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Post by furbaby on Apr 18, 2005 11:34:13 GMT -5
What do you think about them taking this peice up to the surface? Does it bother you because it's a piece of Titanic herself? Or are you like me, and just dying to see it, maybe even touch it (which they would never let you do of course)  |
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Post by Brittanic on Apr 18, 2005 17:09:36 GMT -5
I'm like you i'd love to see it
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Post by Paul Daley on Apr 19, 2005 1:20:26 GMT -5
 On the evening of April 15, 1912 the RMS Titanic, the world’s largest manmade moving object at the time, hit an iceberg and made its tragic decent to the ocean floor. It remained there for seventy-three years, until explorer Robert Ballard discovered the wreck in 1985. Following Ballard’s discovery, RMS Titanic, Inc. recovered some six thousand artifacts from the wreck site during six expeditions that took place between 1987 and 2000. While the artifacts ran the gamut from small personal items to larger ship components, the most impressive relic of all (and certainly the largest) was a monumental slab of the ship itself, weighing in at roughly seventeen tons and measuring approximately twenty feet high by twenty-five feet wide. The piece is only a small part of the 883-foot hull, and was located on the starboard side on C Deck. After eight decades on the floor of the ocean the steel construction of the “Big Piece” had suffered significant surface corrosion and was densely inhabited by “rusticles” (the fetid and voluminous by-product of microorganisms), which devour the steel. The prospect of rigging and moving the piece, both out of the water and then on land, presented a complex challenge due to its enormous size and potentially unstable elements. The first objective was to stabilize the metal. While the hull was submerged in the ocean it had absorbed sodium chloride salts and became weakened, stained, and encrusted. To help remove the chlorides, the piece was placed in a large aboveground swimming pool and submerged in a solution of sodium carbonate and water for a period of eighteen months. This solution provided an electrical path allowing the sodium chloride salts to move out of the steel and attack the sacrificial aluminum/magnesium anode blocks, which were fastened to the hull. In September 1999, the “Big Piece” was removed from the tank and transported to the Conservation Solutions Inc. (CSI) studio. After another three months of soaking in the sodium carbonate and water solution, (about twenty months total) the desalinization process was complete and the piece was ready to be conserved. At this point, the massive hull section was suspended from a mobile hydraulic gantry system so that all sides of the piece were made accessible to the conservators. The hull was water-jetted to remove loose corrosion and by-products excreted by the rusticles. The remaining corrosion products were stabilized with a solution of tannic acid and water and the entire piece was treated with a protective barrier coating of microcrystalline wax to help prevent corrosion from forming. CSI also supervised rigging and shipping the piece to various exhibition sites; provided consultation for the museum display and input for the creation of interpretive information used in the display; and performed all aspects of documentation. In 2004 CSI completed a follow-up maintenance treatment on the "Big Piece". |
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Post by Brittanic on Apr 19, 2005 18:12:14 GMT -5
COOL!!!THat is to cool!!!
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Post by Xtapolapocet on Apr 29, 2005 13:09:14 GMT -5
What do you think about them taking this peice up to the surface? Does it bother you because it's a piece of Titanic herself? Or are you like me, and just dying to see it, maybe even touch it (which they would never let you do of course) I was able to see this piece, in person; it was fascinating but, for me, sadness arose when the reality of the tragedy is right in front of you. |
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Post by Paul Daley on Apr 29, 2005 15:28:35 GMT -5
Xtapolapocet wrote:
This is exactly how I felt with the lifejacket...
That is reality for you though.....it hits you hard.
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Post by Brittanic on Apr 29, 2005 15:41:11 GMT -5
Hear in the U.S. there's this thing near Disney called the Titanic Exhabition the first permanent Titanic museum that doesn't move it lets you re-enact the maiden voyage and look at several artifacts I want to go when we hopefully get to go to Disney World this Christmas Lords Willing.
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Post by Xtapolapocet on May 2, 2005 9:09:29 GMT -5
Hear in the U.S. there's this thing near Disney called the Titanic Exhabition the first permanent Titanic museum that doesn't move it lets you re-enact the maiden voyage and look at several artifacts I want to go when we hopefully get to go to Disney World this Christmas Lords Willing. Which Disney, Florida or California location? |
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Post by Brittanic on May 2, 2005 17:32:48 GMT -5
Florida
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Post by Xtapolapocet on May 3, 2005 9:20:13 GMT -5
Hmm. Does it run all year long? If so, I may have to travel down there and check it out.   |
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Post by Brittanic on May 3, 2005 19:51:44 GMT -5
YEP!
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Post by seren on May 10, 2005 5:42:46 GMT -5
What do you think about them taking this peice up to the surface? Does it bother you because it's a piece of Titanic herself? Or are you like me, and just dying to see it, maybe even touch it (which they would never let you do of course) Ok I would go along with that, but not if they keep taking bits from the ship, if I were to go to an exhibition showing good quality film of the ship I would spend more time looking at that, than at a small piece of it on display, to me it is like the mary rose, although not in the same context they are both a piece of history, but just a small piece of it after all, and while it would be interesting to see part of the ship, to me in the end it would not have the poignant association or emotional attachment that a small piece of jewellery or someones shoe would have.  |
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Post by Searchquest on May 10, 2005 20:31:20 GMT -5
I've had the good fortune to see the 'big peice' close up and get a chance to touch a very small section of hull that was covered in perspex with a hole just big enough to put a finger through. This was at the science museum in London.
As for displaying artifacts including hull sections I guess I would be a hypocrit to say I didn't agree with it because I have been to see them. For me the experience was very mixed but I can't say I regreted going because I don't or that I wouldn't go again because I would. I can honestly see both sides of the debate over artifact recovery and display, but as I've been to see them I must take responsibility for condoning what has been done.
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Post by Paul Daley on May 11, 2005 1:10:10 GMT -5
I've had the good fortune to see the 'big peice' close up and get a chance to touch a very small section of hull that was covered in perspex with a hole just big enough to put a finger through. This was at the science museum in London. As for displaying artifacts including hull sections I guess I would be a hypocrit to say I didn't agree with it because I have been to see them. For me the experience was very mixed but I can't say I regreted going because I don't or that I wouldn't go again because I would. I can honestly see both sides of the debate over artifact recovery and display, but as I've been to see them I must take responsibility for condoning what has been done. I would love to see and touch part of the big peice, is it still in the museum?. I am in London next month. |
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Post by Searchquest on May 13, 2005 21:57:32 GMT -5
Hi paul,
sorry it took a while to get back to you.
Sadly the exhibition is no longer at the science museum, I visited it about 2 years ago (?). I hope that it comes back soon but does seem to spend an awful long time in America, oh well lol.
If it does come back to London you should go, in my opinion it was worth it but be prepared to feel a range of emotions.
SQ.
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