Titanic - an unsinkable disaster.

a WebQuest for students.

Assignment:

Make a presentation in which you answer the questions given below. Use the links provided. Your presentation must consist of two things: 

  • An oral presentation and a Word document. (If you feel up to it a Powerpoint and/or an HTML-project may also be used).

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  • During the oral presentation you'll have access to a projector connected to the Internet. This means that your Word document must include the precise links you want to use during the presentation.
GROUP 1: ANCIENT MYTHS : TITANS



 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 Read about the Titans in Greek mythology. If this server is not available the Greek Mythology site can help you. A more comprehensive site is the Greekmythology.com-site. 
  • Describe the Titans.
  • Tell the story of Chronos and the Titans.

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  • Use the links to find reasons why they called the vessel Titanic

    • - How do you interpret it?
     
  • - do you see any "prediction" in the choice of that name? Try also the general links.

GROUP 2: MODERN MYTHS

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 Here are some popular myths about the Titanic. Use the links to ascertain whether they are true or not.Your account must include quite detailed descriptions of the sources and information you have used.
  1. Captain Smith was a devil. 

    2. On the night of the disaster he was drunk. Had he been sober the ship would have been saved. (There is also the opposite myth: Captain Smith was an angel who refused to be saved because there were small children and women in need of his place in a lifeboat). 
     
  2. Upper class gentlemen.

    3. The upper classes (especially the men) proved to be perfect gentlemen who didn't think of themselves at all - Especially John Jacob Astor is said to be in this category. 
     
  3. The third class passengers were simply murdered. 

    4. (Investigate the passengerlists - and the casualty lists, too - who were actually saved - why?). 
     
  4. The orchestra played until the very end. 

    5.  
  5. The disgraceful manager. 

    6. The manager of White Star Line, Bruce Ismay, behaved absolutely disgracefully both during and after the disaster. 
     
  6. The Egyptian mummy.

    7. On board the Titanic there was an Egyptian mummy. The mummy was cursed - and this accounts for the disaster. 
     
  7. Cool drinks.

    8. Bits of ice fell on the deck at the collision with the iceberg. The upperclass passengers used this ice to cool their drinks. 
 
GROUP 3: PREDICTIONS?

 
 

 

 Celia Thaxter's poem A Tryst is often said to be a prediction of the disaster. 

a) Celia Thaxter is quite unknown, so tell us about her. 

b) Read the poem and tell its story in your own words. 

b) Compare the circumstances of her poem with the Titanic's wreck using the links.
 
GROUP4: THE SHIP

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 Read chapters 1 and 2 of Robertson's novella The Wreck of the Titan or Futility
 
  • Make a precise list of all the details about the Titan that you can find.

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  • Check all these items against the Titanic using the links.

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  • In general: how close was Robertson to the real Titanic (don't forget to read (and briefly present) E.D. Howard's paper about  Morgan Andrew Robertson. 
GROUP5: THE DISASTER


Read (at least) the end of Chapter VI and Chapter VII of Robertson's novella The Wreck of the Titan or Futility.
  - and compare the Titan's wreck with the Titanic's wreck using the links. In you presentation you must focus especially on the Titanic's wreck, and include details which Robertson did not.

Compare with the film, too.

GROUP6: A SAFE DISASTER?
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
  • The Swedish Titanic expert Claes-Göran Wetterholm says about Titanic's universal appeal:

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    "This is a "safe" disater (...) it's like reading a murder mystery or a thriller ... you read about fear without really having to take part in it. Your are always in the lifeboat - a survivor. And besides, concentration camps, and world wars, an environmetal disasters - and recently the cyclone disaster in Bagladesh (...) we can't grasp it. You just can't. But we can comprehend the individual fates of those aboard the Titanic we can identify ourselves with them (...)

    (Quoted in Leonhardt and Rockwell, "Titanic. Studies in the perfect disaster", Haase 1993.)
     
     

  • Read Steven Biel's  TitanicMania - and make a list of all his answers to the question 'Why are we in the throes of TitanicMania?' 
    (In this context there is also a debate which you can explore: TitanicMania Forum.) 
  • Look at the list of the world's most expensive film - how does that information fit in?

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  • Considering the film:

    - At which points do Biel and Wetterholm agree? 
     - Do you think the points Steven Biel is making about the film are true? Why/Why not? 

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Last opdated: Nov. 2001 by Hans J. Klarskov Mortensen
km@vordingbg-gym.dk