MONTHLY STUFF

COPAL'S QUEUE

COREY ANN'S interview with ROBERT BALLARD

TITANIC THROUGH HISTORY

A lot of stuff have happened since last time! The image gallery has had huge updates and does now contain a whole bunch of beautiful and quite rare pictures. And even more are coming soon.

We have got a new thing too. A monthly poll has been added to the Interaction section! Each month the poll question will change, but you will be able to see the results of previous polls there too!

We at B2T have decided that there should be special dates to celebrate Titanic. For an example we could celebrate Titanic Site day, and it's now your call to decide how to celebrate it!

Also, check out the first site to be remembered, in the Websites section, the "MIC" Watch. The Writings section is constantly being updated, so that's a great place to go! If you have a printer, you could print out a story, sit back in a big chair and enjoy the wonderful tales about Rose, Jack, and all the others!

Wonder who is behind B2T? Go to the B2T section and you will find some staff bios. Read more about us!

Quote
"You can be blasé about somethings Rose, but not about Titanic!"

Wallpaper
http://back-to-titanic.com/dl/wall/waves/dec_blase.jpg

Rare picture
http://back-to-titanic.com/waves/pic-month/dec_cal-wait.jpg

 
Fact
The original design for Titanic called for 32 lifeboats. However, White Star management felt that the deck would look cluttered, and reduced the number to 20, for a total lifeboat capacity of 1178 people. This actually exceeded the regulations of the time, even though Titanic was capable of carrying over 3500 people (passengers and crew).

There was a time when Titanic sites had webmasters who were desperately trying to get attention and hits. Many of the tactics we used, such as awards, webrings, and site fights, became so common that there was nary a site without them.

Particularly the webrings were so overgrown that there weren't enough sites to fill all the rings. What happened? Sites were joining ten and twenty webrings, creating pages and pages of them for just one site. In the months that have passed since that time, webrings are dead. The ringmasters who started them haven't taken out the broken links, nor are the webring members updating their listings. In order to find new sites (and there always are) I've used "the largest Titanic webring" only to find a series of error messages and unreachable sites.

We need to take Titanic webrings back to a time when they were useful, when people who otherwise wouldn't see your site do, just because you're in a respected webring. If you joined a webring, but your site isn't there anymore, tie up the loose ends: delete yourself from search engines, webrings, and anywhere else that you know linked to you. The latter also pertains to those ringmasters who don't check the links. Titanic sites will be better if there is a standard held for the things that link us together.

 
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! IMPORTANT !
How did you do that? If there's a graphic made by me, Copal, and you are wondering how I made it, please write to me at copal@back-to-titanic.com. I'll be answering some of your questions in an upcoming issue.

The line was already beginning to form, and we took our place, about ten people back. Right behind us was another boy, whom was roughly 10 years old, and a friend of his. The boy I had taken along with me in line was a talker, so he started up a conversation with the two boys behind us. They began to banter back and forth, arguing about this and that with Titanic. The banter turned into an argument, but it was totally good-natured. I was amazed. These two boys knew more than I did! The boy's friend sat there and kept shaking his head. He said that his friend does this every day.

I kept laughing, and the man in front of me was too. I started talking to him, and as it turns out, his Mother was a survivor of the Titanic. His little daughter was so excited to meet Dr. Ballard she could barely stand still.

The boys continued to argue, and the lobby was all watching and laughing. Not at the boys, I think we were all simply amazed at their spirit and knowledge. The argument left the subject of Titanic, and went onto the Bismarck. As more and more people got into line, the more people watched.

All went quiet though as a survivor walked in, and was escorted into the front row. This signified to us that the "elite" group was done with their dinner with Dr. Ballard and he was soon on his way. The rest of the group finally found their seats, and we began to search back and forth for Dr. Ballard.

Then he walked in. He is tall, with brown hair, and blue eyes. He was wearing a suit, and a really neat tie. He sat down, and began to sign and take pictures. Darnit all I forgot my camera, I never thought that he would be doing an autograph session with us. The line moved quickly and before I knew it we were up!

The boy handed his dog-eared copy of "Discovery of the Titanic" over to Ballard. He went to sign the cover, and the boy moved the pages to his FAVORITE begging him to sign that page instead. Ballard smiled and signed away while the boy went on and on about how much he admired him. Then he coughed on him, and let out a massive sneeze. You could see Ballard cringe, but he kept the smile upon his face all the while.

Then the boy moved over and stood beside Ballard and posed. He didn't know that you needed a camera to have your picture taken. He didn't look embarrassed though, just laughed and headed back to his seat.

MY TURN! AUGH! I handed over my book, also asking that he sign a page not the cover and my program, which I had intended on giving to someone (I ended up getting greedy and not giving it up). He said hello, and I did, the usual. I mentioned that he had a great tie, and he gave me a big smile. I went back to my seat and smiled away.

I sat and noticed that he was already getting up. The dinner had gone on longer than expected, and he didn't have much time to sign. Thank God I got in line when I did. My fiancee just got in as the doors to the auditorium shut. I looked up and saw that it was a full house. Then the lights went down... and the whole auditorium grew quiet...

- by Corey Ann

12th December 1901 - Guglielmo Marconi sends first translatic radio signal; wireless communication between ships at sea becomes possible.

23rd December 1915 - First voyage of Britannic as hospital ship.