RMS Titanic (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 14:45 (4993 days ago)

As I'm sure many of you know, today is the Centenary of the launch of the ill-fated RMS Titanic. I am not particularly well-read on the Titanic itself, and I'm not posting to ignite a debate about the ship or it's legends. However as a mechanical engineer with an interest in all things nautical plus British engineering history such as it's builders Harland & Wolff of Belfast, I was disappointed yet intrigued by today's article on the BBC website. Disappointed as the headline describes it as a "disastrous ship", which I think is grossly unfair as I believe the sinking (which was of course a disaster) was largely caused by bad handling by the captain & owners & not due to poor ship design or build quality. I was intrigued by the website's interesting angle re the supposed sectarian aspect of the H&W workforce. (Before my marriage in 1991 my only exposure to this was the TV news of the "troubles" in Ulster etc. Yet when I married a Catholic girl in deepest darkest Banbury I was amazed by my parent's initial fear & suspicion of the way the service might go, as we were pro British C of E from Cinderford and our only knowledge of the RC religion was from tv etc... as it turned out the service was very similar to our "normal" weddings and a lovely occasion).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13593391

Anyway, today I'm wondering whether any Foresters from perhaps the iron industries were involved in building the ship or it's fittings in any way at all ?. A quick search of this forum showed that a few Foresters were lucky enough to be unable to book passage on Titanic, do we know if any actually were involved in the sinking or subsequent rescue efforts ?.

To all the 1503 who lost their lives, and those hardworking innocents at Harland & Woolf who's jobs & careers were blighted, my thoughts are with you all.
RIP.