Imagine

Has anyone noticed and then wondered about the question mark on the image to this blog?  There is a good reason why that question mark is there—I had it put there—and for good reason.  Let me explain and to that I need to go back in time a bit.  A number of weeks ago, when I got bitten by the Titanic bug, the research on the sinking led into reading about the other victims of the sea—the Britannic and the Lusitania.  Their sinking stories are almost as interesting and intriguing as that of the Titanic.  So interesting and intriguing that I have decided to blog about them as well.  I am motivated to write these blogs simultaneously because the forensic analyses are interrelated.  The stewardess Violet Jessop links two of them together in addition.

While searching for a suitable image for this Lusitania blog, I ran across the image that is now displayed.  Having read about second explosion on the Lusitania that was bigger than the first (the torpedo) my initial reaction to the image was: that’s the Lusitania!  And then reality dawned—the big hole is on the wrong side; and then: that’s not the Lusitania—that’s the Britannic!  But the Britannic doesn’t have a large hole on its port side; one that looks like it was caused by an internal explosion with outward bent shell plating.  Instead, the Britannic has cracked hull just forward of the bridge caused by impact with the sea bottom.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have come to age in my old age and have to also admit, in my naivety, that I thought this image was really an underwater photograph.  The artifact behind this image for the blog does not exist anywhere but in the creator’s imagination.  But what a beautiful work of computer art it is.  I still want to use it.

There are other misrepresentations in art work for books and the like.  For example there are the well known sinking-of-the-Titanic depictions which show boiler smoke billowing out of the aft-most funnel.  Someone needs to be an accuracy sleuth and help these artists out—they do such great work otherwise.  Maybe someday I will write a blog about it.