Thursday, January 30, 2020
The Titanic Disaster Essay Example for Free
The Titanic Disaster Essay John Eaton, one of the co-authors of Titanic: Triumph and Tragedy said that in the summer of 1907, J. Bruce Ismay and Lord James Pirrie, a partner in Harland and Wolff, met to discuss plans to build two ocean liners that will surpass anything built to date. This simple meeting set off a chain of events that led to the death of over 1500 people less than five years later. The two ocean liners were to be called the Olympic and the Titanic. A third ship was added to the plans later. The Titanics hull plate was laid in 1909 and a little over two years later, Titanics 26,000 ton hull is launched at Harland and Wolffs shipyard. The ship reached a speed of twelve knots when it slid into the water before six anchor chains and two piles of cable drag chains weighing 80 tons each brought her to a halt. The White Star Line never christened their ships. Many people still consider this to be a bad omen (Eaton 87-90). On April 2, 1912, the Titanic set sail from Belfast and completed her sea trials. A small fire started in boiler room 6 that would smolder for weeks in the coal dust of the starboard bunker due to a spark from one of the boilers. Just eight days later, passengers began to board the ship to take the maiden voyage of the huge ocean liner. Shortly after noon on April 10, the Titanics mooring ropes were cleared and tug boats began to tow her from the dock. According to Colonel Archibald Gracie, a survivor of the wreck and author of the article Out of the Wreck, the movement of Titanics huge mass in the harbor causes all 6 mooring ropes of the ocean liner New York to snap. The New York began to swing towards the Titanics hull, but the tug boat, the Vulcan, managed to catch the New Yorks bow and heads off the collision. After some delay, Titanic is towed from the harbor and begins the 24 mile crossing of the English Channel. By Friday, Titanic is well on her way out to the North Atlantic, running at 21 knots (Eaton 105-109). During Captain Smiths inspection of the engine room on Saturday morning, Chief Engineer Bell reports the fire in boiler room 6 is finally extinguished, however the bulkhead part of the bunker shows signs of heat damage (Eaton 105-10). Ton Kuntz, editor of the book Titanic Disaster Hearings: The Official Transcripts of the 1912 Senate Investigation, wrote that one survivor told investigators that Smith and Ismay talked at lunch about making New York a day early and grabbing headlines The Titanic began to receive ice warnings from other ships in the area. There were reports of large quantities of field ice 250 miles ahead of Titanic. Captain Smith took this message from the radio operators and later showed it to Bruce Ismay. There was another message was received from the ocean liner America that warned the Titanic of icebergs in its path, but this message was not forwarded to Captain Smith. The Californian later sent a third message warning of ice 50 miles ahead of Titanic. After meeting with Second Officer Lightoller and discussing the unusually calm seas and clear air, Captain Smith retires to his room. Officer Lightoller then cautions lookouts to be careful of ice until morning. The Titanics speed at this time is 22 knots (Kuntz 270-274). A heavy ice pack and iceberg warning is received from the Masaba. Wireless Officers Phillips and Bride ignored the message and proceed with sending personal messages from the passengers. Later, Lightoller passed the watch off to First Officer Murdock. Just a few hours later, Lookout Frederick Fleet rang the bridge by telephone yelling Iceberg right ahead! and rang the crows nest bell 3 times. Sixth Officer Moody acknowledges and relayed the message to Murdock, who orders the ships wheel turned hard-a-starboard and telegraphs the engine room to bring the ship to a full stop followed by the order full a-stern which would cause the propellers to turn backwards and slow the ship. The Titanic began to turn slowly to port but struck an underwater piece of the iceberg on the starboard side 12 feet back from the bow. The side of the ship was scrapped for 300 feet along Titanics side below the waterline, tearing a hole in five compartments of the ship. First Officer Murdock ordered the wheel turned full to port, trying to corner Titanic around the remainder of the iceberg. He also threw the electric switch closing the water-tight compartment doors. Passengers on the upper decks saw the iceberg as Titanic passed by. Captain Smith arrived on the bridge and ordered Thomas Andrews, Chief Wilde, and Officer Boxhall to go below and inspect the damage (Eaton195-96). The post office on G deck was flooded, trapping and drowning several workers. Thomas Andrews reported that 5 compartments are flooded to the waterline and advised Captain Smith that Titanic can float with 4 compartments filled, but not 5. Less than 3 hours later, the lights flickered once and then went out as the electric generators fail. Titanics hull split from the deck to the keel between the 3rd and 4th funnels. The stern section falls back to the water and then rose up again as the bow broke off and began its decent to the ocean floor. The stern section floods