened it up and there we are actually seeing the ledger that was used when they were entering in each one of the burials from the disaster. 

Terri: [00:02:01] What’s funny is that the book was actually set to the side. So while you were talking about your family stuff, I had already opened the first few pages and didn’t see anything interesting.

So I shut it. I should’ve looked harder, went a little deeper.

David: [00:02:15] You know, when I went into the office, initially, it was because I didn’t want to find out more about the Titanic. Obviously we saw the gravestones and all that. It was to find out more about my great-grandfather, who lies in an unmarked grave in Halifax. He died back in 1869 and this cemetery also cares for he’s buried at and so whenever we got to see the other book, I thought that was a real treat because it was just us and the records, not like a hoard of people from a tour bus or anything like that.

So, and then of course, we went to the Canadian Maritime History Museum in Halifax where they have pieces of the flotsam and jetsam, if you will, for me, it was really the touchstone pieces of the Titanic, pieces of the ornate woodwork, deck chairs …

Terri: [00:03:11] the baby’s booties. 

David: [00:03:12] Oh yeah. Yeah. It’s just stuff like that.

That just really kind of hits home. And the Titanic story lives on, I mean, it’s now going towards the 110th anniversary of when she sank. Next April will be the 110th year and technology is out there. So you bring the events of that night to life. In fact, to website links, which you’ll find at the end of this recording one of them is the Titanic sinking itself. The Titanic took a little over two hours and 40 minutes to sink. She struck the iceberg on April the 14th, 1912, just a little bit before midnight. About 11:40, I believe. And then two hours and 40 minutes later all those souls perished. And so many did not make it especially third class passengers, second class passengers.

It kind of gives you, I don’t know, the best way I could say is like a forensic analysis. I mean, you saw the link to the video. It’s like timed in such a way. It reminds me a little bit at the 1997 movie that they did for Titanic and where they were showing the computer simulation when it was sinking and how she went up and then turn, broke and went down so many theories over the years and technology. And of course, Bob Ballard back in 1985 and all those from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, I think the whole world was transfixed because something that even God himself could not sink, the Titanic was gone, on her maiden voyage.

And I think that that stayed with people for so many years. When Bob Ballard found the Titanic in 1985 with other members of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on the ship the Knorr, there were still passengers who had survived that were still alive, including even adults.

And I know that I was transfixed because you know,  this is all newsworthy. Now, all of a sudden everybody’s talking about the survivors, I’m like, wow, wait a second. That was, you know, 1912. And here we are in 1985. 73 years ago.  Now we’re approaching, you know, 110 years afterwards.  I would find who were living in the newspaper articles and I’d write to them because I wanted to hear their stories. That led me to some really interesting adventures. Actually I think I’ve kind of shared with you that I I’ve met a couple of them. 

Terri: [00:05:55] You have, and honestly, as I’m sitting here listening to you talk again, and we’ve talked about this a lot, I just have so many questions. Like personally, I never would’ve thought to write to these people because like really do they want to relive it?

That would have been my thought,  I wouldn’t want to write about it and tell you about it because I don’t want to relive it. Did you ever get feedback like that? Like they just don’t want to talk about it. 

David: [00:06:18] I did talk to one of the survivors on the phone, that they basically had told me that basically call them.

And and I was like a little nervous and they said that they had lost most of their family and she was a small child. She didn’t remember a lot about it. She was actually the last American survivor. She actually lived in Massachusetts and I respected her wishes, you know, and obviously didn’t write her again.

What was kind of touching to have the chance to talk to her. Back in 1987, when they had the 75th anniversary at the Copley Hotel in Copley Square, Boston. Not far from where I work in Boston now at NEHGS, they had the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and the observation, probably more fitting word than say the anniversary.

And then that’s where I met a number of passengers. It was Ava Hart who a lot of people might remember. She was from England. She was a child onboard the Titanic. There was Michael Marcel Navratil who was twin boys that were kidnapped by their father. And they were from France, boarded the Titanic under an assumed name. I met one of the brothers. 

There was Eleanor Schuman. There was oh gosh, I have to go back to my list here. Ruth Becker, Frank Aks, who was a young boy at the time. And then it was Bertram Dean. Bertram was a small toddler at the time and he actually got separated from his mother when they were in different lifeboats.

And when I was talking with him, I noticed there was a lady standing next to him and not getting a lot of attention from anybody per se. And I said, oh, you were related. She goes, oh yeah, that’s my brother. And I thought to myself, the story, I knew that Bertrand’s mother never remarried. And I said, so were you on the Titanic?

She goes, I was the youngest passenger, and that was Edith Gladys Millvina Dean. And that was 1987. And for every year, until she died in 2009, including a couple of times when she came back to Boston, I knew her very well. We were pen pals. She would send Christmas gifts to my oldest daughter, Brenda, signing it love Auntie Millvina.

