TITANIC Trivia

Okay, well, most people know that the Titanic was this really humongous ship that was supposed to be unsinkable.  Then the first time it tried to cross the ocean, it hit an iceberg and sank.  So I don't have to tell you that part.  What I'm going to tell you instead is some stuff you may not know about the Titanic.

But first I will tell you why I'm writing about this subject anyway, and it's because Mom likes Titanic stuff, although she is not, like, obsessed with it, which some people are.  So last week we were watching some DVD documentaries about the Titanic, and Mom had this amazing thought, and here it is:

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, which will be on April 15, 2012, will also be the very same day as Mom's 60th birthday!

You might think that this idea would give a person a sinking feeling, but not Mom!  She was already planning to maybe have a party on her birthday, and now she has decided it could have a Titanic theme to it.  But she's not sure if this would work or not.  Luckily, she has two years to think about it.

So anyway, here's the trivia I promised to tell you:

Trivia #1:  There were 9 dogs on board the Titanic, but only 3 survived.  One of these was a Pomeranian that belonged to a lady named Margaret Hay.  Another was a Pekingese that belonged to a man named Henry Sleeper Harper.  And the third one belonged to Elizabeth Rothschild, but we don't know what breed it was.  One dog that died was a champion bulldog, and another one was a St. Bernard.

Trivia #2:  A famous rich man named John Jacob Astor had an airedale named Kitty on the Titanic.  Kitty died, and so did Mr. Astor, but Mrs. Astor got saved.  Here's a photo of Mr. Astor and his wife and Kitty.

Trivia #3:  In third class, there were about 700 passengers, but only 2 bathtubs for them to take baths in.

Trivia #4:  There were supposed to be 64 lifeboats on the Titanic, but then somebody decided that since the ship was so unsinkable, it only needed 20 lifeboats.

Trivia #5:  The number of people saved was 705, and the number lost was 1635.

Trivia #6:  If you took the Titanic in 1912 and stood it on end -- which would be really hard to do because it was so big and heavy -- it would have been taller than any building that existed at that time.

Well, that's all the Titanic trivia for today.  The lessons we can learn from this trivia are that if you get on a ship, make sure it has enough lifeboats.  And if you  are a dog on a sinking ship, it's best to be a small dog, because people are more likely to let small dogs get into lifeboats.

(Postscript:  After I did all my research and wrote this entry, I discovered a website that has a more complete list of dogs on the Titanic, and I learned that there were actually 11 or 12.  I hate it when some of my sources lie to me!  Anyway, if you want to read more about dogs on the Titanic, you can go here:  http://www.martycrisp.com/dogs_of_the_titanic.htm)