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By Michael Khoo
February 22, 1999
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RealAudio 3.0 28.8 |
Eighty-seven years after the Titanic foundered on an iceberg in the North Atlantic, her voice has been resurrected. Thousands gathered in downtown St. Paul this weekend to hear the sounding of the ship's whistle.
THE MYSTIQUE OF THE ILL-FATED Titanic has endured nearly nine decades. These days, interest in the ship is at a new high, riding the popularity of director James Cameron's Oscar-winning and budget-busting epic. A traveling exhibit of recovered artifacts, currently in St. Paul, is tapping into that enthusiasm. Now, the RMS Titanic Company, owner of salvage rights to the wreck, is breathing new life into some of the relics. To be exact, 140-pounds-per-square-inch of new life. This weekend, the Titanic's steam whistles were sounded for the first time since the ship sank. Prior to the event, RMS Titanic's president, George Tulloch, explained the interest in the whistles.Tulloch: I think that the whistles obviously were meant to blow. And so we're going to see if their original function, in spite of some shortcoming that they've suffered in the tragedy, can still give us that sound.Realizing that hope was not easy. In the weeks prior to the sounding, a team of metallurgists and whistle-makers poked, prodded, and x-rayed the 750-pound whistles until they were confident they could withstand the stress of a sounding. Among those eagerly awaiting the results was Jack Eaton, a Titanic historian.
Eaton: I was aboard the recovery vessel when the whistles were recovered. And I remember specifically the middle whistle coming up from the bottom and breaking the surface of the water. And it sparkled and it glistened and it shone and it reflected the sunlight. And I said, "There's a voice I'd like to hear someday."After the sounding, Eaton, fighting back tears, gave his impression.
Eaton: Well, I guess it was every bit as wonderful as I thought it was going to be, perhaps even more so. To hear a voice that's been silent for so many years, it's just, really, almost overwhelming. I'm...I'm...RMS Titanic president Tullock says he has no plans to blow the whistles again. Because of their age and the stress they've endured, Tullock says repeated demonstrations could ultimately harm them. So one minute after the first blast, the whistles rang again. One last time.
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