The Memory Of Titanic

On that fateful night of April 14, 1912 there were 2,235 souls crowded aboard the R.M.S. Titanic.  There was no wind to speak of.  The frigid, dark sea was calm, like a plate glass mirror beneath the star-spangled heavens.  It was an hour before midnight on a starry, moonless night.  While the band played on beneath the decks in the first class lounge, and while the night watch paced the Bridge high above, the greatest maritime tragedy in the history of sailing, stealthily, silently awaited them in the ice-strewn midnight waters of the North Atlantic.

Survivors recalled a gentle shudder that briefly shook the 900 foot long vessel.  It came and went so quickly that nobody gave it much of a second thought.  Except for the occupants of the Bridge–who in the split seconds before that collision, saw the towering iceberg ahead, floating in their unlighted pathway.  The helmsman swerved to miss the iceberg–but they would have been better off to have struck it head on.  In narrowly avoiding a head-on collision, they suffered an even worse fate!

Three-fourths of the iceberg lay unseen beneath the calm ocean surface.  When  the Titanic swerved, it brushed the iceberg's underside on the starboard side of the bow, slitting a quarter of an inch wide opening more than 300 feet down the side of the vessel.  Like a titanic can opener, the iceberg knifed open the side of the iron hull.  The damage was just enough to cause the metal plates to buckle so that six watertight compartments began taking in sea water.

So scientifically had this great sailing ship been constructed, with 16 watertight compartments in a 1/6 mile long hull, that the captain had made a pre-voyage boast, "Not even God himself could sink her".  The builders had calculated that even if four of the compartments should burst, the ship would still float!  But on that starry night, six of them exploded and began to suck in the frigid water of the North Atlantic!  Mathematically, the "unsinkable ship" was mortally wounded.  And, in two hours she was gone.  Commander Lightoller, one of the few crew members who survived the tragedy, described the moment she sank.

Of the 2235 occupants, 1522 met their death in those dark waters including most of the men, most of the third class, most of the crew, and all of the band.  Only 713 people were rescued.

And the world lined up for hours to relive their tragic story in the most watched movie ever in human history.

200 members of ruling party quit to protest Assad crackdown in Syiria

More than 200 members of Syria's ruling Baath Party quit Wednesday in protest of the violent crackdown on antigovernment protesters, dealing a major blow to the Syrian regime's efforts to crush a popular uprising.

The news comes amid ongoing reports of soldiers defying orders to take action against their own people. Sky News reported claims that a small number of troops had been summarily executed for disobeying orders to open fire on protesters in the town of Deraa.

Others had reportedly refused to stop food and water entering the town.

The Deraa officials who stood down from the Baath Party that has ruled Syria for almost 50 years were protesting the "death of hundreds and the wounding of thousands at the hands of the various security forces."

Although those who resigned were described as low-level party officials, their act was significant as the Baath Party has ruled Syria since 1963 with almost no dissent. The Wall Street Journal reports that about 10 percent of Syrians (about 2 million people) are Baath Party members.

Despite its claim as a parliamentary republic, Syria is in reality "an authoritarian regime" led by the Assad family and Baath party, according to the U.S. State Department. A defection like this was "unthinkable" before the antigovernment protests that erupted in March, according to the Telegraph.

The party members announced their resignation in a statement Wednesday, according to the BBC:

"In view of the negative stance taken by the leadership of the Arab Socialist Baath Party towards the events in Syria and in Deraa, and after the death of hundreds and the wounding of thousands at the hands of the various security forces, we submit our collective resignation."