And the night was alive with a thousand voices

[sovay]

I was not planning on posting anything for the sinking of the Titanic, but this came courtesy of derspatchel: the Titanic in her own words.

"This is Titanic. CQD."

There's the Carpathia, the Californian, the Caronia, the Baltic. Those are not actors reading the Morse transmissions that flashed back and forth across the wireless of the North Atlantic, jaunty, terse, desperate, encouraging, steadfast, frustrated, lost. Those voices are the product of speech synthesis software, only as capable of dramatization as the clicks and beeps of the telegraph key—ghosts speaking, but the ghosts in the machine, not the sea or our minds. Everything resides in the words. The words are devastating.

CQD. SOS. SOS. SOS. CQD.

Comments

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

File under things I will not be listening to! Ever! With a side of never!

I bet it's cool, though, in its eerie, forever-speaking way.

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!

As awful as my sleep is this time of year, I have to think of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, stolid company man of a rival company, steaming like mad into the wall of the greatest possible oh shit oh shit oh shit moment of his life, to try and help, and coming upon that white-littered sea. I hope he slept again, sometime, ever.

[sovay]

As awful as my sleep is this time of year, I have to think of Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, stolid company man of a rival company, steaming like mad into the wall of the greatest possible oh shit oh shit oh shit moment of his life, to try and help, and coming upon that white-littered sea. I hope he slept again, sometime, ever.

If you think you can write it and ever sleep again yourself, there should be a poem for him.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Slightly more flippantly, when we looked up "Eternal Father Strong to Save," we discovered they had added a Seabees verse at some point, and a really quite awful one about astronauts. It was never a lyrically good hymn to start with...

[sovay]

and a really quite awful one about astronauts. It was never a lyrically good hymn to start with...

Oh, dear. That does not sound like a good idea.

I'd like good astronaut hymns. I suspect they'd have to be written by people I know.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I usually settle for Saint-Saens' setting of "Aux Aviateurs."

[sovay]

I usually settle for Saint-Saens' setting of "Aux Aviateurs."

I don't know that! And I like Saint-Saëns. Thanks for the recommendation.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

If Capt. Smith was a textbook case of "getting people killed through your overconfidence and sloppiness," then Capt. Rostron was equally an example of Proper Emergency Response. (http://www.titanic-titanic.com/captain_rostron.shtml)

[sovay]

then Capt. Rostron was equally an example of Proper Emergency Response.

"Rostron then did something which is often overlooked by many books and films; he ordered Carpathia's new course before checking that what Cottam was telling him was indeed fact, and not a garbled message of some sort, which was quite possible in those days of early communication, then he worked out the relative positions of both ships and set a more accurate course."

Here's to the Electric Spark of the Cunard Line. I'm sorry I didn't know about him sooner.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

If you think you can write it and ever sleep again yourself, there should be a poem for him.

I would love to read hers. And yours.

Nine