Brenda would send her cards and me make jewelry for her and all that. And it really, really was a special relationship. We were sort of pen pals and of course you wouldn’t remember anything about the Titanic? Let me show you a picture of her.

So this is Millvina with her mother in 1912. Yeah, she was born in February and Titanic, of course sailed, you know, just a couple of months later. And this is a picture from about 1996. With me and Millvina. Now about 25 years ago when she was in Boston, this is a time where they had raised the large section of the Titanic up.

Well, they attempted to and fell back down. So but she came to Boston a couple of times and every time we would meet and we’d have a cup of tea,  she would bring back a little souvenir. Well, I suppose Millvina wouldn’t care. She had a little hankering for a little nip of Jack Daniel’s Whiskey once in a while.

And that could be how come she lived to be 97 years old. Maybe that was that good Tennessee whiskey. But no, she, she obviously was just having a little bit every so often. I remember going and getting a bottle for her. And the next time I said, Hey, do you need me to make a packy run for you again? She laughed. She was a sweet person. 

I had a chance to write to a lot of other passengers, including another lady who was from Massachusetts and her name was Marjorie Robb. Now Marjorie lived to be 103 and kind of like Rose Decatur from the Titanic movie. Marjorie Robb also lived to be over a hundred and, you know, as Rose Decatur was the last first-class passenger.

So was Marjorie Robb. I remember talking to Marjorie because here’s somebody who was born in 1889. Now Melvina was born in 1912. She doesn’t remember being on the vessel. And a lot of the other ones were toddlers or very small children. And some of them did have certain memories. Of course, you know, as frightening as it was, but here’s the last adult passenger and the last first-class passenger.

And I asked her, I said, Do you remember them playing Nearer My God to Thee, and she goes, you know, in all the chaos of what was going on that night. I do remember the band playing, but do I remember them playing that song? No. 

Terri: [00:11:21] How old was she? 

David: [00:11:22] She was 21 years of age. 

Terri: [00:11:25] Oh, okay. Okay. 

David: [00:11:26] Yeah. So she was an adult.

She was the last one. Passenger. I mean, everybody else was either, you know, 11 or 12 or five or six, or, you know, an infant like Melvina or a toddler, like Bertram or Michel Marcel Navratil. 

You know, I mean,  to shake hands, I mean, with Melvina was hugs and kisses and, you know, and, you know, corresponding, I mean, I cherish every letter, every envelope I have.

In fact, I even saved the wrappings from the packages that she would send Brenda, because it had all sorts of British stamps on it and all that. So.

Terri: [00:12:01] That’s very sweet. 

David: [00:12:02] I’ve got a great picture of my wife and Brenda and I at the same time this picture was taken here in Brenda, probably about, oh, not even a year old.

So that’s why I know this had taken place in 1996 in the summertime.  I mean, how many, you know, soon to be 26 year olds can say that they had a honorary great auntie who was on the Titanic and actually to be held by her at the time. So it was kind of a nice little way of connecting her with history.

Terri: [00:12:35] Absolutely. Yeah. 

That’s sweet. It’s a sweet picture. I’ve seen it on Facebook. 

David: [00:12:40] Yeah. Yeah. I, I probably could dig it up, but I figured I didn’t have to show my entire family photo album tonight. 

You know, besides seeing the video of sort of the real time of the Titanic for me, obviously I’d love to get in that submarine and go down and visit with the Titanic and see all the artifacts and see the vessel herself.

But obviously we can’t do that. And I think that it’s like $30,000 price tag. So they could probably rather do something else for $30,000. Maybe it’s even more expensive, but if you have a PC through YouTube, you can actually watch the video. Two hours long and it’s done by steam. So my computer is kind of historic.

So my VR headset, I’ve watched this video and it’s of course this is just the walk through. So there’s really, you can’t look up and down and left and right. It’s basically static. So, but this walk through is two hours long Terri and it’s already had 1.3 million views.

Terri: [00:13:49] Wow. 

David: [00:13:51] And so we’ll have that link for you at the end of the show as well.

Well, I hope that this has been an exciting overview of the Titanic and what, at least my history with it.

And of course, what Virtual Historians could possibly do. And there’s probably more things on there. And as I’ve said before, if you have a story that you think would be of interest by all means, let us know. And Terri’s going to give you a little bit of information about how we’re going to work episodes for the rest of the summer.

And maybe some of the guests we’re hoping to have back on. 

Terri: [00:14:25] So really quick before I go into that, I just want to say, even though the, the VR headset version of the walkthrough is amazing. If you want to see things firsthand and obviously not the ship, because that’s not possible. I definitely recommend if you’re in Ireland, Go to Belfast and see where they made the Titanic.