and went down, 2 hours and 30 minutes after the collision. (Gracie 895-97). Over 1500 remaining passengers plunge into the icy water. There are several fields of thought as to what caused the disaster. Many believe that the ship was jinxed from the beginning because it wasnt christened and because of the bad luck of a near collision at beginning of its maiden voyage. According to Logan Morgan the sinking of the Titanic was mainly caused by unusual weather and human error. To begin with, the Titanic was on the southern most of the routes that were used by ocean liners. It was highly unusual for that much ice to be found that far south in April. Also the water and wind were very calm, no chance of spotting a breaker against an iceberg which would have made them much easier to spot. Finally there was no moonlight shining on the water; which made the night very dark. There are also many human errors that were made during that voyage. The lookouts binoculars had been removed from the crows nest and locked in a cabinet in the second officers cabin and no one aboard had a key. The ship received numerous wireless messages alerting them to ice lying right in their path. Some of these were tacked up on the bridge and forgotten, one wound up in Bruce Ismays pocket and others never made it out of the wireless room (Kuntz. 301-03) Bruce Ismay wanted to make a good impression with his new ship and urged Captain Smith to test the speed of the huge ocean liner. So the Titanic was traveling at a much faster speed than it should have been (Eaton 303). Finally there were too few lifeboats for all the passengers on board and the ship was thought to be unsinkable so many passengers refused to leave the ship for the tiny lifeboats. In conclusion, many bad things happened during the Titanics short maiden voyage from the weather to actions of the crew. Each of these could have been disastrous alone, but a combination of all these factors contributed to a disaster causing the loss of over 1500 lives.
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
the works of dylan thomas :: essays research papers fc
Brown i. The Works of Dylan Thomas Thesis Statement: Dylan Thomas, renowned for the unique brilliance of his verbal imagery and for his celebration of natural beauty, applies his own unnecessarily complicated and obscure style of writing to his poetry, stories, and dramas. I.     Dylan’s obscure poems contained elements of surrealism and personal fantasy, which is what draws readers to them to reveal the universality of the experiences with which they are concerned. A.     18 Poems 1.     â€Å"Continuity between nature and the Stories of Christ and Adam†(Korg 42). 2.     Semantic properties of language are possessed by the natural world. 3.     Conflicts preceding the mystical resolution. 4.     Personal statement as dramatic monologue. 5.     Complexity of death. B.     Twenty-five Poems 1.     Dylan’s reaction to other people. 2.     â€Å"Immortal companionship of matter and spirit†(Korg 62). 3.     â€Å"The duality of time as it is manifested in the alternation of the seasons†(Korg 67). 4.     â€Å"Relationships with other people and with external scenes and events as episodes in the drama of spiritual life†(Korg 70). C.     Later Poems 1.     â€Å"These later poems were usually written in response to some particular experience rather than to experience in general. Their points of departure are intimate and local rather than cosmic†(Korg 73). 2.     The lover is condemned to an essential betrayal. 3.     â€Å"Ordinary events, humble folk, and local scenery, together with the compassion and tenderness these things evoke, occupy the foreground of these poems†(Korg 82). D.     Last Poems 1.     â€Å"Poems in praise of God’s world by a man who doesn’t believe in God†(Korg 91). 2.     â€Å"The renewal of earth after some mysterious universal catastrophe†(Korg 95). 3.     Essential images and impressions held loosely with a syntactic framework. Brown ii. E. Longer Poems 1.     â€Å"The Altarwise by owl-light sequence is an intricately ambiguous, punning fabric in which Thomas carries his linguistic and rhetorical virtuosity to extremes, producing a result both more complex and more obscure than any of the other works†(Korg 100) 2.     The views of the mystic in the real world. 3.     The midwinter rebirth legends from primitive cultures, the return of the spring. 4.     Christian myths with other religions: birth, sacrifice, light, and darkness. II.     Dylan was as productive a writer of stories as he was of poems. A.     Thomas’ stories fall under two categories: vigorous poetic fantasies, and poetic objective narrative. B.     â€Å"The main characters are madmen, simpletons, fanatics, lechers, and poets in love: people enslaved by the dictates of feelings†(Korg 121). III.     He only completed four scripts but worked on several others as a writer of films. A.     He wrote documentaries for the Ministry of Information during his wartime job. B.     â€Å"Cinematic writing made few demands on Thomas’s real literary gifts, but it did show that he had an unexpected capacity for adapting himself to the new form, and for persevering with extended projects until they were complete†(Korg 137).
