Titanicat by Marty Crisp

Painting by Ken Marshall

    I find it interesting that I chose a book by a different author that is illustrated by the same Robert Papp, Trinka Noble's illustrator. I am finding that I usually choose the books that have historical subject matter and beautiful paintings on the covers. This is not to say that these are the only good books, it is just what I seem to find most attractive. I have chosen a few books not along these lines, and I will get to those later and find out what made them jump off the shelf. Often the newer books have cooler, more vibrant art work and this, along with an interesting subject, is usually what gets me.     

    Titanicat is a great book. I learned so many interesting things from the book because the author did extensive research to create an authentic, realistic look at a true story. The book is about the Titanic and the cat that boarded that ship for a short period of time. The story follows the documented account of the Titanic cat that was custom for all ships at the time to keep as a way to control rodents and also for good luck. The cat, somehow foreseeing the danger as animals have amazing senses, got off the ship at it's only stop in Southampton, bringing her four kitten's with her. The superstitious young sailor, the main character in the book, who was given responsibility for the cat, got off with her. He didn't want to be on ship that had bad luck. I am fascinated by the Titanic and the stories that surround it so I included some below.     

    The book talks about how the Titanic was supposedly an "unsinkable ship..." Those people who believed the hype about the ship, since no ship is really unsinkable, did not realize the gravity of the situation until it was too late. Many of the lifeboats were not even full! The ship had only enough lifeboats for half the passengers, 1,100 people. Out of this number, only 705 people were actually in the lifeboats and therefore survived the sinking! (What were they thinking? Just read the next paragraph.)     

    Originally, the boat was so "unsinkable" that they only needed 20 lifeboats to "help rescue survivors of other sinking ships (this is what I read, no joke)." Before it's maiden voyage, Engineers said that even in the worst case scenario, (the Titanic colliding with another ship) it would take up to 2 to 3 days for the ship to sink! The Titanic sank in three hours after hitting the iceberg. The iceberg scraped the starboard side of the ships brow in six different slits. Those in charge thought it was only a minor collision. The ships fireman stated that the sound was like "the tearing of calico, nothing more." They were very very wrong...    

    One fact I read online that really horrified and amazed me was that even before the Titanic was really filling up with water, they put chains on the doors to the lower third class cabins so those below could not come up any higher. They blocked off these doors to prevent water from flooding into other parts of the ship. Other people in higher classes were actually told by those in authority to go back to their rooms, that everything was fine.     

    Even more interesting is the fact that the high-tech engineering of the Titanic actually added to it's downfall. The Body of the ship was divided into 16 different compartments that could be closed off to prevent flooding the whole ship. Sounds genius right? Because the front compartments were damaged by the iceberg and began to fill with water, and since this water was trapped in these enclosed compartments, the front part of the ship became increasingly heavier than the rear. This resulted in the ship's brow tilting forward until the stern broke off from the brow, bring a quit demise to this beauty of a boat. The front of the ship did a nose dive to the bottom of the ocean, while the back portion followed bit later. Both pieces of the boat were discovered years later to be more than 2 miles under the surface and 2,000 feet apart! If the ship's hull had not been divided up, the water would have distributed evenly and the ship, not breaking in two, would have sunk much slower. Enough time would have passed for all the passengers to be saved!