Ripley's Believe It or Not by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! for April 15, 2012

I sailed on an Asian cruise aboard an Italian ship and every announcement including the calling of bingo numbers was in six languages. God help us if we had needed to abandon ship in a hurry.

“Not tonight, dear…”I have the proverbial headache!

I’ve read a lot on the Titanic over the years. One generally-accepted theory regards the rivets used in the hull. The original plan called for 100% steel rivets. Because of production capacity, the shipyard was forced to use some percentage of iron rivets, which are weaker. The theory goes on that the area of the hull that impacted the iceberg had a high number of iron rivets. As the torque increased in the hull after impact and seawater started exerting more force on the ruptured hull plates, the iron rivets on adjacent plates started failing, increasing the rupture area, and allowing more water into multiple bulkhead-separated sections. Kind of a cascade effect.

Your correct when you ask “…how much would we know today…” If you asking with hint of cynicism I guess a point can be made? But if your’re wondering what the difference would have been if like you say “We’ve found her, we should leave her alone…” First and foremost the deck wouldn’t have been used as Trash Dumpster! With that said I guess I only have one question for you. What is your personal opinion about “Grave Robbing” Before you offer me a temperance lecture about how you unterstand “Marine Salvage Rights” I ask you keep one thing in mind… Isn’t true that when it was all said and done the only thing Tom Ballard was truly guilty of was being too naive; or better still being too trusting? Case and point I offer the amount of information the world has learned from all the other wrecks that Mr. Ballard has found throughout the worlds oceans ie: The ones he did claim “Salvage Rights” too?

At least three dogs were known to survive the Titantic. http://news.yahoo.com/dogs-titanic-untold-story-163100569.html

It’s hard to design a ship so it cannot sink; it has to be operated within safe envelopes of weather, speed, temperatures, loads, etc. They were going too fast. A car for instance should never be driven faster than it can stop within the visibility distance. The cap’n wanted to set a speed record with his wondrous new ship. He set that goal ahead of lives. And he ordered max speed, after having several stiff drinks. Incorrect priorities and drug usage. There weren’t enough lifeboats; England’s laws on that were inept, and the company didn’t go any further than the law required.

There are no human remains down there. Its been a hundered years. There is still clothing that could show where a body had come to rest after sinking to the ocean floor. But with all the active marine life down there, no actual bodies (including bones). Best estimates I have heard of say the actual bodies disapeared with in a year or two.