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Mid-Term Break Essay
‘Mid-term Break’ was written in 1966 by Seamus Heaney. This poem is autobiographical as it was written about a real event of Heaney’s life. It is about him and his family grieving from the death of his four year old brother. When the tragedy struck he was only fourteen. This poem focuses on how people reacted to the death. The title of this poem is unusual as a mid-term break is normally thought of as a break off school that has been planned beforehand but in the poem it is unexpected. I feel that Heaney is very honest when he writes about how people reacted to the death of his brother. The poem is set into eight stanzas, the first seven contain three lines and the last only contains one. The first stanza is set in the sick bay of what we think is his boarding school. Heaney was waiting on his neighbours to pick him up and take him home. We wonder why he was sitting in a sick bay and not at home with his family. Heaney seemed bored of waiting: â€Å"I sat all morning†¦ counting bells knelling classes to a close.†This phrase ‘counting bells’ suggests that time was passing by slowly. The word ‘all’ is emphasised as if he is really bored and can’t wait to leave the sick bay. The quote also includes alliteration on the letter ‘l’ showing the long chiming of the bells. The connotations of the word ‘knelling’ are it reminds us of funerals and church bells which also suggest something not so nice has happened. Throughout the stanza we wonder what he is waiting for and why the neighbours are picking him up and not his parents, which suggests that something has happened to them which leaves us with an uneasy feeling. The second stanza is set outside the family home on the front porch. When Heaney arrives home he meets his father crying which is unusual for him as his father normally took ‘funerals in his stride.’ Heaney also meets ‘Big Jim Evans’ who is suggested to be a family friend or a farm worker. ‘Big Jim Evans’ makes a tactless comment by saying ‘it was a hard blow.’ On first reading you don’t realise how awkward the situation would be for Heaney after the tactless comment was made. Some people may react very harshly to the comment as it is a very upsetting time for families and friends, although we only realise the full extent of this gate at the end of the poem. The next three stanzas are set in the living room with many grieving family members and friends paying their respects. These stanzas are joined by enjambment as the poem carries on after each stanza without full stops. As Heaney entered the living room his youngest sibling ‘cooed and laughed and rocked the pram’ in excitement, an activity that seemed out of place for such a sad event. He was also embarrassed by the older men shaking his hand as he walked through the door. He felt very awkward as it was an unusual thing to happen to him. The old me were telling him how sorry they were for his trouble. Strangers where being informed that he was the eldest, away at school. Heaney noticed that they were whispering which would have meant the situation would have been awkward for him. Heaney’s mother took his hand in hers which wasn’t only to comfort him but to comfort her as well. As she held his hand she ‘coughed out angry tearless sighs.’ She was probably very distressed and angry, not only at herself but also the driver who had hit her son. At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived with his brother’s body. In the poem Heaney refers to his brother’s body as ‘the corpse’ which sounds very impersonal and a strange word to use describing a family member. I think Heaney wasn’t allowing himself to believe it was his brother. The body arrived ‘stanched and bandaged by the nurses.’ The next two stanzas are set the next morning upstairs in the bedroom. Throughout these two stanzas Heaney uses personal pronouns but before he had spoken about his brother as another body. Heaney sits alone next to his brother’s body. These two stanzas have a feel of a calm and soft atmosphere which contrasts with the first five stanzas. The first five stanzas have a more awkward, tense and sad atmosphere. In the room the unusual feeling is gone. The metaphor used at the start of stanza seven, ‘wearing a poppy bruise’ reminds us of death and unhappy times. The bruise placed upon his left temple, was probably the same size, shape and colour as a poppy. Heaney uses the word ‘wearing’ to describe his brother’s bruise. By using this word it makes it sound as if it was just there and could be taken off, not something that was permanent and part of his brother. Heaney described his brother as if he was lying in his cot not a coffin. By doing this it conveys the feeling that he is just asleep, all well and peaceful a bit like a baby. He looks normal as he had ‘no gaudy scars’ on his body. We find out that Heaney