Our son Sam has had an interesting fascination with the Titanic lately. We’ve let him watch the 1997 movie “Titanic” and the early 1958 “A Night to Remember.” We’ve checked out additional documentary DVDs from the library along with books. He’s taken one of his giant Lego planes and converted it to be Titanic, complete with funnels and a break-away hull which allows him to sink it (from the couch to the floor) in dramatic near-real play action into two pieces. It’s pretty cool actually. I even helped him find the underwater 3D representation on the sea floor in Google Earth.
All this has re-kindled my own childhood interest in the story and the wreck. I recall being intrigued by the idea of this unsinkable ship having sunk in 1912 and the fact it hadn’t been found. I, like many others thought how cool it would be if someone did find it and was able to raise it. I read Clive Cussler’s book “Raise the Titanic” and watched the movie of the same name. These of course only kindled a belief the Titanic might one day be found and actually brought back to the surface. Many people thought the same thing. But tonight I got to thinking what a folly that was.
I’m sure before the Titanic was discovered by Bob Ballard, many people truly believed we’d find her and be able to affect a patch on her hull that would allow us to bring her up. I’m certain there were grand visions of turning her into a museum, monument or sailing her again just to take the “unsinkable” meme and shake it in the face of God.
But God had other plans.
After Titanic’s sister ship Olympic having survived prior collisions before Titanic was launched, man proclaimed Titanic unsinkable. This boasting merely sealed Titanic’s doom giving rise to the wrath of God and his terrible reminder to man that nothing man makes can stand up to the power of God.
It would be just over 70 years God would keep her hidden, allowing the folly of ideas the Titanic could be raised, to brew. In September of 1985, man discovered how God deals with man’s arrogance. The Titanic was found, laid beneath the waves as if God had taken Titanic in his bare hands and broke her in two. The bow he tossed to the ocean floor as if throwing a knife into mud.
Titanic’s bow plowed into the seabed
The stern he crushed in his hand and let fall the broken pieces. God would ensure no man could raise her hulk and sail her again.
Titanic’s unrecognizable stern section
And through 70 years of isolation, we found her being eaten quickly by deep sea bacteria. Titanic was found in such a state of deterioration it was hardly believed it was her. By 2005 even more of her once majestic frame had collapsed; it’s thought she might return fully to the Earth within the next several decades. I remember reading the first Titanic Found article in National Geographic in 1985/86; looking at all the photo mosaics of the wreck. That’s when the folly of it all hit me and the real tragedy of humanity sank in.
The sinking of the Titanic in 1912 taught a terrible lesson; one heard loud and clear. The last of the three sister ships to launch, the Britannic, not only was made slightly larger but fit with a new double hull, more watertight doors, higher bulkheads and nearly three times the amount of lifeboats. The first of the three, Olympic, was brought back into port and subsequently refit herself in a similar fashion to Britannic.
Some years ago I was able to tour the Titanic Experience in Las Vegas. It was a heart wrenching experience that caused me to silently weep for those lost; and for the reminder of God’s power to set man right again.
When you come to believe your creation is infallible, invincible or beyond reproach… Remember the Titanic.
I pray one day I am able to impress this upon Sam, so he more fully understands the deeper meaning behind the tragedy of Titanic as opposed to it being a fascinating shipwreck.
Asa Jay
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