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]

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.