hadn’t seen his brother for six weeks and seeing his brother just lying there with no expression of happiness at his arrival must has made him feel angry and extremely sad but still he never shows any personal emotions in the way he writes. The last line of stanza seven is where we find out what happened to the little bot. Heaney’s younger brother had been hit by a ‘bumper’-part of a car-which had ‘knocked him clear’ hence the lack of horrible cuts and scars. As the boy lay In his coffin he was ‘soothed’ by snowdrops and candles which helped to calm and create a peaceful environment for grieving family members. The last stanza of the poem is structured with only one line making it standout and seem important. This stanza is very emotional not just for the family but also for the reader as you find out exactly how old the younger brother was when he was hit by the car. Heaney uses the word ‘box’ which sounds more homely, less threatening, not so much like a coffin. A box makes it sound very small unlike a coffin which is normally quite big. The alliteration on the letter ‘f’ in the last line helps Heaney emphasise the age of the little boy. The last line is placed on its own separated from the rest just like the little boy removed from the world alone by death: ‘A four foot box, a foot for every year.’ The simplicity of the poem’s structure emphasises the emotions that were carried out throughout the poem. During the poem you get the feeling that Heaney is grieving for his younger brother by holding back his emotions because it would be too painful and uncomfortable for him to express it openly. In the first few stanzas Heaney tries to distance himself from everyone and the fact that his brother has passed away by using the word ‘corpse.’ Heaney uses emotionless statements in his first few stanzas which to me shows that he had emotions but was trying really hard not to show them. I have enjoyed reading ‘Mid-term Break’ even though it is an emotional poem as it has given me a lot to think about. I have thought about Heaney must have felt knowing he wasn’t going to see his brother again. This poem was very interesting and emotional even though Heaney at times, tries to hold back his emotions and it is interesting to see how people coped in their own different ways with the death.
Monday, January 6, 2020
Digital Communication, By Sherry Turkle Essay - 1491 Words
Digital Communication From the beginning when humans developed the written word, novel forms of technology in all of its forms, have been hailed as potential saviors of our society or as the harbinger of its downfall. Modern communication methods such as texting, tweeting, IM’ing, and other forms of digital interaction have been credited as a new wave in learning techniques or as the end of verbal exchange and intelligence in today’s youth. Various authors have offered their opinions either for or against nonverbal digital dialog backed by differing amounts of personal and structured research. In the essay â€Å"No Need to Call†, originally published in the book Alone Together author Sherry Turkle, program director at MIT, Turkle discusses how new forms of digital communication may be robbing society of the ability and art of vocal communication in person and on the telephone. Turkle offers in her essay, examples of how individuals avoid the use of telephone tech nology and the reasoning behind their choices. Michaela Cullington graduated with a Master’s Degree in speech and language pathology offers in her essay, â€Å"Does Texting Affect Writing†that the abbreviated way we write in our texts has had little effect on our ability to create a formal piece of intelligent writing despite public fears that it will be the downfall of the written word. Digital communication methods can harbor many other pitfalls that must be navigated by today’s society. Our society’s love/hateShow MoreRelatedDoes Technology Affect Us As Human Beings?930 Words  | 4 PagesMIT University named Sherry Turkle seems to claim that all this digital communication we have access to now is not such a good thing. Turkle has a sample of an essay of hers in the book, They Say, I Say. The name of the essay is â€Å"No Need to Call,†and Sherry Turkle s claims could be implied by this quote from her essay, â€Å"subscribing to a new etiq uette, claiming the need for efficiency in a realm where efficiency is costly.