See what they have leftover there. It’s an amazing tour. And also in Cobh they have a museum there as well, and it works like a lot of the Holocaust museums do you’re given. a name. Right? And on your, so you get a ticket and you walk through the whole museum and it has what the cabins look like third class to first class.

It has the menus hanging up, like what they ate, right. It’s amazingly well done. And at the end, You find out whether your passenger, so the ticket you got, whether they survived or not. 

David: [00:15:19] You know, they had the traveling Titanic museum of the artifacts. And the first time I saw that was back in the nineties when it came to Boston and that’s actually when they successfully brought up the big piece and I remember walking around and being that close to the personal effects, belonged to the passengers and some of them for items that the person was still around, like they were descendants living, but their great grandparents may have died.

One of the things that really touched me were just like the things like the shoes. 

Terri: [00:15:55] Those baby booties, like it got me. 

David: [00:15:58] Let’s be serious when you saw the shoes on the ocean floor, those just weren’t random two shoes next to each other. That was a person. 

Terri: [00:16:06] Right? Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

David: [00:16:11] Yep. 

Terri: [00:16:12] So I was just gonna say those are just things that I think really you need to do. And I will tell you this the museum in Cobh is actually the old Cunard building. So it’s where they actually bought their tickets for the Titanic. 

David: [00:16:24] Yeah. I went to a Belfast a number of years ago and they were building the Titanic museum and the Northern Ireland archives at that point in time.

I went down to the docks where they actually, they built the Titanic in dry dock and for Harland and Wolff and to not to just stand there and just think that she was there. And it was, it was almost like, with the connection of having been interested in it now for well over 40 years.

The Titanic has always had a strong connection to me. And of course, having a, a dear friend for over 20 odd years, that was part of that story, will always be part of my family story. Right. 

Well just as a reminder, when we do the transatlantic, we’re going into Cobh, so we’ll make sure to do the museum tour there because I mean, you have to do it while you’re there.

Well, I know what I’m going to cross the Atlantic. This is my first time. I know we’re not going near where the Titanic sank, but when we’re about that line of longitude, I will definitely be thinking of them. 

Terri: [00:17:36] Absolutely. Absolutely. So,  those were my just little bits I wanted to add. So let’s talk about the rest of the summer real quick.

David: [00:17:44] As we said, in the last episode, We’re going to be kind of slowing down for the summer, but that doesn’t mean we’re not slowing down and looking for ideas. So we would love to hear from you and to find out what episodes that you liked, which ones maybe you didn’t like so much, any particular guests you’d like to have back on, or maybe you would like to be a guest. Because the best way to make Virtual Historians really work for you is to actually make it part of of your story. So as a historian or an archeologist or a genealogist, if Virtual Historians can be part of  expressing your story or the work you’re doing. I think Terri, you probably agree with me. I mean, this is how people can get their story out. 

Terri: [00:18:30] Absolutely. I mean, it’s like when we had Shannon on and she shared the story of Shuter’s Hill, right.

And that all started because she took her kids to the archeology dig there. So any piece of history can be talked about if you’re working with it or you’re touching it. 

David: [00:18:48] Right. And, and maybe something as personal as your own story, it doesn’t have to be like Daniel Horowitz, which we had a couple of times from MyHeritage talking about their product that they have for photography and bringing photographs to life.

And sometimes it’s archeologists or historians or genealogists sharing where technology and history kind of come together. And that’s what Virtual Historians is all about. And we’re really delighted that you’ve been a part of our adventure for the past number of months that we’ve been on as we’re approaching probably our year anniversary coming up.

Not, yeah, well, a few months down the road time flies when you’re having fun,

Terri: [00:19:32] it does. It does 

So the rest of the summer like we said, on our last episode. The episodes are going to be sporadic because most of the archeologists are out there working now. In the background, we’re going to be working on the website, look to put together a better logo gear shop for our fans. We’re also gonna be working on some reviews for some products that we’ve talked about in the past so that we can give input on what we think. So that was,  Forever, Clanview and we gave many reviews for MyHeritage as we talked about them. But those are the two that I was thinking about. So just be patient as they come through. And then when the new season comes in, of course, we’re going to try to get them back to weekly.

In the meantime, we are definitely looking for people who want to be guests in the next coming season. If you’re touching history, we want to hear from you. If you’re finding things from history, we want to hear from you. If your kid found a sword in the mud, we want to hear from you. They’re all just great stories.

If you found a ship while you were on vacation, send us an email. 

David: [00:20:44] Don’t forget if your kid pulls the sword out of a stone, let us know. We want that breaking story first. 

Terri: [00:20:50] Absolutely. Absolutely. 

David: [00:20:55] All right. Well until next time, this is David and Terri virtually yours, signing off.