The Titanic is a Memorial not a tomb, a tomb would mean that there were bodies inside when there is not. Its a marker and a symbol of innocent people being killed by others arrogance. There are a ton of factors that led to her demise and if you think about it, the facination of the ship and her passengers all derive from disbelief. There has been a ton of ships that have sanken and a ton of people who died. Yet this seems to be the most important sinking. Because of nature, literally, and figuratively. the perfect conditions that were laid out before the vessel, calm water, an iceberg uncharacteristically that far away from its home. The Ice warnings so arrogantly and stupidly ignored, the conflict of "what would i have done?" against the mismanagement of the life boats. I believe it's not as much of the people who died its about the foolish circumstances surrounding their deaths. Ismay, Smith- one an arrogant fool the other a sheep who should've known better. I say let her sleep no more forever. no raising no salvation just resting in peace.

btw this sandwich i'm eating is delicious and may or may not have had something to do with this rant.

love,

Downward78

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Actually, "the big piece" was eventually raised on a second expedition. This time there was no cruise ship full of people waiting to gawk at it.

One of the sad points about finally raising it was that when they finally pulled it out of the water and got it on deck, they did not have it under full control (not enough lines on it) and the sheer weight of it made it bend in on itself at the bottom.

It's very sad, but the Titanic will one day be unrecognizable, just a pile of rusty rubble on the ocean floor. Todays salvage technology and the hostile environment in which she rests ensures an inevitable and tragic end for the "ship of dreams".

But it's no good us dreaming about raising her... the hulk is too far underwater, too deeply buried in the silt on the seabed, and too badly corroded to survive any attempt at salvage.

Remember when George Tulloch tried to raise the "Big Piece"?

A single piece of hull plating weighing about twenty tons was almost salvaged by attaching huge flexible tanks of diesel fuel to it. The diesel fuel, being lighter than water, raised the chunk of hull alright, but the problems of retrieving it from where it hung just below the surface on the lines connecting it to the the tanks proved too difficult.

The "Big Piece" broke free, and now lies once more in the darkness and cold of the North Atlantic, far from its original resting place. And we can be thankful it didn't land on the wreck when it plumetted to the bottom...

Think about it. Twenty tons of hull plating was too much to handle. How about twenty thousand-odd tons of bow section?

Then there are the moral questions too. I'm willing to bet that the Titanic will crumble on the ocean floor. Sad - but unchangeable.

There is no way the world would pay for the construction of a large enough fresh water tank to put the Titanic in, along with the other preservation tecniques and chemical. And that would be the only way to totally save the Titanic from her untimate demise. But we are talking probably billions of dollars.

But even if we could find a way to get the funding and technology to raise the remaining hull sections, the Titanic would still suffer from large amounts of damage from her trip up to the surface, as well as her trip back to port. Her interiors would probably crumble to dust, as they are already fragile enough as it is. Can you imagine if they started to dry out?

I would probably cry if I saw her bow section falling apart, rotting away in the sun, and know that us humans did that.

Titanic still holds her honor and nobility the way she is now, still standing upright on the ocean bottom.

Yes, Titanic will be gone forever some day, but it is her destiny. That is what is part of her lasting legacy: A reminder to us not to put ourselves above the powers of God and nature, because if we do, we will be utterly destroyed and taken off the face of the earth, just like the tower of babel.

I will become emotional if I see her finally cave in my lifetime, but I will be comforted at the same time that her story will still live on and educate us.

to me raising it would be very disrespectful to those who died, the titanic is thier tomb and should be left where it is...we have pieces from it and stories which to me are far more valuable....just because it happened over 90 years ago and most of the people with 1st hand accounts are gone does not make it right....like they say a picture is worth a thousand words