Every year in mid April we commemorate the loss of the Titanic. It is a well known story that has been analysed, filmed, written about, speculated on and done to death. My own interest in the ship came about when I read about the spot where she had gone down, that ships avoided for fear of encountering bodies. In later years I would raid the local libraries for books about the ship and try my best to obtain a model of her. I have however lost my interest in the ship and now concern myself with other things because realisically there is not much more that I can add to the story of the ship and its people.
The last interesting discovery that I made was in Liverpool where the Transatlantic trade was dominated by the Mauretania and her sister. Titanic and her sisters would not use that city as a base, but rather use Southampton. However, Titanic was registered in Liverpool and there is a memorial to her in that city.
The memorial commemorates the 244 engineers who lost their lives in the disaster. It was designed by Sir William Goscombe John and constructed circa 1916 and is a Grade II* listed building.
The memorial is inscribed:
IN HONOUR OF
ALL HEROES OF THE
MARINE ENGINE ROOM
THIS MEMORIAL WAS ERECTED
BY INTERNATIONAL INSCRIPTION
MCMXVI
and
THE BRAVE DO NOT DIE
THEIR DEEDS LIVE FOREVER
AND CALL UPON US
TO EMULATE THEIR COURAGE
AND DEVOTION TO DUTY
More images of the memorial are available on the relevant page at Allatsea
While it is easy to remember the passengers who lost their lives in the disaster; the crew tend to get forgotten, especially the men who remained at their posts right up till the end. Irrespective though, over 1500 people lost their lives on this day in 1912 in a disaster that has somehow become the “poster boy” for maritime disasters, and the only North Atlantic liner that almost everybody knows about.
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