History – Disasters
There are times when disasters happen with the results effect so many of us, along with the stories of survival.
On April 14th, 1912, at approximately 11.45pm the ocean liner the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Its story is well known, but what isn’t as well known is the story of the ship that saved many of the Titanic’s passengers and its heroic dash to the site of the disaster. The RMS Carpathia was at least a ………. | The Queen of Sinking Ships This is Violet Jessop, a stewardess on RMS Titanic. She was also a stewardess on both RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic when they sank, both sister ships of RMS Titanic! So, she got the nickname “Miss Unsinkable”, especially as she lived to the ripe old age of 83, they also called her ……… | Did the people of Pompeii know they lived by a live volcano? Pliny the Younger who watched from the other side of the bay told us “There had been tremors for many days previously, So, Yes, they did! The Pompeiians also knew that Volcanoes provided fertile land, ideal soil along with a climate for growing grapes and olives. That is why they lived ………… | The remarkable story A violin was sold at auction for £1.1M! It was just a violin, one that was found in an attic in 2006. So why was it worth £1.1M? The owner of the violin was in the orchestra on the RMS Titanic. Then it hit an iceberg! The orchestra continued to play until the ship went down. They say their final tune was …….. |
Shortly after midnight on Sunday 2nd September a fire went rogue in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane in the City of London. Fires were a regularity in London at this time. Unfortunately, this one became uncontrollable. There were strong winds, it spread to the nearby houses, then across the city, creating a most terrifying fireball! There was only one way to stop it, to create ……..… | We all know about Volcanos they shoot lava high into the air, but did you know what a Plinian volcano is? You see, volcanos are not all the same. They have different eruptive habits! Weird, isn’t it? Just like animals. The clever guys, the boffins, who research into them, even classify them differently. They are more interested in the ………. | “On the afternoon of the 26th there were violent explosions at Krakatoa, which were heard as far as Batavia. High waves first retreated, and then rolled upon both sides of the strait. During a night of pitchy darkness these horrors continued with increasing violence, augmented at midnight by electrical phenomena on a terrifying scale.” W. Sturdy Krakatoa, was an island in the Strait of Sunda, sort of …… | What happened to The White Star Line was actually owned by the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company. Built up by Thomas Ismay into what eventually became the Cunard Line. He built it up with a simple USP that was to provide steady and comfortable passage for both upper class travellers and, more importantly, immigrants. He did this even though along the way there were several tragic losses, the wrecking of …….. |
The real Gunpowder Plot was simple, but it went wrong! The plan itself was simple, but it went very wrong. Basically, they were all Catholics and they wanted to bring the Catholic religion back to England by blowing up the House of Lords during the state opening of Parliament, as the King, the Lords and the Commons would all be in the Lords chamber. This, they thought ….. | The Three Sisters At the beginning of the twentieth century, the RMS Titanic and its two sister ships, the RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic were the biggest ships at sea? We all know that the RMS Titanic, sank on her maiden voyage. What many people don’t know is that it was one of three roughly identical ships that were called Olympic class liners. The other two were ………. | December 5th 1456 another We know of the eruption of Vesuvius that wiped out Pompeii, which is just by Naples. Did you know that an even bigger earthquake hit Naples, on 5th December 1456? It was the largest earthquake to hit Naples, ever! It happened near the town of Pontelandolfo and it is estimated that 70,000 people were killed! Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it, as ….. | The Titanic The Titanic was at the forefront of maritime technology, it really was the “Ship of Dreams”. She was:
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Why does history keep repeating itself? In 1812 Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Russia. A big mistake! Then, 120 odd years later Adolf Hitler did the same thing! With the same result. Why do seemingly intelligent people keep making the same mistake again and again? There are so many such examples of history repeating itself, if only we understood the mistakes of history, maybe ……….. |