†Turkle believes that us using digital communication has costly repercussionsRead MorePhones Down, Faces Up Sherry Turkle s Stop Googling Essay1482 Words  | 6 PagesPhones Down, Faces Up Sherry Turkle’s â€Å"Stop Googling. Let’s Talk†article was published on September 26, 2015 in The New York Times. The author explains that college students spend more time on their phones than talking face-to-face. Turkle mentions that parents have realized this at the dinner table with their kids or just trying to have a conversation with them. Teenagers and young adults claim that they can multitask and understand what the person is saying while being preoccupied. MultipleRead MoreHow Does Digital Technology Affect Relationships?982 Words  | 4 Pages news travels faster than ever, and we can meet new people all the time over social media. With all these advances, how does digital technology affect relationships? Given that social media and smartphones allow communication to be easier, it also lacks the ability to truly form bonds, understand and talk to another person. Technology has several upsides to communication, some include being able to call, text, and email a person who is miles away. Just last month my family had a small get togetherRead MoreThe Threats of Technology in Sherry Turkle’s book Alone Together,†1091 Words  | 5 Pageshave in-deed confirmed that chocolate positively affects depression and anxiety. Quite similarly, high-technology seems amazingly helps human beings keep on dominating this world, but meanwhile, high-technology insensibly â€Å"attacks†human beings. In Sherry Turkle’s book â€Å"Alone Together,†she rehashes an old argument about technological substitutions. She states that technology is threatening to dominate people’s lives and make people less human. Under the illusion of allowing people to communicate betterRead MoreShould Pokemon Go Brings People Into The Real World? Essay1685 Words  | 7 Pages Debate on Whether Pokà ©mon GO Brings People Into the Real World Pokà ©mon GO, an augmented reality digital game released in July this year, became popular among young people because it overlays the real world with itself. In order to catch Pokà ©mons, players have to go outside their house and explore the streets and parks. Due to that, many young people spend time outdoors and talk to other players about catching Pokà ©mons. For the room for debate section, the New York Times holds a discussion on â€Å"DoesRead MoreAnalysis Of Sherry Turrkle The Flight From Conversation958 Words  | 4 PagesProfessor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sherry Turkle, in her New York Times article â€Å"The Flight from Conversation†, identifies society’s declining ability to connect with each other on a person-to-person basis. Turkle’s purpose is to highlight the importance of human interaction with the absence of technology. She supports her argument concerning technologyâ₠¬â„¢s negative implications on people’s interactions amongst each other by the following:Read MoreThe Impact Of Social Media On Society956 Words  | 4 Pagestechnology has had a lasting effect on the people of this generation. Tasks are done faster; life is more efficient. But the same efficiency that has made our quality of life better, has a hand in decreasing the quality of relationships around us. Sherry Turkle and Zeynep Tufekci both believe social media has done well to our society, but disagree on whether or not it is making human relationships grow apart. Social media is a double-edged sword; it brings people together that are physically apart byRead MoreDoes Technology Make Us More Alone And Anti Social?845 Words  | 4 Pagesside of the world together, but pushing the ones near you away from each other. Sherry Turkle in her book, â€Å"Alone Together†, explains how our relationship with the computer has changed over time. She adds in the decade, comput ers have introduced us to a new sense of place, empowered people to live parallel lives in the virtual world, and we are more focused on the technical world than our close friends and contacts (Turkle, 7). We are leaning toward the technology and rather find ourselves happier inRead MoreDigital Communication And Its Effects On Our Society1599 Words  | 7 PagesDigital communication through today’s technology is empowering our society and strengthening human relationships through connecting us in ways that are impossible through organic human to human interaction. This exceptionally innovative technology was once only imaginable in science fiction literature, and is now a reality for most of humanity. We use this form of communication on a daily basis throughout the planet. We rarely stop to think about how wondrous and seemingly magical this advanced technologyRead MoreEssay on New technologies dismiss social relationships1565 Words  | 7 Pagesâ€Å"technologiza tion†has grown exponentially since the nineties and the beginning of the Internet, which has significantly decreased boundaries of communication. Some expert agreed that new technologies would make communication and exchange easier, and thus give an incentive to communicate with other people. However, those change have caused communication to change and people have totally change their way to communicate. Ever since people have become increasingly dependent on those technologies because
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)